Food Taken From Various Places

The dish above was ordered last night at a Chinese restaurant on the 7th floor of Gurney Plaza as I waited to watch Iron Man 2 in Golden Screen Cinemas. It is actually abalone 'lamien' or thick noodles with bits of scallops that make the soup more tasty.

This is a popular dessert in Penang - 'Chendol'. It consists of pandan flavored noodles, topped with red beans, coconut milk and brown castor sugar. Penang Road is famous for its chendol and my dad simply loves this place. You have to stand and hold the bowl with one hand while you scoup up the ingredients with the other hand. Patrons are used to eating this way.

This is chocolate latte from Manhattan Fish Market that is topped up with fresh white cream. This is simply pure ambroisia!

I was in the hotel for the weekend and we ordered food in since it was raining outside and we were too lazy to do downstairs for Japanese buffet. I had mushroom soup with fresh orange juice while my friend has hot chocolate.

This is 'Eu Char Koay' or fried batter in cylinder shape. This is usually taken with a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup or soya bean drink. The fried batter can be bought from any hawker stall in Penang.

I simply love sliced fresh fish 'hor fun' or flat noodles with XO sauce. It was ordered from Xuan Xin Chinese Restaurant in Gurney Plaza, an upmarket shopping mall over here.

Just like 'Chendol', 'Ice Kacang' or shaved iced with peanuts, black jelly, red beans, sweet corn and topped with rose syrup and sarsi with milk makes a nice dessert to cool down in this sweltering hot weather. As I have to watch my weight, I don't take this too often.

This is 'Poh Piah'. It basically consists of julienned turnips with shallots, crab meat and wrapped in thin rice based white skin or batter. The really nice ones are sold in Padang and cost RM2.30 per roll for extra crab meat.

This is the logo of the restaurant that I went to last night for the first time since my favorite restaurant was fully packed with diners and I did not want to wait for too long. The food was not too bad and rather tasty as it has to compete with another restaurant nearby.

This seafood soup was ordered from Ah Khoon Restaurant, which has a chain in Johor and Kuala Lumpur. The soup was rich in flavor, thick with ingredients of seafood like sliced fish, abalone, pacific clams, bamboo clams, plus other ingredients. It is not cheap but it is ok to indulge once in a while. That is the motivation for working hard and earning the money.

I love Delifrance's seafood croissant as shown above. Their mushroom soup is not too bad either. The seafood ingredients has prawns, tuna and mayonnaise or was it Thousand Island Cream mixed together into a delicious mixture.

Dinner at Hai Nan Town Restaurant

The dish above is known as 'Jiu Hu Char' in Hokkien which literally means fried cuttle fish. It consists of juliened turnips which gives the crunchy texture, dried cuttle fish, spring onions, carrots, onions and black shitake mushrooms. You can also add juliened pork for flavor if you like. It was one of my favorite dish during my grandmother's time and she used to cook this for us. My late paternal grandma was a great cook and she used to hawk 'laksa' or simply fish soup salad to bring up 4 children all by herself as a single parent when my grandpa passed away quite early in life due to sickness. This dish is best eaten with sambal (chilly paste) wrapped with fresh lettuce in a roll. You can see the greens in a glass on the left side.

This is stir-fried mixed vegetables consisting of brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, button mushrooms and prawns. It is not too difficult to prepare and won't take too long provided you cut the vegetables smaller for faster cooking and the heat to reach the innermost parts. I simply love brocolli and it helps to prevent cancer as well.

This is chicken 'lor bak' and instead of pork, you add chicken instead which is healthier. It is better to take white meat like fish and chicken than red meat like pork, mutton, beef, etc. Spices are added to the 'lor bak' which is then wrapped in tofu skin and deep fried till cooked. It is an excellent dish to go with vegetables and compliments rice.

This is 'otak' which literally means brain, but don't shudder. It is entirely made of fish with spices, coconut milk and wrapped in banana leaves which are then steamed until cooked. This is a typical nonya dish in Malaysia where the Chinese peranakan usually cook for their families. The yellow color is from safron or 'kunyit' in Malay. These are the 4 dishes that I ordered recently from a visit to Hai Nan Town Restaurant by the pier in Penang. It is a popular hang out among yuppies and even the oldies.

Dined at Various Places in Penang

Above is black herbal jelly as part of a set order for dinner in Food & Tea Restaurant in Gurney Plaza, Penang. The jelly was soft with hints of herbal taste and is one of the free items apart from soup for any main dish order.

This is a shot of cheese baked lobster, though it was partially burnt on the top being over cooked but nevertheless tasted yummy. The food was ordered in a new food cafe along Macalister Road opposite De Happy Cafe that is well known for it seafood.

The stir-fried chicken with vegetables in yam basket garnished with fried vermicelli and spring onions was not too bad and we had this in a small food cafe in Subang Jaya. The food was served piping hot fresh from the kitchen with 3 cooks working hard during dinner time.

This is mango snow mountain with shaved ice topped with mango slices, syrup and jelly. It was ordered from Food & Tea in Gurney Plaza, an upmarket lifestyle shopping mall in Penang.

This photo was taken during my dinner at Royal Hotel's Japanese Buffet section. The small helping comes with fresh rock oyster on the left and 2 cooked prawns on the right. The lemon helps to remove the fishy taste of the fresh oyster.

Above is Swensen's ice cream to de-stress. I was feeling quite stressed up lately due to personal matters and decided to order ice cream to cool down the senses. It was rejuvenating with the white cream on top of a scoop of chocolate and another scoop of coffee flavored ice cream.

Dessert at Royal Hotel's Buffet Dinner

Here are some of the photos taken during a buffet dinner at Royal Hotel in Penang. Royal Hotel was formerly known as Dorsett Hotel which has been taken over by a Singaporean. Don't the dessert above look tempting? I have to be careful not to indulge in too much rich food to keep my weight constant.



Here are some of the fruits served on the buffet table. Fruits are rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins. They are not so fattening compared to the desserts laid out.



This is a nice set of dessert photos beautifully laid out for the diners. Before anyone eat them out, I took the opportunity to snap this photo.



Here is my selection of dessert taken by me that consists of cream puff - my favourite and tiramisu in a glass.



Another shot of more desserts.



Yummy chocolate cake topped with fruits.



Nice apple pudding before anyone else scoop out a slice and spoil the shot. Hope you enjoyed the food photos put together as much as I enjoyed displaying them here in my blog.

2009 Christmas Buffet Dinner at a Hotel in Penang

Above is a snapshot of small plastic reindeer as part of the dessert I had during 2009 Christmas buffet dinner at a hotel in Penang. The buffet dinner was sumptious with so many varieties of salad, meat, fish, seafood like slipper lobster, fresh scallops, cod fish, raw salmon, etc and cooked main Chinese meals to choose from. You click on the Play button below to view the slideshow of the 12 photos taken during the buffet dinner with my family and friends.



The was a big variety of fresh fruits like cut mango, watermelon, seedless grapes, oranges, etc. There was an even bigger repertoire of dessert with so many cute decorations of reindeers, santa claus made from icing sugar, Christmas characters, and the like. Overall, the meal was worth the money though it was not cheap. And they especially hike up the price during Christmas. Hope you will enjoy the slide show as much as I enjoy putting them together.

Back from Hatyai and Nice Food Photos

My family and I are now back from a wonderful trip to Hatyai where we bought a lot of toiletries and cosmetics and lingerie. The Wacoal brand there is so much cheaper compared to Penang and I also bought from Triumph. We had salad at a Singapore brand restaurant called Sizzlers. Some of the photos here were taken in Penang while others were taken in Hatyai. Above is the 'yee sang' that we had last night where we tossed it for luck.



This is a bento set when we had dinner in Fuji restaurant in Hatyai. My youngest sister ordered this while I had avocado salad, below.



Don't this look tempting? I decided to eat something lighter as I had put on 1 kg already over the last few days. I like the decoration and the way they cut it out.



This photos was taken in a hotel lobby with the cherry blossoms and potted chrysanthemums decorating the place.



This is a mesmerizing photo of the prosperity bamboo shoots which was place in the hotel.



This is one of the dishes I had in Penang some time back - 4 seasons on a platter - in a local restaurant.



Gong Xi Fa Chai - which means Happy Chinese New Year in Mandarin.

These Seafood Photos are Mesmerizing and Delicious

This is a collection of seafood photos taken all over the place during my visits to some restaurants are put in a collection for a slideshow. Enjoy them as much as I enjoy putting them together. It is a nice reminder of the food that I have tasted during the years of dining outside with friends and family. You will notice the different blog names as I currently maintain more than 6 blogs with 3 personal domain blogs and the rest are blogspot blogs.