Food from Various Places

 

Here is fish fillet braised with almond flakes and poured with lemon sauce from Mizi at Tesco outlet in Straits Quay. Veges such as sliced carrots, a floret of cauliflower, some green peas and steamed potato wedge are garnished to complement this delicious meal. I love patronizing Mizi Bistro for its very affordable and reasonably charged western food. They also offer a fusion of both western and eastern food and there are 3 branches in Penang - one in Prangin Mall, one in New World Park and the latest in Tesco, Straits Quay. The chain of food is owned by a former executive chef with working experience in a 5-star hotel.

 

This is my favorite dish of fish florentine which consists of dory fish fillets on top of braised spinach and topped with cheese powder. The white sauce was just pure ambrosia and heavenly!  I will always order my favorite fish and the waiter can already anticipate what I am going to order each time I come here.

 

As you have already guessed, the dish above comes from a Chinese restaurant - slices of fish stir-fried with chopped spring onions and garlic. It was ordered from Xuan Xin Restaurant in Gurney Plaza, an upmarket shopping mall in Penang which is currently undergoing renovation and expansion. You will be lucky if you can find a car parking bay during school holidays!

 

Also from Xuan Xin Restaurant, this is large prawn omelette and garnished with parsley. Though this meal looks appetizing, the doctor just advised me to cut down on seafood like prawns which has high cholesterol. I just went for a blood test last week and the results were not too good, I failed in 6 categories of the overall test which means that certain abbreviations like HDL, LDL, etc were above the normal range. So now I am taking 1,000mg of Omega-3 fatty acids 3 times a day to lower my blood cholesterol level and to prevent future heart attack or heart disease. My dad already has 3 clogged arteries and it seems this could be hereditary.

 

Here is stir-fried spinach with oyster sauce, from Xuan Xin Restaurant. You can choose a set meal for 2 persons with several choices of 2 main meals and a vegetable meal from a list of 6 to 7 vegetables and different sauces like garlic, oyster sauce, etc. There are 2 bowls of rice with 2 bowls of soup, a drink each for about RM 50 after tax (USD 16.70).

 

As my friend is a member of Chinese Recreation Club, we went to the Chinese restaurant with 10% discount using the member card. Above is steamed fish cooked in Teochew style which is sourish where slices of assam are added to add the zing. Black shitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, preserved vegetables are added with slices of ginger and carrots and garnished with spring onions. The fish is garoupa and it is quite delicious in this cooking style. Don't throw away the soup as all the flavors are infused during the cooking and this makes it very delicious.

 

This is fried chicken coated with some batter for crunchyness and added with Thai chilly sauce. I have forgotten where I ordered this meal as I normally snap a lot of photos from the various places for posterity.

 

The set meal above was ordered from a Taiwanese Tea Restaurant in Queensbay Mall near Bayan Lepas. If I don't go to Gurney Plaza every night, then I will be at Queensbay Mall once in a while for a change of location. I love the blue champaign milk tea with brown sago pearls or also known as boba. 

 

 The meal above was part of the buffet breakfast in City Bayview Hotel in Kuah, Langkawi. I was in Langkawi last month for business. See the granite table top which makes the ambiance classy and elegant.

Breakfast at Mandarin Grill

 

This is the ambience at Mandarin Grill in Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the ground floor. Notice the plush soft velvety cushioned chairs and the heavy carpets. The food was equally good albeit less choices compared to a Chinese restaurant upstairs that we have tried earlier in another visit.

 

Another view of the ambience with the server waiting behind a food counter.

 

A wide repertoire of selection of the cereals for breakfast. This is typical of an American breakfast which was the theme of the buffet breakfast.  

 

The eggs were cooked sunny-side-up where the egg yolks are not 100% cooked and still in semi liquid form. Just learnt two terms of the types of servings for the eggs : sunny-side-up or over-easy which is 100% cooked. Also 4 types of jams were available - strawberry, blackcurrant, orange marmalade and honey.

 

This is over-easy and a portion has been eaten. See the difference? 

 

This is cheese platter and some portions were already taken and spoilt by diners. I love the bunch of grapes placed right in the middle to enhance the colours.

 

This was taken at the main lobby where a large pot of flowers decorate the area. The white orchids are real and not fake.

 

This is my buffet breakfast that is more suited to the local taste and taken at another hotel in another state in Malaysia. There were salads, hash browns, scrambled eggs, fish tempura, coleslaw, Indian curry, 'char koay teow', etc.

Sundanese Food in Bandung, Indonesia

I went to Bandung with my second sister for a 4 days 3 nights tour in Indonesia. Bandung is also known as 'Paris van Java' in Dutch or simply 'Paris of Java'. It is known for its fashionable clothes that are very affordable because of factory overflow. I have blogged about my trip here in Protips - my Holidays in Bandung. You can check out 7 beautiful photos taken in this post.

Above is an attractive menu in one of the Sundanese restaurants that we dined in. It is designed in a typical Indonesian style with lots of brown theme to represent wood and basket weaving.

Here is my order of the Sundanese food of ayam bakar or barbequed chicken, some cucumbers, otak (steamed fish with coconut milk, spices and wrapped in banana leaf), sambal (chilly paste with belacan). The cutleries are mostly made from baskets that are synonymous with Indonesian culture. The white steamed rice was served in a bigger basket receptacle.

We went to another restaurant after visiting a dormant volcano called Mount Tangkuban Perahu in Bandung or also known as an upside down boat as it is shaped like that. This is the long table and ambience of the place. There are lots of weavings infused in the furniture that is typical of the culture here.

Most of Sundanese dishes won't make do without cucumbers and 'belacan'. This is not the usual long cucumber that you normally find in the markets but a round type of vegetable that tastes just like a cucumber.

Here is my buffet breakfast selection at the 4-star Aston Braga Hotel in Bandung. Aston Braga hotel is a very convenient hotel to stay as just downstairs are many shops with high-end eateries to cater to the tourists.

This is another shot of the buffet spread consisting of doughs, breads, buns, croissants and your usual fare of breakfast food of carbohydrates for energy early in the morning.

This is the section for fruits consisting of carved papaya, watermelon, pineapple, honeydew melon, etc to add zest, minerals and vitamins to your diet. There's plenty of anti-oxidants here to prevent cancer.

For desserts, we had this 'kuih' or some sweet tangy and soft mouthfuls made from sago and coconut milk.

These are 2 slices of Honey Cake which Indonesia is famous for. It has lots of perforations and is spongy with lots of holes in it. Apparently it is steamed when in liquid form and the bubbles create the perforations to give a soft texture to the bite.

During one of the days of tour, I had vegetables soup as I was down with flu on the first day. Thank goodness, upon arrival, we could rest the whole evening when I recovered after buying some cough and anti-vomit medication from the pharmacist on the ground floor of the hotel.

I ordered this Sundanese food for dinner as my sister insisted on it and she loves Sundanese food - since we could not have in back home in Penang. It consists of tauhu goreng or fried flat bean curd.

Dined in Star Pisces Cruise

These photos were taken recently when I went for 1 night cruise to no where which departed from Swettenham Pier from Penang. The above was the buffet spread decoration on board the ship that was 12 storeys high.

This was my selection for buffet breakfast the next day. The breakfast was not too bad and the fried 'kuay kak' was nice actually. But I did not take too much so as not to put on unnecessary weight.

These are carved watermelons in the ubiquitous flower pattern that you can see in most Thai cuisines. You need special skills and knives tailored for these carvings.

This shows how we go up the cruise ship step by step as we climbed the mobile stairs.

Notice the thick green carpet spotted with yellow stars all over. It reminds me of entering a casino in Las Vegas, which I visited in 1998.

I took this photo as we disembarked in the morning. You have to leave by 10:00am, otherwise an additional RM50 will be charged for being late. By 12:00 noon, everyone has to leave so that the staff can clean up the rooms and prepare the tables for the next clients in the evening.

This was our room. Notice how crammed it is. You will be surprised that 4 adults can actually sleep in this tiny compartment with double-decker beds on each side that is separated by a small tv.

You can see how big the cruise ship is with 12 storeys high and different entertainment were available - gym, foot reflexology, in-house movies, mahjong tables, karaoke section, dining areas, 2 restaurants, souvenir shop and hair saloon plus spa.

This is the interior of the spa room that is mostly exclusive. I happen to be inside to take a look and snap this photo but never tried the spa anyway. I don't think I will feel comfortable going for a spa with the ship cruising away and you can feel the rocking or swaying quite often by the high waves.

This is the logo of Star Cruises, which is owned by Genting's Lim Goh Tong's daughter. She is a good friend of Jackie Colins but is insipid in her dressing and very unassuming.

There are several lines of cruise ships under the brand of Star Cruises privately owned by the Lim family. There are Star Virgo, Gemini, Pisces and I don't recall the other names. They are the premier and main cruises in Asia. Superstar Virgo serves mainly Singaporeans.

A promotion banner with all the attractions and discounts or rewards for regular customers. People mainly come here to gamble and try their luck at the casino on the lower deck as the ship sails to international waters. As for me, I stayed couped up in the room to watch Astro on tv.

This is the main area where we waited to disembark the next day. Since I am not a gambler, and thank goodness for that, I will not come again as I have already had the experience for the cruise to no where and seen all the offerings. But compulsive gamblers will surely patronise the cruise to take advantage of the jack pot machines in the hope of making more money.

Food Taken from Stay in Royal Hotel

The muffins were touched up using Photoshop with the background removed for clarity. Do you like it?

A wide selection of cereals to choose from for the diners.

These are the condiments for a local hawker food with yellow noodles, sliced fish balls, plus other ingredients.

This was my bowl of cereal topped with macadamia nuts and walnuts.

Cut pototaes with some vegetables that are sauteed to flavor.

I love the salad here.

Another shot of more salad.

My breakfast serving with some food varieties taken from the table.

Kiwi syrup on the left followed by strawberry in the middle and orange syrup on the right side. Let the pictures speak for themselves