Happy Dragon Boat Festival with lotsa Glutinous Rice Dumpling

Dragon Boat Festival is also known as Duan Wu (Mandarin) or Tuen Ng (Cantonese) with a history behind it… understand more here..

Anyways, “bak chang-s”… Well.. I actually had few… and now a bit scared of it already.. haha… I used to be a “bak chang” fan… I do believe I am still now… I love anything out of glutinous rice, be it “bak chang”, “ketupat”, “nasi kunyit” with chicken curry, “loh mai kai”, “loh mai fan”, “tapai”, “pulut inti” and the list goes on and on.. but one thing with it is that it’s very filling and one can never savour too much of it… not good for health too :D

When I was staying in hometown, I get to enjoy a lot of home made “bak chang-s”, my aunts would make them and bring it over.. and my mom will usually buy all the ingredients and get her 2nd sister to make, sometimes will help out too :D During then, I eat “bak chang” like every meal… hahaha… and it can go on for 2 to 3 days…teruk…

This year, I bought them myself (It’s actually pretty expensive now, each “chang” will cost from MYR2.80 each and up to no limit depending on the ingredients)….. my friend gave me one too :D There are many kinds of “chang-s” (glutinous rice dumplings, in mandarin they call it “zhong zi”, cantonese, “chung”).. Bak/kiam chang (Pork/savoury glutinous rice dumpling) is one of the most common one.. the usual essential ingredients are pork meat, chest nut, dried shrimps, mushrooms and salted egg yolks. Some they will add in beans.. and with the rice, it will be wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled in hot water… I actually prefer the ones with peanuts… but it’s rarely found… CK Lam’s homemade changs by her mother-in-law has got dried scallops somemore… wow.. this is premium “chang” category.. read about it as she share the tedious process in making changs…

My friend in Singapore told me there are more different type of “chang” there.. some with abalone, and colourful ones I can’t remember.. what a revolution..

Another one that most might sought for is the alkaline glutinous rice dumpling, also known as “kee chang” or “kan sui chung”. When I was buying mine yesterday, many were actually asking for “kee chang” but it was out of stock.. pretty last minute also la… reason being, I think it’s also for offering during praying, perhaps to Kuan Yin. “Kee Chang-s” are usually in smaller package, eaten with gula melaka/brown sugar thick syrup. I don’t fancy it though..

And the last one was savoury+sweet combination chang… which the glutinous rice is not cooked with soy sauce, so it’s in original colour and the ingredients are crushed peanuts and sweet winter melon strips mixture. Not really a favourite.. I bought it the moment I heard peanuts… well, thinking it was the “bak chang” I’ve always been looking for… hahaha…

Few different changs from different stalls sold nearby my house…. and I still have some in my fridge… how to finish la… :P

Tightly wrapped in bamboo leaves and secured with bamboo strings… Bamboo leaves actually gives an extra flavour to the “chang”… that is the difference with the normal “loh mai fan”

Unwrapped and tadaaa! All the ingredients inside…

This has got extra ingredients, extra meat i think, MYR 5.00! I bought one just because I was curious on what I can find in the “chang”… autopsy results shows… see for yourself ler :P

And this is the combination sweet and savoury chang…

Perhaps I’ll go learn make chang and open one stall next year.. muahaha… and bear in mind to sell kee chang during the last minute… it goes out of stock in most stalls… So I can hike price and earn more… so keji… muahahahaha… am just kidding about hiking up the price okay… cause most will buy it for prayers.. Kuan Yin will punish me leh, if I do so… I believe in karma :P

Paddington House of Pancakes (PHOP) Queennsbay Mall, Penang

I’ve been for few visit to Paddington and they have never fail to make me flipping their menu a thousand times before I could decide what i want to order… reason being is because the huge selections available and all of them are equally tempting, I just want to have them all! So there is good and bad thing about nice illustrated menu.. we get to see how the order look like but when we see to many of them, we have difficulties making the choice… it’s like choosing Miss World from a bunch of pretty ladies from all over the world…

They practically have a line of selection to cater to most or perhaps all taste buds, from sweet to savoury, you make a pick!

And they say it loud, “We flip it right!”

Frankly speaking, I could not remember the names of the orders… not even one of it.. cause it’s just too many to remember and I have bad memory :P  So I guess I’m just gonna show you the photos only.. hahaha… this was pancakes with fries and deep fried seafood, marinara, greens and a some tartar sauce… mouth watering…

This one has got melted cheese on the pancake with salami slices, hash brown, cheese sausages, vege sides, freshly grinded black pepper and brown sauce…

We have no idea it’s gonna look like this… haha… it’s kinda like fried pasta.. the waiter said it’s flatten dough cut into noodle-like, deep-fried and dished out with sort of bolognaise sauce underneath… we didn’t really like it… and it’s just boring… :P

This order also came with melted cheese on the pancake but accompanied by scrambled eggs, chipolatas, hashbrowns, mashed potatoes and sauce…

If I’m not mistaken, this falls under the burger pancake family… it was dished out like burger, just that it’s pancake rather than sesame buns… alternately layered with hash brown, chicken piece, tomato slice and capsicum slice. Also added some salsa-like sauce, served with fresh greens.

This murtabak-like pocket was served with mashed potatoes and fresh greens. It’s more like savoury and flavourful stir-fry minced meat and other ingredients  wrapped in crepe. Serving is smaller though…

And now i noticed that I’ve never tried the sweet and dessert pancakes.  Well, I have to say that Paddington is not exactly a favourite to all in Penang. And not all agree that it’s a nice place to dine. Usually, the service is not bad, quite fast and maybe because it’s rarely full house like it’s neighbour Kim Gary. So it’s rather quiet and relaxing, and it has got a simple and nice interior too… For myself, I will go back cause I want to try the rest of the menu! But not too frequent… gotta jaga the double W, waistline and wallet :D muahahaha…. Go see their website and salivate :P

Paddington House of Pancakes @ Queensbay Mall Penang
1F102, 1F103 & 1F108, 1^st Floor, Queensbay Mall, 100 Persiaran Bayan Indah, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang
Contact ☎ 04 644 9910

Operating Hours : 10.00am – 11.00pm everyday

Golden Triangle Restaurant, Queensbay Mall

The visit to Golden Triangle Restaurant was actually some time ago but I thought I’ve posted it already until I made a check in my pending folder… haha… Anyways, better be late than never :D

Golden Triangle Restaurant has got 2 outlets in Penang, first one opened in Autocity late 2006 and the second one was in Queensbay Mall a year later. It specializes in serving wide range of dishes from Thai, Vietnamese and Laotian.

The restaurant is spacious and has got rustic interior with wooden planks, wooden canopy, yet elegantly furnished.

You can opt for round table seats with view of the Penang bridge and Penang mainland or the wooden canopy seats with more privacy.

Pretty chandeliers and wood arts displayed in the restaurant…

Honey dew juice with milk MYR 4.80, and another beverage I forgot to snap photo of, is the pineapple juice which most did enjoy it a lot with some dash of salt.

Rice served in a rice pot and you scoop it yourself like every other Thai restaurant…

First in was the Mango Kerabu with Crispy Fish, MYR19 for medium serving.. Shredded mango with onions and chili paddy, lemon/lime juice, crispy fish, peanuts and I’m not sure what else added.. Nice tangy flavour, refreshing with pretty presentation and this is listed as one of the chef’s special

Kailan with Salted Fish MYR 18 for medium serving, which was not bad… but i personally feel that it’s a little bit pricey….

Tom Yam Soup, MYR 29 for medium serving.. a little bit salty for my liking…

Thai Cashewnut Chicken, MYR 20 for medium serving… this dish is also not bad, but the only thing is that the chicken pieces is tad small, can feel like it’s more fried flour batter rather than the chicken meat itself… otherwise taste and flavour is actually nice…

Claypot Tang Hoon Crab MYR 38-68, can’t remember how much they charged us for this… i think around MYR 40 to 50 plus for our serving…. one of the most recommended which is also the restaurant’s signature dish… This is really good… best to dig in the moment they serve it while it’s still hot… really yummy…

The quality and the taste food served here on overall did not disappoint, although there is still some that did not really come hand in hand with my palate… I do personally feel that it’s a little bit pricey but perhaps it’s because of the ambiance, also the authenticity and quality of the food served, we happily paid and left with happy tummy each. 

They do have promotion running from time to time, can check out from their website for promotion and also menu listing with price. Worth a try once in a while, indulge for an authentic Indochine food..

The Golden Triangle Restaurant

Queenbay Mall
3F-22A, Queensbay Mall, Persiaran Bayan Indah, Sungai Nibong, Bayan Lepas, 11900 Penang
Contact ☎ 604-644 0969

Business hours: 11:30am - 10:30pm

Auto-City

1808 – 1809, Jalan Perushaan, Auto-City, Juru Interchange, North-South Highway, Juru Interchange,13600 Prai, Penang. 
Contact ☎ 604-502 1969 /6012-402 8777 /6012-475 2575

Business hours:  10:30am - 2.30pm, 5.30pm - 10.30pm

Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Lot J-0G-01 & J-0G-02 SOHO KL, Solaris Mont Kiara, No 2, Jalan Solaris,50400 Kuala Lumpur  
Contact ☎ 603-6203 0713

Business hours:  11:00am - 11:00pm

Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant, I-Avenue, Penang

Tsuruya have opened their doors to jap food fan for a while now and this was my second visit there. They have also opened a new outlet at Penang Time Square around a month back and it seems to be connected to Ajinoren in Prima Tanjung as the menu kind of offer the same identical dishes and set meals!

Anyways, upon entering the outlet, well, it does not have the typical Japanese kinda feel, as the interior has a hint of Zen, Balinese, slight Middle Eastern and Japanese. Well, it’s somehow unique at it’s own way and in fact pretty cozy and has a nice touch. Problem is the air cond is not very cold in there. It was scorching hot outside, and the huge window pane without any curtain allows the sunlight to shine in directly.

And the tatami area we chose has got a faulty aircond.. :( Anyhow, they have quite large selections of set meals and ala carte, so you’ll be spoilt with choices and suffer headache trying to decide what to go with, cause you will want them all… :P

Nice lamp…

Each tatami dining area is separated by these “stringy” curtain dividers

They have bookshelf of comic books too….

Nice interior with mixture of everything… great ambiance..

Table setting….

Gyoza/Chashu Udon Set @ MYR20.00. You can opt to have ramen too… Set comes with the udon in flavoursome soup with some hint of spiciness and has got vegetables (Chinese cabbage) and ebi (prawn) tempura. Sides are 3 pieces of gyoza, salad and watermelon slice. We liked it!

Bento B @ MYR48.00, which I can’t remember the name. It comes with a piece of grilled unagi, which I personally think will taste better with more sauce… accompanied by tempura vegetable and prawns, fresh salmon slices (which is quite thick… I personally prefer thinner slices), miso soup, salad and also watermelon slice.

We also ordered Tsuruya Special Maki @ MYR18.00, with ebi tempura, unagi and cucumber rolled in sushi rice and nori (seaweed) sheet, and coated with fish roe. It was good, but we could not finish it. Our set meals portion was pretty huge….

During my first visit, we actually has few other set meals that are recommendable, like the chicken teriyaki set, the unagi bento set etc… just too bad that I totally forgot my camera that day!

Anyways, worth to make a visit once in a while… I would not say it’s rather cheap, no, but reasonably priced… and the food quality wise and the atmosphere are the main draws for customers to go back. And well, have the aircond fixed please, it’s not nice enjoying a great meal feeling stuffy and have the urge to go back to the office to enjoy the aircond :D

The restaurant it just few doors away from JPJ. And I thought it’s Bukit Jambul, but the address states Relau though.. but well, it’s easy to find..

Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant 鹤屋日本料理
1-1-38/39, I Avenue Medan KPG Relau 1,
Relau, 11900 Bayan Lepas,
Penang.
Contact ☎ 04-641 0828

Teow Chew Meng, Sunway Tunas, Penang

If you are familiar with Teow Chew Meng, anytime you hear the name, the first thing that comes to your mind would be, their signature dish mee sua tow (mee sua kor).

And they have their very own website too with loads of photos of their mouthwatering dishes.. don’t say i did not warn you… it’s  mouthwatering… many other signature dish to be explored…

Utensils, condiments and tissue all laid on a tray of each table….

And there it is… the signature and recommended mee sua tow, topped with shark’s fin.. they have few kind of mee sua tow.. and that is for you to go find out :D The ingredients are generously cooked with the mee sua..  not like some you get outside with practically mee sua (wheat vermicelli) and tiny bits of you-don’t-even-know-what-it-is kind of ingredient…  MYR10 and it’s a huge bowl…

The Tom Yam Noodles… smells good and my friend said it tasted good too. He ordered the one with deep fried fish meat which was fresh.. well, it’s a little bit pricey though for a Tom Yam Noodles… If I’m not mistaken, it’s cost somewhere at MYR10 per serving too… The one selling at the roadside near my place, in Taman Lip Sin next to the soya bean lorry is equally nice with deep fried fish meat too, only at half the price :D Well, perhaps it’s because they don’t have to pay any rent…

The one we went was at Sunway Tunas, smaller outlet and full with customers during lunch hours. It’s air conditioned and good thing it’s not stuffy, so it’s pretty comfortable dining there. And free wifi available too :D

Restoran Teow Chew Meng

Bayan Baru(Open daily) 10:00am to 10:00pm
40,Persiaran Mahsuri 2 11900 Sunway Tunas
Contact ☎ 012-4728186
E-mail:liongtek@gmail.com

Georgetown (Close on Monday Except Public Holiday) 11:00am to 10:00pm
22B,Krian Road (8 Row) 10400 Georgetown
Contact ☎ 012-4282208
E-mail:tanmanchin@gmail.com

For more information and location map, click here

Restoran Yaki Teppan, Sg. Nibong, Penang

There’s this Japanese teppanyaki kinda place in Sg Nibong where we can catch lunch on working days except for Mondays.  Well, it does not really look like authentic Japanese though, no typical jap style theme restaurant. They offer variety of teppanyaki set meals, tempura set meals, course meals and limited selection of sushi. And you can place order online too!! haha… pretty tech savvy this place :D

The interior is just very simple and often full during lunch time. The con is, it’s an air conditioned closed doors restaurant and with lotsa teppanyaki going on, you’ll go back smelling like the kitchen too :D

The water features and they have magazines that you can read while waiting for your food…

We all ordered the teppanyaki set that was consist of the teppanyaki dish and rice, drink (green tea), soup (supposedly miso soup but we got normal cabbage+carrot soup that day), salad, and wantons (usually is tofu but they ran out of it that day.. business seems good..)

The Chicken Teriyaki Set with stir fry vegetables (cabbage and bean sprouts) MYR10.50.. which is well, quite cheap and affordable. The sauce portion was generous, but kinda oily. It does not taste like the authentic one with thick teriyaki sauce, the sauce is thinner but overall, I say it’s not bad.

The Fish Teriyaki Set, MYR10.90, consist the same just deep fried fish meat pieces cooked with teriyaki sauce.

The salmon set MYR13.90, with rather small slices of salmon and it actually looked kinda.. urm.. dull.. well, guess you get what you paid for.. haha… but my colleague personally did really enjoy it… she commented that it was not as fresh and a little bit oily too… perhaps grilled salmon is be better…

They have their website with all the information, from menu listing to price listing, order form list and very detailed directions to the shop… it’s actually just next to Kopitiam heng Huat where I usually get my economy fried bee hoon. Food overall wasn’t superbly great, just so so, but the wide selections and the affordability is two keys to consider. Service was not bad too despite peak hours… I believe there is still room for improvement.. :D

Restoran Yaki Teppan

74 Jalan Aziz Ibrahim, 11900 Sg Nibong, Penang

Contact ☎ 04-6422260 / 012-4820456

Email yaki.teppan@gmail.com

Opening hours 11:00am to 2:30pm (Lunch); 6:00 to 10:00pm (Dinner) Closed on Mondays