Chu Char At Batu Lanchang Market (Greenlane)

For those living in Greenlane, Batu Lanchang is certainly a food paradise. While it is a housing estate, it's also home to a wet market, food court and a small shopping complex to serve the needs of the local residence. Since the wet market only starts in the afternoon, the food court only comes to live after 2pm. The food court offers a wide range of hawker food ,economy rice and tit bits so there are plenty of variety to choose from. The pasembur, nasi kandar and mee goreng are notably some of the hawker food that are recommended here. As evening sets and the activities of the hawker stalls wind down, one portion of the food court is transformed to a chu char place. While the food is good by most standards, most people aren't aware of this place.

We normally come here every Thursdays for dinner and usually in a big group. That's when all the relatives meet to catch up with the latest news. While I like the food here, I don't find this place comfortable at all mainly the fact that there's almost always 16 of us. Imagine cramping into 2 small tables like that because they like to 'lau juak'. It's not even shoulder to shoulder as I normally have to tilt my body to the side when I'm eating. I always joke to my wife that if there is record for the most people cramped in a specific sized table, we are probably the record holders. Does that mean we are entitled to a RM 1 million prize money and a pension of RM 5 k per month like Lee Chong Wei? Sadly, no.

Since there are always so many of us, we normally try to appease everyone by ordering their favourite dishes. The chicken fried in coffee is a must! All my wife's nieces and nephews love this and besides, chicken is the only thing they eat.

My FIL (father-in-law) loves anything with bean curd so we are oblige to order something with tofu. Ergo the stir fried bean curd with pork and prawns is now a regular item in the order.

The steamed egg in soy sauce is delicate, soft and tasteful and has won the votes from everyone. The same goes for the sweet and sour pork which unfortunately tends to come in smaller portions.

The stir fried long beans with shrimps and pork in thick black sauce made it to the standard ordering list too. So did the kachang botol in sambal with prawns. Both dishes are rather nice with the vegetables fresh and crunchy.

While prices here are quite standard for chu char, the portion of each dish has reduced to some extent due to higher cost of goods. Nontheless, for those with a curious mind (and stomach), the chu char is certainly worth trying.

Committing 7 Deadly Sins @ Genting Coffee Shop (Greenlane)

Have you ever committed the seven deadly sins...I mean all in one day? Well I nearly did. It started today when I was experiencing a particular urge to eat something. This gnawing hunger pangs was extremely intensive and I just could not fight it anymore. An inner voice was calling out to me and screaming for food. I shouldn't have skipped breakfast. I immediately took my four wheeler and went scouting for food at the nearby Genting coffee shop.

The first sin I committed was the fact that I was consumed by my lust for chee cheong fun. How can anyone resist the delicate, tender and silky white rice noodles let alone the sweet sauce, sesame oil and sesame seed ingredients? The sauce is untypical of what you would get from other chee cheong fun stalls. It's supposedly mixed with a good amount of peanut butter to give it a smoother and lighter texture.

Before I knew it, I had committed sin number two. Gluttony. Not satisfied with what I had, I decided to have the prawn noodles. The prawn based soup really pack a punch. It must have been boiled for hours to get the nice tasty flavour.

I decided to come back to the same coffee shop for lunch with a friend. Sin committed: greed. I went overboard and ordered an extra large serving of pasembur. It was awesome. This Malaysian salad consisting of shredded cucumber, bean curd, potatoes, prawn fritters, bean sprouts together with the sweet and spicy nutty sauce certainly hit the right spot.

I was envious of my friend who was enjoying his chicken rice and decided not to miss out on it too. For some reason, the chicken rice stall is famous and has a good client base. I thought the chicken and the light soy sauce were quite ordinary but the rice was soft and well fragrance. It's probably cooked together with some secret ingredients and chicken stock.

Like in all coffee shops in Penang, you almost always cannot get away from not ordering a drink. Out of pride, I had to order hot tea.

I came back to the same coffee shop during tea time for round three. I decided to buy some pancakes and mua chee to take home. Personally, I think the apom here is much better than the ones at Burma road in front of the Union school. It's not too dry and you don't taste too much of the coconut milk. The mua chee stall is also popular. It is the best I tasted so far. The mua chee is extremely soft and generously covered with finely grounded peanuts and sugar. It's just melts in your mouth.

Emotions run high after I realised that all my photo shots on the mua chee didn't come up nice. I had already eaten them so it's too late to take more shots. I decided to take out my anger on the apom. Poor bastards. They didn't stand a chance. They were wiped out instantly.

Close to committing all seven sins today but not quite there yet. Finally, forgive me Father for I have sinned!

Nasi Kandar at Hans Coffee Shop (Greenlane)

The government has been urging the public to change our life style due to the recent fuel price hike. No one is spared from the rising cost of living. I have decided that I would go on a personal crusade to discover new eating places that offer cheap and good food. In the long run, I would imagine I would save loads of money. One of the places that I recently discovered that offers good value from money is a coffee shop located along Batu Lanchang road in Greenlane. Hans coffee shop is situated along the same stretch as the RHB bank and slightly opposite from the Lam Wah Ee hospital.

The coffee shop itself consists of a variety of hawker stalls offering food ranging from yong tau foo, duck & pork rice, wantan mee, porridge, mee jawa & mee goreng, nasi kandar, western food and economy rice. Most of the food here are reasonably priced. Do pay the nasi kandar stall of Syein Shah a visit as you wont regret it.

I usually stay clear from nasi kandar outlets mainly the fact they practise price discrimination and are relatively unclean. I had the unpleasant experience of being overcharged at one of the nasi kandar stalls in Penang road. You can hear them muttering and counting something in Hindi along the lines of ek, do,teen, chaar, paanch, saath and before you know it...wha la...its RM 8-10 for something you know should cost less. Talk about lost in translation! Who says you need to be in Japan to be lost in translation? It's right at our own backyard.

Syein Shah's nasi kandar stall isn't your typical nasi kandar seller. I observed that he charges his clients fairly and each time I order the same items, the price is always consistent. More importantly, the price is extremely reasonable. I recently ordered the following items: rice plus tofu / bean curd, vegetable, fried egg with onions and ikan bilis. This cost me RM 3.20. If I were to substitute the tofu with chicken (they are huge, probably chicken on steroids?), the final tally would be RM 4.60. In some cases, this would be cheaper than having Chinese economy rice.

His dishes are well spiced and flavoured and I really enjoy the honey chicken. It's got a good combination of sweetness and spice which gets all your senses in your tongue working overtime. There are a good selection of curries to choose from including mutton, chicken, fish, and sotong. I thought I saw gonads being served too but I wasn't too sure. I will definitely be on a look out for it the next time...not that I need any aphrodesiac to increase my sexual drive. ...just curious only la. Lastly, the food is fresh as the turnover rate is high.

Roasted Duck Rice at Veron Cafe (Greenlane)

If you are ever in Greenlane and feel like having duck rice, I would suggest that you try Veron Cafe. It's located at Island Glades along the row of shop houses. It's close to the Delima cafe so you cannot miss it.

The coffee shop itself is small and only has two stalls. In the mornings, they are occupied by the lam mee and duck koay teow operators. The coffee shop owner also sells the usual toast bread / roti bakar with butter and kaya, semi boiled eggs and so on. Just directly outside this coffee shop, you can find makeshift stalls selling economy noodles, wantan mee and nasi lemak. After 10 am onwards, one of the stall is taken over by the roasted duck rice operator.

This is what I had for lunch today. A mix portion of roasted duck and pork. And to outdo everyone, I also had the kiam chye boay. This combination is to die for.

The roasted duck and pork are prepared very well. While the skin is crispy , the meat is actually tender and juicy. You dont even get the strong duck or pork ordour that you would typically expect. Additionally, the homemade chilli sauce that comes with it goes nicely with both meat.

As for the kiam chye boay, the combination of sourness and sweetness will certainly titillate your taste buds. All flavours came in together nicely like a well orchestrated symphony with no one flavour overpowering the other.

While it may be quite unfair to place this on the same scale as the roasted duck rice in Lunas, it does however, save one from driving a long distance especially with the fuel increase.