Northam Beach Cafe - Penang

I thought I was quite familiar with Penang, but had no idea there was this cafe by the beach in that part of town. But then again, you can't see it from the road if you were just driving by. Northam Beach Cafe is opposite MBF building. Plenty of car parking space available.


Lor Bak


Thai style clam. Slightly sour and very garlicky. Nice!


Rice with fried fish. Tasted some. Not to my liking.


Fried rice. Didn't taste it but looked good though.


公芭蝦麵 (Teluk Kumbar) prawn mee. What I had. Really couldn't find anything special to it. But very natural and no indication of excessive MSG so that's good by me.


Teochew style fried porridge. Smelled good, looked good. Not sure about the taste


Long long sausage :P. I tasted some. Not very flavorful.


The food there are okay but just don't expect them to be great. The ambiance was   wonderful though. Great sea view, breezy and with a small sandy beach to boast! Should be a great place for a drink or two, and lots of chit-chatting!







Northam Beach Cafe
58, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Georgetown

6pm-11pm; closed on Tue
Tel: +604 229 0362

GPS coordinate: 5.428056,100.322757

View Larger Map

Restoran Hong Kong Dim Sum Kepong Baru

Restoran Hong Kong Dim Sum Kepong Baru.

I wasn't aware of the existence of this dim sum place until I went to check out the wet market in Kepong Baru. It always seems to be quite packed in the morning so I decided to give it a try one day.

Hong Kong style Chu Cheong Fun. I was hoping it was freshly made but it wasn't. The chef made some and kept them in the steamer. Acceptable taste, except the fried shallot was a little tough/hard and not fresh.


Century egg congee with lean meat. It was just alright.

Chicken feet, as usual :D. Not very nice.

Total for 3 items: RM10.40.

This restaurant faces the Kepong Baru wet market directly. Just next to Pintar Tuition Center.



Restoran Hong Kong Dim Sum
Jalan Bangau 1
Kepong Baru
GPS Coordinates: 3.201992,101.644858


View Larger Map

Ming Kee wanton mee - Tmn Bkt Maluri

A friend of mine told me about this wanton me place one morning and I actually went to try it the same day - only a few hours later! :D.

Restoran Ming Kee sells only wanton mee. It's located in the shop-houses one street away from Tuck Kee in Taman Bukit Maluri, Kepong.

Wanton mee with BBQ pork (char siu) and sui gao, and wanton. RM 8.30 including hot tea.

The noodle was very springy, almost crispy! The char siu, as you can already tell, wasn't up to par though. I actually asked for chicken feet and it was all sold out :D.

The Sui gao and wanton were quite decent too.


Menu with prices







Restoran Ming Kee

Jalan Burung Tiung

Taman Bukit Maluri

Kepong

Kuala Lumpur

GPS Coordinate: 3.20069,101.631818

View Larger Map

Restoran Chau Y - Gerik

My friends and I went on a 2D/1N road trip to Gerik over the weekend. Tiring but fun! We had dinner in Restoran Chau Y, Gerik. Our first time in this restaurant.

Steamed Bak So Gong (catfish) with a strong hint of yellow wine/rice wine in it. Very nice. The flesh wasn't fatty at all like most others I have tried before. In fact, I would call it a little on the lean side and not as tender! RM55

Definitely wild caught catfish (ikan baung, Bagrid catfish, Mystus spp.)

Wild boar curry. RM8. Yummy, wished the slices were thicker though. Like the one served here.


Sambal belacan pucuk paku. RM6


Stir fried siu bak choy. RM5


Prices of certain fish are on this white board.




RM6 for four + two plates of rice.
RM8.40 for 6 glasses of herbal drink

Total = RM88.40



CHAU Y RESTAURANT
No. 8285-8286,
Jalan Suda Bahagia, off Jalan Intan,
33300 Gerik, Perak, Malaysia.
Telephone : 6012-452 4840 or 605-791 5977
GPS Coordinate: 5.447202,101.134962


View Larger Map

Tropical Fruits of Malaysia

Some of the tropical fruits you get in Malaysia. Most of them anyway. Some are imported.

Sugar apples/sweetsop (Annona squamosa). I love these. Red ones are not as common as the green ones, but no difference in taste though. More about sugar apple here.

Try not to call this custard apple as custard apple is a common name for a few types of fruits/trees. Check this out.



Thai sugar apple. Really not nice. The texture and even the taste were different.

I think it's similar to cherimoya?

Tampoi (white fleshed) and the other (orange fleshed). Tasted somewhat similar - slightly sweet, and sourish.

More info on Tampoi here.

Red dragon fruits /Pitaya. White version is available too.


Starfruit.


Star gooseberry, Phyllanthus acidus. Any idea what it's called in Malay?


Tarap/terap. Not available in Peninsula Malaysia though. Only in Borneo. I had this in Tawau, Sabah. More about it here.


Durian - the king of all fruits!!! More about it and our visit to a durian orchard here.


Mangosteen, another of my favorite!!!


Pulasan. It's like rambutan but with harder shell. Tastes better than rambutan though IMO.


Passion fruit


Cempedak


What it looks like inside.


The fruits inside can be eaten raw or deep fried like this


Buddha's Hand. It's a type a citrus.


Persimmon /pisang kaki. Imported. Not grown in Malaysia.


Not sure if this is langsat or duku or lokong :D


Barhi Natural Desert Dates. Imported. Refreshing! Sweet but not as sweet as the dried ones, with the crunchiness of a medium ripe pear, and just a slight hint of bitterness, depending on the ripeness! Absolutely wonderful.


Salak. From Indonesia.


Sugar apricot from Turkey


Alphonso mango (?) from India. RM10 for two. (RM5 each). Weighed in a about 12 Oz (340gm) each. Sweet and really great richness and flavor!


Some local mangoes. Very nice.


Red skinned banana, not as common as the green ones. Tastes slightly different.


More will be added to this post from time to time.

Salt baked fish

This is my home cooked salt baked fish. A couple of weeks ago, I tasted this tender and succulent salt baked salmon in this restaurant, and I was absolutely impressed with how tender and succulent the salmon was so I decided to prepare this at home. I used a different fish though.

Ingredients:

1. A whole fish. I bought a 550 gram siakap (barramundi) from a hypermarket for RM4.95. Scaled and gutted too on the spot.
2. Coarse salt. I used about 1 KG of it (3 x 350 gram).
3. 4 tbsp of water (add it to the salt and mix well)

Oven: 200 deg C for 20 minutes. My oven is the bowl type Halogen Convection Oven

A 550g siakap, gutted and scaled.


You don't have to use foil here. I used it only because I do not have a baking tray. Make sure you put a layer of salt on the tray before laying the fish on it, then cover the whole fish with salt.

Check the youtube clips I embedded below. Some prefer to leave the head and tail uncovered.

200 deg C for 20 minutes. This is what it looks like after 20 minutes.

Use a pastry brush to get rid of as much salt as possible from the fish.

This is my fish with all the salt crust removed.


Remove the skin.


Slightly overbaked in this case but still very tender and succulent. I think I will reduce the baking time to maybe 17 minutes.


Check out the following clips and you'll notice some of them prefer to use salt and eggwhite and/or flour to form the crust. Some even add spices/herbs to the salt & eggwhite mix.