Pinang Peranakan Mansion, Penang

November 15th, 2011 by Chong


Truth to be told, doing (tourist) site visits has not been my top priority for all my holidays in Penang. I had not been to any of those historical sites nor touristy places till my last visit. And that’s after numerous trips to the Pearl of the Orient in a year or two. For each and every time that I was in Penang, food hunting, apart from resting and relaxing, was (and will be for a very long time) the upmost in my to-do list. After all, how one could resists the temptation of variety of delicious foods which are available throughout the day at every nook and corner of the street.

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Anyway, long story short, the ‘taboo’ was somehow broken during my last trip when I visited the Pinang Peranakan Mansion which is located along Church Street (Lebuh Gereja). It wasn’t an impromptu visit though, as I’ve actually made a point to visit to at least one of these places before the year ends… which I did!

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Art in Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Now… I’m not going to go all lengthy with its history and stuff like that because I believe there are better sources out there such as here for more trustworthy information. Hence, I’ll just showcase a couple of photos I took with my trusty old DSLR. So, enjoy!

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Decorations in Pinang Peranakan Mansion (Hai Kee Chan), Penang

Note : A couple more photos will be posted in my Flickr.

Address :
29, Church Street,
10200 Penang,
Malaysia.

GPS Coordinates : 5.417824, 100.341182

Admission Fee : RM10

Opening Hours : 930AM – 5PM Daily



Seafood Noodles By Restoran Yu Ai, Segambut

October 31st, 2011 by Chong


Of late, things got rather busy as I’ve embarked on a new yet treacherous journey to some unknown destination. Challenging it may sound, I guess it’s gonna be an exciting one… I hope. Each day seems to be like a never ending ones as piles of work are waiting to be finished (or solved) and yet I’ve no idea how to tackle them. And this pretty much took most of my time so much so that I’m starting to neglect a couple of things such as this space of my own.

Restoran Yu Ai, Segambut

Yes, I’m that busy that this blogpost was meant to be written and published a couple of weeks ago and yet I’ve failed to do so due to my work load until I stumbled upon old photos of them sitting idle in my hard disk that were waiting to see the daylight of this virtual world. Sad, isn’t it?

Restoran Yu Ai, Segambut

Anyway, as the title states, it is a rather a famous joint (they have a branch in Petaling Jaya too!) that is well known for seafood noodles. But what puts me off about this restaurant is that it charges at a rather premium rate for such a unassuming shoplot and the location of it which is in a bustling town of Segambut, a place I rarely visit. It is said that they have been in business for quite some time now, more than a decade ago, with its recipes have been passed down to newer generation that is running the show now.

Restoran Yu Ai Cooking Area

That said, it is not often that you see a stall or a shop that filled its bowl of noodles with abundance of fresh seafoods unlike some which you can count with five fingers. Somehow or someway, this restaurant has been doing so consistently without skimping its ingredients throughout the years… which I think all restaurants and stalls should learn from them (Restoran Yu Ai).

Drinks

With the option of either clear soup, curry or tom yam soup, each bowl is cooked separately upon ordering. Customers are able to select their type of seafoods too; namely mussels, clams, squids, cockles, sliced fish and prawns, that they want in their bowl of hearty goodness.

Seafood Curry Laksa

Me being me, I would usually go for curry noodles if I see fit (or appealing enough to make me salivate) as not often I get to have a good bowl of curry laksa except from the one I usually visit at Restoran Kam Fatt. Noodles are optional too with yellow noodles, rice vermicelli (mee hoon), flat noodles (kuey teow) and even instant noodles.

Seafood Curry Laksa

Taste wise, the curry broth was full of kick and spices in it. Thick and flavourful, the broth has the natural sweetness, probably imparted by the seafoods. Not often that I would praise a bowl of curry laksa but somehow, this certainly placed itself at above average mark. And as you can see, each part of the bowl is filled with seafoods of sorts.

Restoran Yu Ai, Segambut

Whether it is worth paying the premium price or not for its ingredient, it is up to you to decide. The last I paid was around RM15 (or was it RM17) for a regular bowl and it gets more expensive as the size increases. It is definitely not an every day or week meal, for me at least, but perhaps, it is a good option to consider if you’re running out of choices or when you feel like splurging more for a hawker-style food.

Address :
Restoran Yu Ai (Segambut)
No. 42, Jalan Segambut Utara,
51200 Kuala Lumpur.

GPS Coordinates : N 3 11.097 E 101 40.601

Business Hours : 8AM – 5PM.



Lunch At Wong Meng Kee 王美记, Off Jalan Pudu Kuala Lumpur

September 28th, 2011 by Chong


There are times when there are no words can describe how awesome a food is as it happened to me a few times over the years. And it happened again recently as the expression of words seems to fail me when I had a mouthful of this delicious siew yoke that I’m going to talk about. It was that good that I’d rather show some photos of it to tempt you to have a go at it… that’s if you haven’t which I honestly think it’s a BIG mistake!

Seating Area

Crowds begin to assemble at this coffeeshop at about 1220PM to hold their places and at 1230PM, finding an empty table seems like a difficult task (albeit it’s not impossible). Going any earlier will do you no good as they only start selling at 1230PM onwards. Hence, you still need to wait even if you are there at 12PM.

Soups

Chicken Rice

Unlike takeaways, the waitress will walk around taking orders and amazingly, she was able to do it (taking multiple orders) at one go without jotting down in a notebook/paper. Flexing her superior memory muscles? Maybe but she failed to remember one of our orders. Soups are available at the self-service counters while chili sauce is placed on each table.

Wong Meng Kee Roast Pork Belly (Siew Yoke)

Reputably as the legendary, it is THE place to have siew yoke (roast pork belly). Hearing how good it is doesn’t do any justification as you need to be there to sink your sharp teeth into the meat and savour every moment of it.

Wong Meng Kee Siew Yoke

“Melt in your mouth” is just figure of speech but to experience it will definitely bring you to a new level (some say to heaven, I kid you not.). Crispy crackling skin, fatty with lean meat in between, it is just too sinfully good that you can eat it on its own.

Roast Chicken

BBQ Pork (Char Siew)

Even the roast chicken and BBQ Pork (char siew) would gladly play the second fiddles to let the siew yoke to shine on its own. Yes, it’s that good awesome.

Wong Meng Kee Chicken Rice

The price came to about RM58.70 for 2 portions of siew yoke, a portion of BBQ pork (char siew) and roast chicken each, two plates of rice, fresh coconut and a can of Coke. This means a strip (portion) of siew yoke will set you back around RM15. It might be expensive for some but it is definitely the place to go if you are craving for good awesome siew yoke.

Wong Meng Kee 王美记
30, Jalan Nyonya,
Off Jalan Pudu,
55100 Kuala Lumpur

GPS: 3.139231, 101.711308

Telephone : +603 2145 2512 / +6012 269 0660

Business Hours : 1230PM – 430PM