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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Nasi lemak is one of the Malaysian popular breakfast dish. Located at Lebuh Pantai and right in front of Sri Weld Food Court, Ali Nasi Lemak is one of the famous nasi lemak in Penang.


There are six different types of nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaf for you to choose from: anchovies + egg, fish, prawn, cuttlefish, chicken and salted fish + egg. Each pack of nasi lemak costs only RM 1.50.


During our visit, we were amazed by the speed of how are they preparing and packing the nasi lemak. Fast and steady. 


Each pack of nasi lemak is prepared fresh right there. Steaming fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk was scooped onto the banana leaves, topped with fish/prawn/cuttlefish/etc followed by the red chilli-spiked gravy, then folded and packed into a conical-shaped packet. 


Fish Nasi Lemak in banana leaf (RM1.50). The moment we unwrapping the nasi lemak, we can smell the fragrance of rice with a little hint of spiciness. The rice was moist, soft (unlike the dry version of other nasi lemak) and not sticky. We love every bite of it. The fish was deep-fried, the skin was slight crispy but the meat was soft and juicy. The red chilli-spiked gravy on the other hand, spicy but very aromatic. This nasi lemak overall in combination, is definitely an enjoyable and flavourful breakfast to kick start your day. A small pack of nasi lemak like this can bring great satisfaction. Highly recommended for people who likes nasi lemak. 


Ali Nasi Lemak Daun Pisang
Location: Lebuh Pantai, Georgetown, Penang (in front of Sri Weld Food Court)

Monday, December 30, 2013

Peng Hwa lok lok, also named Celor-celor, is one of the famous penang lok lok which located at Pulau Tikus Market (evening hawker center). I have been to quite a few lok lok stalls in Penang and Peng Hwa offers the most varieties of food on skewers ranging from meat to vegetables. For examples: meat slices, pork skin, squid, prawn, jelly fish, cuttle fish, clams, oyster, sausage, meat ball, broccoli, kangkung, lady fingers, enoki mushroom, etc. They are all fresh and the boss will keep coming to check if the food skewer is finishing and replenish. As for the soup base, only boiling water is used instead of soup base.



During my visit, there are four different type of sauces for us to choose from: satay sauce, spicy sauce, sweet sauce and dried shrimp sauce. I won't say they have the best sauces here. Satay sauce is good, but oily with coarse texture ground peanuts. Dried shrimp sauce though oily, but goes well with fu zuk. Spicy sauce and sweet sauce are just common sauce.


Peng Hwa Lok Lok (Celor-celor)
Location: Jalan Pasar, Pulau Tikus, 10350 Georgetown, Penang.
Business Hours: 4pm to 11pm, daily


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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Miam Miam, a French-Japanese Cafe which named after the French expression "yum yum", is located at the ground floor of Gurney Paragon. We get to know about this cafe from Ken Hunts Food and we were so tempted to try their Famous French Toast.



I'm clueless about the appropriate term that I can use to describe the design or concept of Miam Miam. Perhaps traditional-meets-modern concept? Quite eye-catching though.






The menu of Miam Miam is charming. Picture is included for all the food items in the menu. But choices are limited. 




The order chit.



Our table number. Free wifi is provided. 



Complimentary water is given to all the dine-in customers. 




Iced Matcha Latte with Softee (RM12.80). This matcha latte topped with matcha ice-cream was a marvellous drink. I like its unique rich taste and that whiff of aroma. A drink which can give me a boost. The taste is even more pleasant when the ice-cream melted into the matcha latte. And now I'm really hooked on matcha latte. Another drawback of this drink is there were too much ice cubes, so be sure to drink it fast.



Royal Milk Tea (RM 8.80). A tea mixed with sugar and milk. It is a very popular tea in the country of Japan. To me, it was smooth and soothing. Less sweet and I'd like to add a little more sugar to make it tastes sweeter. However, my friend was opposingly likes this cup of tea. To him, the milk tea doesn't tastes grim eventhough it is lack of sweetness and you may discover the more subtle flavour of tea that were over-powered by sweetness. 



"Miam Miam" Spaghetti (RM24.80). Spaghetti comes with half poached onsen egg, egg plant, bacon, shimeiji mushrooms and sausage. The most special spaghetti I ever tried. This is a Japanese style spaghetti carbonara where spaghetti is topped with onsen egg (slow-cooked egg) instead of cream. The onsen egg is the highlight of this spaghetti. Mix the onsen egg and the other ingredients with spaghetti on the plate and eat. I promise you this will bring you a delightfully rich and satisfying toothsome chew. In addition, this spaghetti is not too oily and the portion is big, for 1 to 2 persons.




Famous French Toast (RM 16.80). Two thumbs up for this, the best french toast I ever had. Unlike the other french toast you had in OldTown or Hong Kong style cafe/ restaurant, this french toast is not made by deep frying stacked sliced bread with butter peanut filling dipped in beaten egg, served with a slab of butter topped with syrup or honey. The bread is thicker (it is Japanese bread?) and not scorched, soft and rich in custardlike flavour, not too wet and soggy. The beaten egg/ custard is really entirely penetrate and saturate every nook and cranny of bread. 



Besides, the toast is lightly dusted with powdered sugar to give a slight hint of sweetness. Smooth and creamy home-made whipped cream and maple syrup are also served together with the toast. Eat this toast together with the whipped cream and a dollop of syrup for a taste of heaven. Overall, Miam Miam serves really unique and palatable foods, but the prices are slightly high, especially for the drink.



Miam Miam Cafe & Restaurant
Location: St Jo's, Gurney Paragon, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang, Malaysia


Friday, December 13, 2013

Humble Beginnings is another shop which specializes in Mille Crepe. They claims that they use only the finest ingredients for your indulgence. No artificial ingredients, no preservatives, no additives. Instead real vanilla pods (not the bottled extracts), real custard (not the powder + water concoction), best chocolates, best creams, best cheeses, freshest fruit, the list goes on.... These statements triggered our interest and curiousity, hence we drove all the way to Straits Quay just for their mille crepes.

Humble Beginnings outlet in Straits Quay is kind of small and seats are very limited.


But we kind of like their interior design which uses orange as the theme colour. Orange colour, the very embodiment of warmth and happiness, makes you feel lively, optimistic and uplifting. And those orange decorations on the ceiling and wall seems to be flower buds? What do you think?  


We reached there at around 10pm. Therefore, only limited choices of mille crepe left. A big disappointment because they do not offer any coffee at that hour and we can only opted for the soda drinks such as raspberry vanilla or strawberry soda and  passion fruit with cucumber or lychee soda.

Passion fruit with lychee soda (RM8.90). It tastes just like an ordinary fizzy soda drink, but then at least not too sweet. A good choice of drink when your thirst hits. However, I personally think this drink don't worth the price. A bit pricey. Besides, not to forget to mention, a complimentary water with a twist of lemon is given to every dine-in customer. 



French Vanilla (RM9.90). Original flavour of mille crepe always a crepe to-die-for. The topmost layer of the crepe is caramelized to give it a nice smokey sugary flavour and each layer of the crepe is of the same thickness. We like the delicate texture of the crepe although to us it is not smooth enough. In addition, it is not too sweet but the enticing flavour of vanilla seems to be too mild, hence the crepe turned out to be creamy instead. I would prefer mille crepe from The Twelve Cups.


Oreo's Cookies 'n' Cream (RM9.90). This mille crepe is one disappointment. My response at the first bite was "is this an oreo mille crepe?". Barely no crushed oreo cookies can be seen and the oreo taste is too light. Anyway, in matters of taste there is no dispute. Taste is very much on personal preferences and I personally prefer desserts with stronger taste or rich in flavour.
 


I will drop by Humble Beginnings again to try the other mille crepe. 



Humble Beginnings
Location: No. 3A-G-23, Block A, Ground Floor, Straits Quay, Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang, Tanjung Tokong, Penang
Business Hours: 11am to 11pm, daily
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HumbleBeginningsMilleCrepe
Website: humblebeginnings.com.my

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

New York Pizza which located at Jalan Sungai Dua, Penang, is famous for their pizza as well as charcoal burger (pork free). This pizza outlet is quite spacious. The interior design of this pizza outlet is more of retro feel with many vintage photos/ posters hanging on the wall as decorative items. There is a bar-height/ bar-type table at one side of the outlet where you can sit there to enjoy your foods while seeing how they prepare the pizza.


I would say the price of both the pizza and burger here is quite affordable as compare to other pizza outlets. We ordered one value set of chicken patty charcoal burger and an additional seaweed pizza. The burger set comes with a soft drink and garlic bread. For the soft drink we chosen lemon lime flavour 7 up (original price RM 2.50), a perfect match with pizza and burger because it is quite refreshing.


The garlic bread (original price RM 3.90) is just like any other classic garlic bread. Toasted and crispy topped with butter.


Liberty chicken charcoal burger (original price RM 11.90). This is a burger of grilled chicken patty topped with chicken bacon, cheese, lettuce and coleslaw. The burger comes with fries. I like charcoal bun but their charcoal bun not to my liking (during my visit), not as soft as the other charcoal bun which I had tried. The grilled chicken patty quite soft, savoury but not juicy enough. This burger tastes even better with the chicken bacon.


Seaweed pizza (RM 9.90), also called Pearl Harbour, is a 6-inch classic hand-tossed pizza which they cut into 4 small pieces, just nice for one to two persons. The ingredients for this seaweed pizza including crab meat, pineapple, mozzarella cheese, seaweed and thousand island sauce. The ingredients are quite abundant and they are all fresh. The key to a really good pizza is the crust and their pizza is really a good thin-crust pizza. The seaweed mimics a salty taste, the crab meat mimics seafood taste, these two in combination with the cheese turned this pizza into a flavoured one with very heavy seaweed taste. Scrumptious. We love it at our first bite. Highly recommended.


New York Pizza
Location: 723Z-G, Vanda Business Park, Yellow House, Jalan Sungai Dua, 11700 Sungai Dua, Penang, Malaysia.
Business hours: 11am to 10pm, daily
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MYNewYorkPizza

Monday, December 9, 2013

Love Bites Fusion Cuisine is a restaurant which serves decorative fusion foods with many self made ingredients. It is located at Nagore Road in Georgetown, Penang. 


The interior of this restaurant basically divided into two parts. The design of the front part of Love Bites is based on European concept: white in colour and then uses many angel sculptures as decorative items. These in overall together with the quiet-soft music set a comfortable and nice ambience for your dining in a relaxed atmosphere.


The back part of Love Bites, on the other hand, is in a completely different interior design concept. Tables and chairs as well as decorative items are made of wood and brown is the main colour instead of white. 


More photos of the other decoration items in Love Bites.



And then, they hire deaf employees to work in Love Bites. How sweet. 



Their name card in love shape. 



Their self-customized menu.


Cold green tea latte (RM 8.90). I'm now putting myself into a long-standing love affair with green tea latte after I had enjoyed my first cup at Miam Miam, Gurney Paragon (p/s: food review for Miam Miam here). Serious addiction and now I'm really hooked. This soothing blend of green teas with latte tastes pretty diluted, with only a slight hint of green tea flavour. However, I enjoyed the thick and uplifting taste of the finely-powdered green tea powder sprinkles on top of the whipped cream. 



Apple juice (RM 7.90). Concentrate and refreshing. Nice.


Love Toast is the highlight dessert in Love Bites. There are a total of 6 different types (flavour) of love toast in the menu: Temptation of love (green tea flavour), Sensation of love (cheese flavour), Impression of love (strawberry flavour), Illusion of love (coffee flavour), Satisfaction of love (mango flavour) and the last one named Jigsaw Tower (slightly different from the other 5 love toasts. It is served with 4 types of fruits). As a cheese lover, I decided to order the Sensation of love. 

Cheese flavour Sensation of Love toast with single scoop of ice-cream (RM 19.90). When the love toast is served, I was impressed by the decoration on the toast. Then only I understand the reason why they need a longer preparation time (more than 15 minutes) for this dessert.




Sensation of Love Toast is a half block of toast stuffed with toast bar and cheese baked crumble, and topped with vanilla ice-cream. Maize flacks, chocolate wafer stick and nut are also added to bring out endless satisfaction of love toast. Do not smash the block of toast by yourself. Friendly staff in Love Bites will assist you in cutting open the toast using scissor. 


This love toast is of quite a big portion. The portion is for at least two persons, with really a lots of cheese baked crumble and toast bar inside the block of toast. They are warm and freshly baked, crunchy and not too powdery. You can either eat them along with or without the vanilla ice-cream, the taste in both ways is satisfying. However, the cheese combination in overall makes us feeling bored fast. I believe the green tea and mango flavour, or in other words, fruit flavour combination will give a better sensation.




Lemongrass pork loin (RM 22.90). One of the main dish in the menu which served in a special lips-shaped plate. The ginger-grilled pork loin is juicy and tender and we really love it at the first bite. The gravy is in mild sweetness and tastes like pumpkin. The grass noodles served together with the pork loin as well as kimchi are quite appetizing. 



According to the staff in Love Bites, in order to bring the taste of this dish to perfection, you should stuff the pork loin slices together with the glass noodles and kimchi to the soft flaky paratha and eat it as paratha wrap. This is our first time trying to eat lemongrass pork loin in paratha wrap way. In overall, it tastes really good. It is quite surprising as well because it never crossed our mind that lemongrass, pork loin, glass noodles and kimchi in combination can be this good. Thumbs up.




Last but not least, a photo of Dan and me. Thanks to him for being such a good tour guide.



Love Bites Fusion Cuisine
Location: 11, Nagore Road, 10050 Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
Business hour: 12pm to 11pm, closed on Tuesday
Fb Page: https://www.facebook.com/love.bites.942