Saturday 29 October 2011

Eastern Wishes @ Ideal Avenue


I've been going to this restaurant for some time now. They started off with one shoplot and now has expanded to two! Talk about growing business :)

This is a family-run business and the food speaks for itself. The service is efficient and the food is reasonably priced! They're usually packed during the lunch rush hour, where everyone has to be back at work by 2pm. But as I said, they serve their food fairly fast enough.



They're located just doors away from the JPJ branch on the Island. And near major banks. So you can imagine that finding a parking space during office hours would be a challange.

So, back to the food!

They offer set menus  as well as ala chart recipies, and they also cater to family meals where you can order rice with dishes - yeah a wide selection. Take a look at their menu (*click to enlarge






I usually go for their Tom Yam Noodles. This is like authentic tom yum packed with real ingredients!


Spicy Tom Yam Noodles

See the ingredients circled - lotsa ginger, lime leaves, lemon grass.. etc

Upclose - better view

Ooo.. I'm drooling.. fish, prawns.. tomatoes...

And my second favourite is their Black Pepper Fried Sotong - Crunchy goodness! RM10/plate though




Here's the individual plate - Fried rice with chicken chop - and you can choose your favourite gravy for the chicken (lemon sauce / black pepper)



Who could forget the Ice Kacang!



This place is definately a good place to makan especially if you crave for local food, cafe food, family dishes... everything's under one roof.



Here's were to find it:
No. 1-1-49, i-Avenue,
Jalan Tun Dr. Awang,
11900, Bayan Lepas,
 Penang
Tel no.: 04-6410191

Friday 28 October 2011

Out with the OLd, in With the NEw

Today, we finally got a new car. It's not an expensive, luxury car. It's a very economically, pocket friendly Proton Saga FLX. Yes, the lastest Proton Saga, called the Saga FLX.

It's a 1.3L car, with a updated gear box hence the extra X behind FL

You see, the first started with Saga 1.3L, then Saga FL and now Saga FLX

We stuck to the conventional Manual gear system - for the obvious reason being that we don't know how to use Auto! (yes, laugh all you want :P)

We chose Rock Blue! And I'm so glad we did because the it (the colour) really looks good!



So it cost about RM42000, on the road price, all in all - for full specs lo. Pretty worth it! Yeah, Malaysia Boleh! Buy Malaysian!  :)

Good bye to the Proton Iswara Aeroback. You have served us well... for the past 8 years

Thursday 27 October 2011

Woolloomooloo Second Visit

This is my second visit to this restaurant in a week! Click here to see  my ealier post
 Now to try-out the other dishes they offer.. hehe


 Bruchetta topped with fresh tomatoes and basil  - for starters
This time, we ordered:
1) Seafood Risotto with chive & parmesan
2) Spaghetti with anchovy, caper, chilli & extra virgin oil
3) Grilled Blackened Chicken with Tzatziki
Seafood Risotto with chive & parmesan

 
Spaghetti with anchovy, caper, chilli & extra virgin oil













Grilled Blackened Chicken with Tzatziki
and the Buy 1 Free 1 dishes:-
4) Fried Chicken with polenta
5) Fish & Chips


Fried Chicken with Polenta
















Fish & Chips

and this time, we also ordered 2 of the Woolloomooloo Signature drinks
6) Bruce Lee
7) Hanky Panky

cool names for dirnks, huh!

Bruce Lee


Anyway, I took the Bruce Lee drink and it's a combo of dragon fruit juice and mango blended with ice and yogurt. It tasted ok... quite refreshing. When it came, the bright purple-pink was a stand-out!
Hanky Panky

And the Hanky Panky was better. It's a blend of lychee, apple and strawberry rolled into one. Loved the colour of this one.

This time around, the total bill came-up to RM99.55 despite the 2 free main courses. (5 pax)

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Winter Sonata

OMG! Winter Sonata! It was in 2002 when Malaysia was first hit by the Korean wave. And Malaysia's first taste of the Korean dramas which got us all hooked was Winter Sonata!

Remember Kang Jung Sang? Remember Jung Yoo Jin? Oh, and that soundtrack of the drama!! I so loved that drama!

And to mark that almost 10 year anniversary of the drama, Animax has brought them back in the form of animation. How exciting!!!

Well, honestly, I haven't been watching this animated series religiously unlike the original series. But today, I so happen to switch to Animax (~3.50pm) and they were showing Winter Sonata (which ended at 4.03pm).

By sheer luck, it was the final episode of the series on Animax, and I was so lucky to catch it by chance~ ! AND What a surprise it was when the wedding was filmed with the original actors!!
 *screams for joy*

Yes, yes, yes, Bae Yong Jun & Choi Ji Yoo (their characters) were FINALLY in their wedding gowns and GETTING MARRIED!

It's been a LONG TIME COMING! For all fans of Winter Sonata, we've been waiting for this moment for SOOOOOO long! And yes, it's finally here! and I got to watch it! hahaha

Can't believe it was almost 10 years ago since I first got hooked! TEN YEARS!

oh, i still love Winter Sonata!

Sunday 23 October 2011

Hi-Tea Buffet @ Evergreen Laurel Hotel, Gurney Drive


I managed to get my hands on Groupon vouchers for Hi-tea buffet at Evergreen Laurel Hotel. It cost RM13 per pax instead of the usual RM26 per pax for adults.

Here's what was served.

The main highlight of the buffet, in my opinion was the dessert cakes! Absolutely adorable looking and delicious. For once, they actually look as good as they taste.
Take a look below:-

They also had rice, chicken, fish, salad - you know the usual things you get at a buffet.

There was also a corner offering Penang Laksa, Rojak & Ice Kacang. The crushed ice was not shaved on the spot, but piled into a bowl for you to dish out.

Lastly, free flow of ice-cream. And 6 flavours to choose from. Coffee, Vanila, Strawberry, Mango sorbert, Green tea, and... ok there were only 5.. one tub was empty

Oh, forgot.. hot tea & coffee.

They limited us to 2 hours of buffet from 3-5pm. What can I say? for RM13 i think it's worth it lar.. although they served local Penang food and desserts, ambiance was nice, and free parking for 1st hour.

Not bad, not bad.
Good experience...  :)

Will i do it again? No...   :)

Yet another Nyonya restaurant - Nyonya Breeze @ Straits Quay



Penang being one of the straits states, Peranakan food aka Nyonya food are very widely available and good too! Here's another one of the many many Peranakan Restaurants offering Nyonya food - Nyonya Breeze @ Straits Quay. According to one of the waiters who served our table, Nyonya Breeze is their second outlet in Penang. They just opened 5 months earlier.

Their original outlet is at Abu Siti lane. I remember going there once! Parking was a major problem so I didn't go back.

And now I'm at their second place to try-out their food. Before I begin, I must say that I'm not a big fan of nyonya food, but because I was entertaining guests from Singapore, what better food to have for lunch than Nyonya food! Yes, Singapore has all sortsa food, all except good Nyonya food!



We ordered six dishes.
1) Chicken Kapitan
2) Chun Piah - Spring Rolls
3) Loh Bak
4) Acar
5) Fish Belanda
Kurau fish 6) Tu tar th'ng


Acar

Rice is RM3 per head - unlimited flow

And the grand total came-up to RM93.40 for 5pax

Abit pricey though.


Here's a glimps of their menu



 
Food, so-so only lar... er, had better else where (in my humble opinion lar.. others might differ)

But the best dish of the day was the Chicken Kapitan. Chicken breast meat was tender. Gravy was thick and tasty - not too spicy or pungent - just right :)
Chicken Kapitan
Oh and did I mention that for the Fish Belanda dish, they use Kurau fish! Not your usual dory fish.

Fish Belanda (on the top) with the Chicken Kapitan
But the thing was, at 1.20pm, the place was PACKED with hungry eaters. They even had several tables on reserve. We didn't reserve a table, so I suppose we were counted as lucky to get one?

And we had a long wait for the food. We were luckily fore-warned abt it. So we ended-up waiting for half an hour before our food came. And by the time we finished, around 2.30pm, people were still coming-in for lunch.  Aisheh... business quite good eh... or maybe it was because it was a SUnday? Oh, some of the people had Groupon tickets... so, maybe because of that too.


Thursday 20 October 2011

Lunch @ The Little Nyonya Cuisine

Lunch yesterday was at Gurney Plaza's basement. Tucked away in the basement was this newly opened restaurant serving local delicacies and Nyonya food, called The Little Nyonya Cuisine.



For appetizers we ordered Pie Tee - or popularly called "Top-Hat"

Special pie tee served with sambal!

Drinks: White coffee (RM3.80) , and plain water (RM0.80)


smooth creamy coffee
Here comes the food...

East Coast Nasi dagang curry chicken


Chicken fillet cheese

soooo cheessyyy... yummy!!!

packed with chicken too!


Satay
My cheesy chicken rice was soo good! It was packed with chicken pieces and covered with a thick blanket of cheeeeessseeeeee!!! Oh, i'm salivating just looking at the pictures.

It is a good place for families to gather and enjoy local nyonya food. Besides individual portions, they also offer separate dishes which you can order to eat with rice.

The variety of food they have in their menu is really wide. It's amazing how fast they served the food considering the variety of choices they offer. ehehee...
Good for tourist to experience our local food !