Ayam Penyet RM4.90

Anniversary deal from a shop that share the same place with Pezzo at Jalan Simpang Tiga. It's located somewhere opposite The Spring Shopping Mall and the police station.

It's at the Cita Rasa Shop? Not quite sure of the exact name though.

Ayam Penyet RM4.90

At the price of RM4.90, the taste and serving was pretty decent. There's nothing more to complain!

Molten Salted Egg Yolk Croissant from Hungry Dino

Went to Kai Joo Lane Night Market and purchased the limited Molten Salted Egg Yolk Croissant from Hungry Dino. Their ordering system was impressive as the staff placed the order using an Ipad and noted down your name into the system as well for ease reference during food collection.

They also provided you with a piece of disposable hand glove and tissue paper together with the croissant. Sweet and caring =)

Molten Salted Egg Yolk Croissant RM6

The croissant was petite. The taste was however, disappointing as it was very much similar with the Chinese Dim Sum Liu Sha Bao (Chinese Molten Salted Egg Yolk Bun). Beware when you eat the croissant as the salted egg yolk custard will flow out profusely. Not likely to repurchase though =(

Seremban Pan Mee Stall at Ice Buddy Cafe

The famous Seremban pan mee stall is located at Ice Buddy Cafe @MJC. The stall offers a variety of Pan Mee dishes such as soup, dry, braised, fried type and lots more. Most people went to that particular coffee shop patronizing the pan mee stall. Business is good and do expect a long wait especially during weekends! 

Dry Pan Mee with Fried Egg RM5.50

Taste was good with the runny egg yolks but serving was pathetic (even for small eater like me!)

Howi Pan Mee Cafe

I used to eat a lot of Pan Mee back in my 3.5 years in Serdang. Back in Kuching, I have hard time to find a good bowl of pan mee. Howi Pan Mee Cafe is another Pan Mee specialty cafe in Kuching. I went there for a breakfast after a run in a random Sunday morning.

The menu:

Normal Pan Mee RM5

Ginger Chicken Pan Mee RM6

To my disappointment, the serving of the bowl looked big but the ingredients portion was rather pathetic. Despite being a pan mee specialty cafe, the standard and food quality of Howi Pan Mee Cafe was only on average and still couldn't beat the pan mee stall at Ice Buddy Cafe, MJC.

New Happy Cafe 新快乐园茶室

New Happy Cafe 新快乐园茶室 at Jalan Ang Cheng Ho serves lots of decent Foochow specialties. Help yourself with the all the condiments (chilli, soya sauce) and also the most highlighted red wine to complement your Foochow dishes! You can also request for add on seafood and other special ingredients to go along with the dishes but of course with added price too =)

Tomato Kueh Tiao with eggs RM 6

a little too sweet for my liking 

"Pao Fan" 泡饭 Rice with soup RM6

plain rice dipped in soup with plenty of veggies, eggs, meat slices, fish balls, black fungus

The portion was generous. I wish I can have the soup separated. Rice served with a bowl of soup?? Lolx

NH Nutri Grains Instant Multi Mix Grains with Purple Sweet Potato

Purple is one of my top favorite color. NH Nutri Grains newly launched purplish drink - Instant Multi Mix Grains with Purple Sweet Potato quickly caught my attention. One can redeem free trial pack of the multi mix grains at Watsons store by presenting the Watsons membership card. Too bad that I went to a few Watsons store in Kuching and there were no more free samples to redeem.

I was tempting to try the drink before purchase the whole case, thus I sent a message through Facebook to NH Nutri Grains. Sadly they did not able to send me some samples privately.

Nevertheless, I went to the store and get myself the NH Nutri Grains purplish health drink.

I bought it at RM73 (1kg, priced at RM78, RM5 off by using in store promo voucher) at Watsons store in Kuching.

Love the love shape plastic spoon that came together with the Instant Multi Mix Grains. I did not want to open the tin in frequent so I transferred some multi mix grains into another container to retain its freshness. 

a cup of hot NH Nutri Grains and matcha cheese tart from Egg Tart Workshop for breakfast =) 

It's a very convenient health drink as you are just required to mix 1 scoop of the multi mix grains with 100ml of cold/hot water. The drink is sweetened so no additional sugar/condensed milk is needed. It's not a new taste for me as I'm a regular brown rice, cereal and oats drinker. The purplish NH Nutri Grains is a delicious and wholesome alternative health drink choice apart from our usual choice of drinks such as Milo, cereal drink, coffee or tea.

Customized Passport Holders from Giftideas2U

I came across a stall (Giftideas2U) selling customized passport holders/wallet/purse at Chew Jetty during my last trip to Penang. I was attracted to its vibrant and colorful selection. I decided to purchase one although we can easily find cheaper and greater deals at other places especially in Bangkok =)

My personalized lilac wallet

 RM35 (free 1 charm & name engraved)

I topped out another RM6 to have my name engraved in 3D instead of normal one.

Wallet RM29 + 3 x 3D alphabets (RM2 x 3pcs) 

They do offer delivery with charges to  places in Malaysia (with min purchase). After came back to Kuching, my sister contacted them on delivery the customized passport holders to Kuching. They didn't have much color selection especially those common color. I picked the blue color passport holder and added one additional charm. RM103 for three passport holders inclusive delivery charges (and added charms).

My two personalized wallet & passport holder

So if you happened to find personalized wallet/passport holder in Malaysia, do check out Giftideas2U. They might not provide prompt and best services but from my experiences, they are reliable =)

Big Coconut Western, Hui Sing

Read numerous positive reviews of Big Coconut Western at Hui Sing. Decided to pay a visit on Sunday lunch to try out the lunch deals. It was exactly the same place as the old Pinocchio Western Cuisine. 

You will be given a number with invoice after you place the order at the counter. You pay them after all of your foods arrive.

I was told to wait for 40 minutes for the foods to arrive. I was okay with it but I waited for 55 minutes for my first order to arrive. 

Grilled Lamb Shoulder Garlic Rice with Black Pepper Sauce (RM10)

comes with mushroom soup and coleslaw

Grilled Chicken Garlic Rice with Mushroom Sauce (RM7)

comes with mushroom soup and coleslaw

 the mushroom soup was very salty, the mushroom sauce was rather bland with no mushroom taste

Opt for fried choices (i.e fried chicken/fried fish fillet) if you want bigger food presentation. Grilled options usually served in humble portion.

Will I revisit? Most probably not due to the long wait and food quality despite the affordable pricing.  

Tek Sen Restaurant, Penang

I made plan to visit one of the famed restaurant in Georgetown during my 4D3N trip. Morever, the restaurant is only 260m (3 mins walk) from our stay (Armenian Street Heritage Hotel). I read some reviews of the restaurant and I knew I must be as early as possible for dinner to avoid queues and waits.

Tek Sen Restaurant 德成飯店

18, Lebuh Carnarvon, George Town, 10100 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Ground Floor of No.18 & 20 , Lebuh Carnarvon, 10100 Penang, Malaysia

+6012-981 5117

Operation hours: 12 pm - 3 pm & 6 pm - 9 pm (Closed on Tuesday)

We arrived the restaurant around 6pm and the restaurant was already full. While queuing for our turn, their staff gave us the menu, recommended us some signature dishes, took our orders and gave us a number. We waited for around 15 minutes and we were brought to our table. Since they took our orders earlier before, the dishes were served not long after we were seated. I was really pleased and amazed with their professional and prompt services. 

The menu

Stir fried bitter gourd with salted duck egg, minced pork and diced prawn (RM12)

Deep fried homamade tofu with cut prawns, dried scallop and egg white topping (RM12)

Stir fried dragon spinach with Juda's Ear Fungus and egg (RM12)

All the three dishes were equally good and appetizing.

Home Recipe Double Roasted Pork RM16

This dish with chilli padi was a signature one but due to the hot scorching weather in Penang, we had in without the chilli padi. The pork was perfectly roasted with the sauce and it was very delicious! Highly recommended dish!

Total paid RM62.30 (4 dishes, 3 bowl of rice, 2 glass of drinks) for 3 pax

Please be early if you want to skip the wait at the restaurant. The foods was great, the service was good. Great meal indeed =)

Sukha's LSB Charcoal Waffle

Another choice of waffle in Kuching!

Sukha, located at Brighton Square, Jln Song, is a partially self service concept cafe. You are presented with the menu after you are seated. You ordered and paid at the counter. You are given a table number. They will serve your food and drink according to the table number given.

Sukha's LSB Charcoal Waffle (RM15)

charcoal waffle topped off with vanilla ice-cream, salted egg yolk sauce and salted caramel sauce on the side. 

The caramel sauce is overcooked and tasted very very bitter. Luckily you can pair the salted egg yolk sauce well with the waffle. It is not very salty and the taste is just nice. It's a fresh and new combination for me so I recommend to give it a try. There's some other main course such as local rice options (nasi lemak, ayam pansuh with rice) and some western choices (burger, pasta). If you don't feel like order those overpriced drinks, help yourself with free flow of water. 

Personally I think the charcoal waffle in Sukha is worth trying than those at Dots Waffle but check the price out because it is double =(!

Dots Waffles and Desserts Cafe

Located at ST3 mall, Dots Waffles & Desserts Cafe offers menu choices of Belgian waffle, coffee, juice and pizza. Their business was good and I was tempted to try it myself too.

Belgian Waffle + Ice Cream + Oreo RM8

Instead of using real Oreo Cookies crumbs, they used other Oreo alike cookies (maybe Cream O or others). It was a disappointing one as they sell the waffle at this price and some more utilize the name Oreo yet they still substitute it with other sub standard ingredients. 

Any more other good Belgian Waffles in Kuching?

Where to eat at George Town UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site? (breakfast/brunch)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I stayed at Armenian Street Heritage Hotel (ASHH) for my Penang Trip. The hotel is strategically located within George Town UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Plenty of good foods are easily accessible within short working distance.

#1 Aik Hoe Restaurant 益和茶楼 (famous for Dim Sum) (300m, 4 mins walk from ASHH) 

No. 6 & 8, Lebuh Carnavon, 10100, George Town, Pulau Pinang, 10100

Business Hours: 5:00am - 2:00pm (Closed on Mon)

I still couldn't figure out the actual ordering system of this place, ended up we had some complications to get our foods ordered. Nevertheless, we had some dim sums eaten before headed to our next destinations.

RM17.50 (3 pax) inclusive a tiny cup of hot coffee (we had the signature lor ma kai - glutinous rice with chicken but we find it nothing impressive though) 

#2 Tai Tong Restoran 大东酒家 (famous for Dim Sum) (500m, 6 mins walk from ASHH)

45, Lebuh Cintra, 10100 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Dim sum is available from 6am till 12pm, and ala carte menu from 12pm till 3pm. Dinner starts from 6.30pm till 11pm. The outlet is open daily and closed on every alternate Mondays.

Highly recommended dim sum place for those who love wide selections. There were assorted dim sums selections at the back of the restaurant and it was too late as we were seated at the front and we only managed to find out when we were about to leave. We were little pissed off with several rude Aunty waitress there. One chattered on us as we refused to take any of her recommended dim sum at her cart while another mumbled unhappily of some few customers took out big tables causing some other customers had to wait for their turn for bigger table. This in return will cause massive jam in the restaurant and they will face difficulties to push their dim sum carts around. 

The place was fully seated at the time we left. Luckily we were early.

We had fried carrot cake (it's so spicy and i think there's belacan added which literally not the one I fond of), dumpling soup, one char siew bun, 4 pcs of vegetable dumplings (cai kueh), prawn dim sum (RM11). 

Total bill RM32 (3 pax) with a pot of tea

# 3 Toh Soon Cafe (700m, 9 mins walk from ASHH)

(Famous for charcoal-baked toasts, half-boiled eggs and Hainanese coffee)

Lebuh Campbell, George Town, Pulau Pinang

8 AM – 6 PM (Closed on Sundays)

We went there on 02.05.16 (Monday) but it wasn't open. Perhaps they did not operate on public holiday. We returned the second day and fortunately they were open for business. We arrived there before 8am and there was a few tables seated with customers. They only started taking customers order around 8am but we need not wait long before our breakfast was served. 

Hainanese Coffee & Kaya Butter Toast

I was looking forward to visit this place after seeing much positive reviews of it.  However, I think it was a bit overrated as I find it nothing particular on the toast and the coffee. They were good but for me it is just an ordinary toast and coffee.

Revised price list effective 01.05.2016

Total price paid:

RM15.20 with 2 coffees, 4 toast, 4 soft boiled eggs (2 sets)

# 4  Tiger Char Kuey Teow (180m, 2 mins walk away from ASHH)

Ping Hooi Coffee Shop (槟园茶室) 

Business Hours: 8am to 2:30pm. Opens Daily.

Contact Number: 6016- 458 0926

179, Lebuh Carnarvon, George Town, 10100 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Tiger Char Kuey Teow

Frankly, I didn't like i as the taste was more towards Mamak style stir fried where they added in Chilli Sauce/Tomato Sauce. Not a good one to represent the good Penang Famous Char Kuey Teow in town!

# 5  Pitt Street Koay Teow Th'ng (Eel Fish Ball Noodle) (190m, 2 mins walk away from ASHH)

Lebuh Carnarvon, George Town, 10450 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Business hour: 9am – 4.30pm. Closed on Mon

 Koay Teow Th'ng (RM 4)

Highly recommended and worth trying =)

MK Classico Caffe

Third visit to MK Classico Caffe during Ramadan month. Perhaps due to the Ramadan month, the cafe was not in usual packed condition like before.

Swedish Meat Ball RM15

The meatball was overcooked and slightly charred and dry on the outside. Rather disappointing that the overall taste was not up to the previous standard.

Lemon Salmon Spaghetti RM19

The spaghetti was infused with mild bitterness of lemon juice.  The portion was somewhat petite for average serving and a little greasy for my liking.

The cafe had increased their pricing for all the menu in the chalkboard but luckily we were still paying old pricing as they had not revised their pricing in their payment system.