Monday, January 31, 2011

Maxim Dim Sum @ Pekaka Square, Penang

As promised earlier (was that like centuries ago?), another branch of this dim sum chain store in penang, situated in pekaka square, this place is loaded with ppl during weekends, so i had some of the so called more popular dim sum.....

1st thing u don wanna miss out is their egg tarts, crispy pastry and fragrant, sweet fillings(custard) are simply the best combination.
This is some kinda dim sum where the fillings are pork, wrapped with seaweeds and topped with some gravy, din tried it out coz it pork.
Steamed mussels with garlic paste, the mussels were pretty fresh, it was 1 of my fren's favourite dim sum of all time, the garlic paste can effectively remove the pungent smell of the mussels and to boost the natural sweetness in the mussels.


Crispy fried prawn dumplings, it uses Yuba(skin of toufu) to wrap the shrimp paste and deep fried them. It works best together with the mayonnaise, the shrimps were pretty fresh, i love to go this together with the mayonnaise, it kinda reduces the oilyness of the fried dumplings...

This is the steamed version of the prawn dumplings, known as 'har khau' in cantonese, some chopped water chestnut will be mixed onto the shrimp paste to increase the overall texture of the dumplings, 1 of my all time favourite in dim sum.

Steamed fishballs, i think the taste was pretty much same as others, i would prefer the fried version of fishballs compared to this tho.
This is the fried version of the fishballs, pretty much more chewy compared to the steamed version, it has a more fragrant smell too, bt of coz, it also means that it has more calories too T.T
Similarly to the previous one, this is another version of fried prawn dumplings, however, they were wrapped by using wanton skin instead of the Yuba.

Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun(prawns fillings), the texture of the rice cake(chee cheong fun) was pretty smooth, topped together with some chilli paste and soya sauce, best while served hot...The soul of the whole dish is about the numbers and the freshness of the prawns, you don wanna eat a plate of chee cheong fun with 1 or 2 shrimps , do you ?

The shop can be easily spotted once u made ur turn into pekaka, they have a wide range of dim sum too, price is pretty reasonable =D.

Ratings:
Taste: 6.5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 6.5/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Parking: 8/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Services: Okay
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: No

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Chiow Lin Steamboat Restaurant @ Abu-siti lane, Penang

Had this chance to visit a steamboat restaurant in Abu Siti Lane,georgetown. The restaurant serves authentic zhong qing's(china) hot and spicy steamboat (重庆火锅 in chinese). Since they are offering dual-soup based pot, so we chose that with the zhong qing spicy soup and sour spicy soup(another variant that can be found in zhong qing as well). Apparently the shop owner is from zhong qing as well, coincidentally,my frens visited zhong qing before, so we can roughly knew that the taste will be pretty original as well.
The set up for the steamboat, they are using the electronic heater which i think its very safe, and it wont be as hot as the ordinary gas tank. They have air-con in the restaurant as well. The waitress was pretty nice to greet us and ask us if we have any wants from time to time.


The soup on the right was the sour and spicy soup, it comes together with some fish slices as we ordered it in a set which costs rm58; the soup on the left was the spicy zhong qing soup base before the chili oil was poured. It will turn into scorching red when the chili oil is poured.

This is the chili they offered to go with the food. Its a mixture of green and red chilies with sesame oil and some salt. Personally i think this simple kinda mixture is really superb, u can top some chopped garlics on the sauce as well, my fren told me that this is what you can find in Sze chuan, china.

So this was the fish found in the sour and spicy soup, the meat is really so tender and fresh where you can taste it urself, the taste was so obvious. There were tonnes of these in the soup, the shop owner is not greedy at all in giving all these fresh fish fillet. It works perfectly together with the chillies above. The soup itself is made of some kinda of pickled vege(酸菜),green chillies and pepper(花椒), tastes abit sourish and quite spicy.

This is how the soup looks like when the chili oil is poured onto it. You can clearly see the scorching red chili oil boiling, the spicyness of the soup is divided into 3 levels, we went for the highest level XD, but its just okay for Sze Chuan standard according to my fren from there.

The food that we picked for our steamboat, due to the large portion of the fish served in the sour and spicy soup, we decided not to order too much.
This is their crystal beef fillet(rm10 per serving), the meat is so tender and juicy, its the best beef slices that i ever had, it works perfectly together with the spicy soup, the chillies totally fused together with the beef, a.w.e.s.o.m.e.

The fishball cooked under the zhong qing's spicy soup.

Personally, i think this restaurant is really superb, the ingredients were fresh, the service was good, and the restaurant is pretty clean as well. The price is rather okay since u are getting urself an authentic and delicious meal.

Ratings:
Taste: 8/10
Price: 6/10
Parking: 7/10
Services: Very Good
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: Yes

Monday, January 24, 2011

Some Interesting food in Pulau Tikus market

Hi guys, yes, ken is back with his food posts, but WHY? coz i found myself a new toy to play with XD.....So apparently Chinese New Year is around the corner, so my mom needs to stock up some stuff so we headed to this market and had our breakfast, i was told that theres a rather famous pan mee(some sort of home-made noodles) arnd there, so i've decided to check it out....
The famous pan mee is located inside this coffee shop known as kong bee lee, which is right behind the wet market of pulau tikus. This is the dried version of the pan mee, topped with some sambal paste and the noodles were mixed together with soya sauce, personally i prefer this one over the soup version coz i think the noodles taste better together with the soya sauce and sambal paste. The texture for everything is just perfect, especially the noodles, abit chewy and gooey.

This is the soup version of the pan mee available, the soup was rather sweet and smooth as compared to some other pan mee out there as they tend to mix those minced pork meat together with the soup while this stall cooked them separately.

Same as sambal paste, this combination of lime and chopped chilies is used to go with the soup version, simply a dip of the lime juice just enhance the flavour of the whole thing. I'd love to pour in some of them into the soup coz abit sourness in the soup tastes better and most importantly, it works together with the noodles. Another thing that worth mentioning is their hokkien mee(prawn noodle), from what i've heard, the stall owner used to go to singapore to perform and cook for some customers, the soup was pretty nice as the taste is so obvious that u can actually smell how many prawns they've used on the soup itself, other stuffs were just okay, but what makes a prawn noodle special is their soup right?
This is how the coffee shop looks like XD

This is one of the penang most famous pan cake stalls, at the junction of pulau tikus market, this stall owner had been interviewed by a local television program--Journey with Ah Xian on Astro AEC. If im nt mistaken, they are using charcoal to cook the pan cakes, needless to say, charcoal is the best.Highly recommended. =)
This is some kinda vegetarian crackers sold by an old lady....tastes abit salty and as crunchy as prawn crackers, it has lower calories compared to crackers as well(told by the old lady), you can make it as a tidbit too. Healthy yet tasty.
I think this is the best curry puff that i can find in penang, the fillings were just great, they even have chicken meat inside =), freshly made everyday, they were even frying some while we were buying, its abit spicy tho. There are actually alot of nice food like mee goreng, char koay teow and laksa around this pulau tikus market area but i just cant finish it by one day, maybe will update again next time. XD