Cariso Delicacies Corner

Go here for Karaikudi Restaurant (Part 1)

Kashmiri Naan (RM6.00) – Dry fruits stuffed in naan . (My rating : 8/10)

Inside was stuffed with dessicated coconut slices. It tasted sweet and not that oily. This is another surprise to me. I found that most of the dishes here are not as oily as I could have thought of.

Here comes my favourite dish ladies fingers !!!!!!

Ladies Finger Pepper Fry (RM7.00) – Sliced ladies finger deep-fried and sauteed with pound black pepper. (My rating: 9/10)

To my surprise, the ladies fingers were not crunchy but CHEWY! Rich in pepper & onion taste. This is really a very different style of ladies fingers which I’ve never tasted elsewhere.

Mutton Chukka Varuval (RM18.00) – Diced mutton saute with Chettinad spices. (My rating 5/10)

Despite being super spicy, the mutton itself in actual is very nicely prepared as it’s cooked till very soft. Too bad that I couldn’t take more as it turned out the most spicy dish of the night!

Chettinad Potato Masala (RM6.00) – Cubes of potato saute with special masala. (My rating 3/10)

I tasted only spiciness in this dish but nothing else.

Chicken Kothu Paratha (RM9.00) (My rating : 7/10)

Spiced-rice served with a chicken drumstick and an egg. Slightly spicy when served with the curry gravy.

Chettinad Special Dosai (RM4.00) – Indian pizza (My rating : 8/10)

Very colourful & crispy ‘pizza’ with beet roots, mashed cabbages, onions, coriander and chutney.

Sauces available are : coconut chutney , tomato puree with red chillies.

Here’s the dishes awaiting serving while we were busy snapping photos.

You know what I like most on Indian cuisine?! I like the serving style!

A little bit of every dish makes it look so sumptuous! By assuming the every little dish is of small portion, then I believe and easily assure myself that I CAN ACTUALLY FINISH THEM UP!

Sizzling Brownie (RM10.00) – Freshly baked chocolate brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and cashew nuts served on hot sizzling plate. (My rating : 6/10).

It looked very impressive during serving but I was later on depressed by the smell retaining on my hair and clothes.

Chettinad Filter Coffee (RM2.80) – Fresh coffee bean powder & steamed with boiled water to prepare a decoction and added fresh milk (My rating : 7/10)

I prefer it without sugar. I personally felt that adding the sugar spoilt the fragance.

Masala Tea (RM3.00) – A tea flavoured by cloves, star anise, cinnamon bark and cardamon. (My rating : 4/10)

I prefer coffee to tea as I found this tea was too ‘curry hoon’ flavoured.

Karaikudi serves Special Set Lunch.

Karaikudi Special Vegetarian Lunch RM13.00
(Soup, Plain Briyani, Indian bread, Side dishes and one scoop of choice of ice cream)

Karaikudi Special Non-Vegetarian Luncn RM16.00
(Soup, Plain Briyani, Indian bread, Chicken or Mutton side dish and one scoop of choice of ice cream)

Karaikudi Restaurant Sdn Bhd.
No.20, Market Street, 10200 Penang.
(04-2631345 / 2631359)
www.karaikudi.com.my
How to get there ? (Coming from the Nasi Kandar row, from Chulia Street turn left into Lebuh Pantai, go straight, then turn into the first left juction. This is called Market Street or Lebuh Pasar)

Karaikudi Restaurant @ Market Street, the heart of “Little India Penang”.

This is an invited food review arranged by PenangTuaPui. Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t have explored this Indian restaurant by my own if it’s not the invitation extended by them. For me, I have this equation in mind, “Indian food = Spicy”. Therefore I took this golden opportunity wishing that Karaikudi could prove me wrong.

It’s a Friday night. A FLY-day as it’s begining of the weekend!

It opens 364 days! The only day off is Deepavali Holiday! Phew~! Salute!!

“Wahlau ei! “ was the first sentence muttered from my mouth when I first stepped into the restaurant.

Yellow lighting. I love it! It would be sooooooooo great if we could have been seated downstair that night. What a pity to me!

Upstair seems to be more spacious, can hold functions and parties. MINUS the rich yellowish ambience.

Mango Lassi (RM4.00) – Mango Flavoured Yoghurt (My rating : 10/10)

This is my favourite drink of the night. A MUST ORDER! THICK & RICH mango lassi. 真材實料. There’s no fancy or special glass served for this lassi, just let the taste speaks for the quality!

Vegetable Soup (RM3.00) – Delicious Spiced Vegetable Soup (a Chettinad Style) (My rating : 6/10)

There are plenty of ingredients e.g. cauliflower, carrot, dhall and french beans. I could finish up the whole bowl as it’s not spicy.

Bitter Gourd Chips – RM6.00 - Sliced bitter gourd marinated with spices and deep-fried. (My rating : 8/10)

This is the first surprise to me. A basket of salty and crunchy bitter gourd chips. I have never eaten this type of spiced bitter gourd slices before. The bitterness tasted no more with this version of preparation. It is indeed addictive. Once you’ve eaten one, you’ll definitely be asking for more!

Squid Fry (RM8.00) – Squids dipped in spicy batter & deep-fried (My rating : 6/10)

To my surprise, this fried squid is not as oily as I think of. I like eating it when served with lime juice. A bit sour to neutralize the oiliness. The squid’s texture is not too chewy and in actual the whole dish is not that oily either.

Chicken Cutlet (RM6.00) – Boneless pieces of chicken marinated with egg & bread crumbs and deep fried. (My rating 8/10)

Oh-so-lovely! The chef prepared for us the heart-shaped chicken cutlet. Very finely-minced chicken with turmeric as colouring and flavour. Its bread-crumbed skin is very thinly fried. Does the taste and texture resemble KFC nuggets? NO NO NO!!! Definitely not! This is a lot more healthier and flavourful with spice even without dipping the tomato sauce.

Egg Podimass (RM4.00) -Scrambled egg cook with onion, salt, pepper. (My rating : 5/10)

Indian style of scrambled egg. Not spicy either.

Kadai Vegetable (RM9.00) – Assorted vegetable cook with rich gravy. (My rating : 8/10)

From this dish, I trusted Karaikudi will serve very good vegetarian set.

Chicken Dhum Briyani (RM9.50) – Tender pieces of chicken cook with basmathi rice and spices. Dhum means to “steam” or “mature” the dish. (My rating : 6/10)

Served with curry or raita. I love the taste of raita as it’s pretty much like the yoghurt. What a great choice for a person like me who couldn’t take flaming spicy food!

To be continued….Karaikudi Restaurant (Part 2)

Last Saturday we went based on the the intention to savour its signature (in the past) tong shui but upon arrving there then only found out that this tong shui is only served per advance request/booking.

The menu written on a chalk board.
Last Saturday, ‘Special of the day’ is tomato rice with oyster chicken & fish curry. It comes with a spice drink. (RM15) . Worth or not?! Judge yourself lah ok?!

Seriously, if I were a tourist then I think I might be intrigued by the fusion of chinese fried mixed vege + malay tomato rice + indian curry. Fyi, the chef is a punjabi lady.

Too bad lah, I am a local. Therefore to me, it’s just a so-so lunch. I shouldn’t complain much as “Hey, how often do you have the chance to have lunch at a ‘spice’ surrounding environment uh?” until I was getting annoyed with……*scroll down to the last picture*

We found that the spice drink of the day was actually the nutmeg lah.

Spice cocktail (RM8) – sour and seemed to taste a bitbitbit ‘spicy’ too.

And………..that’s what you ought to pay for in order to enjoy a ‘spice garden” lunch. I got easily 7x of these mosquito bites on my arms and legs.

A lot of mosquitoes leh if you are sitting at the wooden platform out there. Only the area near to the souvenir shop (near the kitchen) is less.

Remember! Do bring insect repellent along in order for you to enjoy lunch here. If not, you better get ready to feed the mosquitoes.

Tropical Spice Garden @ Teluk Bahang, Penang.

Operating Hours : 9 am to 6 pm daily.

Add : Lone Crag Villa, Lot 595 Mukim 2,

Jalan Teluk Bahang,

11100 Penang, Malaysia.

Tel/Fax : 04-8811797

Website : http://www.tropicalspicegarden.com/

Jaya Cater’s Corner @ Jalan Tengah Bayan Baru (Same row with RHB)

Whenever the iao lurs come to work in day shift and in GOOD mood, they will hop from one restaurant to another to try out different set lunch. One of the kaki(s) favours indian food. That’s how we slotted in this restaurant.

Total of the bill is RM54.53 with drinks. Each one paid RM11.

I guess this is pretty OK as we don’t have to travel all the way down to town for banana leaf meal.

Veloo Vilas @ Lebuh Penang (near to OSK).

Today since got iao lur kaki ajak, so I followed 4x of them going down here to eat. I will definitely not know such place if it’s not led by our indian collegues. Somemore I am not into spicy food mah.

The ‘restaurant’ looked ‘chan chan tei’ but then the food, according to our indian colleagues, is good! Sort of like what we said ‘home-cook’ style w/o adding MSG. Plain with kam cheng type.

Pic below : 5x of us were waiting for them to serve the chicken curry/fried fish right at this moment. They placed a banana leave in front of you, then they served you the rice, the 3x vege and the ‘keropok’ one by one. 3x of us requested for fork and spoon.

Pic below (left) : A full dish with 3x vege – green gravy (with vege), kubis, curry ‘terung’ (they said it’s not terung, but one kind of ‘kua’),then followed by curry chicken & fried fish.

(right) : wow! got 4x liquids for me! Left to right: sweet corn vermicilli type (like dessert), indian ‘tomato’soup (ha!), ‘yoghurt’ drink (body cooling, I like this one very much! ) and plain water.

FYI the rice + vege are refillable.

It costs us ~RM8 each person. Wow! Very tai hor?!:)