Gurney drive hawker food, Penang

Yes, the extremely famous Gurney drive hawkers..
So famous that I dont think I should write about it..

But then again, my camera's with me, my friends are willingly posing the food for me, so, heck, why not? For the benefit of those who have never heard of the hawkers here, well, the Gurney drive hawkers serves local hawker food and the number of stalls there are just amazing! The choices are abundant, but most of the stall's food are just average.

The only food that I crave for when it comes to this place would be the muar chee.. This stall serves one of the best muar chee ( steamed glutinous rice topped with crushed roasted peanuts, sugar, sesame) that I have ever tasted. The steamed glutinous rice are warm and melt-in-your-mouth sort, the peanuts and sugar gives a good crunchy bite to it, while the sesame and fried shallots adds in a lil savoury aftertaste. yumz..

Since I'm already there, might as well eat other stuff too right? ;p..

Hence started my look for the longest-queue-waiting-at-the-stall hunt...

This stall gotta be the winner..Serving all the fried stuff (with some lobak food), the hottest and popular hot seller here is the deep fried chicken skin and fried squids. Didnt try the skin, but we had some squids and some mixture of fried stuff. Was just ordinary, nothing to shout about..

We felt like having rojak so we bought from one of the many rojak stalls there... This one was way too diluted and plain..yicky...

Then I noticed a stall selling pork satay and pork intestine satay. Since I hardly see that in KL, decided to try it too..

2 caucasian walked pass while I was waiting for my orders..

OMG, they eat skewered intestines? They Eat that?

And looked at me as though I'm a freak.. geez, this is no fear factor mate... The pork satay was juicy and sweet. Pretty delicious. As for the intestine, the exterior was slightly crunchy while juicy and chewy on the inside. Quite good, though not as good as those in Muar. Would have tasted better if the kuah satay was tastier..

I've forgotten to take a picture of the grilled cuttlefish we had. That was yummy as it was crunchy and pungent at the same time. Lovely. Do try that.

I didnt take the pictures of the stalls I bought these hawker food from, hope a rough sketch of the map/stalls ( based on my rusty memory) helps? So is there a particular stall you go for at Gurney? Any stall that I should have tried?

Prawn Mee@ Sin Kim San Coffeeshop, Penang

I wanted to have the hokkien mee (aka prawn mee) at Jalan Bangkok..

Most unfortunately, it was not open that morning. Francis wanted us to try another famous prawn mee at Jalan Rangoon, when we reached, the stall owner was washing his pots already :-(

Elaine suggested Sin Kim San as she had tried it before, at the other end of Rangoon road.

It was already late in the morning and the weather was rather hot, my urge to have hokkien mee dont seem that appealing anymore...I just wanted to have a cup of cold drink..

Nonetheless, Elaine went ahead and ordered for us while Andrew had charsiew siew yoke rice as his stomach cant take any onslaught of spicy food..

Andrew's rice was served first..

The char siew (bbq pork) was average, a tad on the dry and hard side. I thought the siew yoke (roasted pork) was quite nice, slightly different from those we have in Klang Valley. Their siew yoke was tossed (or did they stir fry?) with dark soy sauce and some sticky sauce (malt sugar?). Maybe I had the crunchy bits and juicy meat, but the texture and flavour reminds me of old style stir fried siew yoke with sugar and dark soy sauce. I like it though andrew didnt..

Soon after, the elusive prawn mee...Eh? What's this? That's not prawn... that's.... mantis prawn!

I am so accustomed to prawn in my prawn mee, so it was a nice change, to see loads of mantis prawns in this bowl instead :-). Dunked in the sambal, give it a good stir and *chomp*! The broth was very sweet, from the prawns (shell) and pork bones. Some of them find it too spicy, though I thought it was just nice. The mantis prawns was very fresh, springy sweet flesh blends well with the spicy broth. There were lots of other ingredients such as sliced pork, shrimps, beansprouts and topped with fried shallots. This combo is delicious and we finished our meal really quickly. And for RM4 per bowl, such value for money!

Sin Kim San Coffeeshop is located at the junction of Macalister and Rangoon road.

Eating Local ... from the Williamsburg Farmer's Market

I feel a lot like the fisherman who tells about the one that got away. I actually took some decent pictures of the dish at the end of this post, and it turned out phenomenal, and I was so excited about this post, but my USB cord to transfer my pix to my computer is still MIA. So I have decided to post anyway and I will insert the pix later to prove that I actually can take a decent picture (playing around with some features on my digital camera really made a difference!)





Eating local is always a good idea, for the environment, for flavor, for culinary variety, for the local economy, but also for fun and a good time. We experienced this just this past Saturday when we braved Memorial Day weekend crowds to go to the Williamsburg Farmer's Market on Colonial Williamsburg's Duke of Gloucester Street. While there is a lot to choose from food, to flowers to baked goods to bison, what makes the Williamsburg Farmer's Market special is that it is less a market than an event! Each week besides the incredible local food and plant vendors, there is always live music and a guest chef serving food samples and handing out recipes and answering questions. This week the music was supplied by the Runaway String Band, who provided a toe-tapping soundtrack that temporarily distracted both lookers and buyers from the wares all around them. The Catering Company prepared a variety of cold salads perfect for the heat of the day. While I can't mention all the vendors there (a complete list is on the website linked here), I can tell you that we bought some delicious oriental greens and Korean radishes from Evergreen Springs Farm (they don't have a website but they can be reached at evergreensprings1@yahoo.com), and a bouquet of beautiful roses that are gracing my dining room table. But believe me, whatever you might want from hydroponically grown vegetables to heirloom tomatoes to honey, you can find it at this market! You want to grow your own (really local)? There are vendors selling all manner of plants, and herbs for your home garden.





Whether you are looking to buy or just looking, the Williamsburg Farmer's Market provides a fun and unique experience. Well-behaved dogs on leashes are welcome, and there are always animals to see (my favorite this week was a pair of Mini-Pins whose owner couldn't walk two steps without getting stopped!) If you feel the need to duck into real retail (and AC in the summer heat) there are shops that line the street that provide an experience of their own.





On our way back home we stopped to check on our friend and fresh vegetable supplier extraordinaire "Tractor Joe" (I wrote about him in an earlier post) where we purchased some freshly pulled (from the ground while we stood there!) beets, and spring onions, and some freshly cut spinach.




Needless to say, dinner had to include the bounty of the day. A chicken recipe I got from a Southern Living provided the protein for the meal but the stars were a salad I made with roasted beets, honey goat cheese, and walnuts on a bed of oriental greens with a mild dijon vinaigrette, beet and Korean radish greens sauteed with garlic and olive oil. I know from blogging that a lot of people don't like beets but this salad was incredible and I would have been happy to have paid for it in a restaurant. All in all, a successful day of playing with (local) food, and I swear I will have the pictures to prove it!



Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

(made two large salads for beet lovers, you could stretch further with fewer beets per person)



6 fresh whole beets with greens

2 1/2 inch slices of honey goat cheese broken in chunks (I bought this at Costco and the slight sweetness was great with the beets but you could use plain or herb goat cheese instead)

2 tablespoons walnut pieces

1 handful of salad greens per salad (we used oriental greens but baby spinach or other baby salad greens would be fine too)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt to taste



Dijon Vinaigrette



1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons dijon mustard




Wash the beets well and cut off the greens about 1 inch from the top of the beet, and cut beets into quarters. Toss with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, and roast in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until tender. Let cool to room temperature. Mix ingredients for dijon vinaigrette.



To Serve: place greens on plate, add roasted beets, sprinkle crumbled goat cheese over and then add walnuts. Dress with 1-2 tablespoons of vinaigrette. Eat and learn to love beets!

Random eats, Penang

Just a rojak of the extra stuff we ate in between meal times in Penang..

Char Siew Soh ( BBQ pork puff) from Wong Kok Restaurant in Queensbay Mall...I first tried this from their main branch in Komtar. Really delicious but must eat it hot in order to savour this tasty snack. Not to be mistaken for Wong Kok Char Chan Teng in KL, you cant get these babies there...

BBQ chicken wings at Gurney Drive.. Was told by a penangite that this hawker (located in the middle of Gurney Drive, corner shop, not where the main hawkers are) serves one of the best BBQ chicken wings. Thought this was just ok, the wings were not juicy enough to tempt me..

Crepe Cottage at Gurney Drive..

Walked pass it the first night I was there and it was extremely crowded. Food must be good, so we popped by after dinner for dessert the next day. Serves western food and lots of crepes (and some other dessert). We were there around 10:30pm, we only got our first order of warm apple crepe with ice-cream around 11:45pm.It was ok, 2 huge scoops of vanila ice cream wrapped by crepe and topped with warm apple (cooked in cinnamon and honey). Not fantastic though and definitely not worth the wait..Now I know why it's so crowded. Coz everyone's waiting :-(. We cancelled our remaining orders.

Gee Hiang biscuits..

I must come here for the beh teh saw (sweet biscuits with winter gourd and malt sugar filling). Lovely stuff. But for tau sar peah (salty biscuits with bean filling), I'll buy from Him Heang...

Porto Romano, TTDI

Taking a break from Penang food, let's see what we've got now back in Klang Valley....
I've passed by Porto Romano numerous times but somehow, never thought of trying it. SF did try on one fine day and she got SL and I to join her for another meal there..

Porto Romano is a cozy little restaurant, you'll feel just at home the moment you step in. We promptly took our seats and check out the menu. Having a nice array of antipasti, soups, pastas, pizzas, risottos, seafood, meats and desserts to choose from, it took us quite a while to decide what we'll be having. As we were not too hungry that night, we decided to just have mains..

Though I'm always a sucker for pasta alfredo, I wanted something tomato-ish that night and we had Porto Romano spaghetti and Salmon with Fettucine.

The Porto Romano spaghetti was an absolute delight, the tomato based sauce was sourish and sweet at the same time; with a hint of slightly burnt garlic which gives a wonderful aftertaste. The combination was so addictive, we were lapping up the sauce as much as we could ;p. The pasta was done al dente, accompanied with a generous amount of fresh seafood.

The salmon with fettucine was also good, though it still paled in comparison to Porto Romano spaghetti. The sauce used for this dish was different compared to the previous; it was tomato with cream, hence, the sauce texture was thicker and tasted richer. Again, the fettucine was done al dente, and we had a generous amount of salmon in this dish.

The Mediterranean pizza was served last and it looks scrumptious...Porto Romano's version is thin crust, topped with beef pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, onions, cheese and some other toppings which I cant recall. The pizza was tasty, loved the slightly charred, crunchy crust. My only gripe would be the 'wet' toppings. Not sure why the toppings were rather, erm, wet (even the base of the plate was wet).. Some toppings actually slide of the crust when we tore it from the pizza. Yes, slides down and leaving you with the crust and base in your hands. Oh well, still tasted good..

We ordered tiramisu for dessert. It was just ok for me, something was missing, a certain flavour which I cant pinpoint. Total bill was RM113 including drinks and after dinner coffee.

And this is the picture (or suppose to be) of the tiramisu... Before my camera decided to konk out for good.. :-(. Just got the diagnostic, this baby will be costing me RM400 to fix it (which incidentally is only 14 months old! just after my warranty period :-( ). Should I have it fix? Or invest in a new one? I'd better decide fast before my photo stocks runs out!

Porto Romano is located at No 28, Persiaran Zaaba, Taman Tun Dr Ismail. Tel: 03-77100509.

Tapas Night with Evil David- Part 1

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that the Dowd family has two Davids in its circle of friends- "good David" whom you may remember from my post about Good David's Pam warning, and "evil David" our globe-trotting friend who started tapas night, which has become a weekly event in our household (how he got his name is another post, but suffice it to say, he got this moniker from Molly, my youngest). Several commenters here have asked me to post about tapas night and I am finally getting around to it! How did Dowd tapas start? One Wednesday, I came home from work to find Evil David at our house cooking (how you can call any man who is cooking at your house evil, really makes no sense to me....), determined to introduce us to tapas (when tapas wasn't cool!) Tapas has evolved so that David and I each make two or three dishes, and coordinate so we have a good mix of meat, seafood and vegetables.

For those who may not know what tapas is, it is a tradition that started in Spanish street bars and cafes, when restauranteurs used rounds of bread with toppings to keep flies from landing in their after-work glasses of sherry. It started out with the Spanish equivalent of bruschetta, olives and other tidbits, and graduated to dishes like marinated cheese, little savory meat pies and fried sardines. Our first tapas was an incredible meal... and the start of a Wednesday night tradition in our house. While tapas started out authentic, it has become a night to experiment, to try a new dish or cuisine. We have had Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Chinese, Indian,French, Moroccan, African, Italian, and Thai dishes to name a few in the name of tapas night. We have enjoyed, shrimp, clams, mussels, venison, rabbit, tuna cheeks, grilled sardines as part of tapas menus. We have had as few as 5 for tapas and as many as 20 (on the Mother of all Tapas night- definitely another post!) In the fall and winter, tapas requires wine, but often in warmer weather, we have cold tapas dishes, salads and a pitcher of red or white sangria.

Whether you want to explore Spanish food or not, it is great to have this type of family event midweek- it gives you something to look forward to in the middle of the week, provides a platform for playing with food of other nations, encourages experimentation, makes memories.

Since tapas is a regular part of our lives now, there will be many more posts and hopefully pictures (my cable to transfer pix from my camera to my computer is "temporarily misplaced") of future tapas nights. I will share a few easy and quick tapas dishes that you can use to start your own tapas tradition and you will see other dishes spread throughout other posts (See my herb-stuffed fish, one of my favorite summer tapas recipes in the post Fear of Fish).

Easy Smoked Salmon with Capers

4 ounces smoked salmon, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons capers, drained
Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon of dill

freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together, and let set for at least one hour in the fridge. Serve with crackers, toast rounds, or belgian endive.

Ploughman's Sandwich (each sandwich makes 4 tapas servings)

2 slices of "heavy", dense multi-grain bread

1 tablespoon of fig or quince jam

Thick sliced Manchego cheese

Spread jam on one slice of bread. Cover jam with sliced cheese, top with other slice of bread. Cut sandwich into quarters and serve.

Shrimp with Garlic and White Wine

1 pound of shrimp(I often use flash frozen deveined E-Z peel shrimp, but fresh are great too!)

3-6 cloves of garlic (or more depending on your taste)

1/2 cup white wine (any semi-dry or dry)

Salt and Freshly ground pepper to taste(or Red pepper flakes if you like heat!)

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

Put olive oil in pan and add garlic, being careful not to burn. Throw in shrimp ,and toss to coat with olive oil. Add wine, and cook shrimp just until pink (1st cardinal sin with any seafood is cooking too long!). Add salt, pepper or pepper flakes as desired. Serve with toasted baguette or ciabatta to soak up the delicious juices.

Grilled Sardines

Fresh sardines (if you can get them) or canned sardines packed in olive oil

Coarse salt

1 lemon, cut in quarters

If using canned sardines, drain oil and rinse lightly. Place on preheated grill on oiled piece of foil. Salt with coarse salt. Turn once until heated through and a little crisp on the outside. Serve with lemon squeezed over.

Note: I was never a sardines person, but these are surprisingly delicious, particularly with the lemon! David eats bones and all, but I eat away from the backbone!

Other Suggestions: Herb stuffed fish, Hummus with pita chips, artichoke dip, bruschetta....more to come!

Char Kuey Teow and Belacan Fried Chicken@Kedai makan dan minum Bee Hooi, Penang

Heard of CKT fried with duck eggs? I've heard of it a couple of years back when I was in Penang, but somehow, I've never got to try it..

I've actually forgotten about it this time round until Francis got some recommendations from a penangite on this good CKT at Kimberley road. There's something special with the CKT there, he said. When we walked pass the stall, i noticed the snowy white eggs there..

Duck eggs! hah! That must be their specialty..

We ordered both CKT with duck eggs and with the conventional chicken eggs.

The CKT with duck eggs..Any difference looking at it? Yeah, we cant tell either..

Nonetheless, we attacked the CKT...Alas, I was sorely disappointed :-( (in fact, my kakis were all disappointed too). First, there was insufficient wok hei, the kuey teow was a tad on the wet side. Secondly, it was way too spicy. So spicy that I cant even taste the duck egg. And lastly, the duck egg had a rather pasty/ floury texture which was not nice at all.

What about the normal chicken CKT?

Tasted much better than the duck egg CKT, but it was just mediocre compared to other CKTs I had before..

I noticed lots of people having fried chicken, so WF and I went looking for it ;-)

Just a couple of stalls from the CKT stall, there was a stall selling belacan fried chicken..oooohhh, smells wonderful as the pungent belacan smell wafted through the air when I walked near it. The stall owner was busy frying and chopping chicken at the same time; we waited patiently for our turn. Am so glad we did! The chicken tasted really wonderful, very well marinated, the chicken was juicy and savoury; utterly lip smacking! The skin; crunchy from the deep frying, was laced with belacan , giving a lovely burst of pungent-ness (from the belacan) that I found extremely satisfying. We totally forgotten about the chili sauce at the side (looking so very abandon, poor thing) as the belacan flavour was nice enough on it's own.

You can get the CKTs and fried chicken (and other hawker food, which i didnt try) at Kedai Makan dan Minum Bee Hooi, Kimberley road, Penang. Very near Penang Road (where the famous cendol is), it's 2 roads away from Penang road (hope I recalled correctly!)

Bali Hai @ Gurney Drive, Penang

Yup, back to Penang food again ;-)

We wanted to have seafood for dinner and cant think of where to have (that's near Gurney). Francis called his penangite friend to recommend and she said Bali Hai!Just down the road!

Bali What?!? Oh, oh i see....

We decided to take a stroll there since we're just staying nearby..

The moment we reached Bali Hai, it was rather pack already (that was around 7:15pm).. we were told that it'll be full house by 8 pm. Definitely cut-throat prices, we thought, looking at the location. But the crowd, suprisingly, consists of more locals rather than tourists..hmmm, was that a sign? Bali Hai has a fantastic array of live seafood and fresh seafood, so much so that they have a tagline on the signboard boasting If it swims, we have it!

Of the many live seafood displays I've seen, Bali Hai's looks the freshest and most tempting..

We had some fried sah zhui fish.....deep fried till real crispy, the meat was sweet and juicy, I ate everything up except for the head. Goes really well with the chilli sauce though WF found it a tad fishy and didnt like it at all.

The fried squids was everyone's favourite....The batter was extremely light, but crunchy at the same time. The squids, very springy, the flesh was quite thick, which gives a nice bite into it. We absolutely, absolutely love this :-)

We had the steam garupa which was utterly lip smacking..The fish was fresh; meat was extremely sweet and silky smooth; and the sauce was superb. Having the fish steamed to the right level of 'cookness' had obviously enhanced our eating experience too..

Andrew, the ever champion eater, wanted to have fried rice after having a plate of white rice. We ordered the small portion so that all of us could try too.. Am glad that andrew was greedy, coz this fried rice was another delicious order! The fried rice had great wok hei, laden with 3 main ingredients; ie, prawns, fish and eggs. Take a dollop of their sambal belacan and mix with the rice..*slurps* what else can I say?

The stir fried kangkung belacan was just average, though Bali Hai's version was very generous with prawns. Not that memorable..

The sweet sour crabs was serve last....Bali Hai's sweet sour (and spicy) crabs was very tasty, the balance of each flavours was just nice, not over powering the rest. The sauce was rather thick, which I preferred. Crab flesh was extremely fresh and meaty, as we ordered live crabs. Though the mantaos were sorta tiny and slightly compact (I prefer the fluffy types), still does it's magic in lapping up the delicious sauce.. Total bill was RM206.80 for 5 of us, not that cut throat after all, for such a scrumptious meal.

Bali Hai Tim Sum/ Seafood market is located at 90A-90D, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang. Tel: 04-2288272. Just along gurney drive, you wont miss it.

Village Park, Damansara Uptown

What?!? 8:00 am?!?

That was the main grouse when Lyrical Lemongrass suggested to have breakfast at Village Park last saturday. She said Village Park serves nasi dagang in the morning and usually sold out before lunch....

Though I was sorely in need of sleep and was still full from previous night's dinner ( dinner ended about 11 pm), a promise is a promise, so I was there slightly after 8 am..

Saw Lemongrass almost immediately, seated strategically, all happy and bubbly looking; she must be a morning person..hehe..We chatted for a while and precious pea joined us soon after. Not wanting to miss the nasi dagang, we ordered while waiting for the rest to arrive. Kenny mah decided to pop by for a surprise visit, still taking a hiatus from his blog..Wmw and her friend, and boolicious came soon after, while fatboybakes was the last to arrive. Everyone had the nasi dagang, 'cept precious pea who had the nasi lemak. The nasi dagang was served piping hot, with a side of ikan tongkol (local mackerel)and pickled cucumber. The rice was nice and fragrant, slightly sticky (from the glutinous rice, I presumed), tasty indeed. The fish curry however, was slightly diluted.. would have been better if it was creamier and sweeter. Boo asked the waitress on the type of nasi dagang served, they said it was Kelantanese style.

Wmw ordered a side of curry puffs, but I was too stuffed to try that. They said it's rather spicy, nice nonetheless.

Lemongrass and I wanted to try the roti sambal, which arrived only 1 hour later, after 4 reminders... Not sure if it was prepared some time back, or that it turned cold after rounds of photo sessions (by us of course), the toasted bread was rather hard and dry. Not that enticing. Sambal was yummy though..

Guess it was more of a morning of bantering (for most of them, I was the rather shy one, erm, I think..hehe), over the very noisy surroundings and trying to listen to who talking what..Like Kenny said, food bloggers are jolly, happy people, how can I possibly be bored? ;-)

Village Park is located at 5, Jalan SS21/37, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Take note though, it can get really crowded on weekends (mornings) and the service you get can be below average.

p/s- Lyrical lemongrass, thanks for all your effort for making this gathering possible! *muaks*

Playing with...oven fried vegetables

Today was one of those days when I came home from work, and just wasn't into cooking. Bridget was headed out for her senior prom, Kate was out for a movie, Molly was making her own tuna salad, the weather was dreary and I wasn't feeling inspired. However, my husband had different ideas. He was craving some fried vegetables we had made before from Giada's Everyday Italian (He always underestimates how much trouble a recipe is). I couldn't find the recipe, and frankly neither of us needs the kind of fat involved (kind of negates the health effects of having veggies in the first place!), so I sent him outside to smoke his cigar, and decided to play with food to make some oven-fried veggies (less trouble for me and less fat- there's a win-win situation!)

Since man cannot live by oven fried vegetables alone (despite what my husband says!), I needed to think up an entree and so I made a shrimp primavera with whole-wheat spaghetti. Both were fairly easy and turned out really good so I thought I would share. While most of my recipes have a story, this is a great example of an experiment that went well, so here it is. If you like fried veggies, you will love this lower fat version that turned out crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. This time I used mushrooms, zucchini and broccoli, but next time I think I will try some Vidalia onion petals.

Play with Food Better-than-Fried Veggies

Veggies that can be sliced thin (Zucchini, mushrooms, onions, broccoli, cauliflower);I sliced them about 1/4 inch and made them as uniform as possible. For tonight's meal for two I used 1 medium zucchini, 1 small head of broccoli and about 5 large mushrooms.

PAM vegetable spray

1 cup panko crumbs

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 cup buttermilk

Mix crumbs, parmesan, salt and paprika in a shallow plate or Ziploc bag. Spray baking sheet with Pam and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dredge veggie slices in buttermilk and then coat in crumb mixture and place coated slices in a single layer on Pam-sprayed cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (I have a convection oven so check periodically until the slices are crisp and brown). Serve with marinara or any other sauce you like!

Easy Shrimp Pasta Primavera

1 tbsp butter or olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

2 cups peeled shrimp (I used the peeled flash-frozen ones)

1/2 cup baby peas

1/2 lb pasta, whatever kind you like

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 jar prepared alfredo sauce

Saute veggies in butter or oil until transparent, add wine and peas and let cook down until all but a little liquid is left then add shrimp and alfredo sauce. Stir until shrimp turns pink. Drain pasta and stir in sauce. Top with grated parmesan cheese.

Rojak and Or Jien@Swatao Lane, Penang

The mere mention of Swatao Lane, some would say that it serves really good ais kacang ( a local dessert of shaved ice with syrup and red beans), which I did try couple of years back. Guess it didn't made a big impression as all I could remember was the rojak and or jien.

The rojak (local mixed fruit and veg salad) is fabulous here as I absolutely love the sticky prawn paste that goes with the fruits..Of so many fruit rojak I've tried, Swatao Lane's sauce got to be the stickiest..Pungent, sticky and sweet sauce generously poured on the mixed fruits and veg while a blanket of ground peanuts add to the finishing touches to this wonderful snack..They dont serve it with crackers nor crullers though..

Francis's favourite, the or jien ( oyster omelette) was served soon after..Again, Swatao's version is top notch.. Unlike the usual round omelette, this version is somewhat rectangle in shape.. The egg batter is fried till really crunchy, just like eating keropok. The oysters on the other hand, remains juicy and succulent. One bite and you'll ask for more!

Andrew, still feeling hungry (though we just had lunch at another place), ordered a plate of fried radish cake which tasted horrible! Don't order this!This is the Swatao Lane place we went to. Drive from Lorong Selamat (the famous CKT stall on your left) till you reach T-junc. Turn left, and then take the first turning on your right. That's Swatao Lane.

Asam Laksa & lobak@Lorong Selamat, Penang

For this trip to Penang, I won't be posting on the famous Lorong Selamat's char kuey teow, Ayer Itam's asam laksa, Penang road's cendol and Pulau Tikus's hokkien mee (prawn mee).. In fact, we decided to try new food; which some turn out good, while others, bad..

But I was at Lorong Selamat; so why didnt I eat the char kuey teow? Well, some of my friends have actually banned this CKT from their eating list; saying that it was overpriced and the queue was ridiculous. As for me, I wanted to eat something else.. hence..

Francis said that there's a real good asam laksa sold here and that if we're lucky, we'll get to eat it (he came 2 years in a row and did not manage to eat it).. and we were :).

Honestly speaking, I'm never a big fan of asam laksa, not sure what the craze is about. Still, I'll never reject good food and I must say, the asam laksa we had was excellent. Actually, I took a look at the stall, it's written there siam laksa..hmmm, makes me wonder what's so different from the conventional ones..This bowl of asam laksa sure tasted different..It had the same ingredients of asam laksa, but just a hint of sourness; at the same time, there was another layer of flavour enveloping it, somewhat like curry laksa..Hence, it had this unique santan-ish (slightly creamy) flavour too. The combination was potent, my friends stopped chatting and concentrated on their bowl, till the last drop of soup was gone..hehe.

Whenever I'm at Lorong Selamat, I'll always order the prawn fritters as I find this snack absolutely delectable. While other stall's prawn fritters have more dough and just and few prawns, Lorong Selamat's version was basically all prawns, fragilely held together by some dough. Fried till crunchy, this is so hard to resist. The lobak was just average though.

Andrew still wanted to have CKT, so we ordered from another stall nearby to satisfy his cravings..Sigh, guess the famous CKT is famous for a reason; this stall's version paled in comparison to the famous one. I rest my case..

The prawn fritters stall is at the same row as the famous CKT stall while the asam laksa stall is opposite it at Lorong Selamat.

Coconut@ Lorong Abu Siti, Penang

This will be a short post.

I shall tackle the food I had in Penang another day.. today, shall just write about the sweet coconut drink I had in Penang.. :-)

The heat was sweltering...we just had prawn mee nearby and was looking for something to ease the heat licking inside our bellies..We drove by the gudang kelapa (coconut store/ warehouse), well, at least that's what it looks like to me; on the day before, hence, I suggested for us to go there..

I was amazed when we stop and went near the shop..This shop was practically filled to the brim with coconuts; 2 types; normal coconut and pandan coconut..

Apa u mau? pandan atau biasa? sejuk atau tak sejuk? (what do you want? Pandan flavoured or the normal ones? chilled or non chilled?) the man asked, while moving his parang menacingly (or so I imagined..haha)

All of us wanted pandan as it looked smaller and our stomach can handle that..The man immediately started chopping the coconut, deftly chopping here and there; in a blink of an eye, he had thrusted 4 coconuts to us..I love the way he creatively chopped a side of the coconut to form a sorta spoon for us to use to scoop the smooth, sweet coconut flesh after the drink..the coconut juice was frangrant, had a hint of pandan, sweet and refreshing..just what we needed after a spicy meal :-). The man also provided spoons for those who are bothered with using the coconut skin as a spoon, so no worries bout that. I went closer to their storeroom and checked the mountains of coconuts stacked inside..Would you look at that?I asked if they stored coconuts upstairs too..The man look at me incredulously, as though I'm an imbecile and said, Atas untuk tidur! (Upstairs is for sleeping!). hehe

Cant really recall how much was the coconut.. RM1.50? RM2.00? Well, it was not very expensive as far as I could remember..

This shop is located at Lorong Abu Siti, near the junction to Burma road. 2 roads away from Lorong Selamat.