Home Cook Curry Mee @ Tong Hooi Restaurant

*** Helping my dear God Sis to spread the word for this Home Cook Curry Mee ***

This post is written by herself and I myself have yet to try it out, but will definitely look forward to checking it out!

Craving for delicious home-cook Curry Mee?

Come and taste it at Tong Hooi Restaurant, 343, Dato Kramat Road, Penang (next to former Federal Theatre - current Clark Hatch).

Special recipe from the mother of the restaurant’s owner … Chilly paste is specially blended with aroma-rich spices, soup is boiled from pork ribs, added with fresh shrimps/prawns, cockles, cuttlefish, “pig's blood” and tau pok (Fried Tofu) – making the noodle irresistible to you !

Visit them from 8am till 2pm (Monday to Sunday, closed on Wednesdays)

Mouth-watering Curry Mee !

Fresh shrimps are charged only at market price ranging between RM 1 and RM 2. This is definitely a good treat for seafood lovers!

Meet the restaurant owner, Mr. Teoh

Front view of the restaurant

Hock Lye Seafood revisited

After our first terrible encounter at Hock Lye Seafood, I gave it a second chance by suggesting it for coco's farewell lunch with all of us :P

This round, I was wise enough to call and make reservation and ordered dishes ahead too, and this was what we were greeted with...



A deserted open space! Seems like I have 'pao'-ed the whole place for coco's farewell haha!

Anyway, we (actually, I, to be exact) ordered many yum yum dishes including...

Steamed Loong Tan Fish (650grams @ RM 52)


Loong Tan fish's meat is chewy in nature and I liked its sweetness and freshness just steamed with supreme soy

Thai Style Chicken (RM 12)


Something to stir our tastebuds with the sweet and sour flavour

Signature dish - Drunken Prawns (500 grams @ RM 35)


Some of the folks didn't like the the overpowering liquor smell oozing out from the broth of this dish, but I personally find it aromatic and the prawns were very fresh too!

Kappa - Pa Jeo Style (RM 15)


This was not bad - kappa well infused with the spices, it's much nicer than Kam Heong style

Nai Pak Vegetable (RM 10)


Totally disappointed with this vegetable dish - the vegies were older than my grandmother and it's just plain bland

Salted Egg Yolk Crabs (3 meat crabs, 1.2kg @ RM 60)


Crabs were fresh, meaty and the flavours of the salted egg yolk was very evident within the crabs... Lye definitely had a finger-licking-good time enjoying this very dish alone coz it's his favourite

Most of the dishes we had on that day were nice except for the vegetable and so my conclusion would be to always make reservations ahead (with your dishes order if possible) and also preferably enjoy lunch here rather than dinner.

Our bill came up to a total of RM 198+ including drinks for the 6 of us (including honey)

One for the album!

Annathai Kitchen @ Pulau Tikus

Read a few blogs mentioning about this nice Thai economy rice place and decided to try it out during a late Saturday lunch with honey.

The dishes varieties were pretty limited by that time but the service was still very attentive when we were standing near the dishes area as they were serving another customer.

We had 4 dishes with rice:-


These pork dishes came with different styles of cooking....




I can only relate one of them as Red Curry with Pork


I felt that all the dishes tasted good with wise use of spices but honey said some of them were too salty. I enjoyed them nevertheless :)

Beverage List


They offer a variety of breakfast and Ala Carte items as well

Exterior and Interior




Will definitely be back to sample their breakfast, Otak-otak, Thai Chicken Rice, Thai Pork Leg Rice and so much more!

Annathai-Kitchen
26 Jalan Moulmein
Pulau Tikus
Penang

Tel : 2277599

Business Hour : 10:30am till 2:30pm

5:30pm to 9:30pm (Dinner, Thai Seafood)

Closed on Monday

Blue Reef Fish & Chips @ Straits Quay

Had an afternoon snack at the new Blue Reef Fish & Chips while visiting Straits Quay with Mun for the first time. Having tried out the original outlet at Permai 32, I wondered how everything fared in comparison.


We had items from their Happy Hour menu:-

Smoked Salmon Crostini (RM 11)


This took some time to reach our table - the baked bread base was definitely too hard and were only edible ala finger. Mun's comment : I can definitely make this myself at home haha! (which I agree)

Breaded Calamari (RM 12)


Not sure why all their breaded dishes end up 'separated' - seafood vs. breaded crumbs - be it their Fish, Calamari, Scallops and so on. I'd think people will enjoy these much more if the both were to stay intact even after cutting or chewing?

Hazelnut Latte (RM 8)


Nothing spectacular as Mun mentioned - plus, it took way too long considering there were only 2-3 tables occupied at that time.

Hot Chocolate (RM 6)


The only interesting thing about this was its 'make-shift' heart shaped froth when it came. The hot chocolate taste was too subtle and came across to me as too diluted and milky.

The couple who sat beside our table waited for a very, very long time before their seafood platter came - and both of us were glad we only ordered light snacks.

The menu seemed to have grown as I saw that they are having Happy Hour menu, weekday lunch promotion, kiddy's menu, pasta, beef, lamb, chicken too! (Or I haven't been paying much attention to their original menu previously?)

Dragon-i @ Gurney Plaza New Wing

Being an ardent supporter of both Dragon-i and Canton-i chains, I must say I am pretty disappointed with the standard of the latest Dragon-i outlet at Gurney Plaza new wing.

For one, the service was very slow when hubby and myself patronized back in October. Our orders came very late and we suspected it was due to the fact that our ordered was not entered into the system.

Next - the Shanghai Meat Dumplings (RM 9) were nothing but sheer disappointment. The moment we landed our chopsticks on the dumpling skin and placed it on the soup spoon, the skin tore and the broth contained within flowed out immediately - Yeah, way before we put them inside our mouths. This happened not just on one dumpling, but on all 4 of them!

But in order to be fair, there are certain delicacies - old and new alike which I enjoyed...

Beijing Dumpling (RM 9)


This is very much like the Shanghai Meat Dumpling, with the difference of:-
1. it's not served in a steamer
2. there are 6 pieces as opposed to 4
3. the dumpling skin is very much thicker

Similarity? There's broth contained within as well - not bad!

This is something new that I tried with hubby - Stewed La Mien with Braised Meat Ball (RM 18)


The meat ball was just too huge for anyone even to finish half :S but the stew was quite nice. I didn't like the ample cabbage within the stew though.

La Mien with Beef Brisket (RM 16)


When I placed order for this 2 days ago, the water asked if I wanted it to be spicy or non-spicy? I asked if I can have something in between? Surprisingly he said yes :)

The La Mien soup base did not disappoint as usual - flavorful. La Mien was soft but springy. Beef brisket was a bit so-so though, as some pieces were very tough while others simply too chewy until I had to use fork and spoon to cut them up.

But there is one dessert which PChoon and I braved ourselves to try -

Glutinous Rice with Durian! (RM 12)


The moment the waiter cut open the dessert - the ever-familiar smell hit us; and we decided to quickly finish this dish before anyone starts to smell it and complain us :P

The outer coconut layer was nice and dry while the inner glutinous and durian filling was simply Marvelous - we confirmed it to be real Durian flesh alright! The fillings just burst in our mouth and we enjoyed every bite of it :D

Satisfying!

Overall I really hope they'd improve on their service as well as the quality of their signature Shanghai Meat Dumpling as it's one of my all-time favourite. Now, Din Tai Fung's version is my favourite undoubtedly.

Romano's Macaroni Grill @ Round Rock Austin

The moment Winnie knew I was in town she did not hesitate a bit and offered to take me out for lunch - so off we went to this Italian Restaurant which she thought must be darn good since there are a whole bunch of these franchise back in Taiwan as well!


The place was pretty crowded even for lunch hour so my guess is that the food must not be that bad.




Olive oil with vinegar, with generous amounts of shredded cheese by Winnie's request


The bread was nice and warm - still a bit too hard for my liking (All the bread 'round here seems hard)


Winnie ordered a custom made spaghetti where we get to mix and match the type of spaghetti down to the ingredients to go with it


It definitely looked good to me, though I did not ask to sample it, not knowing if it's rude to do so :P

while I ordered a Spaghetti Meatball


The meatballs were just too huge and I couldn't even finish ONE. Imagine that. But they tasted great with the right texture, I wish they could make like 8 balls out of these 2! The spaghetti was just right too - soft and it was filled with flavors of herbs.

Not too bad for a chain restaurant I must say.

Razzoos Cajun Cafe @ Round Rock, Austin

Razoos Cajun Cafe is a very interesting restaurant which I had the chance to experience - thanks to Tony's suggestion. This was also our first working day lunch at Austin too :)


I took pictures of almost all of the folks' meals but I honestly can't remember all the the names. Nevertheless, I would really like to share these unique food with ya'all!


My Shrimp Piquant ($7.99)


The shrimps are nice and spicy, rice is flavorful and the garlic bread sides were simply crunchy

These are all the 'unknowns' :P







Oh, not to mention a thanks to all the GALs for choosing a 'wonderfully Sunny' table right at the al fresco area! (some of the guys were actually dripping with sweat)