ZEST BAR CAFE @ Glow by Zinc

Today I am going to blog about the ZEST BAR CAFE daily set lunch.  I have blogged about ZEST BAR CAFE last year. You can see my review here. 

Following are the daily set lunch menu: 

Basically you have three types of menu to choose from. 

ZEST BAR CAFE DAILY SET LUNCH 

RM20+ PER PERSON

ZEST BAR CAFE MENU

STARTER

MIANG KAM

Betel Leaves, Coconut, Dried Shrimps, Red Onions, Peanuts, Ginger & Chilli

FoOd PaRaDiSe verdict: Many years back if you asked me to have miang kam, I would probably skip but years came by and I started to like taking it.  If you cannot take the betel leaves aroma, I think you will not enjoy this dish.

SOUP

TOM KHA GAI - RM12

Siam chicken soup with galangal coconut cream & local spices

TOM YAM GOONG - RM18

Fresh prawn in spicy Tom Yam Soup

FoOd PaRaDiSe verdict: For me, personally I prefer Tom Yam Goong over Tom Kha Gai. As the later are full of coconut flavour. If the tom yum is a bit more spicy it would be superb.

SOM TAM - RM10

Young Papaya salad with dried shrimp and spices.

YAM MOON SEN - RM12

Glass Noodle salad with prawns, ginger flowers and lime leaf.

NOODLES

PAD THAI - RM15

Wok fried thai noodles with prawns, beansprout, beancurd & egg pattaya style.

RICE

PAD KRA PRAO - RM18

Sauteed spicy minced chicken with thai kra prao leaf. 

Choice: Chicken or Beef.

FoOd PaRaDiSe verdict: I would prefer that they put more basil in this dish. It is rather a sweet dish for me. A bit of small chili padi added into this would be nice. 

GREEN CURRY CHICKEN - RM18

Green curry with coconut and thai basil leaf. 

Choice: Chicken or Prawn.

FoOd PaRaDiSe verdict: Their green curry chicken is quite nice. 

GAENG MASSAMAN  - RM18

Chicken cooked with rich roasted peanut curry sauce and potatoes.

Choice: Chicken or Beef.

KAENG PHET - RM18

Spicy red curry prawn and vegetables.

Choice: Prawn or Chicken.

DESSERTS

KHANOM KHAO MAO - RM7

Fried bananas with grated coconut and sticy rice.

SANG KAYA FUG TONG - RM7

Steamed sweet pumpkin with custard and coconut milk.

FoOd PaRaDiSe verdict: Overall their two desserts that I have tried are quite delicious. Especially the Sang Kaya Fug Tong. It is something special which I never tried before.  It is actually steamed pumpkin dessert with egg custard.

ZEST Bar Cafe @ GLOW by Zinc

Address: 101, Jalan Macalister, 11400 Penang, Malaysia. 

Contact: 604-226 0084

Website: http://www.zinchospitality.com/glowbyzinc/penang/Overview

GPS: 5.416638, 100.322952 

TREE MONKEY @ Jalan Teluk Bahang, Penang

During one conversation with my friend. She asked me whether I have tried out TREE MONKEY. I told my friend yes, I do. She must be wondering why I never post about it in my blog. Well, as since last year I am already slow down in blogging due to so many works on hand. I think this is just my excuses. ^-^
Anyway, I decided to write up this review since this recall me that my friend birthday this month. And she told me that she had an enjoyable dinner there.

Tree Monkey @ Tropical Spice Garden
Lone Craig Villa, Lot 595,
Mukim 2, Jalan Teluk Bahang,
11100 Penang.
Telefax: 604-881 3494
Website: http://www.treemonkey.com.my/
GPS: 5.463599, 100.229199
Business hours: Sun-Thur 9am-11pm
Fri-Sat 9am-midnight

Basically it was situated at hill site of Tropical Spice Garden and facing Andaman Sea. Where I enjoyed sunset during my dining @ TREE MONKEY. (Last photos of this blog post) I would say if you like nature, you will certainly love this place.

Restaurant setting

According to the owner - Patt Khor, the restaurant was using no nails at time of building the place. They were trying their best to build it using the timber-framing way style. And the roof top were using thatched alang - alang grass imported from Bali. However, the furniture were imported from Chang Mai.

TREE MONKEY leaflets
"BACK TO NATURE" ALFRESCO RESTAURANT
It is basically serving North Eastern Thai, Asian and Western Cuisines.

Sunset Paradise - RM10.00 (only available from 6.00pm-7.00pm)
If you visited TREE MONKEY during 6 - 7pm, You can order "Sunset Paradise" for only RM10. It is a very refreshing drink. I believed that its was the combination of pineapple and orange juice. And decorates with cherry and slice of orange. It tastes sweet and sour. Which I like it very much. ^-^
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Then we start off with Thai Tapas.
Price ranging from 8pcs @ RM30, 12 pcs @ RM45 and16 pcs @ RM60
(Maximum of four pieces on each item)
There are 12 appetisers to choose from:
THAI TOAST: Crispy toast with minced chicken & sesame
MONEY BAG: Golden fried bag of minced chicken & vegetables
HERBS CHICKEN: Deep Fried chicken drummed with lemongrass
SPRINGS ROLL: Thai crispy vegetables spring roll
PANDAN CHICKEN: Marinated chicken wrapped in pine screw leaves
OTAK-OTAK: Steamed curried seafood paste in banana leaves
MUSSEL SALSA: Half shelled mussel steamed with chili lime salsa
LEMONGRASS STICK: Crumbed minced seafood with lemongrass skewer
PRAWN SARONG: Deep fried prawn wrapped with crispy rice noodle
PRAWN SABAI: Deep fried prawn wrapped with spring roll skin
THAI FISH CAKE: Deep fried curried fish paste with kaffir lime leaves
DARLING CRAB: Half shelled crab stuffed with mixed seafood
(All the above appetizers served with sweet chili sauce)

Thai Tapas
During our dine in we tried 11 varieties out of the 12. We did not get to try on the Darling Crab. From the Thai tapas, you could see the nice combination of colors. I enjoyed most of the Thai Tapas, The prawn was fresh and crunchy after deep fried, the mussel blend well with the chili lime salsa, Thai fish cake were awesome, lemongrass was use as a skewer for the lemongrass stick, nice aroma. Pandan Chicken was nicely done. Crispy Thai vegetable spring roll was crunchy and inside has nice fillings of vegetables and more.......
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Next we had the Asian Tapas

Price ranging from 8 dishes @ RM60, 12 dishes @ RM90

(Maximum 2 dishes on each item and it comes with 2 plates of Turmeric Rice)
There are 12 appetisers to choose from:
MANGO SALAD: Green mango salad with shallot & chili lime sauce

SATAY: Grilled marinated chicken skewer
NAM TOK: Beef salad with shallot, chili powder & lime juice
CRISPY HERBS FISH: Deep fried seabass fillet topped with crispy herbs

PRAWN SAMBAL: Stir-fried prawn with roasted chili & shrimp paste

SON IN LAW EGG: Deep fried boiled egg topped with tamarind sauce

SWEET BEAN CURD: Deep fried bean curd with sweet chili sauce

KANG KUNG BELECAN: Stir-fried morning glory with spicy shrimp paste
MASAMAN CURRY: Red curry chicken with potato, onion & peanut
BEEF RENDANG: Red curry beef with kaffir lime & basil leaves
TOMKHA SOUP: Creamy chicken soup with galangal & mushroom
TOMYUM SOUP: Spicy & sour seafood soup with lemongrass & lime juice

Asian Tapas with Turmeric Rice

Please be reminded that Asian Tapas came along with two turmeric rice. Lets start from the centre, it was the mango salad. The mango salad is not too sour for my tastes. Then next we had the Son In Law eggs, which is basically deep fried boiled egg topped with tamarind sauce. Which I found that it was simple and nice. Then the Kang Kung Belachan which are not overly spicy. Sweet Bean Curd are nice which topped with the sweet chili sauce. Satay were tender. Masaman Curry were great with rice. 

TomKha And Tomyum Soup
There are two types of Tom Yam Soup to choose. One is the clear tom yam soup and the other were the red type of tom yum soup. Normally, we saw lots of tom yam soup. And only in certain place they served nice TomKha. Both are my favourites. And the ingredients in there soup were very fresh. I think my gal will enjoy the Tomkha Soup. ^-^

Turmeric Rice

Thai Coconut Ice Cream - RM8.80

After the meal, we had desserts...... that's what I really enjoyed. ^-^ And we had the Thai Coconut Ice-Cream. Basically it was coconut ice-cream topped with jack fruit and attap palm seeds. Very refreshing.

Spice Tea/Coffee with Condensed Milk (Hot or Cold) - RM8.00

After desserts, we sit back and chit chat with the owner and among ourselves. We get to try their spice tea and coffee. If you like spice very much you will loves it. As it has a rich aroma of spice in the tea and coffee.

Sunset

We were lucky that we were able to see some sunset while dinning at TREE MONKEY. It was an enjoyable and relaxing place for foods. I would like to thank the owner, Patt Khor and Warren for arranging the food review.

Sim Food Court @ Jalan Tengah, Penang

It's been quite a while that I did not patronise the hawker stalls at Jalan Tengah. I used to stay nearby there and I could remember that most of the time I will visit the hawker centre and had my breakfast, lunch or dinner there. But after since I moved many years back, I hardly went there for any meals.

Recently, I noticed that there are some new stalls operating in the hawker centre. So we decided to give it a try to some of the new stalls. There are still some existing stalls there. Like the "Mee Jawa" stall. But mainly I will blog about new stalls.

The first stall is the newly operated stall which sell "Sarawak Laksa" and "Sarawak Kam Pua". I hardly spot this stall as since it is new and not much people knew about this stall. I only spotted this after I ordered some other foods. But we went back again to try out the foods the next trip.

The "Sarawak Laksa" is only available on Sunday only.

Sarawak Laksa

Well, the Sarawak laksa is just so-so but I think it will be great for those who missed "Sarawak Laksa" as the fragrant still there. It does not have much ingredients in there. as usually there will have some sliced prawn. But here, they only served thinly sliced egg. The other concern is the chili paste. It is totally different. All I can taste is only the belachan flavours. It was not fully blended. ^-^

Sarawak Kam Pua

Well, if you missed "Sarawak Kolok Mee" perhaps you can give this stall a try. The taste is quite similar. The noodles is cook to perfect timing as it is not too soft. As I hate soft noodles. I like the springy textures of the noodle. This Kam Pua cost RM3 per plate which compares to Sarawak with this money, there will have more toppings like minced pork, fish ball and...... added on. But here they just use few pieces of pork slice.

Sarawak Kam Pua Soup
The soup is just a clear soup but I can taste that the owner of the stall has added some "Foochow Red Wine" in there and make the soup a bit different.

Edmund Nasi Lemak

Hubby and my sil went to try the nasi lemak stall. There are few choices of dishes to choose from.

Mee Jawa

This stall sell two different kinds of mee Jawa. One is Mee Jawa Rebus and another one is stir fry mee jawa. I always opt for the Mee Jawa Rebus. As I love the sauces that make by this stall and also the crunchiest tops and the peanut coating.

Pattaya Fried Rice

This stall sells different kinds of friend rice. I found that when you dined in there, there are more fried rice than take away. ^.^ So far I have try 3 different kinds of fried rice from this stall. The Pattaya friend rice is not bad. But it is not done in the traditional ways that they wrap the rice in the egg. The egg was just served and covered on top. But the rice tasted not bad.

Chiang Mai Fried Rice

If you want to opt for something more spicy. Then you can try the Chiang Mai Fried Rice.

Pineapple Fried Rice

This is my gal favourites fried rice so far. And she never failed to finish it. She will always finish this plate of pineapple fried rice in no time. But she will omit the sultanas. She just doesn't like to take sultanas. She is an odd little gal as most kids love sultanas very much. ^.^ She loves the pineapples and the turmeric aroma.

Tuk Tuk Thai Restaurant @ Krystal Point, Penang

In the last few weeks, when I passed by Krystal Point I noticed several new eating outlets. Guess it's good for people who stay up here. As more choices for us. Instead of always driving all the way down to town to hunt for foods.

Initially our plan were to head to Queensbay Mall but since there were jammed along the way and we still had an hour to spent before sending my gal off to tuition. We decided to try one of the new outlets in Krystal Point. After much discussion, my sis in law would like to have some Thai foods. So we decided to try:

Tuk Tuk Thai Restaurant

Address: 303-01-30 Krystal Point, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, 11900 Penang.

Tel:012-4159777 Tony/016-4609332 Boy/ 0124786999 Jass/ 019-4788899 Annie

Business Hours: 11.00am - 2.30pm

6.00pm - 10.00pm
Since we were in the hurry, we browsed through the menu, and my sis in law suggest that we try out their set menu. So we chose the set menu for 4-5 person. Which cost RM49.90. Following is the set menu dishes that we ordered:

Deep Fried Thai Fish Cake

My gal loves this very much. And I found that it was quite nice. And the crunchiness still there after we left it there for quite sometime.

Stir Fry Kailan

Tom Yam Seafood

Since it's Thai restaurant, off course there will be a tom yam soup in their set menu. And the one that we had were tom yam seafood. The color of the soup were slightly lighter. But don't be fool by the color. As my hubby and sis in law found that it was spicy for them. But for me it still ok with the spiciness. Guess what? Off course I am the one who had more of the Tom Yam soup. ^-^ We had mushroom, squids, prawns in our soup.

Stir Fry Crab Meat

My sis in law was worried that the stir fry crab meat is the crab stick. As she hated the crab stick. But I reminded her that it's written as crab MEAT. It can't be crab stick. And I was right. This plate of stir fry crab meat is not spicy at all. And to be frank, I hardly had a bite of the crab meat. ^-^ But it is good for people who don't take spicy foods.

Steam Fish (One of the Tuk Tuk Thai Specialty) ~ RM15

This is not included in the set menu. We ordered this since my gal cannot take too spicy foods. So sis in law reckoned that this would be just nice for my gal.

This fish is really good for elderly and kids. As you don't have to worry about the bones. As they just took the fillet and wrapped with prawn meat and steam with soy sauce. It is something special. Which is good for people who cannot take spicy foods.

Maa Roy Thai Seafood Restaurant @ Krystal Point, Penang

Do you know that there is a new Thai Restaurant in Krystal Point? Well, it is actually a good news for the resident in Bayan Lepas area as you don't have to drive all the way down town. As I believed that this is the same restaurant in Abu Siti Lane, Penang. I never try the town one before but have the opportunity to try the one @ Krystal Point. It barely open for 2 weeks only.

Maa Roy Thai Seafood Restaurant

Location:B303-1-27 Krystal Point,

Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Ahah, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.

(It occupy the Shang Place and Shang Place moved to the corner where Flame Restaurant used to operate)

Business Hour: 11am - 3pm and 6pm -10pm

Menu

Interior Settings

After we were seated, we browsed through the menu. And hubby asked what would we like to have. Both my gal and I just asked hubby to order. So hubby order 5 dishes.

Chrysanthemum Drink ~ RM2.80

Appetiser

Straight after the order, here come the appetiser. Raw cucumber and long beans with sambal. Guess what??? My gal is so adventurous and dip the sambal. Not once but many times. I like the sambal being served here. You will not feel the fiery hot taste straight away but after a while. The sambal spiciness still acceptable for me. As I am not very good in handle too spicy foods.
After a short wait, we were surprised that our first dish is being served. That is

Deep Fried Squid with Garlic ~ RM12
The squid was nice. It is very crunchy in the outer part and very soft in the inside. My gal enjoys eating this as it is not so spicy. There are some sweet chili sauce to go with it. After a few bite, then she started to complaint that it is a bit salty. lol

Tom Yam Seafood ~ RM13

Hubby decide to order tom yam to try. We order the small size of tom yam as usually I am the one have to finish it all. As they don't really eat too spicy foods. But out of surprise, this tom yam is rather sourish than spicy. So my gal have some of it.

Pineapple Fried Rice ~ RM15 (Medium served)

Hubby decided to have a change and go for pineapple fried rice instead of normal white rice. As recently my gal fond of pineapple fried rice. And we were discussing whether to get the small size or the medium size serve. And we were told by the waiter that we should go for Medium as the Small is for individual servings only.

When the pineapple fried rice arrive on the table, our eyes grow so "big" as it is quite a big serve. Hubby told me that we should eventually go for small serve will do. hahhahahha...... but we have some one to help us finished the fried rice. That's my gal. lol

Prawn Omelette ~ RM7

Hubby worried her baby gal cannot handle spicy foods. So order this for her. And it has a nice aroma.

Coconut Shoot with prawn ~ RM12

After browsing through the menu, both hubby and I saw this dish. Hubby asked if I want to try it out. Then I said yes as we been seeing lots of food programme introducing this dish but we never get to try it out. Since this is the opportunity, off course we would like to try it out.

The coconut shoot is very crunchy and I even asked my gal to try it and she did but she told me it is too spicy for her. But hubby and I found that it is not spicy at all. For those who don't like basil, perhaps you have to omit this dish as it has lots of basil in there.

Tab Tim Krob ~ RM3.90

I was so full after the dinner but hubby told me that he still can have dessert. So I asked him to order one will do. So this is the tab tim krob being served here.

Overall, it is quite a nice dinner we had. As the foods are not too spicy. It is good for family that have kid that cannot take too spicy foods.