Dim Sum At De Tai Tong (Georgetown)

For most Penangnites, De Tai Tong needs no introduction. Tai Tong as it is more commonly referred to, is located at 45 Cintra Street and is well known for its heavenly dim sum. It is located amid the historic and central part of Georgetown and nestles together with some of the old buildings at the end of Cintra Street.

What makes Tai Tong stands out is that is still preserves the tradition of serving dims sums through traditional push carts. Like some dim sum places within this area, it is solely operated by elderly women in their 60s and above whom had acquired the crafty skills of maneuvering the push carts in tight and difficult corners. While it's hilarious enough to see them engross in their own grand prix, it makes me wonder whether this tradition would continue once this generation passes on. The additional uniqueness that these elderly waitresses bring with them to these rustic dim sum places are they are always loud and brash which makes places like Tai Tong interesting to dine in.

Like most days, Tai Tong is always pack especially on weekends. While most patrons comes here mainly for the dim sum, it is also well known for whipping up good chinese local dishes like assorted noodles and other local delights. I have been told that the 'oh chein' or oyster omelette is good although I have yet to try it.

While the dim sum are considered good by most standards, it lacks in variety. They have the usual suspects like har gau, egg tart, char siu sow, chee cheong fun and a few other variety of dims sums. My wife nieces love the raisin and peanut cupcake while I like the char siew bun for it's softness.

If you do come here for dinner or lunch, you can also order different types of noodles besides dim sum. The sar hor fun and crispy noodles are highly recommended.

For more information about Tai Tong, please see below:

De Tai Tong

45 Cintra Street

Penang 10100

Tel: 04-263 6625

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

Penang Hokkien Mee at Sin Kim San Coffee Shop (Georgetown)

Like most Saturday mornings, I would take with my in-laws and the rest for breakfast. We usually end up having dim sum in Georgetown. Same old, same old. *Sigh*. I decided that I needed to do something different to break this pattern. I can't imagine having dim sum week after week. Urgh! Don't get me wrong. Dim sum is one of my favorite food but it gets boring when you have it too often. I decided to exercise my veto (privilege of being the driver :)) this time and pressed for hokkien mee at Sin Kim San coffee shop. Surprisingly enough, there weren't any protest. Not that the protest would make any difference but it's good to know that the thoughts of the masses are in sync with mine.

We made our way to the coffee shop which is located at the end of Rangoon road. While Sin Kim San is well known for it's hokkien mee in the mornings, the banana pancakes and char koay teow are a must try. Unfortunately, these three stalls operate till noon everyday so it's no surprise that there are a lot of people patronising these stalls during weekends.

Penang Seang Lim Top Taste Hokkien Mee.

Don't play play. The owner, Annie also has a business card. You can call to order for special occasions too. If you are unsure where the coffee shop is, there is an address below the business card.

You have the option of having the 'pai kut' (pork ribs) or the 'hae kor" (mantis prawn) hokkien mee. Which ever that you have, they both pack a punch. The hokkien mee comes with a generous helping of shrimps, lard and if my case - extra 'pai kut'. The pai kut was just wonderful. It's soft, tender and comes off easily from the bone. Additionally, the prawn stock is also very tasty. I'm assuming like most hawker food, some MSG has been added to the prawn stock to give it an extra kick. Nonetheless, no complains here.

We also had the banana pancake with raisins and sesame seed. I use to go to the coffee shop at Beach Street (opposite the Standard Chartered bank) for my weekly dose of banana pancakes. Unfortunately, it's now closed ergo we come to Sin Kim San instead.

My wife loves the char koay teow here . She normally have it with extra bean sprouts. I 'taxed' her koay teow and it's definitely better than Sister's char koay teow at Macalister road. It has more flavour and tastier than Sister's char koay teow which I think is over rated and expensive. This char koay teow comes with a sizable amount of prawns and more importantly, it's cost only RM3.




Oh! We also had siu mai which we bought from the stall outside of Sister's char koay teow. This is arguably the best siu mai in town as it's made from lean pork and fish. As the wise saying goes "Old habits die hard". It will certainly take a while before we completely stay clear from dim sum. Damn those dim sum.

Dim Sum at Zim Sum Tea Garden (Georgetown)

Like any every Saturday morning, we normally go out for breadfast before hitting the mall. Last Saturday was no exception. We opted to have dim sum instead. There are a few places popular for dim sum especially within Georgetown.

One of the few places we usually go for dim sum is Zim Sum Tea Garden. Its located along Anson Road just directly opposite the KDU building. Its always crowded on weekends and extremely popular with students from the nearby KDU college on weekdays. They do serve quite a variety of dim sum and that's partly the reason why we almost always end up here for breadfast every Saturday.

Zim Sum Tea Garden serves a nice selection of dim sum; both fried and steamed.






What's dim sum without wantan mee? The wantan mee here is nice too.





This is what we ordered.......






.....char koay kak.....







.....fried wantans.....







.....prawn based steamed dumplings......








.....sui mai.....







.....chee chong fun.....







.....more fried dumplings.....

.....and for the finale.....you guess it....wantan mee.....the siu bak or roasted pork was just so tempting that I couldnt resist it.

.....and I couldn't resist taking a shot of it either.....

Wow..my day couldnt get any more perfect that this.

Dim Sum at Max Gourmet (Bayan Lepas)

After a great swimming session yesterday morning, I decided to head out to Max Gourmet for breadfast with my wife. As I was in desperate need to replenish lost calories, I floored the pedal of my old trusty four wheeler and sped there.

For those of you who are unfamilar with Max Gourmet, its located at one of the shop lots in front of Queens Bay Mall. Unlike most eateries, it comes with ample parking space but nonetheless, its good to be there early since the parking lot gets easily filled up with shoppers going to QBM. Be warn. Its RM 3 per entry.

The food here is base on Hong Kong cuisine. While dim sum is one of their main specialty, it also serves an assorted menu ranging from different types of noodles to rice of one's choice. We decided to order a mixture of dim sums as well as my usual fried rice. The fried rice is a must for those who wants to stretch the Ringgit since it comes in a generous portion loaded with char siu and prawns.

Here's what I had for brunch:

An assorted range of dim sum consisting of char siu sou, egg tart, sesame seed ball with lotus paste and butter bread. Hmmm...looks like I'm missing a couple of char siu sou even before I took this picture. Someone beat me to it!

The char siu so are really nice because the pastry melts in your mouth and you can also taste the sweetness of the char siu. The egg tarts are equally delicious. Its soft, delicate and not too sweet. No complains with the sesame seed ball. I didnt get the chance to savour the butter bread. It conveniently "dissappeared" while I was busy taking pictures. I will have to leave this to my imagination for the time being.

More dim sum in the form of dumplings. Yum yum. I have to comment that they really use prawns for the dumplings. I mean BIG, SOLID prawns that I can really bite into. I have been to most dim sum places and some times, you cant even taste the prawns since they mince it so finely.



A close up view of siu mai and an equally out of focus shot.

Fried wantans anyone? The fried wantans are different here. They have got a contrasting texture. While its really crispy outside, you could taste the softness, flavours and juices trapped inside the dumpling. Wow!

For the coup de grace, I had the fried rice. Its a well balance dish with lots of char siu, prawns and vegetables.

I had the teh peng or as what was written in the menu; milk tea.



Need I specify further?

All in all, the food here is good and the service is fast. I have never been dissapointed coming here. On week days, do come early for lunch since the crowd starts building up by 11am. Just so you know, they close on Mondays.