Losing Manhood Over Soya Bean Drink At Soya King

We all know that soy bean drink has been touted as a miracle food for obvious reasons. It contains numerous amino acids required as the building blocks for growth, isoflavones, a source of vitamin E and lecithin and even help to reduce bad cholesterol.

However, recent unsettling studies have shown that too much soy base food consumed by male can lead to lower sperm count. To quote the article EmaxHeath "men who ate the most soy food had 41 million sperm per millilitre less than men who did not consume soy products". Ouch! It sounds as if it's just a tiny weeny drop, but as far as manhood is concern for us male, every drop counts. This is also a blow to any soya bean drink lover like myself. In life, I believe you need to make room for exceptions and I am willing to exercise that right in this case. Hehehe. Similar to the "Get Out Of Jail" card you get in Monopoly.

Every time I window shop at Queens Bay Mall, I need to have my dose of soya bean drink at Soya King. Soya King is located at the ground flour just directly opposite the JayaJusco hypermarket and next to the food court. Unlike most traditional soya bean stalls in Penang, Soya King takes it's product offerings to the next level by providing more variation of soya bean drinks. It's menu consists of bean milk with cincao or colombian arabica white coffee, bean curd with either longan, lychee, red bean, sweet corn, natta de coco, mango fruit pudding or tropical fruit cocktail as toppings. Prices ranges from RM 2-RM 6.

Soya bean drink with normal syrup. Just the way I like them.

For those who like bean curd, you have a choice to add plain syrup, gula melaka syrup or ginger cooked in brown sugar syrup to it. The bean curd is really good as it the texture is soft yet firm enough to retain its shape. It doesnt break up that easily.

Finally, will all this spell the end of my manhood? Hahaha. I dont think so. After a soya bean drink and a bowl of bean curd, I think I'm far from infertile. Those soya beans need to do a better job to rob me of my manhood.

Chinese Restaurant At Red Rock Hotel (Georgetown)

For those of you who aren't aware of Red Rock Hotel, it's actually the old Agora Hotel. The newly renovated 3-star business hotel is now run by the same family operating the budget Hotel Hong Ping in Chulia Street. Hong Ping is well known since it is a favourite choice by back packers. What make Red Rock unique is that it's strategically located in the heart of historic Georgetown and walking distance to the Penang famous hawker food center along Macalister Road.

While there are numerous places around this area to get great food, one should not overlook the Chinese restaurant from the hotel. Tien Tien Chinese restaurant serves a mixture of regional Chinese cuisine and is located on the 1st floor. The restaurant has a sitting capacity of up to 1000 guests and as well as 12 private rooms. It's therefore no surprise that the restaurant is a favourite choice for weddings and private functions. Although I have been here a few times before, we normally order the same dishes as it's only usual for us to be drawn into our comfort zone. When you know these dishes are good, why venture out and risk unpleasant surprises? Here are some of the recommended dishes.

Pork belly in sweet bean sauce. For those of you who are not too conscious with your cholesterol level, this is a must try. The wonderful sauce goes well with the white rice.

Chicken in sweet and spicy mayo sauce with nuts. Contrasting flavours and quite unique.

Kar Heong tofu or bean curd with dice pork and salted fish. The thick black sauce and the flavours from the salted fish bring much needed dimension to the taste of the otherwise blend homemade bean curd. The contrasting saltiness of the salted fish, the softness of the bean curd and the flavourful sauce will tantalise any taste buds.

As with the tofu, the stir fried brinjal with shrimps rocks! I dont really like brinjal but I have made this dish an exception. This dish brings another dimension to cooking. Wonderful.

By now some of you probably notice that the dishes look similar like those at CRC (Chinese Recreation Club). That's because the chefs used to cook there. As a whole, Tian Tian is quite a nice restaurant as the food and atmosphere are truely a class above the rest. Additionally, prices are quite reasonable depending what you order. For the full address of Red Rock Hotel, please see below for details:

Red Rock Hotel

202A, Jalan Macalister, 10400 Penang

Tel: 04-2266060

For additional review of this restaurant by other foodies, please food hop to LingZie's Tummy Treat.

Hainanese Lor Mee At Harbin Cafe (Pulau Tikus)

I have past by Harbin Cafe many times but never really been there until recently. What actually caught my attention was the fact that they advertise themselves as having the one of the best Hainanese lor me in town. What's also intriguing is that lor mee is suppose to be a Hokkien dish ergo a Hainanese lor me warranted some investigation on my part.

The typical lor mee consists of a mixture of white rice noodles or beehoon and yellow noodles served with thick starchy gravy made up of corn starch, egg and spices. This is usually complimented by slices of pork and a half boiled egg. In some stalls, they might surprise you with innards like intestines or chicken feet which would put off most Westerners. Lastly, it comes with chili and ginger paste to compliment the thick gravy noodles just like the one shown below.

Hmm. I can't seem to find the slightest difference between this and the Hokkien style. The ingredients are the same except perhaps they added in the pork belly. Not sure.

What a tempting looking pork belly. I could just eat this minus the noodles.

I decided I wasn't in the mood for innards and just had the normal one. I think it cost around RM3-3.5. The lor mee was just average because it tasted like any ordinary lor mee you would get in Penang. Perhaps because of the marketing hype I expected more. Anyway, you are not going to see me doing any back flips or somersaults on this.

Nonetheless, Harbin is still quite a popular cafe since it also sells Malay economy rice and Western food. The Malay food is a crowd puller during the day time where as the Western food seems to do better during the evening. For directions to Harbin Cafe, it is located at the intersection of Jones Road and Burma Road. Alternatively, you can use the SOCSO building at Pulau Tikus as your landmark since it's just directly opposite it.

All Time Classic Chicken Pies From Penang Hill (Air Itam)

If you grow up in Penang, you would probably remember the delicious chicken pie from Penang Hill. This has to be one of the classic chicken pies I ever tasted since I literary grew up with it. We use to have it during the weekends and there was never enough for everyone.

For some of you who don't know about this, well....it's likely it's going to stay that way unless someone let you into the secret. This guy makes his chicken pies from his home in Penang Hill and delivers them in his motorcycle directly to your home. He makes about a few hundred pies a day and what's fascinating about this is his business thrives on just word of mouth! For deliveries, I do believe there is a minimum quantity but I recently bought only five and encountered no hassle.

I took three and they were certainly not enough for myself. Shall we say old habits die hard?

The chicken pie comes wrapped in a crispy pastry together with chunky pieces of chicken, potatoes, egg, onions, carrots and peas. And to add another twist to the pie, classic Worcester sauce is used as the base sauce. What's worth mentioning is that a piece only cost you RM 1.90. For the sheer size and quality you get, you can't find this anyway.

For those of you who want to taste the reminiscent of the wonderful and classic chicken pie, here's the contact.

Penang Hill Chicken Pie

Contact person: Ah Wang

Tel: 013-5032947

Price per piece: RM 1.90

After all, you got nothing to lose and delivery is free :)

Everyone's A Winner At McDonald's

Ahh..McDonald's. You either love it or hate it. There's no two ways about it. Luckily for me, I'm one of the many folks who's still loving it. I have to say in some ways we are in debt to Mr.Ronald McDonalds in more than one occasions. This is especially true when you are travelling in some foreign country and the local food doesn't go well with your stomach. The colorful statue of Ronald McDonald's in over sized shoes and baggy yellow overalls with a smile to greet you is a wonderful and relief sight. We go there because we know our expectations will be met. You know exactly what you get. No surprises.

Occasionally, I drop by at McDonalds just to calibrate my expectations. I was there last week for breakfast and dinner. Dinner was actually my wife's idea as she wanted the free contour glass that comes with the Gold Medal meal. For breakfast we had the Weekday special and hotcakes with sausages. I thought the Weekday breakfast special is quite a good bargain as you pay only RM4 for a sausage and cheese McMuffin and coffee.

Flavourful and aromatic coffee made from 100% roasted Arabica coffee.

The hotcakes comes together with a sausage patty complemented with honey and butter. The pancakes were light, fluffy and the contrasting sweetness of the honey and saltiness of the sausage patty was sheer delight. I wont mind have this for breakfast everyday....

The McMuffins comes with grilled chicken sausage with cheese in a lightly toasted English muffin. It's one meal that I wont be counting calories.

The only reason why we had dinner there was because my wife wanted the Coca-Cola contour glass that comes free with the Gold Medal meal. There are five designs in total. As for the Gold Medal meal, it's a promotional meal in conjunction with the Olympic games. The Gold Medal meal comes with a spicy chicken McDeluxe, onion rings, a carbonated drink and a sundae.

The spicy chicken Mcdeluxe as the name suggest is made of breaded chicken marinated with a special spice marinade, topped with fresh lettuce on a corn meal bun.

And for the real meal, this was followed by a Big Mac. Who can say no to two beef patties that comes with fresh lettuce, onions, pickles, cheese between toasted sesame seed bun? Vegetarians perhaps.....

As their tag line goes, every day is a Sundae! The fruity strawberry sundae was lovely.

The real reason behind dinner. I have to eat everything except the onion rings. My wife was reserving this for herself and she also gets to keep the limited edition Coca-Cola contour glass.

Whether you are a kid or an adult, there's something for everyone. At McDonald's, everyone is a winner.

Imagine If You Have This For Dinner

IF ONLY YOU COULD ......sink your teeth into the juicy soft skin of the lovely popiah....

.....or taste the slightly burnt and smoky sar hor fun that will hit the right spot with the pickled chillis....

.....or the ee foo mee with its thick seafood gravy sauce.....oh, mr ee foo mee....what big prawns you have.....

.....or smell the wonderful aroma of belacan rice....or taste the fragrant and fluffy rice .....or the belacan chicken, fried anchovies or egg.....

.....or bite into the tender meat of the best chicken wings in town.....muah ha ha.....

.....or sniff the aroma of the freshly cooked fried char koay teow ....with extra pig's fat and duck's egg.....bwa ha ha .....

.....or brave the high cholesterol goody in the form of fried oysters.....

.....or taste the famous combo plate of loh bak with the dipping sauces.....



IF ONLY YOU COULD.....have all this for dinner.....LOL....

Burp! (followed by tooth picking). Dont worry if you didn't ........(more tooth picking)......I was there to finish the food on your behalf :)

Wonderful Set Lunch At Manila Place (Georgetown)

Manila Place is located along Penang Gurney Plaza's stretch of trendy eateries and alfresco coffee outlets. Since it's renovation two years back, this restaurant has been a crowd puller. The renovation has given Manila Place a new lease of life by the choice of it's decor. The attractive and sleek modern decors coupled with a touch of fusion jazz music on the background certainly creates a comfortable and relaxing ambiance. More importantly, the key contributing factor for the success of the restaurant was that Manila Place repositioned itself from a cafe to a proper restaurant serving wholesome meals throughout the whole day. It serves set meals not only for lunch and dinner but also breakfast and tea. This is complemented by a mixture of Asian, English, Italian, Japanese, Malaysian and Szechuan ala cartes.

The set meals are a bargain. For instance, the set lunch consists of 12 main course to choose from. It comes together with either a cold drink or tea / coffee, a soup and a bun and finishing off with ice cream for dessert.

The grilled lamb chops that was part of the set lunch was worth every penny paid. I was expecting the worst as most lamb chops I tried elsewhere were either slightly grilled too long and just difficult to sink you teeth into. The chops were perfect! The meat ripped apart easily as you cut them. Additionally, the black pepper and mushrooms sauce was delightful and instead of two pieces of chops you normally get in other restaurants, we got three. And look at the sheer size of it! All these for less than RM 30 nett.




The BBQ chicken and black pepper chicken set meal were nice too considering the price you pay for it (RM 16.90 nett).

Other ala cartes recommended are the grilled Bombay chicken which comes with an interesting mixture of hot and spicing Bombay sauce, the grilled salmon with lemon and dill or the lasagna. For those with a sweet tooth, you wont be disappointed. Manila Place serves an assorted range of cakes and pancakes or crepes. It's famous for it's cup cakes as the owner also specialises in making customised cup cakes for any events. Please see Cup-A-Cake for more information. Lastly, Manila Place also provides catering services for private functions. Further information can be viewed from Manila Place's website.

For directions to Manila Place, please see below:

Manila Place

170-G-43, Persiaran Gurney

10250, Penang

Tel:04-2262005

Email:mail@manilaplace.com

Homemade Carrot Muffins - Recipe

I was inspired by the lovely and mouth watering pastries at San's Blessed Moments that I decided to expand my culinary skills to baking too. For a start, I decided to try something relative simple. I went to Video Jug for ideas and come up with my own recipe for carrot muffins. After all, I have lots of carrots in the kitchen so why not.

Here are the ingredients that were used:

• 130ml corn oil
• 190g castor sugar
• 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 21og plain flour
• 1 1/4 tbp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tbp salt
• 200g grated carrots
• 1 green apple grated
• 50g sultanas (optional)
• 35g walnuts, toasted and chopped coarsely (optional)

To bake, please find the instructions below:

1. Position rack in centre of the oven and preheat to 190 C. Grease the standard muffin baking tray.
2. Combine sugar, corn oil and eggs in large mixing bowl. Stir in sifted flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine with a spoon. Add in the remaining ingredients and stir well to blend.
3. Divide batter onto the muffin baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes. Turn muffins onto rack to cool. Serve warm.

I wasn't sure if this endeavour would work so I decided to scale back on baking on a large scale. The batter would just enough for 7 muffins. I also reduce the amount of sugar as I don't like anything too sweet.

Fresh and warm lovely muffins just out of the oven. I'm the proud owner of these muffins!

Try this recipe. It's simple and taste simply wonderful.

Soya Bean Puddings At Prangin Mall (Georgetown)

Every time whenever my wife and I window shop at Prangin Mall, we would normally stop by at Number Two Refreshment Corner for desserts. Number Two is located on the 2nd floor of the mall and sells soya puddings, beverages and toast sandwiches.

Number Two serves eight different types of soya pudding - original, cocoa, black sesame, almond, carrot, sweet corn, pandan and coffee.

You can also customise your soya puddings by adding in any combination of nata de coco, pearl ball, fruits and ginkgo seeds.

At the end of the day, you end up with a colorful pudding suited to your preference. As per the pictures below, the former depicts the almond pudding while the latter the coffee pudding - all topped with different assortments of nata de coco.

To coincide with the mid autumn festival, Number Two also sells home made cartoon crystal moon cakes. They come in different cartoon characters ranging from mickey mouse, minnie, doraemon, hello kitty, winnie the pooh and many more. You have the option to choose different flavours too - coffee, red bean, pandan, corn, chocolate, cheese, blueberry, tiramisu, durian and dragon fruit. Each box which cost RM 16 contains 6 pieces of moon cakes with different flavours.

Lastly, you can also quench your thirst as Number Two offers a wide range of beverages. They range from cold beverages like soya, green tea, chrysantenum tea to hot beverages like ginseng milk tea, ginger tea, almond tea, red dates longan and many more. All drinks cost less than RM 2.

For directions, proceed to the 2nd floor of Prangin Mall and head for the Center Mall. It's opposite Nice Day which sells toys and gifts.

Desserts At Sugar Dynasty (Georgetown)

If you are interested in desserts in Penang, look no further. Sugar Dynasty as the name suggest specialises in home made chinese and nyonya desserts. It's located at Nagore Road which play host to a kaleidoscope of restaurants and cafes. Like most buildings in this area, this quaint old place has been given a new lease of life. It has been restored and renovated into a restaurant and it's condition pristine as ever be. What also make these restaurants along Nagore Road really stand out is the eye catching colourful neon lights that brightly lit the road. In a way, it's reminiscent to what you might see along Clarke Quay in Singapore although I have to profess it's on a much smaller scale. OK! It's way way smaller! But then again, it great to see places like these add more colour and character to the night life in Georgetown.

Sugar Dynasty serves up to forty variety of desserts. They range from almond tea, si ke ting, herbal jelly, water chestnut egg, bird nest, papaya with almond, white fungus with red dates, barley with ginkgo nut, bubur gandum and many more.

A close up on the peanut soup. It was light and refreshing.

There are only a few places in Penang that serves good bee koh moy. This one is quite nice too although I would have prefer it to be thicker like the one at Mount Erskine.

This is the red bean soup with tong yuan or glutinous rice. They provided add texture to the soup.

Glutinous rice in syrup.

Besides desserts, Sugar Dynasty also serves a variety of local chinese and hawker delights. Here you can see the fried thick noodles, ee foo mee and fried rice respectively.

The food and desserts at Sugar Dynasty is certainly a must try for those with a sweet tooth and those wanting variety. Prices of the food here is extremely reasonable. For instance, you can get any of the combo set which consist of either noodles/rice and a drink at the cost of RM 4.00-RM 6.90 nett. This is only applicable from 11am-6pm. For more details of Sugar Dynasty, please see below:

Sugar Dynasty

29 Jalan Nagore

10050 Georgetown

Penang

Tel: 04-2271163

Business hours: 11am - 10.30 pm (closes every Monday)

Double Good Restaurant (Bayan Lepas)

If you think you have tasted some of the best prawn curries in Penang or Malaysia, do consider this. Your gastronomic repertoire wont be complete without ever trying the prawn curry at Double Good restaurant. Or cheesy mussels. Or the roasted chicken. The list goes on. Double Good restaurant specialises in Chinese cuisine. It is located close to Bukit Jambul complex at the shop lots along Jalan Tun Dr.Awang (Sg.Nibong Kecil) in Bayan Lepas.

I would certainly recommend the prawn curry as this dish certainly stands out. It's thick and creamy unlike most prawn curries in Penang and more importantly, the prawns are big and fresh. Fried salted fish are added in too to give added flavour.

The mussels in bake cheese is another dish that you do not want to miss. It's baked in such a way that the cheese wasn't burnt or browned. It retains the right viscosity so that the cheese melts straight in your mouth. Like most dishes here, fried salted fish is added on top as a final garnish.

The fried kai lan is also very nice. It's deep fried and then diced into small pieces. Finally, fried anchovies are generously sprinkled on top.

I also like the roasted chicken which needs to be order as least a day before hand. It's roasted till the skin is completely crispy but at the same time, it still retains the tenderness of the chicken meat.

Another all time favourite is the bean curd in soy sauce and fried salted fish. This adds another dimension in taste to the white rice.

The stir fried vegetables is very nice too. It's cooked with lots of chopped garlic which gives it quite a wonderful flavour.

This dish is probably the first time I tried at this restaurant. It's actually marinated pork coated in nestum. Most people will find this slightly dry.

As a summary, the food at Double Good is really good. We enjoyed every dish that we ordered and the price is just right. For those of you interested to make a visit there soon, here are the details of the restaurant:

Double Good (Penang Island)
26, Jalan Tun Dr Awang, Sg. Nibong Kecil,
Bayan Lepas, Penang
Tel: 04-6434188
Business hours: 11 am to 3 pm, 6 pm to 10 pm


Double Good (Mainland)
1681-F2, Jalan Perusahaan,
Auto-City North-South Highway Juru Interchange,
13600 Prai, Penang
Tel: 04-5014188


For further information, please contact Simon Lim at 012-4080412.

Japanese Fried Rice (Recipe)

Fried rice can be consider a universal dish in Asia. Whether you are in China, Malaysia or Korea, fried rice is widely eaten in most parts of Asia. The differences might be how to call them in the respective native countries and the slight changes in ingredients. In Korea, it's not surprise to see Kimchi fried rice which features the famous spicy cabbage condiments as the main flavoring ingredient. Or in Philippines where they serve Sinangag which is their version of fried rice served in toasted garlic and oil.

I decided to try out my version of Japanese fried rice this week. Fried rice or chahan as it is called in Japan usually consists of vegetables like peas, carrots, leeks, eggs and cubes of fish or pork. It is also a lot less oily than other fried rice types in this region. I decided to replace the leeks and peas with corn instead since I don't have those items in stock.

Here are the ingredients that I used:

• 2 cups of cooked Japanese rice


• 1/2 chopped carrots


• 1/2 cup of corn


• 1 egg


• 2 finely diced ham


• 1/2 tbs of salt n pepper


• 2tbs of soy sauce

The instructions to cook are shown below:

1. Heat up the wok or pan. Oil it.


2. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and add it into the heated pan. Scramble it quickly. Remove eggs from the pan onto a plate.


3. Saute the ham, carrots and corn well.


4. Add rice in and stir well.


5. Include the scrambled eggs into the rice mixture and mix together.


6. Turn down the heat and add soy sauce. Continue to stir till the mixture is well mixed.


7. Add salt and pepper for extra flavour.


8. Serve.

This recipe is so simple that anyone can try it. It's also takes less than 10 minutes to cook and should be in the recipe list for those wanting a fast bite. Next recipe to try...kimchi fried rice?

Chinese Food At Fuho Restaurant (Bayan Lepas)

I was recently recommended by my sister-in-law to try out a new Chinese restaurant called Fuho near her work place. As such, we decided to make a trip down to Batu Maung during the weekend where the restaurant is located. Fuho Restaurant is easy to find as all you have to do is drive all the way from the coastal highway till you reach the set of traffic lights at Batu Maung. Take the right turning and continue to drive till you see a row of shop lots on your left hand side of the main road. As you take the left hand turn, you should see Fuho on the right hand side of the shop lot. There are ample parking space at the back so parking is of no issue.

The restaurant itself is spacious and the design of the interior is relatively simple. At one corner of the restaurant, there are also a couple of couches for you to relax and watch Astro or surf the Net while sipping your favourite drink. As for the menu, it's quite extensive. Since we were new to this place, we ordered what's recommended on the menu. Can't go wrong when you follow this rule of thumb.

For starters, we had some loh bak and fish ball while waiting for our main course. Luckily, I managed to snap some photos (with much stress and skill) before they were completely wipe out by my hungry relatives. FYI, I am normally given a grace period of 1 minute to take my shots thereafter it's every man for himself....if you know what I mean.

One of Fuho's signature dish is the steamed Chinese herbal chicken. It is a set meal that consists of a herbal chicken and slices of mushrooms in aluminium foil, a soup and a plate of vegetable in soy sauce. You get all this for only RM 13.90. This dish definitely gets my two thumbs up. The combination of the herbs and other ingredients was just right. The herbs wasn't too overpowering, the chicken was tender and the herbal soup was boiled to perfection.

We also ordered the chicken and cashew nut set meal. As with the herbal chicken set meal, it comes with a soup and a plate of vegetable.

This is the deep fried chicken in cashew set meal. It tasted good too.

The owner of Fuho restaurant also owns Little Castle Cafe which is just 2 units away. While Fuho specialises in Chinese cuisine, Little Castle Cafe focuses to attract those with a liking for Western food. As the owner was kind enough to let us order food from Little Caste Cafe, we decided to try out what they have to offer.

The chicken in cornflakes which my brother-in-law ordered rather nice. It also come with fries, a portion of coleslaw and a lovely gravy to complement the chicken.

Yours truly (that's me) had the Three (3) Musketeers which consists of a combination of chicken, fish and sausages. This is a great combo considering you are paying less then RM 9 for it. Additionally, I thought the fish in bread crumbs was lovely. I should remind myself to try the fish and chips the next time.

While the adults were chatting away after the meal , my wife's nephew had all this to himself. Not two scopes but actually four. He had two chocolate scopes earlier and that wasn't enough to satisfy his desire for more. At five, he's already having a paunch.....a small 'sam chan' just like his father. Like father, like son :).



All in all, both Fuho and Little Castle Cafe are worth visiting. There are a wide food selection to choose from and the food is nice. More importantly, the price is reasonable too. For more information, please see below for details:

Fuho Restaurant

No.45-47-01, Lintang Batu Maung

11960 Bayan Lepas

Tel: 04-626 5212

Email: fuho_restaurant@yahoo.com

Little Castle Cafe

No.53-01, Lintang Batu Maung

11960 Bayan Lepas

Tel: 04-626 2212

Email: littlecastlecafe@yahoo.com

Dim Sum At Fun Tea Garden (Georgetown)

I was reading Criz Lai's blog two weeks back and came across one of his blog entries which immediately caught my attention. In his blog entry, he posted a competition for the best food review of Fun Tea Garden. I decided that since RM 100 is at stake, why not go there and try the dim sum and at the same time still stand a chance of winning. It has been a while since I schemed such an ingenious plan!

While Fun Tea Garden had already been reviewed by Criz's Bon Appetite, I thought I just run through the key points of this new dim sum joint. Fun Tea Garden is located in the heart of Georgetown just opposite Prangin Mall. It's at the end of Dr.Lim Chwee Leong Road just before the Wan Lee Brothers toy wholesaler shop. There is a small car park next to it so you can actually park there and walk to Fun Tea Garden. As I arrived there, it was already quite pack and a lot of old timers were sipping tea and chilling out as if there's no tomorrow. The atmosphere is like any typical prewar coffee shop in Georgetown - pack and noisy. Nonetheless, the service was good and we had our orders taken promptly.

Fun Tea Garden has quite a comprehensive array of dim sum ranging from steaming pau and tofu to fried wantans and char siew siu. However, I manage to try out most of them.

The steamed bean curd with fish ball.

Steamed siu mai.

Steamed ha kau.

Being a new kid on the block, Fun Tea Garden does its best to go beyond expectations. They also serve other varieties of food outside the conventional dim sum specs like otak-otak, fried squid and fried gyoza.

For the full address of Fun Tea Garden, please view below:

Fun Tea Garden

150 & 152, Jalan Dr.Lim Chwee Leong

10100, Penang, Malaysia

Tel: 013-4211274

Contact person: Danny Ooi

Japanese Food At Tao Cuisine Japanese Restaurant (Greenlane)

I was recently at Tao Cuisine Japanese Restaurant at E-Gate to check out the food. It embraces a new concept of eating in Penang (at least for Japanese food) with a all you can eat buffet during the evening. All you have to do is pay RM 48++ per pax and keep stuffing your stomach with the endless supplies of food. However, there is a penalty for wastage. For every 100g of wastage, you will be charge RM 10. Tao also offers a 10% discount for those who arrive before 6.30pm. A minute too late and you wont qualify for the discount.

Tao has quite a unique buffet system as oppose to other places in Penang. All you need to do is order what you want from the menu and food is serve to your table. To keep track of each order, a ticket is place on your table and once that order has been served, the ticket is remove. Ergo if you notice that you almost run out of tickets, it's time to order more. The buffet also includes a generous free flow of drinks. As such, you can order as much ice lemon tea, orange, peach tea or green tea as you want. Just make sure that you save some space for the real meal.

Here are some of the assorted dishes you can order from the menu:

Clams in spicy sauce.

Grilled chicken on skewer.

Grilled salmon in teriyaki sauce.

Grilled lamb chops.

Grilled fish. The portion is huge and took a few of us to finish this.

California rolls. I noticed that they are packed abnormally with a lot of rice so just be careful about ordering too many. You wont have enough space to try the rest.

Fresh sashimi - consisting of assorted raw seafood.

Taiwan prawn mantis - they tasted lovely but unfortunately they came in small portions.

Steamed unagi - eel covered in seaweed and fish roe.

Fried bean curd in soya sauce.

Motoyaki scallops - they are topped with mayonnaise and baked for a few seconds.

Seafood and vegetable tempura.

Cheesy salmon roll. Quite an unusual combination for me.

Hyu yaki niku or beef. Very tasty.

Fried potato cutlet.

I think this has to be the oyster but I can't be too sure about this. I was busy eating away to notice the name or what's inside. :)

Cawan mushi.

All in all, the food is great for the price you pay. Bear in mind that this is a buffet so you cannot make any comparison at all with any of the Japanese restaurants that you might have come across with. As a last note, the environment is nice, cozy and inviting (especially the decors inside - we had to see outside but had a nice view of the costal highway and the Penang bridge) and if you have a few hours to kill and a big stomach to fill, then Tao is definitely the place to visit.

New Domino's Pizza Outlet (Greenlane)

As I was driving along Yap Chor Ee Road last week, I noticed a huge signboard displaying the Domino's Pizza logo. Apparently, a new outlet has been setup among the shop lots at Lorong Delima 20 in Island Glades. I decided to pop over last Sunday to check out what they have to offer.

My first impression of the outlet is that it's extremely small. Apart from one dine in table inside, there are four more tables along the hallway directly outside. I believe the idea of setting up this outlet in a residential area essentially is to target those market segments involving take outs and delivery service. Since it was a Sunday, there was a bee line of customers by the order counter. The menu at Domino's Pizza is somewhat limited compared to our local Pizza Hut but they do have a unique option for the pizza crust which is the cheesy double decker. Unlike the common hand tossed and thin crust pizzas, the cheesy double decker comprised of two crunchy crusts with a layer of creamy cheese sauce in between. Now, that's what I call a meal.

What my wife likes about Domino's is the cinnastix and the chicken wings.

Cinnastix and icing.



Chicken wings.



You can select you favourite toppings :

Spicy sausage.



Beef or chicken pepperoni.



Aloha chicken.



Tuna temptation.



Banana kaya dessert.

If you are living around Greenlane, if might be best to call in the home delivery service as there is no extra charges for delivery. However, there is a limited delivery coverage. I believe they do don't areas outside of Greenlane. Meanwhile, here's the address to this outlet:

No.3-G-13

Lorong Delima 20

Off Jalan Yap Chor Ee

11700 Greenlane

Operation hours: 11am-11pm

Tel for pizza delivery: 1-300-888-333

Home Catering Service (Greenlane)

Further to the inquiry from Criz Lai, I thought I share with you some information on where to order home catering. I know of a few places within Island Glades that provide such services. Details are provided below.

• N&Q Cafe - RM 100 per meal per person (3 dishes) excluding transportation charges, Mondays-Fridays (lunch or dinner), Contact: 016-4931184, 016-4968852 or 04-8268463
• Island Glades Cafe - RM 90 per meal per person (3 dishes) excluding transportation charges, Mondays-Fridays (lunch), Contact: 04-6571916
• Seng Hin Cafe - RM100 per meal per person (3 dishes) excluding transportation charges, Mondays-Fridays (lunch), Contact: 04-6576526 (Mrs.Lim)
• Sing Hong - RM 90 per meal per person (3 dishes) excluding transportation charges, Mondays (alternate) -Saturdays (or Fridays), Contact: 016-4844352 (Annie)

Hope this helps.

Economy Rice at Mandarin Cafe (Greenlane)

Like some people, I am a big fan of rice. I need to have rice whenever I have my meals. One of the things that I like about Mandarin Cafe is that they have a stall that serve good economy rice. For some of you who might not be aware of Mandarin Cafe, it's located at Island Glades just behind the Delima coffee shop. It was used to be occupy by Chok Dee Thai Restaurant which has now moved to Burma Road.

A front view of Mandarin Cafe next to the 4-D shop.

The economy rice stall is operated by the same owner of N & Q which is located some distance away next.. The owner of N & Q also used to operate the famous Sar Chew restaurant located along Cantoment Road. It was well known for the economy rice and cendol until she decided to sell off that business. As for the stall at Mandarin cafe, almost every dish is tasty. I particularly like the fried egg, chicken and fish curry, steamed minced pork, sweet and sour fish and stir fried cauliflower with bean curd. Prices are slightly higher than elsewhere but it's worth paying.


A good selection of dishes. All of them are cooked at N & Q and brought over to the stall at Mandarin Cafe.

Is this tempting or what?

Besides the economy rice, what's worth trying at Mandarin Cafe is the wantan mee. This is the famous wantan mee stall from the Genting coffee shop on the other side of Island Glades. She has now moved her stall over to Mandarin Cafe. It's extremely popular and sometimes you have to wait for 20-30 minutes before you get you plate of noodles. She normally closes every Thursday for a break.

The pasembur here is also quite famous. This is the same stall as the one at Brown Garden. Personally, I still prefer the pasembur stall in front of the Delima coffee shop. Like the wantan mee stall, it's not open on Thursday.

The claypot rice isn't too bad too.

In total, there are about 20 food stalls in Mandarin Cafe. I have tasted most of them (except the yong tau fu) and would recommend only what I mentioned above. Feel free to venture out from this list as after all, taste is quite subjective. You probably might take a liking to the other stalls too. Lastly, Mandarin Cafe is open daily from 6.30am to 10pm.

Medicated Tea Shop Along Kimberley Street (Georgetown)

My perception about medicated tea shops is that they normally cater for two kinds of customers. The customer base can be segmented into two categories that is seasonal and non-seasonal. For the former, these customers tend to frequent medicated tea stalls only during durian seasons. Like my wife who happened to be a durian kaki, they need something to quickly cool down their body temperature. The other group of customers are probably more...let say... unfortunate. Their reasons for going to any medicated tea stalls can be due to the fact that they are ill or going to be ill. As you know, you don't go to there for your freshly brewed coffee or fancy beverages. Medicated tea is an acquired taste and unless you fall into these two categories I mentioned, you will most likely not drink it. Of course, I might be wrong. There could be another group of people who loves medicated tea because they just simply love the taste.

Irrespective which group you fall in, if you need (for reasons only known to yourself) to look for a place that serve medicated tea, I suggest the medicated tea shop along Kimberley Street. Its located at the far end of Kimberley Street as you approach the T- intersection to Penang Road. Shong Hor Hin medicated tea shop has been around since 1950s and is a 2nd generation family-run business. The medicated shop serves a variety of herbal tea ranging from kor teh (bitter tea), tek chia (bamboo cane tea) to chrysathemum tea with honey. Additionally, Shong Hor Hin also makes special desserts which varies daily.

• Monday - Leng chee kang or Sea coconut
• Tuesday - Barley and ginko
• Wednesday - Water chestnut
• Thursday - Papaya almond or loh han kor
• Friday - Ang tou sa or red bean soup

Shong Hor Hin as it is today - a prewar house located along Kimberley Street. Business is brisk.

For those up to the challenge, they also serve shuet kap or frog's saliva. This is considered a delicacy and helps to clear your throat ..or so I have been told. This cost RM10 per bowl so sip it very very slowly.

You can also buy back or like how they say it in US - to go. They can last for a couple of days in your fridge.

Prices are shown below by the banner. I ordered four of the shuet kap without checking the price. After that, instead of clearing my throat I had migraine instead.

Feel free to drop by at Shong Hor Hin. It is open everyday from 1pm -10pm daily and closes on public holidays.