Penang Laksa @ Ayer Itam - Revisited

If there is a thing that I will regret leaving Penang without it would be eating Penang Laksa.

Penang Laksa or more famous as Asam Laksa in KL is not really my favourite food. The spicy and sour soup filled with stinky fish and prawn paste look very disgusting at the first look.

However, Penang Laksa at Ayer Itam prove my theory wrong for the first time last year when I was in Penang and when I visited Penang this year, I make it a must to visit place despite I have a tight schedule.


The stall is located at Ayer Itam market which added more 'stink' to the food. I reckon that there is tasted better Penang Laksa in other place but somehow, Ayer Itam one are still my liking.

The broth wasn't that stinky compare to other stall as the prawn paste was quite diluted. However, I appreciate the amount of fish inside the broth. The amount of mints and vegetable goes very well with springy noodles.

Yum yum....I just love the laksa with the sugar cane drink from stall nearby....

A must try!!!

Refer to my old post...Penang Laksa 2009...I could believe I capture almost the same photo as well...

Penang Laksa 2009

Cabbages & Condoms Restaurant

I read a lot of blogs about Bangkok before I fly over there for a 4 days vacation. There is few post that really catch my eye and one of them are about dining in a restaurant with condom theme.

Since the place we stay in just a stone throw away, we decided to have our very last dinner in Bangkok at Cabbages & Condoms Restaurant. The restaurant located at Sukhumvit 12 which is about 5-10 minutes walking distance from Nana BTS station and 3 minutes walk from Times Square.

The condoms theme serve as an awareness program in educating the public on the important of safe sex. Well, Bangkok is famous for sex tourist anyway, so I believe having some awareness programme can help a little bit in reducing the spread of HIV virus.

Our order list are as follows:

เมี่ยงคำ (Mieng Khum)- TBH 120
Thai ancient appetizer - lemon,dried shrimp, peanut, ginger
deep-fried coconut, chilli,shallots,and special sauce ,wrapped in wild betel leaves
The taste was good with a good blend of fresh ingredient, special sauce and herbs. However, the peanut is just too hard for a nice chew



แกงเผ็ดเป็ดย่าง (Gang Phed Ped Yang) - TBH 200
Hot and sweet roasted duck cooked with coconut milk,and green pepper

The virgin green pepper could be easily mistaken as green pea. A bite on the pepper explode the good aroma of pepper but no spicy taste. The sweetness of coconut milk blend well with the curry and the juicy and tender roasted duck enhance this meal

ไก่ห่อใบเตย (Kai Hor Bai Teoy in herb leaf bikini ) - TBH 200
Deep-fried Chicken wrapped in pandan leaf,served with special sauce
The chicken is very tender and juicy. The sauce is also quite special. I personally think it was plum sauce.

ปลากระพงราดพริก (Pla Ka Pong Rad Phrik) - TBH 350
Deep-fried whole sea bass topping with chilli sauce

Too crispy for my liking but i just love the sauce


ต้มยำกุ้ง (Tom Yam Gung) - TBH 250 (big portion in hot pot)
Thai spicy shrimp soup,seasoned with chilli,lime,lemongrass,and galanga

Yum yum....At last a decent tom yam from Bangkok....been searching for days and night



Drinks - Grape juice, honey dew juice and lime juice




Thai Dessert
Sweeten jack fruit, water chestnut, boiled tapioca balls, coconut milk serve with shaved ice and syrup

Total burn in the wallet:

1640 Thai bath....
It was a little bit pricey but the environment was extremely nice with soft music instrument play by beautiful lady smiling all the way, natural curtain from the rain forest tree, condom decoration and free condom for all visitor...Why not!!

Temptations Restaurant & Bar@Mahkota Cheras

It has been really quite long time since my last post last year!!! I would like apologise here.

We decided to go Mahkota Cheras on 11 April for Choi Ling's surpise birthday gathering. We also celebrated Yong Joo's birthday in advance. As recommended by Yen Thoong, we chose Temptations Cafe for our dinner.



"Salmon Fillet" with Teriyaki sauce, potato,vegetables for RM22

"Butter Fish" with potato, vegetables, Beure Blanc sauce for RM20

"Nachos" for RM 16

"Mexican Chicken Breast" with butter rice and vegetables for RM18

"Seafood Platter" fish fillet, mussels, tiget prawns, scallop, squids fot RM22

"Ceaser Salad" for RM14

Group photo - Happy birthday to Yong Joo and Choi Ling!!!


Overall, the environment is quite nice, food is also not bad and fishes are fresh and the price is also reasonable. It's definitely worth a try if you are nearby at Cheras or Kajang areas.

Contact:
No. 3, Jalan Temenggung 5/9, Seksyen 9, Bandar Mahkota Cheras, 43200 Cheras, Selangor.
Tel: 603 9010 3020 / 012 3564519

Operating Hours:
Tues-Sun & Public Holidays: 11am - 11pm. Closed on Mondays

Result: 7/10 (Marks reduced due to its far distance)

Shihlin Taiwan Street Snack@ Tropicana City Mall

Actually a visit to Shihlin wasn't part of my plan in TCM(Tropicana City Mall). It was craving of a friend of mine towards the XXL Fried Chicken, of which i reluctantly agreed with the promise that the Oyster Mee Sua was rather good.

The XXL chicken, or better known as the Shihlin Fried Chicken, was rather good with crisp on the outside and tender in the inside. I rather like this compared to Uncle Bob, which can be very spicy at some point. But there's one thing that I would like to set as a reminder( the outlet in Tropicana doesn't cut the chicken into pieces and that you have to bite on them as they come in a big piece-not sure about other outlet though). However, the price was rather high(RM 6) for a piece of chicken for a meal.

The Oyster Mee Sua was rather good with the thick broth( mind that I am rather picky on mee sua) and 3 oysters. The aroma was already tempting when the mee sua was placed in front of me. I would definitely go back for it even when the price is rather high(RM6) for such a small helping. But its good enough for a meal.
There were only 2 type of drink served, mineral water(RM2) and V-Soy soya milk(RM2.50).
Was definitely a good try if you happen to shop at Tropicana City Mall(on the same floor as Carrefour)

Restaurant TYY, Sg Ara

I have been working in Penang for some days and I have the opportunity to travel around and eat the best food Penang can offer...

Today we end up in Restaurant TYY, very near to our office to have Yam Rice.

According to the colleague in Penang, the yam rice here is superbly good which is serve with the sour and spicy pork soup. I reckon that the yam rice is delicious and the soup is extremely nice. It was so difficult to get another one nicer than this. We order 2 huge bowl of the soup, one being plain pork with meat ball and another one with all 'pork inner'. We also order braised egg which was cook with the 'vinegar pork knuckle'. Again this is nice but the broth is not sour enough but turn out to be sweet....Still I like it though.



Besides, the restaurant is famous for its chicken rice. We order a plate of 'char siew'. It was very sinful to have fattening char siew with partly 'hangus'. It was very delicious. The char siew is sweet and well cook. I love it..

AirAsia Nasi Lemak....

As I am a big fan of AirAsia due to it successful low cost model for Asian market, I personally would like to taste the food sold on board to experience whether the food are so lousy as what I normally heard.

Well, for service wise, I personally think there is pro and cons between both big airline in Malaysia being the MAS and AirAsia. A lot of people are shouting loud on AirAsia for not providing free food on board and it was said that the price charge for the food are extremely expensive. For me, I look on another way, why do we pay few hundred buck extra just for the food and a little bit extra services that they provide while we are complaining paying RM9 for a Nasi Lemak?

I ordered a Nasi Lemak on my way to Bangkok as it was a 2 hours flight which fall on my lunch time. Being squeeze in small seat with no extra space for leg seem to be very uncomfortable, what more if we are to dine there. No choice, for lower price this is what I have to compromise.

The Nasi Lemak look very average to me. Aromatic coconut milk rice serve with sambal and very 'sad' portion of ikan bilis and 3 tiny pieces of chicken rendang. For a price of RM 9, i reckown that it was pricy. We can have better portion with half the price if we are on the land.

But think again? How many time can you eat on the sky? For the price of RM 9 i personally think is reasonable. Imagine the processing time, making sure the food is fully prepared, transporting from kitchen to airplane, cost of air-stewardess to push the trolley and shouting 'Any food, sir?', and so on, RM9 seem reasonable...

Gosh, am I promoting AirAsia? Hope I am not....but what I want to say, you get what you paid for....

MBK Fifth Food Avenue

Finding a food in Bangkok is never a problem. Every nook and corner, you can just find food to fill your empty stomach.

From street food to luxury restaurant, you will have hard time to decide where to eat.

Talking about Bangkok, one cannot run away from shopping...There is lot of huge shopping mall selling goods from fashion to technology ware.

MBK was one of them. MBK stand for Mah Boon Krong is a huge shopping mall that sell everything under the sun. I would say, it resemblem a Chatuchak Market with covered and air-condition place.

After a long day walking at the mall, one can go to fifth floor for a good meal.

MBK Fifth Food Avenue serve food from local Thai, Balinese, Arabian, Western, Indian, Chinese, Iranian, Japanese, Korean, Hainanese, Vietnamese and even Vegetarian.

The price is above average but with the sofa seating and 'free Thai Ice Tea' for tourist, I believe it was quite reasonable.

Here is what we order:


Balinese Special Fried Rice
Warning to those small eater, this portion will be more than enough for 2 person. It come with huge plate of fried rice serve with 2 Indonesian Satay, one fried chicken with special sauce and a egg.


Green Curry with Rice
The green curry taste good but lack of mint aroma. Somehow I feel that Bangkok Green Curry do not have strong basil and mint taste as compare to those we have in Malaysia.

PradThai
Prathai which resemble Malaysian version of Fried Keow Tiaw is a very famous dish in Bangkok. It come with chili flake, sugar and peanut to add the aroma and taste.

The food court system uses touch and go system whereby one will get a card and for each food we order, an amount will be inserted into the cards. During the check out from the food court, one will need to pay at the counter the price of food consume.

Conclusion, the food was nice and reasonable prices. However we saw some insect flying around the food court. Maybe MBK can consider to have pest control or look into the hygiene matter.

Bangkok Street Food - Pork noodles

In my mind, I always thought every street in Bangkok will sell tomyam...but to my horror, I couldn't even find tomyam in Bangkok except those high end restaurant.

On the other side, every street in Bangkok do sell Pork Noodles.

A bowl of noodles serve with blacken soup with few pieces of pork tender meat and fish ball is what I see everywhere.


The noodles is white in color and not like those we have in KL (KL serve yellow color noodles). The soup resemble the bah kut teh broth but it taste rather bland. Every table it come with 4 side ingredient which we can add on ourselves. The 4 things are vegetable, sugar, chili flack, and peanut. In some places they even have fish sauce and vinegar pepper as well.

Thailand people are very healthy. There serve vegetable for free. You can add those vegetable as much as you can.....


So next time you go to Chatuchak, or where ever in Bangkok, stop by and enjoy a a bowl of this delicacy...

Mango Sticky Rice

What is the food running on your mind relating to Bangkok?

Majority of us will say Tomyam or prathai.....

How about Mango Sticky Rice?


In every street in Bangkok, you can find people selling Mango. Certain stall also offer sticky rice to eat with mango.

Mango sticky rice is so famous in Bangkok that most Thai Restaurant in Malaysia had also start to sell it. But trust me, none of the sticky rice in Malaysia can beat Bangkok version.

The tasteless sticky rice is cook to perfection and with a little bit of coconut milk that create strong aroma and sweetness is the perfect combination. A small scoop of the sticky rice with a slice of mango melting inside the mouth is the greatest thing ever....Yum Yum....

What a great supper with a can of beer....

Bangkok street food - insects

What have 3 pairs of legs and an antenna?

Insect....

and if you think it was gross, how about it end into the pot of boiling hot oil and then end up at your mouth, then throat, then your lovely stomach...


Gross, gross, gross.....damm gross...

I been dare to eat this...and i try to deny the dare....but end up i brave myself with one grasshopper....

It taste like 'ikan bilis' with soy sauce....

But guys, the gross part is not the taste but the legs kinda stuck in your mouth and no matter how many time you try to goggle with water or so on, you still will have the feeling of something in your mouth...

Yeah, maybe is psychology!