Back in Business!!

I finally got a new laptop and I am so excited to catch up with my blogging. I have so much material in the pipeline, it is hard to decide where to start. While I have been relegated to semi blog silence, a lot has happened. We came back from our double birthday beach trip (I still have great pictures and recipes from the food to post), I judged a cooking contest sponsored by Certified Angus Beef in Williamsburg, and we all helped Katie move to her new apartment in Shirlington, in the DC area (believe me, this was an adventure that is at least one post!),where I got to sample some great food at Cakelove, and Capitol City Brewing Company. I have had another article on farm markets local to the Hampton Roads area in our local paper, and am planning a road trip to Richmond for a story where I hope to catch Veronica of Veronica's Test Kitchen , who is selling her macarons from Petites Bouchees at the Richmond 17th Street Farmer's Market and to check (buy) out the new Penzey's Spices store that has opened there. I am also scheduled to do a series on ethnic markets in June, including La Tienda in Williamsburg, that I will expand on here at Play with Food.

So thank all of you faithful, who have been hanging around, and hang on, it's time to play with food!!

P.S. Any of you DC foodies who know great places to shop and eat, cool things to do or food-related events, let me know so I can pass the info on to Katie! She is just trying to get her bearings in the big city!

Food-4-Thot, Year 2

Gosh, time flies and I didnt even know that Food4Thot is Two!

What a year of makan-ing it has been, am glad I managed to keep posting all the good (and sometimes bad) reviews..

A Huge Thank you to all my friends and floggers friends who recommended me to many new yummy food places; especially those who took the trouble to bring me far, far, away, just for some real lip smacking good food..love y'all!

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, Mutiara Damansara

Bollywood Queen was not happy.

She wanted to buy Uncle Zach dinner at Bubba Gump's but the wait was one hour.

So we met this morning, and while swimming a couple of laps (to loose some flabs), Bollywood Queen announced that lunch is at Bubba Gump's (non negotiable on my end). So much for losing weight..hahaha

So we reached and it was not crowded, but we got a confused waiter who brought us all around the restaurant and finally decided that we should sit outside the restaurant, at the entrance. We obviously made some noise as it was still rather empty inside.

We were finally seated, and were given some brief introductions on how to use the signs on our table.

If you want the waiter to come to your table, choose this..

Else, a Do Not Disturb by choosing this....

After checking out the menu, BQ decided to have Run Forrest Run...

Which we had to work for to get our drinks. The waiter insisted we should answer some questions on Forrest Gump before we could have our drinks. The dude obviously didnt know that 2 thirsty women can be very angry women..sigh..

This is a smoothie of oranges, strawberries, bananas and raspberry non-fat yogurt. Banana lovers would like this as the banana flavour was very intense.

To complement Forrest, I had Jenny's Favourite..

A smoothie of strawberries, cranberry juice, and raspberry non-fat yogurt. It think it's my fave too, as it's very yummy.

We decided to have Shrimper's Heaven (RM44.90)..

4 flavours of shrimps here...The coconut shrimp were quite plump and large, deep fried with dessicated coconut. The batter was too sweet for my liking though. The chilled prawns were, erm, chilled. Dipped in the savory sauce, it was ok, though not as fresh as I would like it. I've forgotten the name of this flavour (right side of the picture) which was, in my opinion, the nicest in this group. Crunchy batter, juicy, springy shrimps.The tempura prawns were mediocre as I find the flour rather thick.

We decided to share a Shrimp Po' Boy sandwich (RM24.90)..Somehow, I've conjured up in my head a sandwich with a big prawn patty..

But, we got this..BQ prefer the shrimps served with this sandwich, she finds it better tasting than the 4 flavours in Shrimper's Heaven.. I kinda agree too as the batter for this shrimps were very flavourful. Yummy stuff. The bread was very hard though. As I'm a potato crazed woman, I was thrilled that there's chips served with both our mains..

Alas, my excitement was shortlived as the chips were Way too salty..so sad. I could have finished all those chips!!

As the portions were large, our tummies did not have any space for desserts...

Just too much shrimps for a meal I guess..

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co is located at Lot 145, 1st Floor, Jalan PJU 7/3, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, PJ, Selangor.

Ban Chen Kuih, Penang

We were so full from dinner at 747 cafe, but piglets that we were, we needed the dessert. Ok, maybe that's just my excuse...haha

Another family haunt for Ryan's family (and extended family) for after dinner dessert, we reached rather late..about 10:30? Most of the stalls at this corner has closed, except for the Ban Chen Kuih stall, the thong sui stall next door and the local kuih stall.

We ordered the Original (RM0.80) and Peanut (RM0.60) flavour The skin was very crunchy and had the lovely santan-ish and eggy flavour. The centre is slightly thicker than usual, giving the ban chen kuih another level of texture..soft and spongy, rather than crunchy all the way. They were really generous with the filling too..there were ample crush peanuts, corn, dessicated coconut and margerine..making this ban chen kuih really delicious.

After 2 ban chen kuih each, I spotted the tauke cracking some eggs into the ban chen kuih that another customer order.

Curiosity got the better of me; I wanted to try it..Fresh from the pan..egg ban chen (RM1.30). This is really good. A slightly savoury flavour of the egg matched the sweets to perfection. Wonder if I can find this in KL?

The Ban Chen Kuih stall is located inside Kompleks Pasar & Balai Bayan Baru, Jalan Lintang Mayang Pasir 3. Next to Sunshine Square, on the way to Bayan Lepas.

747 Cafe, Penang

From the bad tasting durian, we prepped ourselves for a sumptuous dinner...

Cafe 747 was rather hard to find as the road and signage was so badly lighted; we didnt realise that we drove pass this eatery 2 times before we saw it..

Located inside YMCA Building, it was nearing 9 pm when we walked in.

Most of the diners were already busily tucking into their meals or were leaving the restuarant already. We were quickly seated and after a few recommendations from the waitress, we waited for ous dinner..

Luckily for us, the wait was short..

We had asparagus stir fried with sambal and prawns.. This is very scrumptious, the asparagus was young, hence it was crunchy and very sweet. The sauce which is spicy and sourish goes really well with the asparagus and the prawns..

The Guiness Stout pork ribs..Seriously, I could not really detect any guiness stout in this dish. It tasted like marmite pork ribs. The pork ribs were tender and juicy, the flavours were a little different from those I've tried in Klang Valley though. Quite tasty.

The waitress recommended the Salad Yu Char Kuey..And we got this. Not impressive at all, as the salad was a big portion of coleslaw. And the yu char kuey was stuffed with fish paste, which have a weird lingering after taste. Dont like this dish.

The star of the night..

The Assam Fish Head

Looks very pretty and rather impressive. We got a humonguous fish head, topped with thick assam gravy. The sauce was sour and spicy; very appetising to have it with white rice. All of us love the sauce, as it was really good.

Last dish was the belacan chicken..It was deep fried, very crunchy fried chicken. The belacan flavour was not there though; It was more like ayam goreng kampung. Some of my friends find the belacan chicken too hard and over fried..

Total bill was RM97.20. Overall, a satisfying meal.

747 Cafe is located inside Bangunan Y.M.C.A, 211-B, Jalan Macalister, 10450 Penang. Tel: 04-229 6897. You can park in the YMCA Building, walk in and look for this entrance (quite easily missed too)

RIP

I want to apologize for not being as prolific since I came back from the beach. No, it is not because I don't have tons of new ideas and great recipes to share. In fact, I came back with a slew of ideas and pictures just waiting for a post. However, my Toshiba laptop, which had not even made it to its second birthday has a fried motherboard, and after multiple attempts to get some type of customer service (4 emails to customer service returned without response, 2 phone calls that offered only the alternative of a $400 repair(+shipping)), I have to shop for a new computer. Needless to say I am not very happy since this is an unexpected expense, but with Katie taking her laptop when she moves to DC next week, I will be handicapped without one.

I am researching and want a laptop with staying power (not something that ends up being essentially a "disposable" laptop), so if any of you have suggestions, please share. I have researched Consumer Reports, PC Magazine and have looked at any recent article on customer satisfaction surveys for laptop computers. I have gotten recommendations for a Gateway (which I am currently leaning toward), a Dell Inspiron, and a Sony Vaio. I am particularly interested if you have had good experiences with customer service and support since that was non-existent with my Toshiba, so let me know what you think- I will be buying in the next week since I feel cripppled without my own laptop!

Durians @ Balik Pulau, Penang

Back to my Penang post, now it's time for a post that totally disappoints all of us..

Balik Pulau is famed for it's lip smacking varieties of creamy, rich, breathtaking durians and I just cant wait to sink my teeth into these luscious babies..

Most unfortunately, it has been raining every day when we were in Penang and it's not really the durian season yet....we still decided to risk it and went up the hills of Balik Pulau.

We drove by many shacks, all still empty and abandoned as there were not many fruits yet..After a rather long drive uphill (and it was raining rather heavily too), we managed to see a shack with a few durians. The person manning the shack said that fresh durians were just loaded further up in the hills and they are coming down with the picks.

So we waited and waited..

Finally...Durians!!! Some categories of 604 and 38? I took one bite and sigh...Looks good but taste bad. It was that bad :(. It was bland and watery, I really didnt want to continue after the first one. But we could not believe it and we got 2 more durians..Still disappointing.

Ryan and Lily were really disappointed as they have been here for the durians before and it was really awesome at that time.

Maybe it was the rainy season? Diluted the durian flesh? Could that be it?

Oh, and I climbed up a durian tree to takes some of the shots of durians and durian flowers for readers who have never seen durian trees before.. Hehe, just joking! These durian trees were growing at the slope next to the roads..so the fruiting parts were at my height :p

Would I want to try the durians in Balik Pulau again? Though with this bad experience, if I do pop over one day, yes, I will still try it...Just one more chance.. :)

Pan Heong Restoran, Batu Caves

Think I should take a break from Penang before my KL readers gets all pissy with me..

Ok, maybe I'm just exaggerating, but I'd love to post about this earlier, hence...kakaka

Gary and Candy needed to be over at Batu Caves last saturday and they asked if I'll like to have the famous Sang Har Meen at Batu Caves. I recalled reading Precious Pea and Boolicious blogging about some famous fresh prawns noodles in Batu Caves, bet this is the one ;)

The 4 of us were there at 12 noon, Pan Heong was already pack with customers..

Luckily there's one vacant table :)

After a rather long wait, we were presented with this..

The Sang Har Meen (RM35)..

The aroma of the noodles were intoxicating but nothing beats a mouthful of it..

The gravy was extremely flavourful; the egg sauce cooked with wine and prawn roe was so sinful, yet we slurped up every drop of it. And the prawns were so fresh and sweet; the flesh were very springy, I enjoyed sinking my teeth into it.hehe. Was glad that the Sang Har Meen in Pan Heong is served with flat noodles (hor fun) as it complemented the sauce and prawns very well. This is top notch, the best I've tried so far; a must order. Ahhh, am still craving for it now even as I'm writing this...

Next was the steamed fish (RM19)..The fresh water fish was no doubt fresh, but was a tad strong on the 'mud' taste. The sauce was rather diluted too, it was cooked ala teow cheow with herbal style.. Didn't really enhanced the flavours of the fish though..

The kao yuk bee hoon(RM14.50).. I am a fan of kao yuk cooked in such method..braised until it's soft and melts in the mouth. The meat was wonderfully marinated and though the bee hoon was a tad dry, I still enjoyed this dish tremendously.

The herbal chicken(RM16)..

From afar, I thought we were served with roasted chicken. Once it was placed on our table, it's more like roasted chicken in soup. Nonetheless, all of us took a sip of the soup and it was rather rich and herbally. Rather different from the usual herbal chicken as the soup was not thickened with starch, hence we were able to just drink the soup. I thought it was pretty good; but Daniel really liked this dish.

Total bill was RM97.80. Very reasonable; I'll definitely be back for more of those slurpilicious Sang Har Meen!

Pan Heong Restoran is located at No 2, Jln Medan Batu Caves 2, Batu Caves, Selangor. Tel : 03-6187 7430. Business hours: 8 am- 3:30pm.

I've also took a picture of the map from their name card for those who are keen to try it..enjoy!

Joo Hooi Cafe, Penang

After the sumptuous loh bak brunch, we went along Jalan Penang as Ryan had some errands to run..

And since we were parked so near Joo Hooi Cafe, it was inevitable that we sat down for some ice cold cendol and a bowl of assam laksa...

This old coffee shop oozes nostalgic charm like no other. Everything seems to be in the 1970s, except for the music which fills the air..well, that might be from the 40s to 60s..hehe

Some cendol for the sweet tooth.. The shaved ice, gula melaka syrup and creamy coconut milk combo does wonders to cool us down on a very hot afternoon.Very nice indeed. Oh, we did not managed to eat the very famous cendol stall that was located just outside of Joo Hooi Cafe. We thought we ordered from the stall, but after a while we realised that we had the cendol from the coffee shop as this bowl is larger. Not much difference actually.

The assam laksa..Not the best I've tried, but it was ok. The soup was thick with loads of fish and have it piping hot; it's quite satisfying.

Joo Hooi Cafe is located at the junction of Penang Road and Lebuh Kheng Khee. About 5 mins from Komtar building.

Beach Birthday #2 - Heaven in Carolina (The Surprise)

Since I last posted, I have discovered something fundamental - a bit of heaven exists here on earth on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I let you in on the secret of Molly and Katie's double birthday surprise, and none of you let the cat out of the bag. While the beach birthday was Katie's idea, it was a complete surprise for Molly, complete with her siblings from Florida and Washington DC making the trek to the Outer Banks to celebrate. With most of our children now grown, having a reason and a place to get together is a real blessing.

We started by celebrating the girls' real birthday, and Molly was so surprised when her sister from Florida came in that she squealed loud and high enough to crack glass. She was so excited that she started to cry! We had organized a series of small beach-related gifts, with each card having puzzle pieces that when put together would show the beach house where we were going. Another series of squeals resulted when the picture was put together (see her reaction upper left) and we headed to the computer to show her the house (you can see it too by going to Elan Vacations, and looking up Sea Spray).

After the celebration, Katie went to dinner with her boyfriend and Molly started packing so we could get an early start. We caravanned down to the Outer Banks, with the kids a bit ahead of us. Now at this point Molly knew where we were going but she still did not know that her brother was coming from Washington to surprise her. Since we had to stop to get the key, the other members of the caravan got there first and proceeded to look in all the windows and then call to tell us to hurry up!

Since she was the birthday girl, Molly unlocked the door leading to our piece of paradise here on earth. Pictures cannot capture how incredible this house was. It actually took my breath away when I got to the top of the stairs on the top floor and saw 180 degree view of the ocean (Colleen and Rikki with the windows behind them, right).

Sea Spray offers two master suites, each with huge Jacuzzi-style tubs, and oversized showers that your whole family could fit in. Katie and Molly decided that they would take a bubble bath to unwind from the drive while we unpacked and got everything and everyone settled in, so they put on their bathing suits and turned on the bubbles. Bridget was the photog who captured them, buried in a sea of bubbles. The rest of us went on a bike ride, since the weather that first day was gorgeous.

Unfortunately, we were hit the next night by a Nor'easter that brought rain and high winds, but it didn't inhibit our good time at all. There was a pool table that provided hours of entertainment and I found out that there are some members of my family who are pool sharks(Gavin, relaxing while cousin Ian takes a shot- is that mural incredible?)! In the evenings we enjoyed the two-sided gas fireplace that gave the family room a cozy feel even when the wind and rain lashed the outside. There were games of Spoons and of course we played "Murder" and "Sardines. Uncle John (or Aunt Susan as he is affectionately known) amazed children and adults with his latest magic tricks (Bridget and Lilly are mezmerized, left)

I did check blogs and respond to comments occasionally, but with a view like this , it was really easy to get distracted. We also spent time cooking and eating together- no surprise that, just like in our own (much more modest) home, the kitchen was the center of activity. Food was such a big part of our vacation, that I will be doing a separate post just focused on that!

The young people tried flying a "finger kite" out on the dune deck, and all the girls worked together on 2 large puzzles, something we almost never do at home (this house even had a designated puzzle room!- see Katie and Bridget concentrating below)





All in all, despite the weather it was a wonderful time for us all to celebrate, be together and enjoy each other's company. If any of you have a chance or occasion, I would highly recommend Elan Vacations and Sea Spray for a wonderful family get-together or reunion. It can accommodate tons of people without feeling cramped, it offers plenty to do for kids of all ages, with every detail has been thought of and attended to, and the view... it was absolutely amazing. Just being in the house made me feel more relaxed than I have felt in years - perfect for a vacation.

Wondering about the food? I will be covering that, and my thoughts on a well-equipped kitchen inspired by Sea Spray in future posts..

Kheng Pin Cafe, Penang Road, Penang

For breakfast, we'll have loh bak, Ryan told us
I thought he was joking, I mean who takes loh bak for breakfast?
Maybe I was the oddball here...


Apparently everyone eating at Kheng Pin Cafe eats loh bak for breakfast..

Ryan went to select the food while we waited patiently..
Would you look at that? Gosh, such sinful food in the morning...

We had a mixture of stuff..

The loh bak was crispy on the outside and the meat was well marinated, tender and juicy. Really delicious. So was the prawn fritters had more prawns that flour so it was lovely as it was really flavourful. The squids were fresh and the batter, light. The fried plain tau foo and filled taufoo were also good. Dip all these into the sticky sweet sauce and the chilli sauce, very lip smacking indeed.

Some CKT to fill our stomach..Tasted rather mediocre after the loh bak...kakaka

Ryan said that this loh bak stall has been operating for 30 years and is famed in Penang. I'm not surprised though as it's utterly delicious:)

The loh bak stall is located in Kheng Pin Cafe (it's actually an old kopitiam), corner shoplot. At the T junction of Jalan Sri Baharin and Jalan Penang. Opposite Hotel Oriental.Very near Cititel Hotel.

Terubong Seafood, Paya Terubong, Penang

Our first dinner in Penang was located at a rather secluded area; well, it seemed rather far and secluded to me anyways :). It was the only shop that was brimming with activities as the rest of the shops were closed in the evening..

We were lucky to get a table immediately..

The choice of seafood were ordered right at the 'kitchen' (or tai chow place) located right at the entrance of the restaurant..

The steamed fish with assam sauce was lip smacking

The fish was very fresh, the meat texture was firm and cooked to the right time and the sauce..well, it was totally seductive. It was somewhat like a mix of chinese and malay sauces; there's blended chilli padi, sour plum sauce, lime; the sauce was spicy and burning my tongue but I just can stop eating this. Very addictive.

We noticed lots of tables having the small promprets, hence we ordered too..It was served deep fried, with some fish sauce and lime juice combo. The prompets goes very well with the sauce, the fish were crispy that we could eat the fins and tails too. The meat managed to retain it's juiciness although it's deep fried.

The balitong was next..

The sauce was excellent; but I wished I knew how to eat balitong. Lily, WF and I tried really hard trying to get the meat out from balitongs..but seems like we'll never succeed..Ryan's the pro here..

Some fried rice for that carbs we're missing..Though it looks simple; fried rice with garlic, eggs and topped with fried anchovies, this is also very tasty. The rice was full of wok hei and accompanied by their special sauce again (the same used for the steamed fish), I really enjoyed every mouthful of this.

The steamed squids came in a lovely snow white..So pretty. Lightly drizzled with bits of garlic oil. The squids were so fresh, sweet and springy. Delicious. Again served with their secret sauce.

The kam heong prawns..I was surprised that they allowed us to order( and willing to cook) just 4 prawns for 4 of us. Large prawns nonetheless. About the size of my palm. Another scrumptious dish, other than the really fresh prawns, the kam heong sauce is a little different from those in Klang Valley. Very yummy.
Some lady's fingers cooked in banana leaf. Very spicy but lovely.

By then, we were so stuffed, but there's still grilled sting ray..

Grilled with the same secret sauce (maybe with some additional concoction), it was really good. The stingray meat, grilled on the banana leafs, absorbed the aroma wonderfully. Though it was smothered with the spicy sauce, the flesh is still very juicy and we could still taste the sweetness of the fish.

Total bill was RM119.50 (including many cups of drinks)

Terubong Seafood is located at 1238T, Taman Indah, Paya Terubong, Penang. Tel: 04-855 0903. H/p: 012-4103303. Bits of direction I managed to jot down on the way there..you'll see SRK Batu Lancang on your right, drive straight on. Pass SMK George Town, Sekolah Teknik. You'll see cemetary on your left. Drive on, take first turning left. You'll see union hotel (cemetary), drive straight, reach Y junction, turn right and keep a look out on your right, Terubong Restaurant is on your right.