Dinner at Old Town White Coffee Restaurant, Penang

This is the menu of Old Town White Coffee Restaurant on the 4th floor of First Avenue shopping mall near KOMTAR - right smack in the center of the heritage city. In the menu, it says "Aroma of Good Taste" which lives to its tagline. It serves local popular food like nasi lemak, curry puffs, steam chicken with lots of ginger, wan ton noodles, fish fillet with vegetables on the side and rice, koay teow soup, and the like.

Here is the ambience of Old Town White Coffee Restaurant with many tables and chairs in the medium sized outlet by any restaurant standards. There are comfortable white sofa seats too that can take in 6-8 people or for couples like us, we were seated by a round table, with 4 chairs for sitting and to put our bags and newspapers. The place is clean, not like the ones you find at hawker stalls and in an air-con place. Whenever possible, I will dine here now and then in Penang since First Avenue shopping mall is near my condominium at Penang Times Square.

Here are our orders of wan ton noodles with crispy wan ton and soup on the left side of the photo which was my order. My partner had springy noodles with chicken cutlet and vegetables on the right side of the photo. He also ordered an upscale coffee while I had iced enriched chocolate drink. This meal alone set us back by around RM 33, but then again a simple meal is not complete without good company.

My Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my birthday at Fong Wei Restaurant recently this month. Above are 4 seasons consisting of stir-fried de-shelled prawns with thousand island cream and sliced onions on the right side while on the left are spring rolls of chicken. Below the platter are 5 sets of tofu with fish balls on top and drizzled with delicious gravy. Above the plate is a mixture of vegetables mainly consisting of mushrooms, cashew nuts, carrots, spring onions and the like.

This is the signature dish of seafood soup with lots of crab meat, sliced fish stomach, mushrooms and many other ingredients to thicken the soup. It is garnished with parsley to add zing to the taste. When you dine at Fong Wei, never miss this dish as it is only served here that whets the big appetite.

These are 3 rolls of 'choon piah' that comes with a special sauce and consists of chopped carrots, turnips, shitake mushrooms, lettuce, etc. It is crunchy and sumptuous to the palate. There are two types of 'choon piah' - one is the rounder one like in the picture above, while the other is the flatter type consisting of prawns, chopped spring onions and then deep-fried to taste.

I had originally wanted to order the cheaper pomfret in 2 styles but it was out of order. Hence, I had to take cod fish instead which was steamed in scallion sauce and garnished with spring onions. Read somewhere that it was also the late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's favourite dish as well. This dish alone set me back by RM75.

A birthday celebration is never complete without birthday noodles or also known as 'lam mee'. It has sliced pork, prawns, lots of bean sprouts, some crab meat, fried onions and spring onions with yellow noodles for longevity.

Writing Opportunity

I found a blogging or rather writing opportunity online and had already written 9 articles for USD 5 per article of 250 words minimum and 3 photos. For charity, I will donate USD 1 per article to any establishment of my choice like Doctors without Borders, National Kidney Foundation, orphanages and other charities. My second sister in UK just ran 5km to raise funds for cancer research by getting herself muddy, having to climb ropes and slide down an inflated giant slide for the fun of it while doing some charitable work. She also used Facebook to raise the cancer research funds and managed to collect Great Britain Pounds of 300 together with her course mates.

Hungry

I am waiting for my lunch, bought by a friend and instead of waiting too long, decided to make myself mushroom soup at home. Simply mix the portion into hot water, stir and voila, my soup is ready. I have decided to kill loneliness by blogging and reading more. The best friend is myself and I have to be nice to myself, cos no one will be as nice as me. Some people kill loneliness by causing problems for others and laugh over it. It is nicely disguised as an urgent matter on projects or related to job. They won't hesitate to send you Whatsapp messages and several of them in a row in a nasty tone. The best reaction is to just ignore them, so they cannot comprehend what's in your mind.

Happy New Year Everyone

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy new year in 2016. Through this blog, I was once contacted by an Australian broadcasting company to reply a question and answer session via the phone regarding a post that I made about an outlet in Gurney Plaza. Well, I had to decline due to my sore throat but who knows, had I accepted the offer, it could lead to more opportunities and perhaps even travel to Australia for free. This blog started out as a food blog to showcase the foods that I have tasted; please don't get envious or silently resent me. Then it sort of morphed into a personal blog on anything under the sun to keep it updated. Well, it is not updated now and then and when opportunities strikes, then it is time to work on it again.

Go Watch 'Just for Laughs'

I love this Astro show that premiers at 1pm on Mondays through Wednesdays. In fact, it is shown a few times a day with different funny gigs that sometimes play on the human emotions. It is humourous to watch and certainly release some stress of work. Since I am lucky enough to work in a home office, I find this opportunity to watch this show certainly a blessing. While having lunch, I can at the same time watch and be amused. The hilarious show is made in Canada and they poke fun at people and things. I believe the director must be a Catholic as there were many instances of nuns and fake funerals and priests. Go watch it if you can and be entertained from home with an Astro installation.

On a Diet Plan

Recently I got a free facial and tummy trim treatment, each lasting 1 hour at Body Bizzy, compliments of Standard Chartered Bank credit card holders on my birthday month. The free facial cost $350 per session and tummy trim $450 per session. After the 2 treatment, I liked the service and signed up for 29 sessions of tummy trim and facials amounting to $3,810 to be paid by installments for 24 months. Hence it cost $158.78 per month. The place is just beside Popular and convenient for me to hop over to read books if I have the time. The person attended to me also gave me a meal plan chart for me to list what I eat and the portion every day for 1 week. Then, she will monitor my weight and fat level. So far, I lost a little weight since then and hope to lose more before my trip to my sister's wedding in UK later on.