FUN TEA GARDEN @ Jalan Dr. Lim Chwee Leong, Penang (CRIZ BON APPETITE 2nd Anniversary)

Before year 2009 ends, I tried my best to blog all the gathering folders in my draft as much as possible. ^-^ So today I am going to blog about the recent events that took place on 18.12.2009 in Fun Tea Garden to celebrate Criz Bon Appetitie 2nd anniversary.

Once we arrived, we had the chance to pick two cards from Criz for lucky draw. Every attendance is entitle for the complimentary meal from various outlet.

Then we waited for other bloggers to arrive and start our "makan" session. There are total of 3 tables. And different table has different types of foods. Some are the same and some differ. I just managed to capture the following foods:

Various types of dim sum such as siew mai, har kao, shark fin kao and......

BBQ Pork Chee Cheong Fun, spare ribs, some deep fried dishes

Otak - Otak, Turnip Cake and other dim sum

Porridge, Lor mai Kai, Prawn Fritters

3 different types of "pao" - Char Siew Pao, Pork Pao and Fermented Pork Pao

3 Different types of noodles ~ Fried Yee Mee (top photo), Crispy Noodles (second row of photo) and Char Hor Fun (last row of photo)
All the three noodles have it different kind of aroma and taste. I was thrilled that they have many different types of noodles. Apart from what you see from the above, they still have other choices.

Egg Tarts and Marble Cheese Cake from Jenni Homemade Cakes

I am surprised to get to taste the egg tart being served here. As it is still hot. It's been few years that I never get to taste a piping hot egg tarts.

Before we wrap up for CBA anniversary party, we celebrate it with marble cheese cake from Jenni Homemade cakes. We sang birthday song and with 2 candles represent 2nd anniversary to CBA. The marble cheese cake is too "rich" in flavours. ^-^

Overall, the foods served in Fun Tea Garden are nice. The main attraction here that I found is that they have many varieties of choices to choose from. Give it a try if you haven't try it before. Following are the details of Fun Tea Garden:
Location: 150 & 152, Jalan Dr. Lim Chwee Leong, 10100 Penang, Malaysia.

Tel: 013-421 1274 (Mr. Danny Ooi)

Business Hours: Dim Sum: 7pm - 6am

GPS: 5.414822, 100.332148

Vintage Bulgaria Restaurant & Bar @ Tanjung Bungah, Penang (Penang Floggers 4th Gathering)

When I am browing through my photo folder, I realised that I had not blogged about "Penang Floggers 4th Gathering" took place on 15th August 2009 few months ago @

Vintage Bulgaria Restaurant & Bar

Location: 1E Jalan Sungai Kelian. 11200 Tanjung Bungah, Penang.

Tel: 604 - 8981890

Fax: 604 - 8982890

email: vintagebulgaria@gmail.com

Business Hours: Monday to Friday ~ 3.00pm - 12.00am

Saturday & Sunday ~ 12.00pm - 12.00am
GPS: 5°27.870′ N 100°17.560′ E

Some of you might read posts from the other bloggers about the gathering few months back and you should know that it is a nice and fun gathering where we get to meet many bloggers. I enjoyed such a gathering as we could come together and exchange our view from foods and also the way of capturing photos. Discuss about new camera function, travelling details and many many more......

Let's me bring you to some of the interior looks of Vintage Bulgaria:

Vintage Bulgaria interior looks

For the night we are gather in the top floor of Vintage Bulgaria. So we have some spaces all by ourselves. All the bloggers....... ^-^

First of all, I would like to thank the both "A" for this success gathering. They are "Alan" and "Allie". They came out with the idea to vote which restaurants should we dine in for the gathering. End up we had :Vintage Bulgaria" the most popular choice. So end up we were there.

We had a nice package of RM40 nett per person which includes: soup, main course, dessert and beverages (Cordial drinks, coffee/tea).

Seafood Soup and Mushroom soup served with "vintage" garlic bread

I am glad that there are 6 of us in our tables for the night. So we decided to order everything that we could get for the night to try. Isn't it a good idea right?

So we ordered 3 seafood soup and 3 mushroom soup. Let's start with the seafood soup. The soup has many flavours in there. We can still find some crab meats and tuna in there. As for the mushroom soup, you will love it if you like blended type of mushroom soup. As it has no chunk of mushroom in there. For the garlic bread, I am quite disappointed as there are no taste of garlic that we had but out of surprise that some have a nice aroma in theirs. So we kinda bad luck in our garlic bread. lol

Next..... to the main course:

We had 5 different types of main course to choose from. And we decided to order one each to try. And the extra one, we requested for Bulgarian Pork Djolan. So we had 2 plates of Bulgarian Pork Djolan in our table. ^-^

Bulgarian Pork Djolan ~ Traditional Roasted Pork Knuckle

Before I went to the gathering, I already saw many review about this pork knuckles. And all of them are a very good review. So this is a must for me to try during the gathering. At first I was worried that it is very oily. But the outcomes came out to be not as oily as I expected it to be. Even Cariso who are not a fans of pork knuckles falls in love with this. Out of surprise that I saw her ate quite lots of the pork knuckle.

The pork knuckle is marinated with sauces and herbs. It is quite a nice main course to try but I personally found that it is a bit too salty and dried in some part of the pork knuckle.

Plovdiv Ribs ~ Tasty pork ribs grill till tender

The second main course of the day would be Plovdiv ribs. The bloggers in our table love the ribs. And they enjoyed it very much. We did not expected the ribs to be so tender and nice. However, I personally still think that it is a bit too salty. Perhaps due to the marinate sauces used. But some comments that are too sweet. ^-^

Bulgarian Platter ~ Mixed grill trio of kebapche, kyofte, karnatche (traditional recipe of in-house homemade Bulgarian sausages and succulent pork fillet)

I found that the Bulgarian platter is a bit too dry for me.

Photo in Upper Section: Baked Cod Fish filet

The cod fish baked to the right amount of time. And it is very moist and juicy. But heard that some tables have different textures. ^-^ It is all depending on the different part of cod fish used to cook the dish. ^-^

Photo in Lower section: Chicken Stroganov ~ boneless chicken drumstick cut in strips, cooked with mushroom, wine, cream, herbs and spices.

The chicken is very tender and if you are mushroom lover, you will definitely love the taste of the coated sauces. If you are the type pf person that worried that it will be too "rich" due to the cream used. Then you don't have to worried about this for this dish. As it is a nice balance of ingredients used that will not make you have the too "rich" feeling.
After the main course, here comes the desserts:

Chocolate Soup with Vanila ice-cream and chocolate creme brulee

There are two types of desserts and once again we ordered 3 Chocolate soup with vanilla ice-cream and 3 chocolate creme brulee. Well, most ladies were after the chocolate soup with vanilla ice-cream. Something sweet and cold for the night. Surprisingly that the chocolate soup with vanilla ice-cream is not too sweet. As for chocolate creme brulee it is a bit too sweet. But something different as I get to try the plain creme brulee before and this one is chocolate creme brulee.

Apart from the desserts from Vintage Bulgaria, we als have some cakes and gelato for desserts. Thanks to Winter Butterfly Homemade Cake and also Gelatissmo for their contribution of cakes and gelato.

Winter Butterfly Homemade Cake ~ Oreo Cheese cake, Chocolate Brownies and Cream Cheese Mousse Cake.
If you are interested in their cake, please booked the cake online from them @ http://dennieyeap.com/

Winter Butterfly Homemade Cake

Location: 46 Taylor Road, 11600 Penang.

Phone: 016-4455667

email im@dennieyeap.com

* All cake orders comes with free delivery within Penang island.*

* All cakes order must be place 3 days in advance.*
Next, gelato...........

Gelato

For the night we get to try the 5 different types of gelato. Please refer to my review of gelato here. As we get to review them and see the process of doing gelato. Which is a fun outing. Want to know more, please check out the link above.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010

Took this photo this morning from SiTigun, suddenly it flash my mind that I could use this to wish all my readers, friends and families, "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year 2010".

Happy Holiday!!!!!!

‘flymas.mobi – as Easy as 1, 2, 3’

Since today is a Christmas eve and I would like to share some good news with all my readers. I just get an email yesterday from Nuffnag. They have Nuffnag Facebook Fan Page @ http://www.facebook.com/nuffnang. If you have not add them, perhaps you can add them now. As they will be giving out goodies from time to time.

And I found out that they are running contest of

Blog and Win a Trip Down Under with flymas.mobi - as easy as 1,2,3!

You might be wondering what is this all about? Well, thanks to Malaysia Airline, now we can booked and checked detailed flight through our mobile phone with web access anytime and anywhere. It is very simple, just type http://flymas.mobi/ to access. It is that simple.

Furthermore, you can check in via sms if you using high ends phone (such as iPhone, Blackberry, Android devices), find the nearest MAS office worldwide through Google Maps, baggage tracker, flight status, deals and offers...........and more. Try it out now!!!!

If you want to know more information, you can get it from here.

Furthermore, you get the chance to win the following prizes by MAS:

1st Prize: 2x Economy Class Return Tickets to Sydney/Melbourne.

2nd Prize : 2x Economy Class Return Tickets to any destination in ASEAN.

3rd Prize: 2x Economy Class Return Tickets to any destination in Malaysia.

What you need to do in order to win the fabuolous prize?

Just blog about flymas.mobi service in your blog and show how easy is to book your flight with MAS. Then title your blog post: ‘flymas.mobi – as Easy as 1, 2, 3’. And send email to flymas.mobi@nuffnang.com with your full name and permalink of your blog post.

Viola! that's all and you have complete enter the competition.

The competition ends on 11.59pm 30 December 2009. So act quick to win this fabulous prize.

I would like to wish all of you "Good Luck" and "Merry Christmas".

Sushi Kitchen @ Sg. Ara, Penang

Have you ever tried vegetarian sushi before? I mean pure vegetarian and no sashimi or tuna. I never tried it before. This is my first trip to Sushi Kitchen. And I get to savour different types of sushi that make from healthy organic foods. Lately, you will see many people are going after organic foods for a healthy life style.

Today, I am proud to present you some healthy foods that you could get from Sushi Kitchen. Which is located next to SJK(C) Chong Cheng. It shares the same row of Bee Chin Hiang.

Location : No 2A-1 , Jalan Sungai Ara , Desa Ara, Sungai Ara , 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.

H/P : 012-591 3311 / 017465 6821

E-mail :sushi.kitchen.penang@gmail.com

Website: http://sushi-kitchen-cafe.blogspot.com/

Business Hour: Open daily except Tuesday.

11am to 3 pm ( 2.15pm last order)

6.30 Pm to 11pm ( 10.15 last order)

For every 1st and 15th Lunar Calendar, open from 11am till 11pm.

Interior of Sushi Kitchen

Which is a place where you get to relax and enjoy yourself. I think it is quite a nice place to catch up with friends, families and relatives. There are books, magazines, chess and...... that you could borrow to reads and play while you dine in there.

For the night, we ordered the following foods to try:

Nutmeg Juice ~ RM2.50
Since my companion are not so adventurous to try the nutmeg juice which the waitress recommended. So I am the one to take the courage to try. As the waitress told me that the boss of Sushi Kitchen make it himself. So off course..... I would like to try it since it is recommended, right? And I am glad that I did as the nutmeg juice are very nice and tasty. But I think a bit sweet for me though. As for my two companion they opt for green tea as it has free refill. But no refill for my nutmeg juice. hahhahahaa..... but end up I have free refill of green tea (RM2.00) too! :P

Happiness Family ~ RM26.80

Since it has 3 of us. So we ordered one of this to try since there are different types of sushi in there. And we are glad that we ordered this. As all the sushi are so tasty. We don't even used the wasabi at all. As the original taste is good enough to satisfy us. lol

Low Beauty Roll ~ RM6.80

This is one of the recommendations from the waitress that took our order. After some discussion, we decided to order this to try. And it is indeed a nice try. I believed that it is some combination of sweet potatoes, yam and......... It is deep fried and coated with some mayo. If you like potatoes, you would definitely love the textures of this dish.

Seaweed Fried Rice ~ RM10.80

This is an order by Allen as I think he is a "rice" person. Cant go without rice. Anyway.... he make a nice choice and a healthy one. As the rice used is brown rice. So you will taste something different from our ordinary fried rice. Some might find it a bit blunt. But it's ok for us. And the seaweed fried rice came with a small bowl of miso soup. The soup is quite tasty.

Sweet Potatoes Noodles ~ RM4.00

This is an order from Carrie. This is a sweet dish. The sweetness came from the sweet potatoes itself. We were hurry by her to take the photos of this dish ASAP as she told us that this dish had to be eaten while it's hot. Then we have to rush taking the photos of this sweet potatoes noodles. The dish name resembles to the taste of the noodles. It is sweet. Something different that I never tried before. The noodles are ok. Thought it would become lumpy after a while. But the textures still there. Give it a try if you are adventurous enough to try sweet noodles.

Fried Udon ~ RM7.80

This is my order that I asked the waitress to recommend. And she asked me to try the fried udon. I like the textures of the udon. It is not salty and have a nice combination of various vegetables in there. And the nice cutting shapes of carrot and heart shapes are adorable. One thing that I have to comment about this dish is to be aware that it is cook with deep fried ginger slice. If you cannot take ginger than perhaps you could omit this dish.

Golden Age (3pcs) ~ Rm8.80

Last but not least the last dish that both Allen and I savour is this plate of Golden Age. We were recommended by the waitress to try this and she loves it very much. And when she describe that it was topped with mangoes, I knew Allen would agreed to order this. As both of us love mangoes very much. And it comes with 3pcs or 6pcs I think. I decide to order only 3 to try. As good foods does not need more right? Hahahhahaa.....

And it is indeed very refreshing and nice combination. It is mouth watering...... If you love mangoes you would love this. You can give this a try.

Comments from customers were written on the wall. (Can you spot ours?) Also some healthy tips were paste on the wall and information about the boss of sushi kitchen can be found on the newspaper that was paste in the wall.

*****If you are interested in trying out the foods offered by Sushi Kitchen, please hurry and make a booking to try it since they are going to close down end of December. So the time are clicking...... pick up the phone and call them now for reservation. There are 8 more days to go........*****

Before I end this post, I would like to wish all my readers "Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday".

Du Viet Restaurant & Cafe @ Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur.

Last month, we had a short trip down to Kuala Lumpur to met up with my sister. The first day we arrived at KL, my gal fall sick. Perhaps due to the weather. So all of our food hunt cancel. And we just concentrate on foods that found in shopping centre. Since my gal feel like to stay back at the hotel most of the time, so we let her rest. Only came out for foods. lol

During our second day in KL, my sis gave me a call and asked me to pick her up from the KLCC LRT station. So we decided to have lunch there after met her. And since she just attend the morning wedding ceremony, she was quite full with all the foods that she had from the groom side. So she asked us to proceed with our lunch.

Since the doctor asked us to let my gal to have non-spicy foods, so I recalled there is one Vietnamese Restaurant there. So we decided to give it a try!

After browsing through the menu, we decided to order:

Soya Milk ~ RM5.50

Hubby ordered this for himself. And end up he just had few sips of the soya milk. As he cannot take it any longer. He does not really like the taste of the soya milk. lol

Three Colours Delight

Closed up of Three Colours Delight ~ RM8.90

Nancy browsed through the menu and saw Three Colours Delight in the menu and she was so thrilled and decided to order one for herself. As this is one of the drinks that we will usually ordered in Vietnamese Restaurant back in Melb. Which we called it "Sam Sek Peng".

We were so disappointed with the drink. Perhaps our expectation are too high. The tastes are totally different from what we had before. But we were glad that we tried. ^-^

Spaghetti Chicken and Prawn ~ RM22.90

Hubby decided to order spaghetti chicken and prawn for himself as he does not want to try the "Pho" in Malaysia anymore. As so far he cannot find one that suits him. ^-^ So for the safe side, he decide to get spaghetti. And the spaghetti turn out to be delicious.

When it is being served, I am quite worried that hubby will not like the taste by the look of the spaghetti. But he finished all and told us that it taste nice. And I get the chance to try some. Which I think is nice if you like basil very much. As there are lots of basil in there.

BBQ Lemon Grass Chicken Chop ~ RM15.90
I ordered this for myself. As I feel like trying their rice. As back in Melb, occasionally we will ordered "broken rice" in Vietnamese restaurant. So decided to try this out. The rice is different but anyway it turn out to be nice. The lemon grass chicken chop is very tender and full of the lemon grass aroma.

Traditional Chick & Prawn Noodle ~ RM15.90

I ordered this for my gal since the doctor asked her to have something mild and light. After few spoonful of this, she stop and told me that the soup is something different and she does not like it. So I swap with her and she took my rice.

So end up I have noodle by myself. Hubby try some and also reckon that the taste is a bit awkward. lol But anyway..... I enjoyed it. And I finished all.

Overall, the foods are ok but the drink that we ordered are a bit disappointed. ^-^ If you like to try out the above foods, you can drop by to Lot 416, Level 4, Suria KLCC.

Before I end this post, I would like to wish every one "Happy Winter Solstice" and "Happy Dōngzhì".

Hai Boey Seafood @ Gertak Sanggul, Penang

We have been to Hai Boey Seafood for dinning since it's first started many years back. You can see that they have been upgrading themselves from a very small restaurant to a bigger restaurant now. Although we came here for many times but my MIL and family members never been here before. So hubby decided to brought them here and try out their foods.

As a starter, hubby ordered:

Fresh Oyster

Close up of oyster

They served it with a piece of lemon each and also with some Tabasco Sauce (They provide you with one bottle of Tabasco Sauce. If you don't like Tabasco sauce, you can omit that.)

Deep fried Brinjal with Chicken Mince

We have been ordering this for many times. As we found that it is nice. But please be extra careful as there is a small tiny stick in there. If you have child or elderly people who dine with you, please remove that for them.

Steam fish with garlic, chilies and lime

Since my MIL loves spicy and sourish foods, so hubby decide to order steam fish with garlic, chillies and lime. My MIL is the one who finished the fish each time. As she is the one who go after the fish head. lol

Stir fry tang hoon and mee hoon

This is the combination of tang hoon and bee hoon. During one visit with friends, we found out this dish and hubby falls in love with it since then. So he ordered this again for my MIL to try. She loves it as she comment that it is not oily at all and nice taste.

Bean curd with dried scallop, seaweed and mushroom

We ordered this before, but back then it was topped with small abalone. From my memory, I think the waitress did mention that it is top with mushroom. I guessed either they run out of small abalone or they decide to use mushroom to cut the cost. But the bean curd is nice and silky.

Braised dried oysters with mushroom and broccoli

When each time I saw this dish, it makes me recall Chinese New Year. As normally you will see this type of dish in the menu during Chinese New Year in most of the restaurant. This dish turns out to be nice and not salty at all. And the braised mushroom is very tender. As for the dried oysters, it has the right taste. Not too soft nor hard. Nice combination.

Herbal Chicken

Since they have herbal chicken for that day when we dine in, we decided to give it a try. As you can see from the photos that the chicken is very tender. It is full of herbal aroma and flavour. We love the soup. Even my gal loves it very much. I think we finished the soup but we cannot finished the chicken. lol

Overall, we love this place. As we reckon that it is quite a nice place for foods and scenery. Occasionally, we will bring some friends and families there.

For location, please refer here. My previous visit can be view from here and here.

Famous Ah Leng Char Koay Teow @ Jalan Dato Keramat, Penang.

There are too many foods in Penang that visitor's would like to taste. And one of the hawker foods, they usually would like to taste is the Char Koay Teow. As if you visited some part of Malaysia, you will always saw that the hawker or restaurant there wrote "Penang Char Koay Teow" or "Si Ham Koay Teow" (means Koay Teow with clams).

I have tried many char koay teow stalls in Penang. But I never tried Ah Leng Char Koay Teow stall before. The reason behind this is because we have a difficulty to get a car park. So during one outing back in August 2009, hubby and I went "dating breakfast" again since my gal was at school. hahhahahhaaa..........

I remembered that we went there around 9am and it is on one weekday. It seems like "Ah Leng Char Koay teow" just started their business of the day. So hubby went and order two plates of koay teow special. As I told hubby that I must try the mantis prawn and prawn char koay teow as it is the very "popular".

Char Koay Teow with prawn, mantis prawn and clams

Wah.... when the chef is busy cooking the char koay teow, I already cannot resist the aroma. If you like dry version of the chr koay teow, then you will definitely love this. But I found that the serve of koay teow is too small. hahhahaha...... but there are big prawns and mantis prawns. Hubby found that it is quite spicy for him and I am sure that my gal cannot take this plate of CKT as it would be too spicy for her.

***** A piece of advise to those who cannot take spicy foods, please let the chef know you just need a little spiciness when you placed your order. *****

Closed up of mantis prawn and prawn

Both mantis prawn and prawn are very fresh. I have more prawn and mantis prawn for my char koay teow as hubby gave some to me as you know..... I love prawns very much....... lol

Closed up of prawn

As I mentioned earlier that the koay teow's serve is quite small, so cannot filled up my hubby tummy. So he saw a stall there selling Hokkien Mee. So he went and order one for himself.

Hokkien Mee

The hokkien mee is quite nice. And quite spicy too. But we love the soup base and also the black soy sauce pork added in the hokkien mee. It is very tender and delicious. I saw the table next to us went and ordered extra black soy sauce pork in their hokkien mee. So I guess, this is one of the "popular" side dish to add-on.

Apart from the hokkien mee stall, there are also economy rice stall that are operating when we dine in there. Perhaps in the afternoon, there will be more choices.

Location: Kafe Khoon Hiang, Jalan Dato Keramat.

GPS Coordinate : N5 24′ 46.4″ E100 19′ 09.9″

Yummy Cottage @ Macalister Road, Penang

After refurbishment of Yummy Cottage, hubby wants to try out the foods there. But seems like each time we passed by the place, it's full of people. So we decided to try out during one weekday. As we arrived there before lunch time, we had no problems in searching a place.

So after we browse through the food court, and hubby decided to order foods from

King of Char Siew

Hong Kong Noodle

Hubby loves noodle a lot. That;s why he goes after the noodle and also with the name " Hong Kong noodle". It is exactly like our wantan noodles. The noodle are springy as can have a look of the photos.

Wantan from the soup accompany with the Hong Kong Noodle

This is the wanton comes with the Hong Kong noodle. When hubby had wantan noodle. He will usually give away the wantan to me. As he is not fancy of the wanton. Unless the one that make by him. Hahahhahahaaaa....... The wanton is normal.

Wonder what I ordered? Well, I ordered:

Chicken
I have been wanna to try out the chicken rice here before they refurbish. When I first try out the fish head noodle soup, I saw that many people order from this stall. And some blogger blog about this stall before too. The chicken were tender and nice. The sauce are amazing. It's totally different from the usual one. As some of the sauces are too watery.

Chili Sauce
Remember to try their chili sauce too. Something different from the ordinary chicken stall.

Chicken Rice

The chicken rice has a very rich chicken aroma.