Lunch at Tree Monkey Jungle Themed Dining

Yesterday, I treated my mum and myself to an outdoor jungle themed dining with Balinese teak wood furniture at Tree Monkey Thai Food Restaurant. It was opened just a few months ago sometime in September, if I am not mistaken. There is a nice view overlooking the sea from the hill lock.

This is the ambiance of Tree Monkey, situated on a small hill lock between Batu Feringghi and Teluk Bahang in Penang. It is mainly catered for tourists, which explains the slightly more expensive price than the usual ones for cheap Penang. 

 We ordered Asian Tapas for RM60.00 with 8 different dishes as stated below which I copied from the menu:

1) Mango salad - green mango salad with shallot and chilly lime sauce.

2) Satay - grilled chicken skewer served with peanut sauce.

3) Crispy herbs fish - deep fried seabass fillet with crispy spices and herbs.

4) Prawn chilly paste - stir-fried prawns with chilly paste.

5) Sweet bean curd

6) Kangkung belacan - stir-fried morning glory with shrimps paste.

7) Masaman curry - red curry chicken, potatoes, onions and cashew nuts.

 8) Tomkha soup - creamy chicken soup with galangal and lemongrass.

Another view of Asian Tapas. I loved the banana leaves that lined the food. It makes the food more interesting and appetizing. Yum, I am hungry now just looking at them. 

See the atap roof of the small restaurant that can seat a capacity of 70 people and reservations are recommended. When my mum called them, there were still vacant tables as it was newly opened and hence, not many people patronize this little Thai restaurant yet. The crowd has yet to come and we were lucky to get a good table overlooking the azure blue sea and near the trees. 

What was left of Asian Tapas after we fired the food with hungry stomachs!

 There is a little souvenir shop next to the restaurant which was inter-connected. I chance upon the opportunity to snap this souvenir gifts of bundled cinnamon sticks with Christmas decorations with Christmas less than 2 months away!

The basket woven table mat was placed for us as we waiting for our order.

 The short path to Tree Monkey which was just a minute's walk up the slope.
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Both mum and I had spice tea which was cinnamon tea. There seems to be cinnamon in abundance here. 

Our servings of Asian Tapas with Tomkha soup and spice tea added with condensed milk.

The entrance to Tree Monkey which was next to Tropical Spice Garden near Teluk Bahang, Penang. It is was different concept of nature dining with a splendid view of the open sea. 

My turmeric-coloured yellow rice with banana leaf to enhance the appetite. For more details, check out http://www.treemonkey.com.my

Pictures of Mooncakes

I was busy recently and did not update this blog for some time. Anyway, here are some of the pictures of mooncakes that I had last month during the Mooncake Festival. Above is free mooncakes given by the hotel that my youngest sister stayed in Shanghai for her managers' meeting there. Three boxes have been taken out and given away leaving three more here. Notice the nice pattern of the box that is different from the conventional metal tin.

This is the Dragon Fruit Mooncake that I bought from Gurney Plaza that is made of lotus seed, bamboo charcoal powder for its jet black color, dragon fruit, sugar syrup, palm oil, melon seed and permitted food conditioner.

Another photo of the dragon fruit mooncake that is cut. The taste was quite nice and unusual as you seldom find dragon fruit flavor.

This is the greentea mooncake with the ubiquitous brown skin which is more common. The brown color came about as it is baked in the oven.

Here is a mixture of the mooncakes slices.

This is durian jelly mooncake that was order from a hotel restaurant while we were on business trip in Malaysia.

This is one of the 3 layer cakes from Kuching where my youngest sister went for her Choice church group. I like the unusual blue colored layer. It is chocolate almond layer cake.

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.

Dinner at Clinic Cafe - A Hospital Themed Restaurant

Last night, I had dinner at this hospital theme set up restaurant on the 4th floor of Gurney Plaze. What attracted my attention was the many first time diners thronging to this splendidly designed cafe that looks just like a hospital. Even the waitresses wear nursing uniforms with face masks! You can even find posters normally found in clinics on health and the various parts of the body to educate the masses. The tables and chairs were specially designed to look like those taken from a hospital with plenty of red PVC cushions as backing. There were also syringes and surgery tools exhibited behind glass panels.

This was my order of breaded fish fillet cut in stripes and deep fried till golden brown. Notice the syringe of tomato sauce on the right side. I thought this was very innovative. Even the drinks come in beakers and various shapes that you can find in a chemical lab. The food was not too expensive considering its hospital like ambience and comfortable red soft cushions on the seats. Since it was Malaysia's national day on 31st August, the Malaysian flag on a toothpick was added to the cuisine.

This was another order of black pepper chicken noodles that tasted quite yummy and piquant with lots of black pepper thrown in and served in a stainless steel kidney-shaped bowl. Overall, the food tastes quite good with reasonably good price below RM10.00 a dish. Though we waited quite some time, apparently the cook forgot our order, we were nevertheless not disappointed as after the second reminder, they quickly served the food in 5 minutes after a wait for half an hour or so. But time flies quickly as we were also entertained with flat screen TV shows of Tom and Jerry - a feel good and humorous flick.

Not only the tables and chairs look like those in a hospital, the lights resemble surgery lights in an operating theatre as shown above. I must give credit to the interior designer for putting all these minute details to resemble a hospital setting.

This is the surgery room (notice the wordings behind the counter) that whips up beakers of drinks for the diners. I certainly find this restaurant amusing and even the 'nurse' waitress wear black stockings besides the face mask. This hospital themed food cafe is much better than a toilet theme outlet in Queensbay Mall where you sit on toilet bowls at chairs and food served in toilet bowl-like receptables! I don't even bother to walk inside and try this place.

Fine Dining at Indulgence Designer-Eating Restaurant in Ipoh

Just last week, I went to Ipoh for the weekend with my 2 younger sisters and stayed in Impiana Casuarina Hotel, a 4-star hotel in the city. At night, we headed straight to Indulgence Fine Dining Restaurant that is nestled within the city of Ipoh. It is located in a large white colonial bungalow with ample car parking bays. A guard was stationed to take car of the cars and diners outside. According to my well-travelled second sister, Pellegrino is only served here in whole of Malaysia and cannot be found elsewhere. Pellegrino tastes like sparkling water for a whopping RM10 per bottle. Indulgence specially imported Pellegrino for its business - so you don't have middlemen to take profit.

For starter, I had wild mushroom soup served piping hot in red dining set with toasted garlic bread. Personally, I still think the mushroom soup in Mizzi Bistro in Penang is the best which is peppered with secret herbs and plenty of mushrooms blended in. This place in Indulgence, though it serves fine dining food, the service is lacklustre.

I had marche which is a selection of mini vegetables canopied by Manchego cheese, topped with arugula and edible nasturtium flowers. For this plate of mainly leaves, it cost RM29.00. Being a Penangite who is spoilt for choice, I think the food does not do justice to the money spent. And it was served in small portions, not enough to fill a hungry stomach. As all the photos were snapped in dim light, the pictures did not turn out great compared to my other posts.

My sister has Cocomo under the seafood selection which consists of kataifi wrapped prawns with honey coated walnuts, avocado dressing on torn chilli-ricotta baked rustic crouton and lobster glaze. The Cocomo was delicious and portions just right. We each (there were 3 of us sisters) divided our orders by a third and put them into smaller individual plates to savour all the dishes ordered.

This is Mooze which consists of orgo 'rice' pasta with calamari rings, crab, coriander and miso soup poured on. Surprisingly, the calamari rings tasted just right and not over cooked. As I went to the ladies, I noted photos of Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew together with the lady boss and chef in a photo framed up and hung on the wall of other photos of dignitaries as well.

Viola is under pasta in the menu and we also had this fine dish of alternating ravioli of porchini and spinach ricotta in an oyster cream with leafy flat parsley. It was delicious to the palate that makes me yearn for more.

Since I still had residual cough, I ordered hot chocolate or known as choco mellow for my drink that comes with marsh mellow and chocolate shads. This cost me RM15, but for the sake of fine dining, I guess, I cannot complain too much.

To finish off the main meals, we had chocolate cake for dessert. It came with strawberries and topped with white milk cream. For the 3 of us, the total bill came to RM221.00 with Cocomo costing RM42.00. For the Americans and Europeans, the conversion rate is so attractive and it stretches your moolah here in Malaysia. That is why, my youngest sister's USA company in Penang sent 4 of their American staff to Penang for a break and the following week, sent more employees here to enjoy the life in Malaysia at very affordable hotel rates.

Glorious Food Pictures for the Week

I have decided to make the photos a little larger for clarity in this blog. By tweaking a little with the width of the main body and side bar, I managed to get what I wanted instead of spending too much time looking for a suitable food template. So what do you think of the pictures? The photo above shows the ambience of the dining area in Royal Hotel along Larut Road in Penang. It displays wall paper consisting of photos of collonial Chinese pre-war houses by the side with cloth covered chairs that make a contrast to the sight.

For the weekend, I stayed in Royal Hotel in the deluxe room with an additional room to work that comes with a fax machine and writing desk. The lounge chair here looks beckoning and comfortable withh plush cushion against the thick curtains.

Here comes the food where we had breakfast the following morning. It consists of toasted slices of bread spread with a myriad of jams and butter. In this close up photo, doesn't it look appetising?

While waiting for my colleague at Royal Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur, I decided to take a little tea break and ordered black forrest cake and butter cake with hot chocolate. Decided to indulge myself a little after coming out from the library while he attended to the contractor for the synthetic turf tennis courts that are being installed by the company. Since my work requirement is to handle all the computer and administration work, I am not required to be physically present on site at the tennis courts.

This was my dinner of quiche that was ordered from Delifrance along Mont Kiara, an upmarket place with many high-end condominiums and many expatriates live here. The quiche was just so-so; I would have prefer if it has spinach in it like the one I have tried in Singapore which was tastier.

Recently, I went to Food & Tea Restaurant in Gurney Plaza and had prawn mayo with rice and soup set. The prawn mayo was mixed with cut honey dew melon and mixed with Thousand Island cream. I kind of patronize this place and will always order the same kind of food as it is quite delicious.

This is chicken lasagna from Delifrance but I find it too oily and did not finish it as I was too full. It looked scrumptious but since they did not have seafood croissant, I had no choice but to order what is available. This will be my last time going to Delifrance in Mont Kiara as the service was slow and bad, even though I love dining at Delifrance for their seafood croissant.

This salmon-egg croissant was ordered in Northern Beach Cafe in Penang from the French stall. It is not often to find a true French man to prepare food for you except for this stall here. The portions are adequate and just right - neither too much nor too little.

I had seafood lamien again in Dragon-i Restaurant in Gurney Plaza without calamari or sotong and extra fish slices to make up for it. It is like eating noodles in soup prepared by trained Chinese chef.

This was my friend's order of stir-fried seafood with pan fried Hong Kong noodles that are crunchy to taste - also ordered from Dragon-i. Gurney Plaza is the high end premier shopping mall that I visit often to dine and also to read books for free at MPH readers' circle since I am a member.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos as much as I enjoyed putting them together in this culinary journal of mine. You are free to comment as to how I can improve this blog while I read more food articles in the press to improve on my writing style and food vocabulary.