Nuffnang

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Penang Reduxe 16


A few places over the weekends. We headed over to Straits Quay for some German fare.



Our drinks. Both were good. I love German beer.


Potato wedges with Japanese curry dipping. OMG good!! You can get unlimited curry sauce.


Three different types of sausages. I can't remember which is which now, but there was one with cheese involved. It comes with sauerkraut, mustard and mayo. Excellent.
 
 
Little pork cutlets with curry dipping sauce. Fabulous beer food.
We went to ChopperBoard in Queensbay another weekend.



Sad to say, I can't remember anything about this place. The food is quite disappointingly forgettable.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Penang Redux 15

Another Japanese restaurant, but this time at a hotel, G Hotel to be exact.


Miraku is on the first floor of G Hotel and from review I read, quite good.


The appetiser of some kind of meat ball.


My Curry Udon set that comes with a salad and chawanmushi. The curry was pretty regular if you ask me. It tasted like the premix kind that you can buy at the grocery store.



My Inari Sushi that comes with it.


The Friend's Sashimi and Tempura Set. Fresh fish and crunchy tempura. Good.


Being greedy little buggers that we are, we had to order some maki to share. The King Prawn Maki was fresh and the maki well wrapped.


Spider Maki. It was wonderfully good. Very crunchy and warm. Delicious.


Complimentary dessert. After pouting at the waiter about not liking vanilla, he got me a small scoop of green tea.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Penang Redux 14

The Colleague mentioned a place to have some seafood near the clan jetties and we headed over one night to sample it.


It's a simple set up with the cook in the front and the eating in the back. Seafood is set out in little yellow bins for your choosing and you inform the lady how you want it cooked.


Weld Quay (Tree Shade). Apparently it was under a tree at one time long ago.


Belacan Chicken. I didn't really like this because it didn't have the strong belacan taste at the other places we had.


Kung Pao Frogs Legs. The taste was good but my only complain was the skinniness of the froggies. There was hardly any meat. The interesting thing was how they froze all the frogs and they were in one massive ball near the cooking area, their beady little eyes staring at us.


Salad Mantis Prawn. There was too much batter and it was pretty tiny. Quite disappointing.


Buttered Slipper Lobster. I liked the style it was cooked but I felt that the lobster meat was overcooked and 'under'fresh.

Overall, it was quite a disappointment. It may have been good to eat before but the standards have dropped in recently years.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Penang Redux 13

Along Jalan Abu Siti, there is a restaurant called Hot Bowl. Their claim to fame is their white curry noodles.


There are interesting dishes to be served up other than the white curry noodles.


The starter of Loh Bak. I didn't particularly enjoy this too much.


Steamed chicken. This was awesome. The meat was tender and smooth and delicious. Perfection on a plate.


The otak-otak was to my taste as it was made the completely nyonya style. Creamy and strong on the kafir lime leaves.


The star of the lunch of curry noodles. It starts off as white, with chilly served in small little containers on the table. I scooped up a pretty large spoon of it.


And this is the final result of my lunch. Lovely (and spicy) goodness with strong spices mixed into it. This is typical Penang style curry noodles. Very well worth a try.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Penang Redux 12

Another lunch time jaunt. This time to a place Wong Chau Jun that apparently is famous for their hot and sour fish head meehoon.


The sign might be old and decrepit looking, but let me assure you, the food is good.


Lining the walls are their famous dishes.


Clear looking soup but deceptive. It's hot and sour at the same time and slurpalicious. We had the Aunty add more soup for us because we ended up drinking more of the soup than eating the noodles.


Their home made taufu. Smooth and delicious.


This is another specialty of theirs. The white stuff is very large hor fun served in soy sauce and fish meat. Excellent, different and unique.

If you are around Rangoon Road, head over here for some good food.

Another lunch escapade we had was just around our office area.


I never bother with Char Kuay Teow in Penang. I just find it overhyped and prefer the more interesting dishes like belacan chicken or asam laksa. But this place fried a very decent plate of Char Kuay Teow. Hot and spicy and dry. Very well done.


We ordered some veggies. Kailan in some sort of spicy sauce. This sauce was excellent. I tried to soak up every single drop.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Penang Redux 11

This is another lunch time escapade. We were brought to China Street, near the Kuan Im Theng for some simple Hainan fare.


Simple fare it may be, but not so simple on taste. It's rather old school in terms of decor.


Roti Babi. Pork in rolled up bread and deep fried. Tasty.


Fried Kangkong in belacan. Crunchy and spicy.


Loh Bak. Very, very tasty. The meat is marinated just right. Dip in chilly and swallow.


Ju Hu Char. While good, I prefer the one I had at Hainam Town. The chilly here did not compliment the dish as well as the other place.


Curry fish head, nyonya style. Sour and spicy. Excellent.


My favourite dish of the day. Belacan Chicken. Despite it being deep fried, it managed to still be moist. The belacan is deeply marinated into the chicken meat, making it smell totally fragrant.

If you are around China Street, you must try this place.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Penang Redux 10

For some Penang is synonymous with hawker food. But I have always felt that their Japanese fair would be good as well. There is a very large Japanese community there. I would assume (and rather rightly) that there would be some really excellent Japanese food there.


I found this place from surfing from the Internet. It looks like a garden from the front, since it is littered with greenery.


It is a pretty basic type of interior with tonnes of little dried flowers or herbs hanging from the rafters.


Beef tataki was first on the list. The beef is semi raw, seared around the edges and oh, so good. This was one serious pile of meat and veggies. This was a set dinner that comes with rice, soup and an appetiser.
Next on the menu is fried mushrooms. There were I think three different types of mushrooms here. I cannot finish waxing poetic about this. It was perfectly fried over what I would assume to be charcoal. There is a deep taste of charcoal permeating the mushrooms that made this dish unforgettable.


Okonomiyaki. I have always disliked this dish. there was always something off about it when I tasted it elsewhere. I guess it's the overwhelming floury, starchy texture. This was a total breath of fresh air for me. The sauce, the mayo, the batter, everything was the perfect mix.


Hamburg steak is a must when I can find it in the menu. Two big patties of beef. It had that strong peppery taste that I love along with the heavy aroma of spices. 


The Colleague tried the mushroom chawanmushi. This was a slight let down as we felt the egg might have been steamed too long. While the taste was excellent but the texture wasn't as smooth as we were used to.


Yakisoba. The taste of the noodle was on the strong side, reminiscent of yellow noodles. It is filled with large prawns and yummy to the tummy.


Seafood teppanyaki. The smell this gorgeous dish emitted on our way to our table is indescribable. The sauce they used was very different from the normal restaurants I have tried.


Soft shell crab maki. The last time I tasted such a good sushi was at Red in Damansara Heights almost eight years ago. I am happy to say that I finally found it again. The rice is holds the sushi together but disintegrates on the tongue. The crab is crispy and fresh.
Unagi maki rounded up the last of the savouries. I am a person that hates unagi for their extreme fishy taste. This had none, absolutely none. I always depended on the sauce for the unagi to cover some of the taste. This unagi was practically dry of sauce. It was sweet since it was grilled in it but this was the most perfect unagi my taste buds had the privilege of appreciating.
Rare cheese cake. I didn't like this too much as I felt it was too milky and too cheesy.


Home made ice cream. We chose two flavours green tea and black sesame. Macha and goma. When they said home made, they really meant home made. I never liked green tea since there is always this slightly bitter taste to the ice cream. This was smooth and silky, sweet and velvety. 

The goma ice cream tasted like it had just been grounded with large chunks of the black sesame seeds still in it. This is a definite must try at Isaribi Tei.

We were not disappointed with what were served at Isaribi Tei yet. So, when you are around Penang, along Jalan Chow Thye, do not miss this chance for truly excellent Japanese fare.