Food: Penang, the food haven

Penang is famous for it's hawker food. I make it a point to stuff as much of these scrumptious food as my stomach can fit every time I am there. True story... :p

Penang Laksa is my personal favorite. A bowl of this tangy sourish, spicy soup thick with fish meat in combination with vermicelli, vegetables, mint leaves, lemongrass is never enough for me... I will usually go for second serving.

Fried "pok piah" dipped in laksa soup is apparently a Penang thing. This was introduced to me by my husband and I think it is not bad...

Fried pok piah and fried dumplings, has crunchy skins and juicy filling.

Looking at this picture of Bak Kua Roti with Chicken Floss brings back a lot of childhood memories as this is the usual pasar malam "night market" food most enjoyed by us kids :)

Chu Cheong Fun, the Penang version is nothing more than rice noodle roll topped with dark and sweet shrimp paste sauce, chili sauce and sesame seed. The famous one found in Genting Cafe is said to have an additional ingredient, peanut butter, that gives it the extra smooth texture...

Muar Chee is sticky glutinous rice coated with sugar, ground roasted peanuts and sesame seed. This particular stall outside Genting Cafe is my favorite. I love to stand next to the stall as the uncle prepares my order... watching him scoop the warm and gooey glutinous rice out of the bucket into the tray of ground peanuts mixed with sugar, and then skillfully chopping the glutinous rice into bite size.

Char Koay Teow is a must eat. This dish need no more introduction as it is famous in Malaysia, especially in Penang. Some prefer it with chicken egg...

while others like it with duck egg.

Cendol is a dessert made from crushed ice, cendol jelly, santan (coconut milk), red bean, and a generous amount of gula melaka (brown sugar). My favorite thirst quencher after spending some time under the hot sun.

'Loh Bak' is a local deep fried pork roll. 'Loh Bak' stalls usually sells it with other snacks like fish balls, prawn fritters, fish fritters, sausages, beancurbs and etc. served with starchy sweet sauce and chili sauce.

Duck Kueh Chap, a dish of flat, broad rice sheets in a mild herbal broth served with pig offal, beancurd, duck meat, herbal egg... the ingredients that made up this dish might sound a little gross :p but it really tastes good.

Curry Mee's soup is a coconut based stock. Usually served with pig's blood, cockles, taupok, and cuttlefish, this dish is very fragrant.

Nasi Kandar which originates from Penang is a meal of steamed rice served with a variety of curries and sides. The sides I ordered were curry squids, boiled egg, and ladies' fingers.

Roti Canai is a type of Indian flat-bread, a famous Malaysian breakfast. It's usually served with curry but one can eat it with sugar or condensed milk!

Teh Tarik (pulled milk tea) is a famous local drink served in mamaks. It is the usual drink to go along with Roti Canai or Nasi Kandar.

The best popiah can be found in Penang. Popiah are usually made to order.

If you're a fan of burger, like my husband who loves this particular burger stall at Hillside, Tanjung Bungah, then you should also give this a try. The burgers here have something different to others which are the onions. Usually, burgers are served with raw onion rings but this stall served them sauteed, well camarelised.



There's this Indonesian layer cake in Penang which deserves a shout too. It has two branches and apparently it's opened by one former nurse who made a living from her layer cakes! It's really moist and yummy. Makes a good souvenir too.




Where to find these awesome food:

Location: Joo Hooi Cafe, 475, Penang Road
Food: Laksa, Penang Road Famous Teochew Cendol (side lane of the cafe)

Location: 1-G-01, Medan Angsana 4, Ayer Itam (previously beside Farlim Shell station)
Food: Laksa, Bak Kua Roti with Chicken Floss

Location: Genting Cafe, Lorong Delima 3, Island Glades
Food: Chu Cheong Fun, Muar Chee, Popiah

Location: Kedai Kopi Sin Hwa, 329, Jalan Burmah (opposite Pulau Tikus police station)
Food: Char Koay Teow

Location: Kimberly Street, stall opposite Kedai Kopi Sin Guat Keong
Food: Char Koay Teow, Duck Kueh Chap

Location:Kwai Lock Coffee Shop, Pulau Tikus along Burma Road
Food: Curry Mee

Location: Along Transfer Road
Food: Nasi Kandar, Roti Canai

Location: Sunflower Cake House, 546-C, Jalan Tanjong Bungah, Tanjung Bungah
Food: Layer Cake

Darlie All Shiny White

Imagine my joy when I found out I was the Grand Prize Winner of the Darlie All Shiny White Contest on Facebook :D... I jumped, I laughed, I hugged my hubby... Hahaha... All those silly things an excited person would do. My second time joining a contest, and I won!!! Woohoo....

A simple prize giving ceremony was held  on 9 November 2012, at the Hawley & Hazel office in Wisma Kemajuan. Although I went, unaware of the ceremony, I was glad I was not too dressed down that day :p... The ceremony started with a short speech and introduction to the 3 major range of Darlie toothpaste, followed by prize giving and snacking :)

As I did not have my camera with me, I had to borrow this picture from Nana's blog. Thanks for the picture, Nana!!!

photo taken from Nana's blog

It was nice to be able to meet and chat with all the friendly winners.

This is my diamond with the certificate from GIA.

A goodie bag too...

The winners!!!

Thanks, Darlie :D

Travel: Pulau Aman

In an adventurous mode, bro-in-law decided we should have Mee Udang (Prawn Noodle) at Pulau Aman for lunch one weekend when we were back in Penang. Excited over his description on the size of the prawns and freshness of seafood there, we embarked on our journey.

Pulau Aman which means "island of peace" is located south of Penang island. In order to get there, we drove to Batu Musang Jetty located at the mainland. From there, we bought the return boat ticket at RM6 per person and hopped on the boat...

Halfway, the boatman spotted dolphins and stopped the boat for us to watch :)... We were very excited to see these playful marine mammals swim close to the surface nearby our boat.

See the fin!!!

After about 10 minutes, Restoran Terapung Pulau Aman was at sight.

This famous floating restaurant is the biggest and arguably the most popular eatery here. While its menu is limited, the food will keep one coming back for more. Bro-in-law can definitely testify to this :)...

After we got on land, we walked right towards the restaurant. At the jetty beside the restaurant, there were fishermen bringing in live catches. Bro-in-law bought some mantis prawns and prawns.

One of my favorite seafood!!! Mantis prawn :D

We then sent the fresh seafood to the kitchen of the restaurant for steaming. Look at the size of these mantis prawns!!! It takes a certain skill to remove the shell but I assure you the pay-off is well worth the effort.

Steamed prawns...

The menu consists of 3 types of noodles namely mee (yellow noodle), bihun (rice vermicelli) and koay teow (rice-cake strips). The noodle is either served with kuah (gravy) or goreng (fried). Per plate the price is RM6. However, in the menu, there is an option of "special". The difference is just additional prawns at the price of RM10 per plate. There is also fried rice with prawns.

Bihun Udang Kuah Biasa...

Mee Goreng Udang...

A family picture before we take the boat back... Thanks for the wonderful meal :)...

I Cook: Egg Tart

Yesterday, I spent the whole day with a good friend, Wan Lin, baking egg tarts!!! It took us the whole day to bake as we spent half of the time chatting and watching tv :p...

The idea of baking egg tart started with Wan Lin not knowing what to do with her remaining annual leaves :p... So, we decided to spend a day baking egg tart using a recipe she found some time ago. We, of course improvised a little ;)...

The result of our hard work :D...

Proud!!!

Wan Lin, posing for some pictures...

The ingredients listed here yields about 18 egg tarts :)... Have fun baking...

For egg custard:
- Castor sugar (60g)
- Full Cream Milk (200ml)
- 3 NutriPlus Eggs (whisked)

1. Mix 60g of castor sugar and 200ml of full cream milk in a pot.
2. Heat up the mixture in a low temperature until the sugar is melted.
3. Pour in the 3 whisked eggs into the mixture. Mix well.
4. Sift mixture to get rid of any foam


For pastry:
- Butter (150g)
- Icing Sugar (25g)
- Flour (250g)
- 1 NutriPlus Egg (whisked)

1. Sift 250g of flour in a bowl.
2. Add 150g of butter, 25g of icing sugar and 1 whisked egg gradually until well mixed.
3. Knead into a dough. I just have to include the picture of my "Halloween" dough... :p

4. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Roll out dough to about 1.5cm thick.
6. Cut dough with tart tin and gently press the dough into baking tray.


Baking:
1. Pre-heat oven at 170 degree Celcius for 10 minutes.
2. Bake for 20-25minutes

I Cook: Pau

I woke up one day and decided to make pau.... :S no idea why the sudden urge to do that but I followed through.

So, I went out, did my grocery shopping to get all the required ingredients, had lunch, came home and started making pau... for the very first time in my life :p... I decided to have "ju hu char" as the filling but I did not manage to get "ju hu" (cuttlefish)... so I made "bangkuang char" instead :p...

A lot of time was spent on preparing the ingredients. I cooked the pau filling and then let it cool before I working on the dough.

To my surprise, the pau turned out fine!!! I was so relieved :) ... Happy with the result, I called all my family members to announce the success... even sent them MMS of the pau :p... Hehehe... I then passed some of the pau to my friends for tasting and they had been kind enough to give me some positive feedback.

For pau dough:
- Blue Key Pau Dough (500g)
- Instant Yeast (6g)
- Sugar (100g)
- Butter/Corn Oil (50g)
- Lukewarm Water (250ml)
- A pinch of salt
- Grease proof paper cut into squares

1. Add 6g of yeast and 50g of sugar to 100ml of lukewarm water. Let the mixture set for 45 minutes.
2. Add the remaining 50g of sugar and 150ml of lukewarm water with a pinch of salt to the mixture.
3. Place 500g of flour into a big bowl. Pour the mixture into the bowl in batches. Add butter.
4. Knead for about 25 minutes.
5. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise for 15 minutes.
6. Knead again, this time gently until the dough is smooth.
7. Divide the dough into balls of around 2 inches in diameter.
8. Roll out the balls into thin circles. Wrap the pau will filling and place the pau in a sheet of grease proof paper.
9. Steam pau for 10 minutes. Make sure water from the cover does not drip on the pau when opening.
10. Place pau on a piece of cloth to absorb the excess moisture.


For bangkuang char:
- Cooking Oil
- Chicken Thigh/ Pork Belly
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 500g of bangkuang (yam bean)
- 1 shallot
- 10 shitake mushroom
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 2 tablespoon of sugar
- 2 tablespoon of pepper

1. Peel the skin of yam bean and carrot. The grate them into thin strips.
2. Slice the mushrooms into thin strips.
3. Steam the chicken thigh until cooked. Keep the stock for later use.
4. Shred the chicken and put aside.
5. Heat the wok and saute garlic and shallots until aromatic. Add in chicken and mushrooms and continue to stir fry.
5. Add in the grated yam bean and carrot with the chicken stock. Stir fry fro another 10 minutes or so until the everything is well mixed and soft.
6. Add salt, sugar and pepper to taste.

I Cook: Glutinous Rice Balls

I've always love "tong yuen" or glutinous rice balls, a traditional Chinese dessert. I enjoy the process of shaping the dough into tiny little balls... or sometimes "piggies".

There are mainly two types of tong yuen, filled and unfilled. Tong yuen is also served with a variety of broth ranging from soya bean milk to simple sweet broth. My favorite is just simple unfilled tong yuen in sweet broth.

Thanks to mom's recipe, I managed to make tong yuen for my hubby :p...

For tong yuen:
- 1 cup of glutinous rice flour
- 100ml of water
- 1/2 cup of rock sugar
- food coloring

1. Slowly add water into the large bowl filled with glutinous rice flour.
2. Knead the dough until it forms a soft paste.
3. If you want to make tong yuen of different colors, divide the dough into portions and add a drop of food coloring to the dough portion.
4. Knead until the food coloring is evenly distributed.
5. Shape the dough into balls or any shape :)
6. Leave the tong yuen to dry for about an hour.
7. Drop the tong yuen into a pot of hot boiling water. They will float when cooked. Once this happens, transfer the tong yuen into the sweet broth.

For sweet broth:
- 4 cups of water
- pandan leave (knotted)
- 1/2 cup of rock sugar
- 2 inches of ginger

1. Boil the water in a pot until it bubbles.
2. Add the ginger and pandan leave, and boil for about 5-10 minutes before adding rock sugar. Lower the heat and let broth simmer for 15 minutes.