CRIZ BON APPETITE

Most people would just visit the many “branded” shops in Penang for buying some local products back home. Thus, with so much of publicity and advertising charges incurred by the companies, the products would be rather expensive. There is this shop called Hock Lok Siew Biscuit Trading within the heart of Georgetown itself that produces quality local products and market them at a cheaper price. In fact, they are the main shop that supplied 40%-50% of their products to the food industry. Here are some of their products (about 40% shown) available throughout the year.

Since today is Malaysia’s Independence Day as well as the 1st day of the 8th Month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, it also marked the start of the Mid Autmn Festival. Traditionally, on this day, many Chinese households would gather family members and friends to celebrate this festival outdoor while admiring the bright mid-autumn harvest moon. Children would be playing with colorful lanterns lighted with candle (nowadays battery operated too). Moon cakes and biscuits would be in abundance as desserts.

The shop would also produce such tasty delicacies during this festival. They have many paste fillings such as red bean, green bean, coconut, lotus seed, durian, red plum, pandan lotus, green tea, mixed nuts, and also mixed nuts with ham. All would be priced between RM4.00 and RM7.00. You will have the option to add in a salted egg by paying only RM1.00 extra per egg yolk. If you feel that one big moon cake would be too sweet for you to consume, they do have the mini size moon cakes (red bean and lotus seed paste only) at RM4.00 per box. That’s for two red bean paste and two lotus seed paste mini moon cakes. It’s a great bargain. All the moon cakes come with a simple yet great plastic box to present as a gift to your family and friends.

On top of that, they do have moon biscuits (Gong Zai Pheang) for sale too. The plain, melon seed, red bean, lotus seed and coconut moon biscuit would be available throughout the year while the durian paste moon biscuit are seasonal. Prices ranged between RM4.00 and RM7.00 for 10 pieces or per 500grams.

If you are coming from Trader’s Hotel along Jalan Magazine, keep to your left and drive on until you have reach the second traffic light. Turn into the first road on your left (Jalan Gurdwara) and then the first left turning into Lebuh Noordin. The shop is just somewhere in the middle on your right within a row of heritage houses. By the way, please give them a call prior to going as some of the products might be available only at certain time of the day.

Do you want to win something for all the hard work you have put in for your websites or blogs? Here is the opportunity for you to win RM100 worth of food vouchers for your next visit to Fun Tea Garden. The rules are rather simple. Just blog about the Dim Sum shop in Penang and leave your name and post link in the Mister Linky’s attached and the panel of judges will get back to you if you are a winner. There will be THREE RM100 worth of vouchers to be won. The closing date for the contest is on 31 AUGUST 2008.

GREAT NEWS: Effective 4 August 2008, Fun Tea Garden would be extending its business hours to 12 hours a day, from 12.00 midnight until 12.00 noon.

RULES & REGULATIONS:

1. This contest is open to all non-Muslim Malaysian bloggers, especially those around Penang area.
2. You will need to pay a visit to the Fun Tea Garden Dim Sum shop (address and location map as in the link above) anytime between 12.00 midnight and 12.00noon daily and shoot whatever photos you deemed right and blog about it. You can print and use the voucher above to claim your 10% discount. Make sure you write your NAME, EMAIL and BLOG ADDRESS behind your printout.
3. Sign in your NAME and POST LINK CORRECTLY in the Mister Linky’s attached once you have posted the review for easy tracking.
4. The review can be in either ENGLISH or MANDARIN.
5. Photographs must be originals. Anyone found to have copied from others would be disqualified.
6. There are no restrictions to how many websites/blogs reviews you can submit but ONLY ONE would be awarded the prize.
7. Closing date will be before midnight on 31 AUGUST 2008.
8. Results would be announced here on 8 SEPTEMBER 2008.
9. All winners would be contacted by email.
10. The organizer and sponsor reserved the right to publish any photos submitted for contest publicity purposes.
11. The panel of judges’ decisions would be final and no correspondences would be entertained.

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After having too much of rice related meals for the week, my friend and I decided to visit a restaurant along Jalan Rangoon for some fresh seafood noodles. That restaurant is called Wong Chau Jun Restaurant where they are famous for their Spicy Sour Fish Noodles. I saw that on all the tables, there was at least an order. Since I was not able to consume something spicy and sour that day, I ordered something milder.

The first dish that came was the Steamed Fish with Ginger and Hor Fun (RM8). The perch fillet was real fresh and the time used to cook the fish was just right. It came with some hor fun. Although this looked like a simple steamed fish with soy sauce, ginger and some Chinese wine, the combination of ingredients was really nice. This is a must to try out on a hot and humid weather.

The Fried Maggi Mee (RM4) came next. Nothing special about the dish except that it has 3 big and fresh prawns. The taste was fine but the restaurant could have done better by using a more springy type of noodles.

What I like most was their special homemade Deep Fried Tofu with Dried Shrimps (RM6). The tofu was soft and smooth. The way they fried the deep fried tofu with some dried shrimps was simple and yet the taste wonderful. I would highly recommend this dish.

If you are coming from Komtar into Jalan Burmah, just drive further up until you reach the second traffic light in front of New Word Park. Turn left into Jalan Rangoon. Drive forward until almost the end of that road and you will see the restaurant on your left (two more shops and you will reach Jalan Macalister).

If you like to have lots of seafood dishes at an affordable price, you should make a visit to this small restaurant along Weld Quay area. The food served here are quite nice as they are neither too oily nor over flavored as most of the restaurant along that area. I visited that place not long ago with a friend of mine.

We ordered a bowl of Seaweed Soup (RM4) with lots of fish balls and meat in it. Not bad for the taste except that I find it a bit oily on the surface.

Next on the list was my personal request to the chef – Fried Bean Sprouts (Taugeh) and Pea Sprouts (Dou Miao) with Salted Fish (RM5). The chef did even better than I expected as he added some juicy mushroom slices in the dish. The dish was just nice with the correct amount of crunchy salted fish added.

The Iron Plate Tofu with Minced Pork (RM6) followed. This restaurant presented it in a different way as they laid the base of the hot plate with eggs before putting in the tofu and minced meat on top. Most restaurants would just knock an egg on top of the hot steaming dish before serving.

The best of the rest came last. We were served seven juicy and big Spicy Buttered Egg Prawns (RM19) and that got our appetite to boost up further. What I like about this dish is that the prawns were real fresh and the slightly sweet buttered egg was real crunchy. Most of all, the dish was not too oily and the amount of curry leaves and butter used in the dish were combined well.

Overall we spent RM40.20 on the food which was inclusive of rice (RM2.40) and drinks (RM3.80). If you are driving from the ferry terminal towards the Jelutong Expressway, the restaurant is just before the Shell petrol kiosk on your left. Do watch out carefully as they have yet to replace their signboard after it was spoiled by a heavy and windy rainfall.

I just read about What2See’s review on the all the nice places to eat along Lebuh Cintra but he missed out one nice hawker shop along the way. He was not the first one too as the shop which sells Fried Hor Fun looked just like any other hawker stalls in Penang. Unless the person resides within the town area, he or she would have overlooked the small stall hidden at the corner of the old coffee shop.

My friend and I paid a visit to the shop not long ago, although I had frequent the stall for takeaways all the time. We ordered a large Fried Hor Fun (RM6) with lots of freshly fried grouper meat and also a normal sized Fried Ee Foo Mee (RM4) with big fresh succulent prawns. Although the portions served were quite small, the tastes were wonderful. What mattered most was the freshness of the seafood used at the stall. In fact, majority of the patrons there would order their Snakehead Fish Rice Vermicelli Soup (Lay Hoo Bee Hoon Th’ng). If you happen to be around that area, do drop by to try them out. Here are the two dishes which we had ordered.

You won’t miss the shop as it is at the junction of Lorong Kampung Malabar and Lebuh Cintra. In fact the stall is the row as the famous Rice Dumpling (Bak Chang) shop. Although the shop is located at the heavy traffic area, you can easily find ample parking space along Lorong Kampung Malabar.

Whenever you think of having some little tarts or some finger food, you would think of having them in Dim Sum shops. Maybe you are not aware that there is this little shop along Lebuh Carnavon that sells those yummy delights fresh and hot without having to pay as much if you were to dine in a Dim Sum shop. Guangzhou Cake shop has been there for many years and is manned by a few elderly folks. They produced different type of delicacies that will suit your breakfast, lunch as well as tea needs. Some of the food are ideal if you were to have parties.

Egg Tarts, especially those mini ones are the hot items in the shop. These are normally sold out before 10am. I was so engrossed in munching my Mini Pandan Egg Tart that I totally forgot to take some shots. Quite typical of me when something that nice are laid right in front of my eyes. Anyway, you can still take a peek at those mini tarts in the photo above.

On a normal week day, the shop will produce tens of different type of delicious treats such as Egg Tarts (Mini Plain and Pandan Flavored as well as plain normal sized ones), Yam Cake, Fried Yam Cake, Radish Cake, Pineapple Tarts, Coconut Tarts, Ma Lai Gou (Pandan or Brown Sugar), Woo Tao Kok, Char Siew Buns, Siew Bao, Glutinous Rice Ball with peanut filling, Sesame Glutinous Rice Ball with peanut filling, Char Siew Sou, Or Nee, Rock Biscuit and many more yummies. Here are some of the items which I had taken shots of.

If you are coming from Prangin Mall along Jalan Dr. Lim Chwee Leong, turn left into Lebuh Carnavon. Drive further until you have passed the second road (Lebuh Kimberley) on your left and you will see the unnamed shoplot displaying those yummy delicacies right in front of the shop. Normally, it would be an elderly lady selling those yummies. Make sure you reach there early to get the best choices or just give them a call to place your order. My recommendation would be the Mini Pandan Egg Tarts (a box of 10’s @ RM4). Make sure you consume them fast while they are fresh. Leaving them for later consumption will make the surface dry and crack.