Gourmet Garden

Popularity: 3% [?]

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A different person was manning the Wantan Mee stall during our last trip (6th Feb).

One or two months back we wrote about “Chee Meng Cafe”, but it has since changed to “Tong Seng”. And the Chee Meng Wantan Mee that we have mentioned has moved to a new location that we have yet to find out. Anyway, the replacement wantan mee stall is no lesser in uniqueness as compared to Uncle Chee Meng.

We were sceptical when we approached the shop due to the unfamiliar faces at the shop, therefore we only made an order for a regular single serving of dry wantan noodles. After trying that faithful bowl, we continued with our brunch at Tong Seng. Always keep an open mind when it comes to new eating outlets, the most you will get run over once by the shop! T The wantan noodle stall at Tong Seng is a branch of the “Dhoby Ghuat Wantan Noodle Stall” that has more than 10 years of history. This branch at Jalan Dato Koyah is being manned by Yvonne. The business hours are from 6:30am up till 1:00pm daily except Wednesdays, as the shop rests for a day.

Although the noodles are not as thin as the ones use by Chee Meng, the dark soya sauce dressing for the dry version can compensate for it. It had a sweet caramel, smoky and nutty taste, which reminded us of the good old simple taste of wantan noodles. Nothing complicate, just good tasty dark soya sauce combined with fragrant lard oil tossed into al-dente egg noodles. An easy task but hard to master for many. Even the wantan dumplings also pack with nostalgic flavours.

Tip: As the noodles are not as old or dry, best is to order extra dry with lard bits and savour. Additional moisture would make the noodles lose their crunch.

Then after the first single serving we tried their “Spicy” wantan noodles. The noodles are toss with premix spicy mixture which is supplied some distributor. Same as the previous encounters, the mixture tend to have powdery texture at the end of the serving. But the taste that was delivered at this stall was slightly different with a more peppery taste as we continue eating.

Then we notice that it had stewed chicken feet, one of the must try of this stall! At RM3 per serving of 9 pieces, it all comes down to about 33cents per piece which is similar to the price of this delicacy when I was still in secondary school. The tastes had a good balance of savoury, sweet and spice, which all came from the equilibrium use of star anise (八角), cloves, Chinese cinnamon (肉桂), Sichuan pepper(花椒), and good quality dark soya sauce. The texture of the chicken feet was tender but not too soft with low amounts of oily aftertaste. It was not “sticky” and without the overwhelming feeling that Gill finish the whole bowl of gravy like drinking soup. We even asked Yvonne whether she can throw in some rice vermicelli and flat rice noodles with the gravy. And she did.

When you are dining at Tong Seng, do try out their kopi ‘o’ and also their nutmeg juice.

Business Hours: 6:30am up till 1:00pm daily except Wednesdays

GPS:5.41989, 100.3317

Overall experience:

Popularity: 7% [?]

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A few weeks back we are ask to sample this particular brand, Fresh 鲜茶工坊,  of  fruit tea business that works on a distributorship  concept. The distributor who invited us was located at 16, Lebuh Macallum in Penang. It is at a row of shop houses just before the Macallum Street wholesale market. This particular outlet caters to the dine-in, take-away and also deliveries to a stipulated area at certain time of the day.

Fresh 鲜茶工坊 boast to be a specialist in the fruit flavoured tea drinks; especially the Passion fruit flavoured ones. We were told that most of their ingredients, for their drinks and food items, are imported from Taiwan, even their cups and their individually packed straws. That is how far the “Master Distributor” will take to make sure they provide the best product to their clients.

Although their best or most popular drink is the passion fruit flavoured tea drinks, it doesn’t mean that their other drink offerings are not good enough. I guess it would be best to inquire their counter staffs or scan through their drinks menu for the flavour that will excite your taste buds. There are 8 types of fruit flavours to choose from for your green tea or earl grey tea base. It also provides a selection between Nata-De-Coco and “Black Pearls” for your drink. ‘Yakult’ is also an option to enhance the taste of the drink you fancy.

One of the key items in Taiwanese milk teas or tea based drinks are the “black pearls” or “黑珍珠”. At Fresh they were said to be replenished or changed every 4 hours to maintain its flavours and also its texture. The black pearls have a springy texture but yet do not stick to the grooves in the mouth, and it has a herbal after taste rather than a sweet taste which is quite different from the versions that I have had before.

Other than drinks, they also served some light finger food or snacks and a few Japanese dishes to begin with. During the sampling day we were given two dishes to try, one was their ‘Okonomiyaki‘ and the other was their ‘Kabayaki Unagi don’. Their okonomiyaki (RM 9.00) is made of cooked cabbage, pork slices, egg omelette and topped with generous amounts of bonito flakes and mayo.  The cabbage was sweet with a crunchy surface and well cooked centre, the pork slices were tender and juicy and the egg omelette was fragrant and moist. Price wise it is not very cheap, but definitely value for money as the stuffing of cabbage and pork slice were very plentiful and of better quality.

Then we had try at their Kabayali Unagi Don (RM13.50) where the special sweet sauce was also imported to ensure that the taste is as near as possible to what the ‘Master Distributor’ have experienced. The rice was fluffy and the Unagi very tender and the sauce had a caramel and savoury flavour. It would go down very well with a person who likes heavy tasting food.

Overall experience:

Popularity: 14% [?]

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During lunch with FoodnTravella last Sunday afternoon, we were told by her friend that there was a fish head curry in the Zim Sum Restaurant premises on Anson Road that operates in the evening. And of cause after getting wind of the stall, we decided to try out the fish head curry a few days ago after running some errands and meeting some clients.  The stall is run by an uncle and his assistant (worker lah), and it offers fish head curry, fish meat curry, fried balacan chicken and omelette.

The curry is made to order and there are a few sizes to choose from in terms of fish head size and pieces of fillet required. The one we had was RM22 and it was quite a big piece of head and belly, as you can see from the following photos. The fish head was bigger than the size of my wife’s palm and there were lots of okra, tomato, onion strips and mint leaves. Taste wise it is not very exclusive or unappealing; it was actually comparable to some of the more “famous” curry fish head businesses in Penang. The curry was predominantly sour with a sweet after taste and was not too spicy. The longer the fish sits in the curry gravy, the thicker it gets. Even though the curry was made from curry powder, the gravy was neither sandy nor grainy in texture.

Other than the curry, we also tried their balacan chicken which ranges from RM5.50 to RM11.00. The chicken is also made to order. The taste of balacan was light and the texture of the chicken was crisp on the surface and tender in the inside. If you are not a fan of fish head curry, you could try their balacan chicken, egg and rice set which I saw quite a few ordering. Address: 35, Jalan Anson 10400, Penang

Business Hours: 7pm to 11pm daily and closed on Wednesdays.

Overall experience:

• Taste & Texture: 3.0/5
• Money Value: 3.75/5
• Service: 2.9/5
• Cleanliness: 2.5/5
• Atmosphere: 2.5/5

Popularity: 6% [?]

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On the 18th of December 2010, we were invited to the soft launching of Shanghai Splendour which is located in the recently restored Logan Building situated in the heart of Penang’s banking district. Shanghai Splendour is a drinking pub that was built around the “old” Shanghai era theme, and mainly sells beer with some other types of “manly” drinks. It also provides the song birds a place to croon their favourites  from the 80′s, 90′s to the current chart toppers with their in-house karaoke system.

The pub has a ambiance that shouts a warm feeling with reddish wall colours and warm lights. It is a far cry from the bright sunny lights of the outdoors.

Some of the tables are made from parts of the ‘old’ sewing machines that our parents or grandparent have before to mend or sew clothes for us at one time. A good way to correlate to the history rich Logan Heritage building that it is housed in.

The opening of Shanghai Splendour was “coincidentally” timed with the soft launch of ‘Logan Heritage Building’, where the Penang Chief Minister was the guess of honour. The photo below shows the owner of the pub introducing the concept to the Penang CM and sharing a light moment with his entourage.

Logan Heritage is actually the 140-YEAR-OLD  ’Logan Building’ on Beach Street, Penang, that was restored at a cost of RM6.8mil. It is a two-storey building owned by the OCBC Bank that sits majestically at the junction of Beach Street, Union Street and Bishop Street. It has has 23 office units with a built-up area of 3,994.8sq metres.  The building originally had three-stories with cast iron balconies, but was later reduced to two storeys. It also has an inner courtyard within the premises. The last occupant on the ground floor was Barkath Store before the building was closed for restoration early this year. The building is to be occupied by a variety of food and beverages outlets, a foreign currency exchange facility, a gadgets’ shop, a convenience store besides smaller commercial interests.

History has it that the building used to be the workplace of a prominent lawyer James Richardson Logan in the 1860s. He and his elder brother, Abraham came from Edinburgh, Scotland, to the Straits Settlement of Penang in the 1840′s to practiced law in Singapore before migrating to Penang in the 1860′s. It is said that Logan was loved by the local residents then as he was devoted to justice and knowledge. It was said that he had on some occasions defended the needy on a pro bono basis at no cost to them.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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We would like to wish all our readers and peers a Very Happy and Bountiful 2o11!

Fireworks at Esplanade and Prai area.

Fireworks at Straits Quay in Penang.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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