Red Wine is Good for your Health

You might like to know that red wine is good for your health as it contains resveratrol that has anti-oxidant properties to help prevent cancer. I have been drinking wine when I was introduced to it by my wealthy uncle in Singapore who never fails to drink at least a glass every day after lunch and dinner. He is a doctor, now 95 years of age and still plays golf. He loves Cabernet Sauvignon over Shiraz as it is sweeter. The longer the wine is, the more expensive and better the quality of the taste.

Red wine is harvested from grapes and the color is due to the skin of red grapes. After the juice is extracted, it is then kept in wine cellars for many years for fermentation to take place. Jesus also turned water into the best wine ever during the marriage in Cannaan and the guests have a merry time drinking free flow of wine.

My boss also loves wine and never forget to have company dinners with wine included every year. Wine is a way to celebrate life and for social gatherings. People toast to each other wishing others well during a celebration like birthdays, Chinese new year gatherings, Christmas gatherings and also during marriages.

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.

Causeway Bay Hong Kong Cafe

Early this month, I had dinner at Causeway Bay Hong Kong Cafe and ordered mini seafood hot pot with chinese herb superior soup. True to its name, it was served in a hot pot and the soup was sumptuous. It has red wolf berries, Chinese wine, green peas, mock crab stick, cabbage, prawns, etc. The serving was interesting too.

 

This is my meal of fish omelette with rice and vegetables. There were generous helpings of black Shitake mushrooms and other vegetables beneath the fish omelette. This is doing justice to my money. 

 

To pair with my main meal, I must have a drink which was hot ginger calamansi tea. Calamansi is like a small green orange that is sour and acidic to add some kick to the tea. 

 

These are the combined dishes that I had with my colleague during a business trip recently. I think my colleague must be quite used to me snapping away all the ordered food dishes since I am a food blogger. 

 

This is the ambience of Causeway Bay Hong Kong Cafe.  Ok, I have to go soon to prepare for my business trip to Kuala Lumpur later on. So this is a shorter post. Till the next post, have a nice day!

Food taken from Different Places

This was taken near the rented apartment in USJ 14, Subang Jaya at an eatery serving only Chinese food. Yam basket is my favorite with the steam and mashed yam deep fried in a tube and garnished with cubed stir-fried chicken, vegetables like onions, carrots, green pepper, red chillies, black shitake mushrooms and sprinkled with juliened carrots, fried vermicelli surrounding the yam basket, spring onions and parsley. I always patronise this place for its yam basket and delicious Chinese food.

This dish is known as sweet and sour fish for its taste. The fish is deep fried and then tomato sauce with added vegetables are sauteed together to make a sumptuous flavor and poured to the fish. Some vinegar is added too for the sour taste and extra zing!

This is sauteed sweet potato leaves with garlic. The stir-fried garlic brings out the aroma and tastiness of this simple dish that is easy to prepare. Sweet potato leaves are a common dish in Malaysia.

Here are combined food pictures with soup, chopped garlic, etc. This eatery tucked amongst the row of shop houses is very popular and is always packed with diners. They have 3 to 4 cooks working hard in the small kitchen so that food can be served quickly. During Chinese New Year, they also gave out free red packets or 'ang pows' albeit one year before from Guiness Stout during the year of the Tiger.



This is smoked salmon foccasia that was served in Tun Mahathir's The Loaf at Subang Shopping Gallery. The preparation is very simple and easy peasy. Just add some greens, potato chips and smoked salmon to the bread pocket. It is environmentally friendly since the food is served on a wooden plate.

On the right is my friend's order of chicken ham with grated cheese and croissant. Don't they look yummy together?

I stayed in Mandarin Oriental Hotel beside Suria KLCC last week. Upon checking in, an additional bed was in the room and not taken out. Feeling bad, the receptionist who took us to our room called for the extra bed to be removed while at the same time, gave us 2 large free chocolate chip cookies of smileys, 2 large dark chocolate bars (beneath the cookies) and 2 glasses of milk.



Here, you can see the chocolate bars that were hidden by the large cookies. The chocolate bars are specially made by the hotel and not bought from any supermarket as there were no wrappers. Besides, they tastes just right, not too sweet which may cause diabetes. Chocolates are rich in anti-oxidants to help prevent cancer.

Behind the dark chocolate bars are chopped dried peaches and almonds as you can see from the photo above.

During my business trip down south, we stopped in a R & R area (Rest and Recreation) and had some desserts like tarts, chocolate cake and tea. (see photo above). So, there you go, hope you like my food photos taken from the various places that I went to during my business trip in Malaysia.

Guinness laced cocktails for St. Patty's Day

Guest post written by Betty Clarence

One of the best parts about St. Patrick's Day is of course the drinks. But people assume that green beer is the best kind of drink for the holiday. They are so wrong though. I think that Guinness is basically required, plus it's way better than green beer.

I'm going to try and do something a little differently this time for teh holiday though and make some cocktails with Guinness in them for my party. That way they'll be a litlte more special and be perfect for the theme! As I was online looking for stuff, I randomly came upon some electricity rates that I decided to check out. After I looked into them a little more, I decided to sign up for one of them for my apartment.

I found about four or five recipes that I think are going to be really good to serve at my party. I've made two of them to check them out and they were really good. I just couldn't handle trying all of them out on a day that isn't St. Patrick's Day though.

Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant

 

More than one third of the people in the world eat Chinese food every day. This speaks volumes of the popularity and tastiness of Chinese food. Just last week, I stayed in Royal Hotel for the weekend and walked to Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant on the second floor of the newly refurbished Penang Plaza along Burmah Road for dinner. Above is a shot taken at the entrance of the Chinese restaurant with plenty of red cloth, red lanterns, etc. that is ubiquitous of things Chinese. And I am proud to be born a Chinese too. Not to put a feather on my cap, but wherever you place the Chinese around the world, they will most likely prosper because they are hard working, diligent and motivated. 

 

While waiting for my food, I took the opportunity to snap another photo right from my dining table. There are so many tables and chairs that can accommodate so many people with tables of 10 persons each. The ambience is pleasant with cream colored table cloth coverings and beige PVC chairs with cushion. There are also mirrors on the columns to make the place look even bigger. 

 

Fresh live lobsters and other seafood are also served here where you can pick and choose from this water tank. A place famous for lobster thermidor in Penang is in Teluk Bahang right inside the fishing village which is patronized by regular customers. 

 

I also ordered double-boiled sharks' fins soup with scallop amongst other usual ingredients.  The soup was flavorful and delicious. Being double boiled, most of the flavorful juices are already extracted in the soup. Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant was opened not too long ago and by the time I dined here, it was fully packed with diners, mostly Chinese and some Caucasians. 

 

This is fried marmite chicken which is one of my favorite dish sprinkled with sesame seed and garnished with lettuce leaf. There are two types of cooking here in this dish. One was deep fried with marmite and the other type is mixed with salted egg yolk and wrapped in chicken. 

 

This is steamed cod fish with scallion sauce and garnished with spring onions and parsley. Cod fish is also Singapore's Ministor Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew's favorite food. It is a bit pricier than the other ordinary fish but taste very sumptuous.

 

Broccoli is my other favorite vegetable. I usually order stir-fried brocolli with scallops, ginger and sometimes with prawns. Broccoli is rich in vitamins and helps to prevent cancer.  It is also rich in anti-oxidants. 

 

The photos above were taken for each individual dish and the above is the combined servings for dinner. If you would like to book a table for functions or just to have your usual fare of Chinese cuisine, below are the contact details.

Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant

Lot 207-221 & 231-245, 2nd Floor, Penang Plaza

No. 126 Burmah Road, 10050 Penang, Malaysia

Tel: 604-229 1623 / 229 3623

Fax: 604-226 6623

Lunch at GEM Indian Restaurant

 

Just last week, I went to Public Bank with my father to put a fix deposit account with combined names in Penang. After we were done at the bank, my father saw this spanking new Indian restaurant nestled in the cross junction of the road opposite Public Bank and I decided to treat him here as I have done with my mum. Above is the Thali Vegetarian Meal consisting of 10 different dishes that I ordered when my mum was around to have the joint name for the Fixed Deposit account. Ranging from curries to briyarni rice to coconut milk dish and vegetables in little aluminium containers, this is a nice selection from the usual Chinese fare. It comes with a free fruit juice drink that is peach orange in color.

 

This is what my dad had which was a little more expensive at RM 12.90 or USD 4.30. It has fewer vegetable choices but comes with fish or chicken curry. Notice the banana leave underneath the containers and covering the large plate. It is the Indian culture to have their food served on banana leaves. And this is a genuine leaf, not some green plated surface as in some of the newer plates. 

 

This dish was taken on a separate occasion when I went to the bank with my dad this time around. He was fetching me to take photos of tennis court surface completed at Penang Sports Club to update the company web site and company profile. On that day, the GEM Indian restaurant was having a promotion and it was cheaper at around RM 6.00 with 8 dishes as seen above instead of RM 9.00 with 10 dishes as taken earlier. For the promotional set, there is no free fruit juice drink. 

 

As part of the Indian culture, statues are commonplace in most places like temples, restaurants, etc.  I don't know what this statue represent but it has certainly caught my attention. It is part of the deco of the place that I had dined recently during lunch at the same said restaurant. 

As an aside, I am happy that this blog has a Page Rank (PR) of 2 which I just discovered when I submitted it to take up paid posts. I must have done something right for the PR juice to come back. You might also be wondering why I put DianaTan.net on all the pictures here - suffice to say that DianaTan.net is my main blog and I am using my pictures here to promote my other blog that is making me money. This blog also makes me good side income from Google Adsense.

 

This is the ambience of the GEM Indian Restaurant opposite Public Bank and is located at 66 Bishop Street, 10200 Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. You can contact them at 604-262 4070 to book a place. But I guess you can also just walk in and we almost had the whole place to ourselves except for 1 other diner at that time. That's because most employees prefer to eat at the nearby food cafes that serve hawker food that are much cheaper comparatively.

 

Here is another shot of the meals that I had with mum earlier. For both parents, it was my treat on different occasions with each of them individually. Knowing that I have more money in my savings, my parents tend to ask me to treat them now for the little favors they rendered to me. 

 

This is the picture hung up just above our table and I took the liberty to snap this shot as the overall ambience of GEM Indian Restaurant in Penang.