Cariso Delicacies Corner

I believe most of you should know the first sentence that come out from the staffs in this restaurant is,” Got to wait about 45 minutes (or longer) woh, can wait or not?”

Therefore if you really got the patience and time to wait, then only you sit. If not, I guess you will feel very warm sitting there. Well, perhaps even before that, you would have already been ‘warmed up’ by their greetings above.

Same like the Hock Chuan Heang nearby, the kochabi style of dishes are served.

Char Tang Hoon / Fried Bean Noodles

Lots of ingredients, as you can see. Of course,  you could taste the heavy seasonings that have been put in order to spice up the flavour of plain tang hoon.

The ‘Oh Chien’ (Fried Oyster) is the crispy style. This one that we ordered have added prawns and oysters. Yummy indeed!

Fried Noodles

One thing which I don’t like is the alkaline taste 碱水（kansui）of the noodles in this dish. I normally don’t experience such heavy strong alkaline taste in other restaurants. This one is simply too significant! I guess you could order noodles mixed with rice vermicelli to ease the undesirable taste. *Luckily we were hinted upfront*

Sin Lean Heang is located at Goh Tiau Lor (5th Street), at the base of the flats, opposite the school at Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Li Tek ( (丽泽A/B校) at Pangkalan Weld, 10300 P.Pinang.

Jasmine Restaurant, along the road to Island Hospital, diagonally opposite the YMCA.

A group of us having lunch gathering there during one of the weekends. It was my first time there although I have passed by there thousand of times.

Choon Piah. Impressive, crispy (but not shattering) and full of ingredients. I believe this is their signature dish.

Sweet and Sour Pai Kut Ong. Average.

Curry Fish Fillet. Hainanese style with sweet and sour curry gravy.

The curry is too tempting. We finished the whole bowl bottom up! [...]

[This is an invited review]

A group of us were invited to have a Poon Choi session at Zi Zai Restaurant, Paya Terubong.

The Poon Choi packages offered at Zi Zai Restaurant are : -

RM258 nett (for 4-5 pax)

RM400 nett (for 10 pax)

with FREE flow of steamed rice & herbal tea (included).

Poon Choi is a all-in one dish using a metal basin or pot stuffed with pre-cooked ingredients (mostly stewed, steamed or poached) which later be arranged layer by layer and reheated before eating.

This is how the actual serving size is for a 10-pax package at Zi Zai.

An outstanding ‘Poon Choi’ emphasizes on distribution and sequence of ingredients by each layer, normally with the bottom layered by ‘wet’ ingredients whereas top part is ‘dry’ ingredients.

Those pan-fried and roasted items (nowadays it has been to display the expensive exotic) are normally put on top to practically fulfill the essence of ‘Poon Choi’ and also enhance the visual impression; whereas those ‘down-to-earth’ ingredients like taro and yam bean are based on bottom to provide taste and also bring up the aroma of appetite.

The Poon Choi at Zi Zai Restaurant consists of 13 items: stewed abalones, pan-fried prawns, fried fish fillets, fried Fu Zhou fish balls, broccoli, roasted ducks, sesame oil chicken, sea cucumber, fish maw, mushroom, pork belly, taro and yam bean.

(纽西兰罐头鲍鱼，酱爆大虾， 炸卡猎鱼肉， 手工福州鱼丸， 碧绿芥兰花， 好味烤鸭， 香浓麻油鸡， 葱烧海参，蚝油鱼鳔， 严选花菇， 盆菜猪肉， 厢糯芋头，爽甜沙葛）

A close up showing the first layer. Abalones and prawns on the top.

The homemade Fuzhou fish balls are one of the impressive items that I like.

[...]

[This is an invited review]

If you are willing to spend for a quality lunch (not quantity) with hotel chef’s standard, Sesame + Soy is the right choice for you!

Update : The latest menu. 

The actual serving size will be as below.

Highly recommended to try its white fried rice with eggs, instead of white rice! 

Soup of the day : Black fungus chicken soup.

Steamed Snapper Fillet with (salted egg yolk puree) (4 slices)

Sichuan Smoked Duck with Jelly Fish. (3 slices of duck breast) [...]

I mean in Penang, not in other area like KL or etc.

Why I said so?

First, the menu does not state any price for all the items. Asking for the price?! The waiter said each item is priced differently. Thus I ‘could not know’ how much it is (of course I can insist to request for an answer, but then it will be very super ‘sien’ if I need to do so for a meal).

Second, each item came in small bowl respectively. The specified ingredients were stuffed inside, therefore I could assume the soup content inside is about 6 spoons of soup.

Oh ya! One impressive feature is the bowl is heated up underneath. Therefore the ingredients and soup still remain hot (or at least 2/3) during your whole course of meal.

Third, the stomach and intestine were not cooked to the standard I expected, they remained rather chewy still.

Fourth, they only serve tea or plain water. No other choices. [...]