I was told that the organizer that the chefs have been replaced thus the quality of their dishes have been improved. Indeed the verdict of this visit turned out to be satisfactory!

CNY Package (新春套餐) RM498++

鸿运齐捞生 （鱼生）Salmon Yee Sang

富贵展红图 （干贝蟹肉翅）Braised Crab Meat Shark’s Fin [My rating : 9/10]

I felt guilty for eating shark fin, but then to be frank, the taste of this dish was simply superb!

一团好和气 （海蜇花鸡仔）Deep Fried Spring Chicken with Jelly Fish [ My rating : 9.5 /10] 

Everyone of us gave two-thumbs up to these deep fried spring chicken. The size of the spring chicken was rather small compared to those we had at seberang (bagan lalang) but then these spring chicken were a lot more outstanding in terms of delicacy. Non-oily texture with thin deep-fried skin.

年年都有余（香菜蒸红狮）Chinese Pickled Lettuce Steamed Fish [My rating : 8/10]

兴业齐股升（冬菇， 发菜， 蚝士， 鱼鳔， 西兰花， 海参）Fatt Choy Dried Oyster with Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw and Broccoli [My rating : 9/10]

春节笑眯眯（腰果美味虾）Sweet and Cashewnuts Prawns [My rating : 7/10]

福气满堂红（腊味饭）Steamed Fried Rice with Preserved Meat [My rating : 7/10]

步步又高升（炸年糕）Fried Rice Cake [My rating : 9/10]

Another surprise for me was these pandan-flavoured rice cakes. How I wish the serving size of these rice cakes could be doubled!

五彩迎缤纷（什果龙眼遮哩雪）Mixed Fruit Longan Jelly [My rating : 6/10]

Hei Yeong Seng Chinese Restaurant
Add : Lot 207-221 & 231-245, 2nd Floor, Penang Plaza,
No. 126, Jalan Burmah, 10050 Penang.
Tel : 04-2291623/ 2293623 Fax : 04-2266623

Asam Pedas (RM8.00 – 2 fish) My rating : 8/10

This is an absolutely appetizing dish. It would be greater if heated with candle warmer during serving.

Thai Style Roast Chicken (RM11.00) My rating : 8/10

Spice- flavoured roast chicken, a good choice for those who like moist gravy type instead of dry belacan chicken.

Deep Fried Belacan Chicken (RM12.00) My rating : 7/10

Loh Bak (RM8 – 2pcs) My rating : 6/10

Braised Garlic Pepper Pork Ribs (RM12.00) My rating : 6/10

Pork Trotter with Vineger (RM16.00) My rating : 6/10

A bit too sourish and sweet to my liking.

Some of the Chinese dishes that are serving during CNY period.

Chicken Soup with Herbs (RM26.00) My rating : 7/10

An aromatic steamed herbal chicken.

Stir Fried Thai Style Mayonnaise Prawns with Broccoli (RM22.00) My rating : 8/10

Otak Otak (RM4.00 each) My rating : 9/10

A bit pricey but recommended!

Fried Kangkung (RM9.00) My rating : 7/10

I like the fragrant unique belacan/shrimp paste of this kangkung dish.

Malabar Belanda Eggs (RM4.50 – 2 eggs) My rating : 7/10

Thai Style Beef Koay Teow (RM9.50) My rating : 6/10

Kasturi Lime with Sour Plum Drink (RM2.80) My rating : 9/10

A recommended drink for all! Refreshing for hot day and when having Thai food.

Dessert of the Day (Steamed Pumpkin with Coconut Milk Custard – RM3.50) My rating : 9/10

I like this dessert. Moist with average sweetness.

Surprise! Located upstair of this restaurant is a lodging motel with affordable price.

MALABAR RESTAURANT – DINE & CHILL
Address: 26 & 28, Lebuh Cintra, 10100 Penang. (Same row with the famous Cintra Street Oh Kuih/Bak Chang and opposite the famous Yee Sang Kai Chook) 
Contact: 604-263 8266
Website: www.malabar.net.my
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/MalabarPenang
GPS: 5.418636, 100.333832
Business Hours: 11.00am – 10.00pm (Closed on Tuesday)
Happy Hours: 5.00pm – 9.00pm

Paiseh, now only is my first time paying visit to this restaurant which is formerly known as Top Top. It was an impromptu visit.

I guess if the restaurant is operating in a residential house, then I could assume the price to be reasonable?!

Luckily I managed to finish up my meal before the sky turned dark.

The garlic bread was so-so. No umph for me.

The mushroom soup in chicken pie style. Chicken pie’s ingredients were placed inside the soup instead.

Wo! Having this alone is enough to fill up my stomach already. Not an ordinary ‘soup’ but full of ingredients. 

Chicken Maryland. I found it kinda impressive due to the absence of oiliness. *salute!*

I chose one item from the today’s special menu. Poached fish. Nah…..not to mention.

Name: Yaw’s Roast & Grill
Address: 1, Gerbang Midlands, 10350 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 604-227 6273, 012- 484 8178
Opening Hours: 5.30pm – 11.00pm (Closed Monday)

I like its traditional way of serving ingredients – really meant for steamboat. Not those ingredients from frozen or artificial seafood items or many other types of non-steamboat food like those all-you-can-eat types (or those with BBQ) of steamboat. I like its charcoal fragrance. Somemore I seldom turn thirsty after having steamboat at Goh Huat Seng.

We ordered the RM80 set with some add-ons.

Bird eggs and meat balls.

Cuttle fish and squids.

Fried ‘Fu Zhuk’ and chicken slices.

Fish balls and ‘kao chee’.

Prawns and fish slices.

Pork kidney and liver.

We added the below items per request of some members :

enoki mushrooms  and button mushrooms. (RM10)

and additional plate of pork kidney. (RM12)

The ready-to-serve soup base has already been stuffed with fried fish fillets, pak choy, fish bladder and chicken.

Total of ingredients is RM102. Total of the bill is RM113 which includes chinese tea, peanuts and wet napkins.

This steamboat feast is a gathering cum birthday celebration of our good friend. We took this chance to present to him a very ‘romantic’ feminine cake. Ha!

Goh Huat Seng Steamboat （吴发成菜馆）
No. 59-A, Kimberley Street, 10100 Penang.
Tel No : 04-2615811 & 2615646

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.

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!

Braised Tofu in Claypot. Average.

Lak Bee Soup (六味汤）. This is the only dish that disappointed me. I couldn’t taste the ‘lak bee’ herbs.

Fried Beansprout with Salted Fish. Average.

Reasonably charged with satisfactory standard.  I shall come again!

When one of us suggested to have Kampachi Japanese Buffet, the most impressive item that I could think of is its SASHIMI!

Priced at RM65++ (Note : CIMB card provides 10% discount)

Let’s refresh what kinds of dish varieties available there. What being captured below did not represent the whole, some items were not taken.

Sashimi 

See? Thick slices of fresh salmon, no chiak-khau at all! After all these years, they still remain generous.

Unfortunately the one that I like most- Hokkigai (Ark Shell) sashimi is always not in the buffet stream. :p

Sushi choices.

Soba & Udon.

Tofu

Fish in soup.

Octopus.

Tempura.

Japanese pizza,  铜锣烧 and fishballs.

Fried beef and salmon. We let go sukiyaki.

Fried noodles.

Dessert

I was impressed by its red bean soup with mua chee.

Assorted cakes and pastries. The one that I like the most is the one at bottom left.

Ice cream. To be frank, I still do not like their green tea ice cream. It’s too sweet. I prefer those with slight bitter taste. I guess the coffee flavour is the one that most of us like.

Lastly, after all these years, I am still ‘not fit’ enough for buffet. I like the idea of tasting one / a few of each kind, only.

How about the Tom Yam soup base? It could be tedious if I were to prepare it from zero. Well, the lazybone here thought of trying the ready-made Tom Yam paste available in the market. What could be easier than just dumping everything into the pot then when you need not worry about the paste?!

There I went with my homecooked Tom Yum, by adding some extra ingredients to enhance the kicks!

I tried two brands of Tom Yum paste.

One is Peace brand Thai Tom-Yum Instant Sour Shrimp Paste. Another one is Thai Boy Thai Tom Yum Soup Paste. The former one is more sourish.

I did not add much spices except :

The kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut) (available mostly in Malay sundry shops).

Firstly I have to make sure that I can get this, then only I will start to search for other ingredients.  I added one stalk for the fragrance. I simply love its smell!

I added 4 to 5 stalks of lemongrass (serai),  some curry flower (bunga kantan) (optional) and curry leaves (optional).

Raw ingredients in general. Most of the raw meat ingredients, I poached first and set aside, to avoid spoiling the taste of the soup.

Onions , tomatoes, lady fingers, oyster mushrooms, dried mushrooms and cabbages.  The spices and vege ingredients – I dumped in firstly.

Later followed by meat e.g. fish fillet, fish balls, squids, chicken slices and prawns.

In the midst of cooking, with added Tom Yum paste.

Ready to serve.

I used one small entire bottle of Tom Yum paste and it can serve up to 3 bowls.

Don’t forget that the leftover soup can be used to cook ‘Tom Yum instant noodles” later on too !

The sambal was unique.

Miang Kam 一包一口 (RM10.00)

I found that the lime and ginger given were too little leh.

Tom Yum (Red) / Tom Yam Nam Khon 红冬炎海鲜 (RM18.00)

Not the sourish type  but somewhat spicy (to certain people).

Deep Fried Fish with Chilli Sauce / Plah Tod Lard Prik 辣椒酱炸鱼 (RM38.00)

Appetizing sauce that made us asking for more rice.

Pandan Chicken 香菜鸡 (RM12.00)

I liked the delicate texture of each bite of chicken.

Fried Egg with Prawn 虾煎蛋 (RM8.00)

A very safe-to-order dish to compliment the meal.

Fried Mix-Vegetable （蚝油炒什菜）RM9.00

Pineapple Rice 黄梨炒饭 RM5.00

Nangka Dessert  菠萝蜜甜品 (RM4.50)

The only item of the meal that turned out to be rather disappointing. It was simply too sweet.

Lastly a Tiramisu cake to our birthday girl.

Total bill RM139.80

I believe the spending for this meal is reasonable. We didn’t ask for S size for each dish but they were served so automatically. Everyone has enjoyed this meal very much. We shall come back again!

Khun De Thai Restaurant
Add : 80C, Jalan Tan Sri Teh Ewe Lim, 11600 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel : +604-2829690
Fax : +604-2829691
Email : khunde.thai@gmail.com

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.

In the flyer, Zi Zai stresses that the Poon Choi it offers is following the Hakka traditional ‘kampung’ style that consist of mostly meats and vegetables. Of course one can arrange with them to either add or minus some ingredients with adjustable price.

Zi Zai uses abalone of “Skylight” brand.

The Zi Zai’s Poon Choi emphasizes on preparation of pork belly, not just ordinary roasted pork. It uses boiling, slow cooking, cooling and deep frying sequentially to restore the juiciness of both lean and fatty parts. The fatty part must be fragrantly soft, not oily and yet retain its shape, whereas the lean part must not be too dry and loose and yet softly crispy and not sticky.

Poon Choi [My rating : 8.5/10]

Other than the abalone, you can find these ingredients in the first layer.

The second layer consists of roasted ducks (one whole bird) and chicken (four drumsticks with thighs).

The third layer onward consists of sea cucumber, fish maw, mushroom and pork belly.

The fourth is based with taro, yam bean and white cabbages.

Zi Zai is a restaurant serving zhu char, therefore we were served with some ala-carte dishes too.

Belacan Chicken (RM16) [My rating : 7/10]

Yao Mak (RM10)  [My rating : 7/10]

Abalone [bonus, sponsored by our senior flogger]

Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish 咸鱼炒豆芽 (RM12) [My rating : 8/10] Their fried bean sprouts have been an impressive one – without heads and tails.

Fried Lala (RM15) [My rating : 7/10]

Assam Prawns (RM32) – about 16 prawns. [My rating : 5/10]

A promotion is ongoing now (till 31-Oct). Each customer is entitled for one free glass of herbal tea when ordering ala-carte.

Thanks to the chef cum restaurant manager, Mr Tan for his invitation and generosity. Do take note – one day pre-order      is required for Poon Choi.

在饭店 Zi Zai Restaurant
Add : 1239-G, Ground Floor, Jalan Paya Terubong, Paya Terubong, Air Itam
Booking Tel No. : 04-8265713 / 016-4217392
Business Hours : 5.00 pm – 10.30 pm, Closed on Tuesday
Email Add : zizairestaurant@gmail.com
Facebook : Zi Zai Restaurant 自在饭店