Saturday, February 19, 2011
Restoran Lee - the best crabs in Melaka and breakfast at The Majestic
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuai Pui Curry Mee / Da Fei Ka Li Mien @ Penang
Hotel D'99 at Muar
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The best Penang Laksa and Restoran Nasi Kandar Line Clear @ Penang
However, do not make the mistake of ordering chendul/chendol from this coffeeshop - the one outside where many stand slurping down the chendul is way better. The 50cents to bring that chendol into the coffeeshop is well spent as compared to ordering the overly sweet and sticky chendul from this coffeeshop. As mama was hungry, we ordered fried kway teoh too. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The two prawns that came with the small plate (RM4) were succulent and fresh and the kway teoh was fried to perfection - not too oily and no burnt bits.
Good old mama didn't stop there though - she ordered the fried ngoh hiang which I am not a fan of but hey wow, the Slog Reviews: 8/10. The fried tofu was really good and the meat thingy was stuffed full of meat. I was impressed with how warm, soft and fresh the inside of the tofu was. The sauces that came with the dish were pretty delectable too. Not to be missed if 1 is there.
While walking down Jalan Penang in the direction of Cititel, we also passed by the famous Line Clear Nasi Kandar place - the entrance to the place looks like this. I remember the last time my CEB and I were there, the queue was so ridiculously long that as much as we wanted to try the food, we could not imagine joining the queue.
However, at 3.45pm in the afternoon, there was no queue whatsoever so despite being stuffed from the penang laksa, fried kway teoh etc, we waddled in the narrow alleyway to check out the offerings. On the left side of the wall were some cheery testimonies to the stall's popularity.
The prices of the items however were displayed after the offerings. :D Notice though that the prices of the prawns were not set out...and with good reason, one prawn was RM10!
So, the offerings - a mind-boggling display of pots and plates heaped full of various appetising food which assaulted not just the eyes but the nose. The guy in the picture appeared, or at least behaved like the owner of the place when he decided for mama and me how we should have our food packed for take-away. When I told him how long the queue was the last time and how glad I was to finally be able to try his famous food, he appeared rather pleased & promised me tt he would remember me. And, give me a "cut-the-queue" pass the next time(s).
We ordered chicken, 2 prawns and some veg out of the offerings (consisting of sotongs) below because these were, according to him, the items which would keep for dinner. We just couldn't put any more into our bellies at that time. The bill came to RM27 because 2 prawns = RM20!
In the night, we fell upon the packed food and it tasted as fresh as ever despite being left in packets for 3 hours. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Like Shakira's song "Hips don't lie" in this case here, the queues don't lie!
Golden Sands Resort @ Penang
Traders Hotel @ Penang
Given that we were in Penang so near to the festive Chinese New Year period, the hotel lobby was decorated (rather garishly I felt) with lots of red. I'm not sure how the hotel lobby looks like on an ordinary day but I would think it doesn't quite look like tt with lots of dragons & lanterns.
No luck for a free upgrade to a club room despite the GC membership so a deluxe room (as I'd booked) on the 12th floor it was. I know that this isn't the Shang (although before it was re-named Traders it was called Shangrila) but I was quite surprised that this hotel was quite so old and old-fashioned. I didn't like the corridors of the 12th floor which were dark with thread-bare carpets and as for the room, well, how many hotel rooms these days still have CRT TVs! Even budget hotels have LCD TVs. And don't get me started on the limited cable channels. There was complimentary broadband service but no free wifi. The only thing I really dug about were the beds and beddings which were so plushy - it was so easy to fall sound asleep and a real struggle to get out of 'em in the morning.
We had a view of the city from our room - a view that reminded us of the blazing sun and merciless heat outside. According to a local, it hadn't rained for a month and this is the monsoon season we are talking about!
We didn't use any of the hotel facilities such as the pool but we had dinner at Island Cafe. The prices of the food are ridiculously cheap, esp for a Shang group hotel - RM25 nett for a large steaming pot of salmon fish head curry. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. Spicy definitely (esp if you eat the chilli in the pot) and more than enough meat for 2 adults to share because an entire fish head was used. However, sweet pink salmon meat doesn't really go so well with curry (or maybe I'm not used to that) so this dish isn't a must-try.
Now, when I say superb location of the hotel, I meant the hotel's accessibility to one of the bigger shopping malls in Penang - Pranglin Mall which spans two atriums. It has a Parkson at one of the atriums as well as a Giant supermarket, Watsons, Guardian and all sorts of local clothes and shoes shops. Nothing high street like Mng, Zara much less, Bebe or LV. There is also a cinema on the top floor of Pranglin Mall.
And right next to Pranglin Mall is the new shopping centre called First Avenue. It appears to be very new with a (not-yet-opened) covered linkway to Traders Hotel. There is supposed to be a supermarket here but it isn't opened and the shops look slightly higher-end (there is supposed to be a Coach store soon) but that remains to be seen as the place isn't fully tenanted.
The Slog Reviews: I'll rate a stay at Traders Hotel Penang 8/10. While you should not expect to be blown away or even the least bit impressed with the rooms or the state of the hotel because of its Shang branding, the location (shopping) and accessibility (not just to public transport but to all the famous eating places at Jln Penang / Jln Burma) makes it a viable hotel option. There is also a free daily (11.30, 2.30 and 4.30pm)shuttle bus ride to and fro Golden Sands Resort (also under the Shang group) which one has to register for early due to the limited seats (lots of Japanese tourists stay at Traders and use this facility).
Because Traders Hotel is right next to Komtar, one can take the public bus 401E from the airport to Komtar and walk the 2min walk to the hotel. The bus ride costs only RM2 per pax as opposed to taking a taxi from the airport to Komtar at RM44+. However, I should mention here that I had waited 45mins at Komtar for the 401E to get to the airport on the last day and it never showed - the taxi driver we used in the end mentioned that there is only one bus and well, if that bus gets stuck in the a traffic jam (which Penang is famous for) or breaks down, one could wait a really really long time...like more than an hour!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Restoran Capitol Satay at Melaka
I should mention though that this time in November when I was there, I found a new restaurant just 2 doors down from this one which sells the same satay concept. Some people who grew tired after waiting for more than half an hour or so dropped out of the queue to eat there but for those who had a stouter heart and stronger resolve to have nothing but THE most famous satay in Melaka, we stayed firmly in line until we reached the entrance of the restaurant which looks like this below:
Upon being seated at the first empty available table, one is given a tray and allowed to go forth to the huge array of food laid out in the open refrigerator to heap one's tray with as much as food as one desires. It doesn't matter if there is 2 or 8 of you in a group - the first available table is yours so thumbs up for this equitable practice. We weren't made to share a table (though there were only 2 of us) but at the same time we were not allowed to jump queue ahead of those with much larger groups.
So, after one has chosen one's food - and the spread is wide - crabsticks, prawns, fishballs, meat, century eggs, tau kee, veg, the list just goes on and on - one returns to the table and find a pot of simmering brown curry-like liquid placed right smack in the center of the table.
When the liquid is bubbling, a server then pours in the crushed peanuts into the curry-like sauce and uses the laddle to mix the same to a thick consistency. The service by the servers is rather excellent I must say because every 10-15mins, they would come over and lift up your skewers of food and stir the mix to ensure that it is properly mixed.
And then, the feast begins with one dipping the various skewers of food one has chosen into the bubbling hot peanut sauce. Now, do not for an instance think that the black marks around the pot are just dirt stains. They aren't. We witnessed one table's pot of sauce catching fire literally so be very careful to keep your face away from the pot. It is quite inevitable though to get a few hot drops of sauce on one's hands while one's hand is near the bubbling liquid.
The 4 biggish prawns above are bonus items for each table that the server dishes out along with sotong and cuttlefish (We returned those as we didn't like them) - they aren't available at the open refrigerator and are way better than the prawns laid out there.
The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the food and experience but be prepared for the long queue and the rather casual atmosphere of the place. No reservations are allowed unfortunately unless one is somebody important (the first time I was there I saw a table reserved and then filled with important rich looking men). Definitely worth at least one visit while at Melaka - the restaurant is a distance away from Jonker 88 and is located at Bukit Cina and only open from 5pm till midnight.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Kedai Kopi Chung Wah
Because of the relatively short queue (See pic above), we managed to get a place at the back of the crowded restaurant, from which angle I could take a picture of the "hallowed" interior of this famed chicken rice stall. It is also clear form the pic below that the sun is so bright that in the background one can barely make out the queue behind the old-fashioned gates waiting to get in.
We ordered 5 chicken rice balls and half a chicken. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 for the chicken rice balls which were soft and fragrant. Because of the oil and fat used to cook the chicken rice, the chicken rice ball kinda melted in my mouth without the least bit of grainy feeling. Definitely much better than Hoe Kee's chicken rice balls.
I am sure we ordered half a chicken but they must have gotten the order wrong because the 2 of us were served THIS amount of chicken and my CEB counted 2 small chicken thighs.