Saturday, May 31, 2008

Char Koay Teow in Penang

Today I'm going to introduce you - Lorong Selamat's Char Koay Teow. I bet most of you guys have heard of Lorong Selamat in Penang. For a better view of what's inside a plate of char koay teow,

Char Kway Teow (Char Kuay Teow )literally “fried flat noodles”, is basically flat rice noodles with prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts, Chinese chives, and chili paste fried over very high heat. Sometimes, slices of Chinese sausage are added. The best Char Koay Teow is usually fried with pork lard, which gives that extra aroma to the dish.

The version of Penang Char Kway Teow is sometimes added with duck’s eggs (for richer taste) and crab meat (for sweetness).

Penang = Char Koay Teow + Lorong Selamat
Let me start of with Lorong Selamat's Char Koay Teow. On Thursday (May 29th), the 3 of us - Me, Chern Ta & Graeme went for a plate of Lorong Selamat's Char Koay Teow for brunch after visiting and touring the famous Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion.

Last time, the famous Char Koay Teow in Lorong Selamat is under another coffee shop. However, later on, the Char Koay Teow lady boss realises the profits that she's able to make if she owns a coffee shop herself. (meaning, not only she earns her char koay teow money, but also for drinks too). Then, tadaa! Her own coffee shop - Kafe Heng Huat!
If you were to go to Lorong Selamat, there's about 3-5 coffee shops just beside each other and also opposite each other. All selling almost the same food. Do not get confused people, over the best Char Koay Teow. It's at Kafe Heng Huat at the corner.

Why? It's simple : We recognise the aunty Char Koay Teow's famous goggles and hat.


Us 3 ordered a plate of Char Koay Teow each alongside with chinese herbal tea. A normal plate of Char Koay Teow is RM6 and the portion is little but the prawns are XL in size (3 prawns). It's pricey though, but it's good cause it has the fragrant aroma that you can't find it in any other plates of Char Koay Teow.

Char Koay Teow without chilli. Both chilli and non-chilli is deliciously delicious!

Compare the plate of Char Koay Teow with the one in SA? It puts the Char Koay Teow from SA in disgrace! LOL

PS: This is a non-halal dish

All the above are char koay teow fried with chicken eggs. There's a few famous stalls in Penang that fries char koay teow with duck eggs (they say it enhances the taste). I'll try it out soon & let you people know bout it aight!

foodie - Rachael Lim 002

Penang Road famous Lor Bak

Have anyone of you tried or tasted the famous Lor Bak in Penang?

For those of you who don't know what a Lor Bak is :

Lor Bak or meat rolls are wrapped in beancurd skin and deep fried to perfection. Lor Bak are usually served with two dipping sauces in Penang: chili sauce and a starchy sauce flavored with five-spice powder and eggs.

“Penang Lor Bak” stalls can be found everywhere in Malaysia but you have to come to Penang for a taste of the real thing with the full range of ingredients including boiled octopus, pig’s ears, Heh chih (prawn fritters), Tau kua (bean cake), Hard-boiled eggs, Century eggs with pickled ginger and more.


OK. Since you now know what a Lor Bak is now, in Penang, there's 1 very famous place to get the best Lor Bak in town. That place is : Cafe Kheng Pin, 80 Penang Road. It opens from 7AM-3PM and closes on every Monday. So avoid going there after 3PM and also on Mondays.

On Thursday, May 29th 2008, Graeme, Chern Ta & I (rach) went for the famous Lor Bak after our lunch which was the famous Char Koay Teow at Lorong Selamat. Cafe Kheng Pin is a very old style, old school coffee shop which you can still see a lot of old traditional settings, furnitures and it's quite dirty. LOL.

We ordered 3 lor bak, 2 ah kua's tau kua's (bean cake), and 3 pieces of Heh Chih (prawn fritters)

Our food... it comes with some cucumber and chili sauce and a starchy sauce flavored with five-spice powder and eggs. YUM YUM!

The chef uncle

If you don't know where the coffee shop is, it's easy. It's Cafe Kheng Pin, at Penang Road and it's located right opposite of Body Glove and oh, remember the chef's hat too. It comes in handy as there's also another coffee shop beside Cafe Kheng Pin.

Sometimes if you are unlucky, the Lor Bak stall will be closed cause the uncle will be off outstation or overseas, like get invited or hired by a hotel or something for his lor bak and all for a couple of weeks. Lots of people come from far and near for this uncle's lor bak. The best thing is - it's not pricey!

What are you waiting for? Start packing and come to Penang for great food! Haha

foodie -Racheal Lim 001

Another new OnlyFoodie.com recruit!

Greetings everyone! Let me introduce myself first before introducing and recommending any other nice food........

I am Rachael and is a classmate of Desmond & Jonathan. I've been recruited and invited by Yang Amat Berhormat Tan Sri Datuk Desmond Chua Xiang Xin, the owner of OnlyFoodie.com to be part of onlyfoodie.blogspot.com . Hahaha. Our main aim in OnlyFoodie.com is to introduce and recommend you nice, interesting, delicious, special food, food reviews, our opinions and also, sometimes, rants and gossips and what nots. Do take note that this is not only all about food though!

I've been invited by Desmond a few days ago to be a foodie member, and on 31st May, Desmond gave me the access to this blog at 12AM. Thanks Des!!!

I come from Penang, so throughout this whole summer as I'm back in Penang already for the holidays, I'll mostly be introducing you food in Penang. However, sometimes, I might go out of Penang for food, so it's not just only makan-makan Penang for me. I've tasted loads of food from KL, and once in awhile to spice things up, I'll post something different - perhaps food from KL and other places.

I have a series of food lining up, waiting to be posted into an entry... be patient people! Do check this site often for more updates.

Thank you!

Cheers,
Rachael

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Din Tai Fung :: 鼎泰豐

Their Story~

Din Tai Fung's founder, Mr Yang, fled China in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War. He was a penniless immigrant when he landed in Taiwan. He soon found a job as a delivery boy for a store selling cooking oil. When he finally saved up enough money, he started a small restaurant in 1972 selling Xiao Long Bao (dumpling) and noodles named Din Tai Fung. The original restaurant was a humble little outlet, Mr Yang used few years to refined the secret recepi of Din Tai Fung's xiao long bao. The end result is a delicious soup filled dumpling with at least 18 delicate folds. Today, there are more than 40 Din Tai Fung restaurant in 10 countries.
Din Tai Fung has been voted as "Top 10 restaurant in the world" by The New York Times.
During the study week, me, favian and jon went MV for Iron Man, jon introduced this restaurant to us~
Din Tai Fung can be found at The Garden Midvalley megamall.

Right beside the entrance, u can find this~ A huge poster showing some celebrities that have visited the restaurant, what compliments they've received, and blabla bla~. in a more polite way,can be said that they are using maketing strategy to impress customer, if not....Kind of showoff thingy lar~ lol...

Interior

A basic table setting

ok, lets look at the menu first~ order what u wan, no need worries

see, somehow i have to admit that they are quite pro in making Xiao Long Bao, coz as they mentioned, the world famous Xiao Long Bao each has at least 18 exquisite folds, translucent and fine skin, plump and juicy within, and freshly made when we order~ lol... a bao only... also so detailed... haha


Here is the Xiao Long Bao package. We order Combo A.

Mango Shrimp Rolls
Spicy Shrimp Pork LaMian
Pork Chop Fried Rice.


one thing i din expect was , they used japanese rice to cook!! hmm... good idea!!! i shall try at home!

here we come, Xiao Long Bao.!!


Vegetarians are welcome too!!!!


u know, i used to watch a taiwan tv programme, which was a competition in eating Spicy Noodles (ma la mian). I tot taiwan-made chili sauce can make me crazy, but... it was so~so~ only!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Motivation by food?

At last! We were left with out LAST paper, accounting. We decided to go to Semenyih for some decent food. I guess food somehow plays a large role in cheering us up and motivating us to work harder as in revision). We ended up in not one, but TWO restaurants!

Al-Shad

Al-Shad, a Northern Indian Cuisine Restaurant @ Semenyih




Naan. It is an Indian flat bread that is usually served with dahl or curry. The specialty of this bread is its aroma and the texture. Toppings on naan may vary from butter to garlic and sometimes, it's served plain. It is believed that the flavor is affected by preparation method, which is by baking it in a HUGE Tandoor (Clay Oven).


The above dish is a combination of 2 items. Curry chickpeas is on the left of the plate. The chickpeas is cooked with basic curry, herb & spices. Wondering what the lump of green stuff is?Well, it's called Palak Paneer! This Indian dish is a blend of Spinach, cheese & spices. It may not look appetizing, but try it & you'll love it! I guess the special thing of this dish is the perfect blend of flavour due to the spices. Now...who says eating vegetable is dull?



Briyani Rice. For those live in KL, I'm sure you all have heard of briyani rice. It's just white rice cooked with spices like cinnamon, cumin, coriander and tumeric powder. However, here's the catch, Basmati Rice is used instead of the normal fragrant rice. This long grain rice itself have its own unique flavour and taste. Therefore, briyani rice is flavorful & tasty!


Mutton Curry.



Tandoori Chicken. Tandoori chicken is different from the grilled chicken found in Western restaurants. This is due to the spices used to marinate the chicken. Again, the spices and the way it is barbequed (using the Tandoor oven) makes the chicken tastes scrumptious.





D'TREE STEAK

Dun think semenyih is a ulu area~ at least here has a steak house ok? * erm.. anything to proud of that? *

basically, semenyih.. i nvr been there untill i went register for my uni~ well, this steak house named D'TREE STEAK. lol... jus in semenyih central area~



My fren rocommended me their fish & chips, the portion is quite big and the price is onlu rm5.90 when still in promotional period!! lol... i went there on tuesday with my uni frens, that time was still rm5.90, mana tau on wednesday, i went there again with my secondary skol fren, they adjusted the price to rm7.90 d ~ coz i din realise rm5.9 was a promotional price! lol...



my fren ordered this chicken chop, according to them, it was not bad. I also tried b4, also considered nice! But, some of my fren said not really nice if compare with what what steakhouse.. bla bla bla~ hey my fren, jus think bout it, i jus evaluate them with the price!! plz la, u paying mayb one third of those branded fish n chips in branded steak house... dun so choosy lar~ =.=

MAMA Cup in Pork Flavour

One day during exam period, i saw my housemate, Suvicha eating cup noodle. At first, i din know the uniqueness of the cup noodle. When i observed it carefully, ohh~!! PORK flavour! i think we cant get it anywhere in Malaysia. He told me the mee from thailand~



Thailand BEST





hmm.. i think this shud be the "PORK "

* sluurrp *

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Cupcakes anyone?

Hello EVERYBODY!

Firstly, before I introduce myself, I would like to thank Desmond for inviting me to be a "partner" of onlyfoodie.blogspot.com. I am really honoured because he actually trust me when it comes to food! MUAHAHAHA *evil laughter*

I'm Jonathan and I happen to be in same course (foundation @ Notts) as Desmond. I would say that one of my weakness is food. As in, YUMMY, TASTY, ODD & SPECIAL food. I always believe that life is so short that we MUST live it to the fullest and taste as much food as possible before we..erm... "kick the bucket"? :) However, I'm rather opionated when it comes to the quality & taste of food. Warning : I might give straight forward opinions. For instance, my idea of good food is the food served in SA, I mean the food served at Kanpachi restaurant (Equatorial Hotel). Fortunately, I'm on a loooooong Summer break. Hopefully, I'll try out more restaurants and also try to blog as often as possible!


Since it's my very first entry here, I would like to share something tasty with you guys!


Boring Cakes... *yawn*



Birthday. Today happens to be my younger brother, Bryan's birthday. Instead of the plain ol' birthday cake, mom decided to get him something different. Cupcakes!! Yea yea, cupcakes sound so girly and all but trust me, it's different this time!


Old fashion cupcakes...


The theme of the cupcakes my mom ordered is "Beach Party". Surprisingly, it turned out quite cool. I have to admit that I do not quite like cupcakes because I feel that they all taste the same. However it's different in this case. There's a variety of flavour such as butter, chocolate, orange and banana & walnut (my FAVOURITE). The cupcakes not only look good, they taste even better. Moving on to the technical side, the texture of the cupcakes are moist and fine. Each bite is simply a bliss :) The chocolate muffin is rich & moist, the butter ones smell really good, the orange flavoured ones are tangy and the banana cupcakes are simply tasty. Enough with the compliments, it's time to show you guys some photo of the cupcakes...

Presenting BEACH PARTY...


Closeup Shot


I see sharks. I see trees. I see beaches & yummy cupcakes :)




All in all, I feel that cupcakes can be a new replacement for birthday cakes. Not only they are good looking, they are yummy and convenient too! We can say bye bye to the mess while distributing cakes. In this case, just pass ONE to everyone! Mind you, if cupcakes for guys look this great, imagine what the girls (the pastry chef) can do for girls.

Simply drop me an email if you wish to order these gorgeous cupcakes for any occasion! I'll pass you the contact details.

Bon Appetit!
foodie - Jonathan Wong 001

Friday, May 23, 2008

foodie is BACK~


well... after the 3 weeks loooooooooooooong exam disaster, now i am back to my foodie blog~ haha... my 4 MONTHS summer break jus started!! wohoho~

During the 2 weeks long exam period... My brain jus simply flooded by all sorts of information!!
INFORMATION OVERLOAD =.=
In day time, u will see me in library and at night u most probably meet me in study room WITH all these books~~ omg.. what a nerd!


Normally, exam candidate will be encouraged to take less spicy, fried food!! but... due to the limitation in getting those healthy food in Unimc... terpaksa eat lo~

mee goreng ayam from Idi's corner

nasi goreng USA + chicken wing



nasi lemak from Narvin at semenyih town


and FINALLY~ i would like to announce that our

FOUNDATION programme is OFFICIALLY OVER


crazy photo session at fountain