Tao - A Japanese Feast

Like I said, I will post about the restaurant that I went with my family during my Penang trip. I think I should call that a Penang trip cause I was in Penang 90% of the time. I missed Penang foods a lot you know.....

Anyway the restaurants I went were all very classy this time around. No longer squatting at the road side while eating a bowl of wan tan mee. I never do that anyway. But Penang has developed so much that I was ooh-aah-ing for the first few days, and my friend got annoyed by that.
The restaurant Tao is located in E-Gate, don't really know how to describe it cause I was there only a few times.

It is a Japanese buffet and the best thing is they serve you per order, and drinks are included! These means they only cook the foods per order and drinks are mostly juices and japanese tea! I think you'll have to look on your own and compare it to the rest of the fishes in the sea. The front banner.
I think this running water have something to do with fengshui..... But it does looks like the person from the other side of the wall was peeing over the wall into the vase?
Very zen style. All the wall was decorated with bamboo.
Scallops! Yummy, but not as fresh and big as those from Aus
Sashimi!!!! My fav!!!! They are very good actually. Ordered heaps of them
Can't remember what is that. Could be Salmon Teriyaki
Prawn Tempura
Grilled Eel. The waiter was very friendly and help us heaps. We were suppose to finish the rice, but being a clever and calculative Chinese, we don't want to eat the rice and reduce the stomach space for other good foods. Although they weren't allow to take the dishes if we havent finish ALL the foods, one of them just quietly sneak that away!
Some tofu dishes, can't remember what it is called, something start with "A"
Tempura prawn sushi!
Something pipi. Can't remember, it has been awhile and my memory is as bad as the next goldfish
Some fried udon. I don't really like them cause I was bloated by then.
Deep fried mantis prawn. Likie!
Lamb Chop. That's very yummy. Only my dad and I ate them, cause others don't like the taste. And how my dad and I enjoyed that!

I think we ordered almost all the dishes that they can offer from Tao. Okay, except all the sushi. We are not suppose to eat rice in these restaurants. You might wonder how much this restaurant costed?

RM49 per person. How cheap!!!!!! I gained 1 extra kg after that night...... But I would love to go back to this restaurant next time when I am in Penang. Maybe this time I will go to the one in mainland Penang cause they said the mainland branch have better foods and decoration. I am not sure.

Seafoods at Teluk Kumbar

I probably should say that I could not live up to my promise... I did say that I will not over-indulge when I am back in Penang. But I did. Now I am an all-rounded person, with a big round tummy, all thanks to the foods in Penang and a hyper persuasive mother.

Once they heard of what I wanted to eat, there we go, our next destination. I have been eating all those good foods and I should say I am indulging every single bit of it! Oh well, since I will only be in Penang for 3 months, and next Monday I will be flying back to Melbourne. So it is understandable that people will try to shove as much foods as possible into a tiny opening at the front of my face called mouth.

I did not go anywhere other than mainland Penang. I don't need to, cause this trip is suppose to be my Makan Trip, and my Home Trip. Most of the day it was so hot, I was scared of going out during day time! So I normally go out for dinner, and sometime being cheated to attend a Drink-All-You-Want feast with my friends....

Anyway, talking about the seafoods restaurant, it is a beach front restaurant. Once I said beach front restaurant, you might think it will be very classy and all those expensive stuffs. As a matter of fact, it is not classy and not at all expensive. I think for 5 persons, it only costed us about RM50. Which is about rm10 per person, with the seafoods, it is Al-CHEAPO!

Normally we get to sit on the beach and eat our seafoods, but since that day it was a raining day, all of us have to squat below a shelter. I did check whether the shop is still open, thinking it might be washed away by tsunami in 2004. After making sure the shop is still there, we hopped onto my brother in law's car and off we went!

The restaurant was behind an abandoned building, and it is very easy to miss that place. We missed that before and had to make a U-ie and drive superbly slow, making a row of cars driving slowly behind us, just to get into the driveway into the restaurant.

This is the front of the restaurant, it is a very small house aka restaurant with tables and chair all around the beach. The blue boxes are where they keep the seafoods, not in a very classy aquarium for the fishes. Remember, this is not a classy restaurant, but their foods are way better than those that charged us through our nose.

This is Sambal Kangkung aka Water spinach with sambal belacan sauce. My favorite!!!! Yummy.

Deep fried sotong, or squid!

This is Salad He-Koh, or Mantis Prawn Salad. Although it is very yummy, other people were saying it was a bit small.

Some kind of cockles. Can't remember the name of the cockles, but the sauce was very very good!

This is the last dishes, the CRAB!!!!!

Oh wait, I've forgotten to take the Satay's picture. That satay is very different from other satay, cause the satay was grilled with the spicy sauce! So yummy I could not remember to take it's picture.

Penang Foods - Bak Kut Teh

You guys might wonder why is this heck keep on writing on his blog when he suppose to be outside enjoying the every bit of Penang.
Reason: The Malaysian weather is just too crazy for me. So hot, I can melt once I step out of the house..... So most of you guys can see me hanging around my house most of the day, waiting for the sun to set. Yep, I am the next Dracula!!!!! Bwahahahahaha.

Okay, this time I am introducing you one of my favourites! Bak Kut Teh. Pork Bone Teh if I were to direct translate that. Basically it is a soupy dish that contained all kind of pork meats, pork bones, Chinese mushrooms, bean curd, and something I missed the most, deep fried dough! Back in Aus, I can still cook this dish whenever I like. But, I can never find good and fresh deep-fried dough.....

Yeah, I think once you guys hear about the word soupy, you might think that the heat had gone up to my head..... Normally after eating this dish, I will sweat like a pig. So normally I will eat that for tea, not lunch. Okay enough of crapping. The place that I went was located at Macalister Road, opposite to a hotel named Red Rock Hotel. Yep, once again, I did not take the name of the place down. Besides, the foods that I devoured were mostly from hawker centres, which mostly has no name...... So if you guys want to try this place out, make sure you pay attention when you drive from the city and reached the hawker centre called Hong Kong Dim Sum.
They have this traditional way of cleaning your cutlery. Hmm, not cutlery, maybe your chopsticks and spoons. The traditional way is by cleaning your "cutlery" with a bowl of hot water. Super hot, you will get burn if you are not well trained. Maybe if you go for dimsum anywhere you will still see this, but outside the dimsum restaurant you hardly see this way anymore.

The sumptuous feast. Maybe not sumptuous, but definitely mouthwatering one! The plate of yellow-ish cubes are the deep-fried dough I was talking about. You dip them into the soup and eat it when they are soaking wet with the soup! Very flavoursome.

Tada! This is the Bak Kut Teh! Filled with meats and a bit of veggie. But the soup is very herby, unlike the Singaporean style, which is mostly pepper...... That night we had 3 refills of the soup and we can still finished the whole claypot. I drank at least 2 bowls of the soup!

Next time maybe later today or tomorrow I will post more foods up. Maybe I will do the seafoods from Teluk Kumbar!

Foods in Penang - I

I think I will dedicate this blog into foods for these few days. Cause I wanted to lure you guys into coming to Penang. Okay, the first stop has to be the one from a hawker centre in Tanjung Bungah. I can't recalled what is the hawker centre name, but it is opposite the Penang Chinese Swimming Club. I was the member over there before, and that place was pretty familiar to me, eventhough I lived in the city.

Okay, this place was introduced by my sister. There is this place that sell "ikan bakar - grilled fish". 不一样 ikan bakar. Yeah you hear me correct, it means Unique Grilled Fish.... The name itself was very catchy, so I went ahead with my sister. It turned out to be very nice! The sauce was really different from a normal grilled fish. The sauces had some deep-fried anchovies and dried shrimps as well. So since the 不一样 ikan bakar is so famous, we decided to name the place 不一样 Hawker Centre! Sorry guys, the picture of the grilled fish turned out to be pretty dark. I was quite new to my sister's camera. So you guys will have to settle for the 不一样 sotong or 不一样 grilled squid. The next thing I wanna introduce is Ambla Sumboi! Ambla is a fruit, a bit bitter to some people's taste. So they add dried plumes which makes it sourish! That's the drink I always order since I reach Penang 1 week ago. Yeah, I am in Penang for a week, although my mom is annoying me to the max, I am looking forward for more Penang foods!

Although the grilled fish is very good, others were only alrite. Satay, fried oyster omelette were so so only. I will post some of the good satay up next time. I will try to update this blog with heaps of foods next time. So I guess I shall make you guys drool for awhile, before the big Niagra falls come down! Hahahaha.

A normal (not unique) satay

Pretty normal fried oyster omelette

Ice kacang, or I don't know what it is called. Basically it is a cold dessert.

Job well done. I took heaps of pictures of other foods, they doesn't turn out nicely..... I was having Hokkien-Loh Mee actually. It is mixture of Loh Mee and Prawn Mee. Spicy and very sticky, ditch that dish a lot!

Till next time, please prepare your mouth for Niagra Fall!

Penang Chiak in WH33

Sorry guys for the hiatus, been busy being a maid to clean the whole damn house and moving from one house to another...... Can you believe, in this one and half years, I have moved 6 times.... SIX times. I can soon be a professional mover.

I have been looking forward for Saturday for the last 1 week. Really looking forward for the Penang Chiak by three of us, Penangites who still stuck in Moomooland: Jason, Wayne and me. So we make an excuse to cook and talk cock (crap). Besides Wayne is going away soon, so we might as well give him a small small farewell party or some sorts. We are definitely not going to party because the voting for Australian election was up. We were watching Star Wars instead of the Election.

The morning before, we were planning to have a swim. But, because of my cramps on my left leg, I need to abandon the plan and left Jason to swim alone in the big pool. My cramps could be due to the fact that I drove manual car after donkey years and my left leg was hanging in the air most of the time because I need to prepare to step the clutch..... Anyway I will talk about that next time!

So instead of swimming, we went to Midvalley to buy all those ingredients. There is no Laksa's noodles (the Assam Laksa's noodles) so we need to go with kuey teow instead (rice noodle). We have Wing Tse to join us, because she is our housemate and we can't just drop kick her aside right?! So she get to taste all the good Penang foods, which were cooked by three big Penang chefs. After we had the appetizer, which was Fake Shark Fin's soup, only I realised that we need to take the photos of our foods, and make everyone drools like waterfall coming out of their big-round-cave-look-a-like-mouth-that-could-contains-flies-instead-of-bats. Therefore these are the pictures for our lil-Penang-kia-makan-party!

The whole table, without Wayne's Char Kuey Teow. Look how clean is our table, I bloody clean it before the party. In normal days, it is full with stuffs from our local housemates.

Jason Chan's Asam Laksa (I know when people see Laksa, they will definitely think of Curry Laksa, but since Penang is a unique place, she have uniques name for all their foods. Unlike other places!)
Description: It is not as spicy as the one in Penang, but the taste really brings back memories! I miss the sourish and spicy foods!

My Fried Belachan Chicken. Sorry guys I didn't bother making them into the best formations. Cause I am actually drooling and I am a person who emphasised on the taste of the foods, not the presentation.
Description: The belachan taste is nice enough! A bit salty for some people's taste but I like heaps of belachan in it. I am the chef remember! Just follow the Law!!!!

Wayne aka Tee boh eh Char Kuey Teow Ah Pek is cooking one of the famous foods, Char Kuey Teow

His creations, with my photography skills after I am full and in good mood to take some good pictures. At that time, my Belachan chicken are all gone.
Description: Although there is no bean sprouts (Wayne just can't find the bean sprouts, but got scolded by us for being so smart to miss out the bean sprout section.... And there is no fish cakes. But it taste quite nice. I reckon he put enough of oils to make it shiny and oily.

I was busy putting the natta de coco into the cups with Jason drooling and looking desperately for water.

There you goes, this is my dessert drinks (Lychee punch). With a pinch of vodka!
Description: You can taste sweetness from the lychee, and some sour taste from the lemon. And most importantly the vodka taste is there!

Jason wanted to make an extra dessert as well, something like Grilled Peaches, that need heaps of sugar, and eggs.... So we drop that idea since all of us are so damn full, not Wayne though. Wing Tse who can't drink alcohol looks like a bit drunk after drinking the Lychee punch. But I reckon she is being bored. Because with 3 Penangites in the house, they HAVE TO speak Penang Hokkien with each other. This dialect is what brought us together in the first place.

Pin-neng (Penang)

Ooi, tai-keh. Cit-pai shi teh it-pai wa sia wa-eh entry ti Hokkien-uah!!!!!! Well, wah-eh Hokkien-uah has down hill since wa ki leow O-chew..... Boh huat toh.... Boh-lang ai kah wa kong Hokkien.... Tee Penang, boh lee lu see kheng-tang-lang ah, teow-chew lang ah, hakka lang ah, ka leow teoh beh eh heow Hokkien-uah. Of course, some of my friends from Penang, totally beh heow kong Hokkien-uah. They are the rare bred! Hahaha

Tong-kim kana Wayne and Jason Chan shi from Penang.... Wa chai lu-lang also boh-mee eh-heow tak hokkien-uah in writing, so wa eh sia ti ang-moh at the end of this blog.

Please refer to wah-eh previous "Penang" entry, wa kong kueh ka-leow Penang-lang tio-beh eh-heow kong hokkien-uah. Beh-heow Hokkien-uah means mampui leow!!!! hahahaha. Uh Chit-pai wah-eh peng-yu from KL kee penang and play some treasure hunt games around Penang island. When ee chai beh teow that tempat, ee so happened kee mui chit-leh auntie selling at the roadside. And ee had a hard time communicating.... Hahaha. You are correct! Auntie tee Penang beh-heow pah-leh uah besides Hokkien. Hahaha

Wah-lang eh Hokkien really boh-siang ka pah-leh-ui eh Hokkien. Ee-lang kong wa-lang eh Hokkien siang-kah Thai-koh eh uah..... Hahaha. After kee-leow KL, wa get to learn most of the other Hokkien slang.

Siang-Kah:
Penang eh "Ch'chui", KL-lang kong "Xiang"
Penang eh "Ah-meh", Johor-lang kong "Ah-mi".......
Penang eh "kong", Johor and Klang lang kong "ta"

Nevertheless, wa-lang definitely more proud of wa-lang eh Hokkien!!!!! Oh, Penang Island eh Hokkien also boh siang from Wellesley eh Hokkien!!!!! Kana wah-lang eh-heow pun!!! Hahaha.
Okay, wa better kee sia wa-eh Profile. Tong kim ka chai wah-eh Profile see pak-leh-lang eh Profile.... WTF

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Hey everyone, this time I am writing this entry in Hokkien!!!!!!! Well, my Hokkien has gone down hill since I came over to Australia....Nothing I can do about it. Nobody want to/can speak Hokkien with me over here... Back in Penang, every other races (Cantonese, Teow Chew or Hakka) also need to know how to speak in Hokkien. Of course, there are some of my friends who totally oblivious about Hokkien. They are the rare bred! Hahaha.

Over here in Australia, only Wayne and Jason Chan are from Penang... I also know most of you don't know how to read Hokkien in writing, I'll translate them into English.

Please read my previous "Penang" label entry, I did say that everyone need to know how to speak Hokkien. Bad Hokkien means disaster! Hahaha. Once, one of my friends from KL came over to Penang to play a treasure hunt game around Penang Island. When she can't find that particular place, she went and ask an lady along the road. And they had hard time understanding each other..... hahaha. You are correct! Most ladies in their mid 40s or 50s know only Hokkien. Hahaha.

Our Penang Hokkien is very different from other state's Hokkien. They said our Hokkien sounded like Thai... hahaha. After studying in KL for awhile, I've learned some of the other state's Hokkien slang.

For example:
Hokkien's words...

Oh course we are definitely more proud of our Hokkien!!!!! Oh, Penang Island's Hokkien is also different from the Wellesley's Hokkien; only we can tell!!!!! Hahaha. Okay, better write my Profile. Now my profile belongs to other person's profile... WTF......

Penangites (especially Penang guys)

Hurrah!!!!!! This entry is my 50th in this blog. Okay shall we start crapping of something nice?

For those who don't know, I am a Penangite. I lived and bred in Penang, one of the Pearl of Oriental. I don't know whether she is a pearl, but she is the food heaven for me and most people from Malaysia. Although some people outside Malaysia denied that, I dared them to go eat and compare our foods with theirs. Penang is a State; yes it is. We have our own Penang flag and her state songs.

People that I came across often have the same reactions when I tell them I from Penang.

"Ahhhh"
"I kinda figured it out"
or even "You have the same attitude as etc etc."
and etc etc.

What make us so different from other Malaysian? Okay I am going to list again!

We extremely loved our state. She is the most beautiful place ever, despite Sungai Pinang....

We not only loved our state desperately, we missed and loved our Penang foods. How can you find a good and cheap wan tan mee for only RM3 (AUD1)? Why do we need to go to restaurant and have a Rm15 wan tan mee, when I can sit at the road side and have RM3 wan tan mee, that is even more delicious! In food we are all Penang-sided, what my housemates like to call it. No other place have the better food than Penang. Char Kuey Teow and Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee for other people) is always the prime product of Penang? Penang is excellent in all kind of Hokkien and Chinese foods!

This make some of us cheapskate. WHY? Well we can get so cheap and good foods, why don't we follow the trend? People will start complaining when the food price rocketed high up to Rm3... Hawkers who sell their foods at Rm4 and above, they better be bloody damn good, else they are doom to earn nothing! Don't get me wrong. Some place, they sell the foods at Rm15 and people are queing up for that road side stall. Why? I have no idea. I never been there before, too far and expensive....

We also take our food very seriously. Food is the prime topic we talked about, when we are outside. Where to find the best place for Char Kuey Teow, and at the same time, it is not too far. Penang is so small, as compared to other state, still we do not like travelling. We don't see the point of going to some places, that need to take about 1hr drive....

Okay then they say we have the same attitudes. Being the small state, Penangites are more friendly, happy-go-lucky, and etc etc (I hope). We are closer to each other, because Penang is a small island. We are definitely not as Materialistic as other people (mostly from the capital). Sorry KL people, not that I condemn you people or anything. You people should know it yourselves! One of my distance relatives, actually throw her mother to an old folks home, and never talk to her even until she passed away... That poor distance-granny of mine suffered for about 1 year, and the people who visited her are us, the distance grandsons and granddaugthers from Penang... Her own grandkids don't even care about her... How sad? I condemn those people.

Once you got us into talking about Penang and her foods, we wont able to stop. We will continue until the next day and we can still miss it, even we just came back from Penang.

Some people said we have similar styles as well. They said most of us are Ah Beng and Ah Lian. (some kind of cheapskate style or something). Well, Penang was swarm with those people ages ago. But the time before I left Penang, it is getting better. And not all of us are Ah Beng and Ah Lian.... I missed Gurney Plaza and now the latest mall just open in Penang is Queensbay Mall. I did not get the chance to go there.... Huhuhu.....

Another thing is that we have our own Penang dialect! Penang Hokkien. No other Malaysian could speak like us in Penang, not even Taiwanese. We are definitely proud of our own dialect, and this dialect make us closer to each other.

Lastly, Penang will always be in every Penangites mind and thought. Everyone of us will dream, think and talk about Penang all the time. No matter where are we, and when is that. Not everyone like to go away from Penang, and to those who did, they will find someplace similar to Penang!

PS - I rewrite this blog. Because some error in publishing, and it deleted my first entry.

PSS - the beautiful picture of Penang is from Jason Lim (a proud penangite!)