All time favorite - Chili's!

Kate invited me to have a sister-to-sister sunday lunch with her while parents away in Myanmar. The choice is naturally Chili's - our favourite!

We ordered the Firecracker Fish Fillet with rice and veg as side dish. Mom used to have this dish and I just realised it is a good dish. The fish is succulent and the special firecracker sweet & spicy sauce, garnished with red chile tapenade is not spicy but buttery smooth.

All time favorite Grilled BBQ Chicken salad. A must have always. The combination of fresh lettuce with grilled cheese, beef bacon, corn relish, tortilla strips and touch of BBQ sauce. Healthy choice you might think but this dish alone is about 1,000 calories.

Wings Over Buffalo, another favorite but I refrained from having it too often as it's fried meat. But the buffalo sauce is unique and I have to be very discipline!! Love the celery stick and Ranch dressing dip too :)

Molten Chocolate Cake. The patrons next to us ordered one too after seeing us 2 ladies indulging in the rich & warm chocolate cake with melting chocolate fudge running down once the ice cream and chocolate shell is pierced open by our forks.




Chili's Grill & Bar
(G-05) G-Hotel, 168A Persiaran Gurney
Georgetown 10250
Tel: 04-2101110

Wu Village Bak Kut Teh

Casual lunch outside the factory coz mom doesn't feel like eating at home. Surprisingly she suggested having bak kut teh considering she obtain from meat. Nonetheless, no questions asked and off we went to Wu Village Restaurant.

The dishes served quickly once order went into the kitchen. First up is stir fried bean sprout. Nicely done as the wok temperature is high enough to bring out the flavours. The soy sauce used is also excellent grade.

 Stir-fried potato leaves. Nicely done like the bean sprout. I am beginning to understand why mom pick this place.

We can't possible eat at a bak kut teh place without ordering er, bak kut teh. However, we opted for semi-vegetarian BKT with mushrooms, taokee, veg and meat balls. The soup is not as herbal as should be, but for a casual lunch this dish is pass-able.

Assam curry fish - a tad oily for my liking but the flavouring is good. Fish is fresh too.

Thai style tofu salad. I finished the whole plate by myself! Not that it is so delicious, just that I have nothing else to eat at the shop. The tofu is made in house, fried to crispy brown and douse in Thai sweet sauce.


Wu Village Restaurant
Jalan Alma
14000 Bukt Mertajam
Penang
Opens for lunch at 11.00am - 3.00pm, dinner at 5.00pm - 10.00pm.
Closes on Tuesdays

Northern Beach Hawker Centre

Arlene was over to attend the Remembrance Gathering of brother so we have the pleasure to showing her around after the event. Brother would have usually shower her with foods so we are doing the same to her on his behalf. Tonight we decided to go Northern Beach Hawker Center for some local flare.

First up is Lok-Lok which is similar to steamboat but the speciality is in the sauce. There is the standard chilli, peanut, laksa and sambal. Customers are charged on what they eat based on the color on sticks.

Next is Ikan Bakar or grilled fish. Kate ordered grilled sting ray marinated in sambal. Nicest!

This dish is common but difficult to make it good. The octopus has to be very fresh and blanched at just temperature and right time. This stall didn't do a good job as the octopus are over-cooked.

BBQ chicken wings - one of my favourite. There are only 4 places that I know in Penang that do a good BBQ chicken wings - Taman Sentosa in BM, Song River at Gurney, Sunway hawker at Love Lane, and Northern Beach hawker which is here. I have to be discipline not to over indulge as I can easily finish up a dozen in a blink. They are THAT GOOD!

Self acclaimed award winning satay by the stall owner. The pork satay is the award winning item which taste too tough to my liking. I still prefer the chicken satay as the meat is tender to chew. The peanut sauce is chunky and spicy, the way I like!

Coconut fried rice - an epic failure attempt by the Thai food stall. No coconut flavour in the fried rice, nor any coconut flesh being spotted. Nonetheless, the rice are fried at high enough temperature for the flavour to evolve. If this dish is just called Fried Rice, I would give it a score of 8/10. But in terms of coconut fried rice, I will give it only 3/10.

For those who prefer a simple noodle dish, I would recommend the char hor fun (Right). The dark sauce soba (Left) taste ok to me, but then again it's coz I don't fancy deep fried pork lard flavour.

Northern Beach Hawker Centre

Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah

10050 Georgetown

Penang
Opens daily: 6.00pm to mid-night

Kulim Wanton Mee

It's six weeks after passing of bro. We are at Kulim buddhist temple for the 6th prayer. On the way back, we stopped by Kulim town for early lunch for the famous, of course, wanton mee.

The shop lot is confusing to locate as there are many imitation stalls that sprout all around the same area. Only those who have ate there often can show you which is the "correct" stall.

The noodle is home made and prepared al dente. The soup is clear and pork base. The dish tasted like what wanton mee should taste like.

In the coffee shop, there was supposed to be the famous chai kweh too but it's not open that day. Instead we ordered the chicken from chicken rice stall and their vegetable soup. No bad, but not too good either. Just to get some protein and fibre together with the wanton mee.













The coffee is served black with heavy sugar sedimentation at the bottom of the cup. You stir more if you want sweeter coffee, and less if you prefer bitter. And the cup is original design.












Ordered a fancy drink, in Kulim standard, the 3 layer tea by F&N. On the bottom layer is palm sugar syrup, 2nd layer is F&N evaporated milk, and top layer is plain black tea. When mixed together, it taste like palm syrup milk tea. I know... I am just writing what I taste!




A coffee shop at Kulim Old Town

Wen Xiang porridge

Feel like having something light for dinner? Do head to Wen Xiang coffee shop for light and greasefree porridge.

We ordered 1 pot of prawn porridge and 1 pot of seafood koay teow soup to share amongst 3 pax. Both pots were served together and both are equally good.

There were at least 20 prawns in the porridge which made the soup so sweet and tasty. The fish koay teow soup comes with fish, cuttlefish, minced pork, fish ball and fish cake. Customer can opt for any combination of prawn, fish, crab, frog legs, pork, fish ball, fish cake, meat ball or minced meat with porridge, koay teow, bee hoon or noodle in clear or spicy tom yam soup base.

You can see the left over prawn at the bottom of the pot, we packed it home coz we simply can't finish them.

Total bill came to about RM48, inclusive of drinks.

Wen Xiang coffee shop
Taman Cegar
14100 Simpang Ampat, Penang
Tel: 013-424 2333
Opens: 6.00pm - 11.00pm

Belated birthday dinner at Cassis

Kate has purchased 4 Groupon dinner at Cassis back in April. First to celebrate her birthday and also on her pay rise. Her initial intention was to have the family together, including our dearest late-bro. However event took a drastic turn and bro passed away end of May. It was a mixed feeling to have the dinner at Cassis without bro... but here we are. The first thing I noticed inside Cassis is the service is POOR POOR POOR. The air-con is freezing cold so skimpy evening dress for this restaurant is out of the question. The deco is fancy, with Far East Moroccan feel of heavy colors and abundance jewelry. The restaurant is name after the owner/chef's wife Cassandra, who I can only presume looks like how the restaurant is decorated.

I have heard about dining at Cassis usually finish up with crossing over the road for a bowl of Hokkein Mee at Bee Hooi coffee shop. Which is not necessary a bad thing if one is a small eater. The menu changes every 2 days, depending on what is available at the market.

After about half an hour of putting up with the non-existing service, we were served the entree, which is different from what the menu stated. Reason being Kingfish is out of stock! The 3 scallops are pan-fried succulent with bubbly sauce that looks like spit actually.

Duck Spring Roll + Foie Gras Sauce - I resisted this dish on the menu for two reason. One I don't eat duck, second foie gras is cruelty to animals. When the dish is served, there is not taste of duck nor goose liver.

Pork belly + banana + Toffee Sauce. I supposed "food connoisseur" will say animal fat is what brings out the flavour in meat. To me, the visible rind of fat is just disgusting. The meat is prepared nicely though. Tender and juicy. Didn't realised it was banana toffee sauce though.

Cauliflower Soup + Corn + Truffle Oil. Fancy way of calling a cream vegetable soup with sprinkle of oil from a fungus hunted by pigs.

The actual serving of the soup. Notice the comparison in size of the wine glass to the soup bowl.

Salmon + Mushroom + Mixed Herbs Emulsion. The salmon is sear fried, very nicely done as I like mine raw. Those who doesn't like sashimi should request the chef to cook more thoroughly for medium to cooked salmon.

Vanilla Crepe + Strawberry + Balsamic. Ok, fancy name but it's just flour, eggs and water batter skilled then rolled up to crepe.

Cassis is renowned as "WORLD CLASS cuisine" available in Penang. Go judge for yourself, at RM180++ per pax, I have tasted better outside Cassis Penang!


Cassis Restaurant
368-1-14 Belisa Row
Jalan Burma, 10250 Penang
Tel: 04-229 3858
Opens: 12.00pm-2.30pm & 7.00pm-10.30pm

Poolside breakfast at Noordin Mews

Audrey booked an overnight stay at Noordin Mews for a weekend short break. It was very nice to do nothing for  a change.

The breakfast for the mews guests is standard. Start off with fruit juice - either apple or orange. I chose orange.

Cute teacups of butter and blueberry jam.

 Toast and eggs of your choice - I chose for omelet with everything.

Although the breakfast is simple, but taste good with relaxing/holiday mood. Simple things in life is sometimes the best.

Christopher Ong, the owner of Noordin Mews, is well known to have a good eye for antique pieces. So it is not surprising to see classic glass from F&N with gold rim when the waitress served us ice water. I remembered we used to have one of these glasses at home way back when I was young.

Another classic glass from Hennessy. Move over Coca-cola glass!


Noordin Mews
53 Lebuh Noordin, Georgetown
10300 Penang
Tel: 04-2632125
Opens: 7am to 10pm daily