Cheese Baked Fish at The Ship

Above is cheese baked fish in a scallop shell at The Ship along Jalan Sri Bahari in Penang. The cheese was simply ambroisia and infused with the fish for a sumptuous meal.


This is cheese baked spaghetti with chicken strips, tomato slices, julienne onions, lots of cheese and of course not forgetting spaghetti. This meal can be ordered from Max Gourmet Restaurant at the seventh level of Gurney Plaza besides Golden Screen Cinemas.


This was ordered from James Foo Western Food at Penang Times Square ground floor. The chicken chop was drizzled with lots of delicious gravy with cubes of carrots and onions. The food is reasonably priced and not too expensive.


The dish above was ordered at Uncle Albert's Restaurant at Straits Quay in Tanjung Tokong. The is a generous portion of potatoes and green beans.


The meal above was during lunch time at Uncle Albert's. The fish fillet was big with generous portion of fries.


The flowers on display during the opening day at James Foo Western Restaurant in Penang Times Square.

Via Pre – Tavern on The Harbour

Italian restaurants have not been too popular in Penang in the past. But all that may be changing, with Via Pre, the newest purveyor of Italian food, which is set to satisfy even the most discerning of palates.

Located along the busy Weld Quay, the thinking behind this non-halal Italian restaurant was very simple: to pamper diners’ taste buds with authentic Italian food prepared with ingredients brought in from Italy. And the menu of course includes an extensive range of native Italian wines, beers and ales.

At the recommendation of a friend, we visited the restaurant — a restored pre-war house with a charming white facade. Inside, the tall interior dining hall features an industrial look, with huge black steel columns supporting the higher floor which houses a lounge and grill. The ambience was soothing with Italian music in the background and lots of dark timber for the paneling in this newly refurbished pre-war house.

The restaurant motto of not using any processed and flavoured food is written on a huge chalkboard. The large menu offers eight mains, 11 pastas, 10 pizzas, a wide selection of antipasti and also desserts. There is a short list of salad dishes. Our order had a bit of something to suit everyone.



We started with the basket of bread, served with earthy olive oil and vinegar. All the bread is made in-house, with choices of focaccia, flat bread, rustic bread and more.

The Tagliere Rustico with assorted cold cuts, cheese and antipasti goes for RM72 (for two persons). It has a good mix of textures and flavours. The olives and sun-dried tomatoes were bright and appetising and the cheese has a nice savoury flavour. Via Pre also offers diners the option of buying these cured meats and cheeses.



We ordered Trancio Alla Griglia which is steamed and then roasted fish smothered with cubed tomatoes and salads drizzled with generous portion of virgin olive oil. The fish is served with a special sauce that tastes exquisite with a hint of herbs added.



Next on the mains was my order of Del Porto, which was salad with slices of smoked salmon topped with braised prawn.



To accompany our mains, we also ordered 2 types of beers and ales which are similar to Guiness Stout which uses barley instead of grapes as the raw ingredient.



You cannot find these ales locally in the market except Via Pre which specially imported them from Italy. It reminds my friend of his varsity days in United Kingdom where he used to treat himself ales as a student then.



I had a glass of freshly blended celery juice for RM 11 and another glass of bottled apricot juice, also specially imported from Italy which you cannot find on the counters in supermarkets.



As the mains and salads were so appetizing, our last entree was a dessert to finish off our meals. Here is IL Tortino Del Monaci where we had to wait for at least 15 minutes for the cakes to be baked fresh from the oven with the insides full of melted chocolate and nuts. There is a generous portion of chopped pistachio nuts with condensed milk and a scoop of champagne ice-cream. A range of cakes and pastries are displayed at the dessert counter that takes center stage in the restaurant.



After our last entree, we headed to the second floor to a large lounge for some music with computer ensemble or songs and instruments. There is a bar counter and for those preferring to enjoy a view of the harbour and docking cruises, then they can go outside the balcony for some fresh air and sea view. We finally adjourned after paying the bill which came up to RM 222.70

If you want a taste of Italian and appreciate warm service (from the Italian owners), then visit this tavern on the harbour. Parking is limited at the front but there’s plenty to be found in the neighbouring streets. It is located diagonally opposite Chin’s Stylish Chinese Cuisine.

Via Pre
5 Weld Quay
10300 Penang

Tel: 04-2619800 & 04-2620560

Food from Various Places

 

Just recently, I had lobster thermidor in Fishing Village in Teluk Bahang, Penang. As seen from the picture, lobster thermidor looks scrumptious with fillings of button mushrooms, onions, succulent lobster meat and lots of cheese. It was garnished with juliened cabbage, carrots and greens. 100gm of frozen lobster is about $13.00 or USD 4.35. This meal was 1kg lobster served on a huge dining plate.

 

Our next ordered meal was baked crabs - we prefer it baked to retain the flavor so that it is not masked by other sauces like chilly crab with eggs, lots of gravy, et cetera. Here, we had 2 baked crabs, one for each of us to fill our hungry appetites.

 

This is curry chicken cheese baked spaghetti on the 7th level of Gurney Plaza, next to Xuan Xin Steamboat that was opened 2 weeks ago. As we were catching a movie soon, it was only convenient to have our dinner on the same floor as the movie screen cinemas as we don't want to be late for any cinema show. I don't like it when it is all dark with the lights turned off and the movie has started while you have to search for your seat numbers. It is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

 

I love this Siamese 'belacan' fried rice consisting of chopped long beans, onions, mango, dried prawns, chicken, egg omelette and sambal. The whole combination was just simply delicious when mixed together and eaten as a complete meal with enough carbo from the rice and roughage from the veges.

 

The same meal together with spicy tom yum soup and a glass of fresh orange juice without sugar and ice - also from Gurney Plaza.

 

Here is coconut ice cream added with chopped peanuts, stripes of mango and water chess nut coated with red jelly-like substance which is typical of any Thai dessert.

 

The black pepper gravy for the fish fillet simply sumptuous. This was ordered at Clinic Cafe on the 4th level of Gurney Plaza. By now you might have guessed that I love to patronize Gurney Plaza, an upmarket lifestyle shopping mall.

Free Offer on Recipes eBook

I have gone through Dinner Revolution and read the ebook. It must say, the more than 200 recipes are easy to prepare in this more than 200-page ebook. What's more, there also the number of calories per serving, so you know what you are ingesting here for each meal. To get a free copy for my beloved readers here at Best Asian Food, simply fill in your details by clicking on the link at http://www.dinnerevolution.com/free-offer then download the ebook. Chef Jeff has certainly put in a lot of effort to come up with this amazing ebook with recipes that are easy to prepare and won't take more than 30 minutes of preparation time.

I love each of the recipe that are more catered to Western cooking and reminds of me of the tantalizing food that I have ordered here in Penang where East meets West.