It's hospital food again at IH

We are back to the hospital again for the 9th shot of P53 for brother. While waiting, Add, Max and I went to the cafeteria for something to eat. Nobody was in the mood to eat but everybody has to eat something...

The latte served by Harvey stall helps lift up the mood slightly. The sandwich filling varies daily depending on what's available. All delicious as I have tried all, given the rate we can coming into the hospital. Latte is bit expensive at RM6.90 a cup but worth every drop of it.

Harvey Cafe @ Island Hospital
308 Jalan Macalister
10450 Georgetown, Penang
Opens: 7.00am - 6.00pm
Closes on Sunday

Farewell lunch at Blue Reef Fish & Chips

It was a usual day, we go on with our daily routine without knowing this will be the last lunch I had with brother at Blue Reef - his favorite restaurant on the island. The setting at the restaurant is always soothing, facing the pier and wide blue sea never fail to calm the mood. While waiting for the food, I goofed around taking photos besides food, something I don't usually do, as if to record this last moment.

One of the many things I used to do with brother is to snap photos of interesting statement or visuals. Spotted this Heinz tomato ketchup which is GROWN NOT MADE. Hmm... are other ketchup made with chemicals?

We ordered the set, meaning add on money to main meal to make up a set. First up was cream of pumpkin soup. Tasty and creamy - read highly likely to fill your stomach so don't slurp all if you want to save room for dessert. I learned from previous experience that the set is a FULL course, pun intended.

Classic of Italian food - Aglio Olio. This is a dish that brother will order in any restaurant that serves western food. To him, this dish is the barometer to test the skill of the chef as only the simplest ingredients are used to prepare this dish. However to make it taste good, the chef has to be very skillful and experience. Aglio Olio is the equivalent to Fried Rice of Chinese restaurant.

Greek salad. One of my all time favourite dish. I felt this dish was a tad too sour but bro loved the tardiness and asked me to prepare similar salad for him back home.

Poached cod fish, mom's order. Mediocre dish.

Steamed mackerel, bro's order. Mediocre taste, good for those who prefer milder tasting dishes.

The perfect way to finish up the meal is their signature dessert - Creme brulee which is to die for. Couple with coffee, it's a little piece of heaven on earth.









Blue Reef Fish & Chips
3A-G-20 Straits Quay
Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang
10470 Penang
Tel: 016-405 9182

Sukhothai Beef Noodle House

Passed by this shop many times but never attempted to try the food. To bro's repeated hint that the beef noodle is really good and remember to pack for him if we ever go in, we finally made the trip on one of the many nights after hospital visits.


First up is the legendary beef noodle soup. IT IS SERIOUSLY GOOD! The soup base is strong herbal taste, like a good beef noodle should be, and the noodle is smooth. The servings of beef and meat ball is also generous, highly recommended.

 As there were six of us, we ordered some main dishes to try as well. For starter, we had the thai sambal paste with raw vegetables. The paste is really good, thick and creamy with strong prawn taste. Slightly spicy and goes very well with raw vegetables.

Fish maw soup, I didn't try this dish coz I don't like fish maw but those who tasted it said it's one of the best in Penang. It's a signature dish in da house.

While waiting for other dishes to come, I sipped on lemon grass hot tea which is also highly recommended. They did not skim on the lemon grass and honey so one can taste the real powerful kick especially when hot.

The classic Thai salad - papaya pok pok. Good and caution, caution, caution - go easy on chili if you have weak taste for spiciness.

Eversince Thailand won the world culinary award for massama curry, nearly every Thai restaurant will try to cook it. Previously it was red curry, then jungle curry, then green curry and now we have massama curry which is basically curry with peanuts. It's ok to me coz there are peanuts! I'm nuts about peanuts... but mom said it's not the original taste. Oh well.

Blanched beansprout to go with the beef noodle soup. One has to have a bit of fibre in the diet... Too bad it didn't arrive earlier together with the beef noodle soup.

Blue pea flower rice with curry. The blue gives the rice some unusual color. Don't worry, it's completely natural as the color is derived from blue pea flower or telang flower which is native to Malaysia.

We ordered two rice dish to share and Thai Fried Rice is of course a classic. Fly Lice, fly lice... good but tad too oily.






Sukhothai Beef Noodle House
238 Jalan Burma
10350 Georgetown
Tel: 04-2279262
Opens for lunch: 11:00am - 3.00pm, dinner: 6.00pm - 10.00pm
Closed every Wednesday

Tea time at Island Hospital ward

Bro was admitted to hospital for ascites, he was being probed and disturbed hourly by the nurse, janitor or doctor to take pulse, pressure, meds etc. and couldn't get enough sleep. The only thing he looked forward to was the food being served.

Today's special is chocolate twirl mantou and soy milk. Oh well, on positive note, it's chocolate! Bon appetite!


Island Hospital Ward 209
308 Jalan Macalister
10450 Georgetown
Tel: 04-2288 222

七廊粿条汤

Didn't have lunch and was too early for dinner? A bowl of Koay Teow soup will be a good choice, which is what I have today at 4:30pm. The queue at 7 Village is usually unbelievably long during lunch hour, so if you don't have the patience, don't go during peak hours. After a short wait, the famous Koay Teow noodles arrived. The soup base is prepared using pig bones; smooth & silky Koay Teow noodles is served with option of meat slices, chicken strips, fish balls and/or special traditional recipe minced pork. I opted for minced pork and fish balls. A sprinkle of spring onion and their special made chilli sauce + chilli padi is the combination I like. 

After being kicked by the spicy chilli sauce, it's time to cool down with a cold glass of herbal tea which is really thick and tasty.

There are several branches across the country but the branch I visited was at Bukit Tengah. The original stall was opened back in 1956 at 七廊，hence the origin of the name.

7 Village Noodle House 七廊粿條湯 (Bukit Tengah Branch)

58, Jalan Bayu Mutiara 1,
Taman Mutiara,
14000 Bukit Mertajam, Penang.

Tel: 04-508 1216

Business Hours:
Mon-Sat: 7:30am - 10pm
Sun: 7:30am - 1pm

What kind of person are you?

Mothers Day lunch

Celebrated Mothers Day at Western Spices. Ambience is pretty good, albeit getting stereotypical of Penang heritage house setting. The menu is rather uninteresting with the standard categorisation of starter, soup, chicken, beef, lamb, seafood, pasta, drinks, alcohol & dessert. Four course set meal available at only RM16.90 so it's value for money type of dining for the budget conscious.

Western Spices occupies the corner lot of the main building of The North Malaya Chinese Textile & General Merchants Association at the junction of Green Hall road and Lebuh Light.

The front door is vintage, with wood carvings and gold painting. The ventilation hold is in shape of butterfly, indicating the style of the house is in 1900s, during which many Chinese merchants were trading heavily in Penang.

I like this tile art that is put up on the main wall of Western Spices entrance. One has to step back in order to notice the art piece. It looks like a resting hut at a plantation, something similar to that of Suffolk's House.

The inside of the restaurant is nicely decorated with translucent curtains and chandelier. In the middle of the dining hall, there is a grand piano too. The place sits about 50 pax. As we entered, there was a group of hipsters just completed saying their wedding vows and occupied a long table to celebrate the occasion.

Pink carnations on the grand piano, to mark Mothers Day.

Exaggerated copy writing of Wester Spices, ha! Calling itself FINE DINING, which is definitely not.

First up, mushroom soup. Nice and thick, recommended.

Grilled snapper with mashed potato and boiled vegetable. Good choice for something light. The light basil salsa sauce is a refreshing change for a grilled fish dish.

Garden salad. A tad disappointing with them putting cold ham into the otherwise healthy salad.

Another grilled fish but this one with spicy Thai sauce. Good choice.

The salsa sauce made another appearance, this time on a grilled chicken. The side dish once again is mashed potato and boiled vegetable. That's how they manage the value for money set lunch, I supposed. Playing with the combination and permutation of sauce and meat.

Mom ordered something for a change as she is on vegetarian food mostly. This one is vegetarian pasta, it's good and portion is huge.

Dad on the other hand, finds the serving portion was too small and has to order side dish French Fries to fill up as we have to drive to Kuala Lumpur after lunch.

After meal, we ladies made our way to "powder our noses". Love the cute flower motif tile pattern on the wall. The red color help made the black and white motif stands out even more.

Resting on the top shelf are two money tree. I think the owner needs to know that putting money trees in toilet is seriously not a good feng shui coz money goes down the toilet bowl!








Western Spices
1 Green Hall Road,
Georgetown, Penang
Tel: 04-2611 553
Opens daily: 11:00 to 23:00

Lunch at Blue Reef Fish & Chips

 Lunch today was at Blue Reef fish & chips restaurant at Straits Quay. One of my favourite coz the setting is cozy and food is good quality.

For starter, we ordered a Greek salad to share. Love love love the feta cheese!

This cauliflower soup comes in a set lunch menu. For RM1.00 extra, the main meal comes with soup and drinks. Very worth the value if you have a big stomach space to contain all the food (:

The soup is creamy and bland. No my cup of soup!

Vegetarian mushroom pasta. Generous serving with big slices of mushrooms.

 Steamed seabass with rice, oriental style. Ideal dish to bring grandpa and grandma should one decide to dine in this ang-mor shop.

The house special - beer battered fish & chips. Everyone was surprised that mommy ordered this dish. Everyone was right coz she only managed to finish the salad, few fries and 1/4 of the fish. Don't get me wrong, the fish is fried to perfection - juicy inside crispy outside. However, she was just too full to eat anymore after the salad and soup.

The rest is doggy bag on the go as I'm waiting at home for my serving. Heheheh...

Delicious Bangsar

 Was in Bangsar to run an errand. Since have to wait for time to pass, went to delicious to have a nice lunch.

Indonesian gado-gado salad. HUGE portion, the peanut sauce is served on banana flower petal. The vegetables are all boiled - potato, cabbage, bean sprout, along with fresh cut cucumber and carrot. Fried indonesian keropok and a hard boiled egg. Simple dish made very Delicious.

Steamed seabass Thai style served with rice. Quite authentic Thai taste with plenty of basil leaves to ohm the flavour.

 Grilled vegetable salad. Nothing special, but quite delicious. Too oily for me liking.

This dish is the special of the day. Comes with a complimentary glass of ice lemon tea which cost RM9.90. Guess what's the dish name? It's Hainanese Chicken Chop. Yep, WTF moment.... One would expect steamed white chicken or dark roasted skin for a Hainanese chicken but this one is battered fried. And to top it off, the sauce is tomato puree, double WTF!!

The taste is like fish & chips but instead of fish, it's chicken inside. Perhaps the chef was trying to convince us that it taste like chicken!

Tutti Fruiti

I have two comfort food which one would call "Achilles' heels", food that I can't resist. They are ice cream and chocolate. For ice cream, if you ask "chocolate or vanilla?", my choice will be vanilla. Else my favourite will be BR31 Jamoca Almond Fudge & HD Macadamia Nut.

For chocolate, I am basically a chocolate junky. Any chocolate will do.

Besides the above-mentioned two, my current cravings are Tutti Frutti yogurt (TF being my favourite) and Chatime charcoal roasted royal milk tea with glass jelly.

You can see in the background of Muffin chilling out with me and mommy in air-con car while waiting for uncle to complete qigong class.