柳暗花明又一村

昨天我因有要事在身得到Burma Road走一趟，却因为找不到泊车位而阴差阳错地来到Lengkok Burma。

有别于Burma Road的繁忙喧哗，这里朴素幽静。我喜欢这个环境，也不介意得走得比较远，就在这儿泊车。

在我的泊车位不远处、在一片绿荫当中，有个小小的小贩中心。我来得迟，大多数都已经收档了。（安娣说过了三点就没有办公族来吃饭，所以大家都在三点左右就收档）

我们点了一碗面线羹和一碟Roti Babi。

在树荫下、沙地上，摆着一张张高低不平的桌子，我们就坐在那儿闲聊，看安娣从容不迫地为我们准备食物。

小贩中心周围全是“走地鸡”，鸡啼声此起彼落，啼着啼着就把童年回忆给提住来了。鸽子们也来凑热闹，咕咕声为幽静的环境添上浓浓乡趣。

与我同行的小妹妹毕竟年纪小，面线羹和Roti Babi都不是这个年代普及的食物，对她而言倒是新奇。而我，虽然这称不上槟城数一数二的美味，但我爱煞在繁华都市当中难得的原始绿肺，所以我也很享受这简单的美味。

由于我们的时间有点儿紧迫，倒没有作太长的逗留。匆匆离去时还在马路边看见母鸡生蛋，我的车子旁还有一颗仍然热乎乎的鸡蛋躺在那儿呢！

下次吧，下次我带上相机再到这儿探索探索。

Steak Frites

Steak Frites is the restaurant of Hotel 23 Love Lane. If you don't pay attention when you drive through Love Lane, you are going to miss this humble little restaurant.

I love the interior of this restaurant. Nostalgic-chic. It is more of nostalgic. It reminds me of some old kopitiams that I visited as a kid. The impluvium and stairs somehow bring back some vague memories at my grand-aunt's house.


This restaurant is not as better known as it deserves, most probably because of its extremely simple menu. There are only 2 items listed in the main course menu: 150g of Australian grass-fed tenderloin steak (RM49), or 200g of Australian grass-fed tenderloin steak (RM60). (I'm alone during my first visit because it is just hard to have friends that crave for steak at the same time, especially most of them don't eat beef!)

All main courses come with salad and fries. The salad is served with French dressing. Fresh and simple, had my tongue ready for the fragrant meat. The steak is served with generous dollop of Chef's special butter and basil. Full of flavour and juiciness.
Even the fries are good too!

They have very friendly staffs and the ambiance is very welcoming.

I'll be back! :)

Address: Lorong Love, Georgetown, 10200 George Town, Penang, Malaysia

Phone:+60 4-262 13

pathway to the boutique hotel

Penangites' memories

Simple Yummy at Chew Jetty

I blogged about Chew Jetty Cafe last year. This is one of the places we frequented. The food is simple, good and cheap.

Besides the normal hawker food, you can also have home-cook-seafood here. The phone number of the home-cook-seafood is written on the blackboard of the coffee shop. You can always call and place order. (Be early though, sometimes the food finished before 7:45pm!). The owner will bring the food from their home at Chew Jetty to the coffee shop.

"Chi Ya Hu" is my favorite fish for deep fried. Not a fancy dish but this is no longer a dish that you can easily get. My mum does cook from time to time but she always complain about the price ("This used to be something very cheap, used to be fish for the poor", she has to repeat this every time we have this at home)

"Balitong" too is hard to get now. Ever since the outbreak of Hyperthesis a few decades ago, "Balitong" and cockles share the same faith where they were listed as the high risk food. "Balitong" status dropped from one of the most popular Malaysian seafood to something no one seeks after. So, for Balitong lovers out there, you can always come to Chew Jetty Cafe to practice you sucking skill :)

履行公民义务

今天又回到母校了，虽然没有特别为母校做了些什么，可是我这些年来，守紀律、尊師重道、勤奋、又忠誠，而且从来不忘履行公民义务，既对得起所有曾经为马来西亚华教出力的先人，总也算是报答了母校的栽培之恩吧？

我笃信，今天，大家都是勇敢的。无论结局如何，普罗大众的政治觉醒已经令我们往真正的民主再迈进一步。

HUG

HUG全名为House of Udang Galah。是乔治市一家比较新的餐馆（没有记错的话应该是去年年底或今年年头才开张的）。

我相当喜欢这一间餐厅，一来老屋被翻新后天井被保留了下来，那自然光洒下感觉非常老南洋（而且，和大家一窝蜂把老屋转换为咖啡厅的方式不同，店面前半部是供人数比较小的顾客坐的方桌，后半部以及楼上却是让大家可以好好的坐下来吃一顿传统中餐的圆桌格局）。二来，价廉物美。厨师功夫不错，吃过了两回，除了King of Scallop in Mongolian sauce作得马马虎虎之外，其他都不错。淡水长臂大虾新鲜美味，价钱也相当大众化。一碟mee udang galah （槟城女生适量两人分）才马币十八块八。（落足料的哦！）

楼上可以作为function room

Mee Udang Galah - RM18.80

 

Udang Galah with Ramen in Miso Soup - RM18.80

Pumpkin with Cheese Udang Galah - RM15/100g

Udang Galah in Chef Specialty Lime Sauce - RM15/g

Mantis Shrimp French Fries - RM12

King of Scallop in Mongolian Sauce - RM12

有趣的是付钱后随收据送上的还有一张小卡，写着Udang Galah的生命周期，很有教育性哦！

Overpriced Cafe

We planned for a simple lunch at Georgetown yesterday, not knowing that it was a replacement school day. Traffic was terrible and it was hard to get a parking lot in Georgetown. Our initial plan was to try the Micke's Place but it was closed. We then went to The Mugshot Cafe and it was full house!! So, we ended up at this lovely famous cafe at Muntri Street.

The decoration has not much changes since Cafe-C. It still has the cozy ambiance of old charm. I have always wanted to come and try what the new owner has to offer but I have dragged this for years. Finally.

I am still very excited about everything, until I saw the menu. Overall, everything is overpriced for Georgetown standard. I told myself "who knows, maybe the food is heavenly, maybe the portion is huge" so we ordered what the waitress recommended (I always do this when I go to any restaurant that I've never tried before. I always believe that the waiters and waitresses must have known what are the best)

We ordered one Seafood Tapas (RM89), one Traditional Tapas (RM55), a cup of cappuccino, a glass of plain water, and 2 glasses of fruit juices. The bill says RM219 for 4 of us!!!

This is what we get for the 2 tapas sets

The food doesn't come with huge portion as you can see from the photo. The juices are forgettable. The food is not bad, but very far away from heavenly. Nothing to shout about.

I still think this is a good place to enjoy the peaceful weekend at Georgetown, as long as you don't mind paying two three times higher price than other cafes.However, if your purpose is just to sit down and chit chat with friends, or to read a book while sipping coffee, or just to enjoy the rustic / nostalgic feel of Georgetown, I could easily list more than 10 cafes that you should consider FIRST before this :)

Not bad, really, just overpriced.

五条路Rojak

我从小酷爱啰吔(rojak)。

小时候住在垄尾，炎炎午后总有小贩“叮叮叮”地从外头经过。有时候妈妈心血来潮，会给我两角钱解馋。我总是兴奋地拿着铁碟子到外头等待啰吔伯伯。我最爱酸酸的芒果、连雾和黄梨配上啰吔酱，感觉特别解暑。

长大后，啰吔一直是我最爱的小吃。而我最爱的，就是这档“五条路”的赤脚uncle的啰吔。和别人稍微不同的是，他的啰吔还洒上belacan粉和虾米，正适合重口味的娘惹后代，嘻嘻。

今天，天气酷热，又想念啰吔啦~就特地绕去瞧瞧。Uncle的女儿说今年六月底后他们就不做啦。我说那你搬去哪儿呢。她说你误会了，我是说我们再也不做生意了。对我而言简直是晴天霹雳！

她给了我一张名片，说六月之后可以打电话问问，她可能会继续给别的档口supply啰吔酱。不过belacan粉及虾米的比率秘方就不传啦~

啊啊啊~~~~~！！

我买了一包，再买三瓶啰吔酱，回到家一面慢慢品尝，一面盘算着接下去两个月是不是应该勤力一点儿到五条路走走……

An Unplanned Visit to Penang Hill

It has been quite demotivating recently, so I planned a ladies' day out last Sunday. We were aiming for the afternoon tea at Suffolk House. Unfortunately, when I arrived, this is the sign that's waiting for me:

I have to make a quick decision so that the girls will not be disappointed. I have a few restaurant options in mind but my criteria was: it has to serve English Afternoon Tea in a pleasant environment. The first one that came into my mind was David Brown's Restaurant. I love the picturesque restaurant whereby we can enjoy an afternoon tea along a pond with fresh air. So, I made a call, confirmed that they do serve English Afternoon Tea, and headed to Penang Hill after met up with the girls.

They were very excited with this unplanned trip to Penang Hill. Some have never been up there, and most of them couldn't recall their last visit decades ago.

 

By the time we reached the cable car station, I was shocked to find that it is under renovation. (I would have gave up if this ad hoc plan doesn't work too.) Luckily the cable car is still in service. The two-way ticket cost RM30 per adult. However, if you have a MyCard, you can get your two-way ticket at the price of RM8 :)

The cable car ride is always fun if you are at the first car. The kid sit next to us was a bit nervous since this new cable car provide better (or scarier) view compare to the older version. I love being elevated while seeing more and more areas of Penang Island, and getting closer and closer to the green. (By the way, do you know that technically, this is a funicular and not cable car)

 

Just love the panorama view of Penang Island on top of Penang Hill. Like every other tourists, we took lots of photos before we even start exploring Penang Hill. 

After a short walk from the cable car station, David Brown's Restaurant is on your left. You won't miss it since you can easily see the patio umbrellas decorating the blue sky.  

You will first arrive at the newly renovated viewing platform (Sky Terrace) of David Brown's Restaurant. Great view, yes! Seems like a great place to chill, fully agree! Lively jazz music makes you wanted to stay, I can understand that. However, if you are here for the afternoon tea, don't get distracted. Please don't stop here. Keep going, find the stairs and continue your journey. 

You will then come to this lovely part of the restaurant, the original bungalow. The pond is full with pink and purple water lilies. If you are lucky, you can meet a few cute frogs jumping around too.

We were very excited. The garden is excellent for afternoon tea, the patio is very welcoming, and the indoor is with very authentic feel too. It was not very hard to choose though (who wouldn't want to sit under the trees by the pond with cool breeze and birds chirping?!). However, we couldn't help but to explore everything about the restaurant before we finally decided to sit down and take a look at the menu.

The price is slightly high for Penang standard. Obviously you are paying for the view :)

However, we have planned to pampered ourselves at Suffolk House anyway so price is not the issue here. It is already budgeted :)

This set comes with a pot of tea for two. RM78

We ordered all the 3 different choices listed under the afternoon tea menu. The food is just so so, but we love the ambiance. The girls imagined that this is how 贵妇 (ladies) spend their afternoon: chit-chatting, wandering around from time to time to take photos or for a sudden change of view, enjoy the tea, have some bites, laughing and joking around......

While we were there, besides being constantly harassed by 3 little wasps that love strawberry jam, we also spotted squirrels and musang running around between the trees.

We spent more than 3 hours at this restaurant, and we had lovely time. The fact that this is unplanned, the fact that this is a little surprise in life, the fact that we were close to the nature, the fact that we have friends that we can share some wonderful time, make these few hours memorable.

We left before sunset because some of the girls have other plans after the prolonged afternoon tea.

We wanted to take some selves-portrait photos but even the Facebook Queen couldn't get satisfying shots.

The "Big Sister" (not me!) decided to ask the tourist that was laughing at us be our photographer. So here's our group photo to conclude our Penang Hill Surprise Visit :)

Cozy in the Rocket

I always love Amelie's Cafe. This cute little shop at Armenian Street serve one of the best pasta in town.

It has now moved to Beach Street (near the junction of Armenian Street - Beach Street), and named as Cozy in the Rocket.

This new location is even better than the original Amelie's Cafe. First of all, now it is bigger, so you don't have to always wait in the queue. Secondly, now they split the shop into 2 areas, one with air-conditioning, another one still using the open-air concept. I hate Malaysia weather, and hence I love the new air-conditioning zone :)

It is a slightly upgraded version than the previous rustic feel. The shop deco is still as simple as possible, yet elegant.

Traditional Wooden Molds on the Wall

Just like when they were in Amelie's Cafe, they had their menu all written at the blackboard. The old metal cups are still hanging there, decorating the wall.

I love the fact that they still keep their special blackboard where they will write their "Today's Special". I always order from this list because these are made with the fresh ingredients that they just got from the market, and they never fail to surprise me.

The non-air-conditioning area

If you are interested, you can even choose to sit near to the kitchen, so that you can peek at the process of the chef.
















During our previous visit, I saw "Gnocchi" on their "Today's Special" menu. I've never heard of this food and hence, my curiosity kick in. I MUST try this! We googled this and found out that this is normally a home-made meal in Italian family!! So we ordered a Gnocchi with mushroom in truffle sauce, and a Gnocchi with sausage meat and gorgonzola cheese.

The Gnocchi with mushroom in truffle sauce was great! Maybe I'm a fan of various types of mushrooms, I found this dish irresistible. The Gnocchi itself is tender and it absorbed the aroma of the mushrooms so well that the more you chew, it tastes better and better. The one with sausage meat is a bit too salty for me but I love the gorgonzola cheese in this dish. It mixed very well with the gnocchi.

I'm a huge fan of their passion fruit drinks

Gnocchi with mushroom in truffle sauce

Gnocchi with sausage meat and Gorgonzola cheese

Fresh spaghetti with bacon and asparagus

We had a great and quite lengthy chat in the cafe, so we felt a little bit guilty for only having the main dishes. We decided to get ourselves panna cotta with passion fruits. I'm never a fan of dessert, and I hate too much sweetness in my food. Hence, this is not really my type of food. However, the texture is very soft and smooth, and luckily the sour from the passion fruits make the sweetness bearable. For those that love sweet dessert, I'm sure you will fall in love with this :)

Panna cotta with passion fruit

How to go?
Address: 262 & 264, Lebuh Pantai, George Town
(Junction of Armenian Street and Beach Street, next to Cheah Kongsi new entrance)