02.12.09 / Penang Trip, Travels / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (5)
Tags: Ipoh
Stopping by Ipoh to eat was suppose to be one of our itinerary, either on our way to Penang or back from Penang.
Due to some reasons, highway at Ipoh was incredibly jam on Thursday afternoon. The cars were crawling behind one another, and by the time I got the exact direction to Ipoh Nga Choi Kai at Lou Wong from Irene through the phone, we realised we are running out of time already with that stupid crawl as my brother had an appointment with his ex-lecturer at USM. So we decided to proceed straight to Penang, and stop by Bukit Tambun for seafood instead. We thought we could stop by Ipoh again on our way back.
Thanks to the stupid changes made, we realized that we could not exit directly at Ipoh Selatan from the main highway anymore on our way back. There is only one exit to Ipoh now, where cars has to switch into divided inner lane along the highway before reaching Ipoh Selatan Toll. We did saw the ONLY IPOH EXIT, but I thought there was another one further down at the south. But by the time we saw it, it was too late as there wasn’t any exit anymore ! #!@!#%$R%!!!
I was so fuming mad and hubby knew how disappointed I was. (You know, the night before I was staying up late drawing out the map all the way from the exit to the Lou Wong Nga Choi Kai!) He wanted to make a turn back at the next highway exit but I was so mad that I decided to move along. Afterall, the kids were all soundly asleep.
Really no “yun fan“ with Ipoh this round. Don’t think we will be able to travel there again, not in another 2-3 years time. I just hate long distance trip, each time trying very hard to catch my all-time screaming and crying babies, hoping they were not thrown out of the window of the fast moving car on high-speed!
p/s: I do not know why I was sounding steaming HOT in this post, but I kept comforting myself (yes, I am still very HOT thinking about this silly miss out when I write this post) and hubby that there must be a reason why we could not make it into this place, despite so much effort putting in locating places. Perhaps God just want us to avoid encountering bad happening here?
02.12.09 / Child's Play, Food review, Parenting, Penang Trip, Travels / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (6)
Tags: Add new tag, Chee Cheong Fun, Delima, Lorong, Muar Chee
Teochew Cendol near Komtar
Food hunting was not easy especially if you have 2 cranky babies who were not willing to ride in car seat. We were finding for the famous Teowchew Cendol stall situated at one of the small lorong. Unfortunately after making so many rounds around Komtar building for more than an hour with kids screaming, both boys wanting only Mummy to carry them and not Kakak, calls made to Healy’s hubby and also stopping by to ask local people, we just could not see any old man selling this famous cendol at any small lorong. Thus an old man directed us to this modern one, and sorry to say, the taste is a total disappointment to all of us. Best cendol for us is still in Kuantan, selling by a Mamak stall beside Shell station along the mainroad on way to heading to Teluk Cempedak.
Genting Cafe, Lorong Delima 6, Greenland (in a housing area)
One of the main reason why I kept wanting to go to Penang. I just cannot forget this very nice Chee Cheong Fun I had there years ago. Although my brother is familiar with Penang food, he has no idea which restaurant I am refering to, each time I tell him. (Just like how I cannot remember the name of restaurant in Melaka, where I usually dine our local food). Luckily we found it after stopping by to ask people nearby.
Chee Cheong Fun from Genting Cafe (Big Rm2.50)
My brother did “ta-pau” similar chee cheong fun, also with Har-Kou (Shrimp Paste) from Gurney Drive on the first night, but it taste so terrible awful that I did not even wanna swallow it. Am I too fussy or what? Nothing beats this one from Genting Cafe, I guess. We ordered 2 big plates and tapau back too. Hubby said I so “Tong Jiak”!
Char Keow Teow at Genting cafe (RM3.50)
Know whats the reason of pricing all the food above? You know, our eyes almost popped out when the hawker collected Rm10 for 2 plates of fried keow teow at New Lanes! Crazily. At Genting Cafe, it is only Rm3.50 and it tasted much better too.
Muar Chee
I must say that Gurney Drive still have the best Muar Chee. Too bad we did not have a chance to sneak out of the hotel after the kids were asleep although hubby and I planned to, earlier.
01.12.09 / Food review, Penang Trip, Travels / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (7)
Tags: Cafe, Joo Leong, Penang, porridge, Thai Fried Oyster
New extension of Kek Lok Si temple (we were sitting in the middle of the fish pond, overlooking to the constructing gigantic Golden Statue of Kuan Yin)
It is always my favourite place and I think I been to Kek Lok Si each time I visit Penang. But this round, climbing up is indeed very very tiring for me. Probably due to aging and I have lost my stamina unlike my younger days. Furthermore, there were 3 kids to be taken care of.
FYI, the boys are no longer wearing diapers as they are uncomfortable with wetness. They only clad in cotton shorts so we have to make sure that they go to the loo every hour. We also bring along a potty in the car and a big bag of pants for change (in case accident happens).
Hubby and my brother went down again to drive up the car when we realised that now cars are allowed to be drive on top of the hill. We then drove further up to their new extension as all of us were too tired to walk anymore.
At Him Heang, to get the tambum biscuits
Next we stopped at Him Heang to get the most famous Tau Sar Pneah. The crowd was so long, and we were told to wait for 25 mins for the biscuits to be packed (see the crowd queuing towards the kitchen?) We just placed order and then decided to come back to pick up the next day.
After eating nearby, we went back to the hotel again, for water play. Surely a must if stay at Gurney Hotel coz it was so fun. Check out who came over to our hotel to visit us 
Later in the evening, Cynthia came over to brought us to the best stall in Penang that serves delicious porridge. So good compare to those hawker stalls food that we had at New Lane on our first night.
Chu Chap Chook (Porridge with lots of inner parts)
Prawn Vermicelli
Is this place familiar to you? I was trying to find the signboard of this place but see none. Then I google and found out that place is called Joo Leong Cafe, situated at Sg.Tiram (correction: Perak Lane, Jelutong, thanks to Ming Hooi for pointing out).
How to go into this place: This wooden stall is actually back facing the main road so we need to turn into a small housing road, then park at the small place beside some wooden kampong house.
Thai fried oyster
Besides good porridge, we tasted the best Fried Oyster too (called as Thai Fried Oyster), from another a small stall attached to the porridge stall. It taste a little bit different from the normal oyster we have and the oysters are huge!
If I remembered correctly, this is called 3 Taste Tauhu Bakar or something like that. Also prepared by the same stall selling the Fried Oyster. Hubby loves this!
We had also Peanut soup served with Yau Char Kuai, sold by another small stall here. Too bad my battery is very low and I did not take much picture from here. Thanks to Cynthia and Joe for this sumptous dinner treat. Still waiting for picture from Cynthia’s camera..*hint…hint*
30.11.09 / Food review, Penang Trip, Travels / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (9)
Tags: Bamboo, Bukit, Clams, crab, Fish, Jetty, mantis, Penang, prawn, restaurant, seafood, shell, soft, Sotong, squid, stingray, Tambun, tiger
We reached Seberang Perai at about 2.30pm. Since we did not managed to go into Ipoh on our way to Penang for lunch, we stop at Bukit Tambun for seafood so that we do not have to drive out to Prai again for dinner.
Initially we wanted to visit the recommended restaurant, Ghee Seng, but unfortunately they only open at 3pm. Not wanting to wait for another 15 minutes, we went next door to Restaurant Jetty.
Below are the dishes we ate:
Stir Fried Stingray with Sauce (Rm16) - nice!
Bamboo Clam stir fried with ginger (Rm16)- but I thought Bamboo Clam should be rectangular???
Steam Tiger Fish (RM12) - sweet flesh but too bony
Fried Squids (Rm8) - nice and cheap but the sotong is soo tiny
Mantis Prawn with sauce (Rm12) - not very nice
Fried Soft Shell Crab (Rm25) -best among all. We even had 2 plates of this!
Total bill was Rm108 for 4 adults (including Kakak). Verdict: Overall food was so-so only although it is quite cheap. My brother said Ghee seng’s seafood taste better or it is either we ordered wrong way of cooking those dish. Had ordered too much fried stuffs until our tongue went numb.
What’s happening to the kids there
We also did not manage to order prawns and crabs as the kids are too difficult to manage (we have to eat really quick before the 2 boys get cranky.) Didi was already showering himself with the plate of grains I gave to him and then pee on his pants. Korkor on the other hand, was already crying wanted to be carried. Talk about eating seafood with little kids!