Saturday, June 25, 2011

Hakka Tree @ Tesco Tanjung Pinang

The newly opened Tesco Tanjung Pinang (two mins walk from straits quay, full address for the restaurant will be given) has plenty of new restaurants that never be seen before, Hakka Tree is one of them, they are having their opening promotion, but i find it funny that they are actually offering two types of set meals only, no other food can be found. Reason given was they are new and they need more time to set things up. Oh well, i just gave the set meals a try. The place was abit crowded during that time (lunch hour) and customers actually need to queue up for the tables. The decoration was okay but i think the situation for the restaurant was abit chaotic, there was an uncle, and i was trying to order and he just seemed blur and uncleared about the situation.

That's all you can find in the restaurant during this period of time ( 22nd until 29th of June) according to the brochure.

This is set one. Hakka Noodles Set (rm 13.90), it comes with six pieces of yong tau foo together. The noodles were topped with minced pork and some salted fish inside of it, it was pretty dry from what it looks, but the serving of yong tau foo comes with a bowl of soup, so you can actually mix and match yourself. The noodles were quite chewy and the minced pork was very nice indeed. Just the portion might be abit small for a big eater like me.

The soup version of yong tau foo in set meal one. Three pieces of yong tau foo were given, the bitter gourd yong tau foo, ladies finger yong tau foo and the chili yong tau foo. Some seaweed was added to the soup too, making it more attractive. The yong tau foo-s were okay, but instead of using a lot of fish meat, they used pork, making the texture abit soft.

The another three pieces of yong tau foo (fried version), egg plant yong tau foo, toufu yong tau foo and fried dumplings(wanton). I found them abit oily, they could just drain the oil off before serving them to their customers....

Set two -- Hakka Special Thunder Tea Rice (rm 9.90), inclusive of a drink and dessert. The green coloured soup was actually a blended juice of those mixed vegetables, no doubt its very nutritious and healthy. The usual way of eating this thunder tea was to pour the green soup into the rice and mix all of them together. The rice will be surrounded by some peanuts, fried tofu, parsley, long beans, dried shrimps and some other green vegetables. The green vegetable soup has a very special aroma which i think it comes from basil, and its abit salty. Its not acceptable by everyone but since its a very healthy dish, why not give it a try ?

The drinks given for the day were barley. Nothing much special, pretty much like the usual ones we are getting in hawker centers.

The dessert for the day was few slices of green apple....................

Chinese Herbal Jelly (Rm 3.90), it comes in a rather okay portion, but the texture was abit soft for me and it wasn't as smooth as i think it should be. Sugar was added although I'm ok with that but i would prefer they provide us sugar syrup instead so we can control the level of sweetness we want, more flexibility to the customers. I think their new menu will be offered after next week, I'll definitely come back and check them out.

Ratings:
Taste: 6.5/10
Price: 6/10
Parking: 8/10
Services: Okay
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: Yes
Additional Information:
Service Charge: Yes, 10%
Business Hour: 9.30am - 10.00pm daily
Address: F27, Tesco Tanjung Pinang, No. 1, Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang, Tanjung Tokong 10470, Penang.
Phone Number: 04- 899 3887
Website: http://www.hakkatree.my/

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Some awesome food that you can find in Balik Pulau

I am pretty sure that everyone has heard of the name Balik Pulau before especially during this durian season. People from all over the world visit Balik Pulau just because of the durian ! As for us, our main purpose for this trip was also for durian, well partly. Other than durians, Balik Pulau has a lot of wonderful and worth trying food. I'll introduce one by one of them to you. First and foremost:

Yup, you guessed it right !! Its durian. Durian is a seasonal fruit where the best time to taste the fruit of the king is now (June) Durians are everywhere in Balik Pulau, in fact, there's a durian festival organized somewhere near the mountain peak by Penang Tourism. The fruit is so tasty and sweet especially the creamy and mouth watering texture.

Various kinds of fruits can be seen over those booths. Different "brands" of durian will be shown in front of the booth too, so do the prices. Seasonal fruits just like rambutan and mangoesteen are also favoured by tourist and visitors. No doubt those fruits are a bit pricey compared to others.

Laksa is also famous in Balik Pulau, but i am not going to describe and comment more on it since I've blogged about it before.

This is actually the main topic for this blog post, the pictures shown above were actually brown sugar pau (Rm1 each), those black spots are actually melted brown sugar..the texture of the pau was very fluffy and the aroma of brown sugar was fully utilised. Best served while hot. The brown sugar pau is actually quite rare in Penang, in fact, this is actually my first attempt on it.

Peanut Pau (Rm 1.30 each) The peanut stuffing is quite sweet but they were okay for me. The fragrant of the peanut actually works well with the fluffy outer skin of the pau. Had I mention that all the pau in the stall were handmade ? So you can roughly imagine the texture of the pau.

The stall that sells the pau is actually quite hard to find as the road is quite remote where you need to travel around 2km from the Balik Pulau market (roughly 3km from the Balik Pulau Bus Station). From the market, you will notice there's a roundabout at the end of the road, so go straight without turning (there's 2 exit in the roundabout only). The pau will be on your right hand side if you are moving from the roundabout, you will also notice there are some shop houses on your left. Try ask for directions from the people in Balik Pulau market and they'll be happy to direct you.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Aroi Thai Restaurant @ Jalan Burma, Penang.

Introduced by a friend of my mom, Aroi Thai Restaurant was well known for the food quality and of course, they serve authentic Thai food. Coincidentally, I'm craving for tom yum tonight. The restaurant is situated in Jalan Burma, Pulau Tikus so i had to head down all the way to try the tom yum out. Fortunately, i was very satisfied with the outcome. The quality of the food was indeed very satisfying. Below was our attempts on the delicious Thai food:

A small plate of sambal (chili sauce in belacan) was served to us, their sambal was indeed very very spicy. But the taste was awesome as in it wasn't too salty. I could actually finish two bowls of white rice with just this thing here.

Tom Yum Seafood (Rm 18.90 for small) is a must if you are having Thai food. The portion was just nice for the three of us. I would suggest a bigger portion if you are having more people with you. The tom yum was very spicy and sour. Chunks of seafood and vegetables were inside the tom yum soup either. At my first glance, i thought the soup will be something tasteless but i was wrong. You can totally taste the original flavour of tom yum via this soup. Highly recommended for tom yum lovers. Might be a bit dangerous for those who can't take spicy food.

Green Curry Chicken (Rm 10.90) The green curry has a very heavy basil taste and i wasn't a big fan of basil but for the Thai eggplants were cooked until very tender and they totally absorbed the green curry. It has tonnes of basil in it too, i guess the Thai loves basil ?

Omelette with vegetables (Rm 8.90) The vegetables in the omelette were actually something called "Cha Om" which has a very unpleasant and sulphurous smell when raw. The smell will be lost after the vegetables are being cooked. The omelette was just awesome. They fried until its golden brown and the taste was just nice. Highly recommended as well.

A healthy meal shouldn't lack of green vegetables right ? So the fried mixed vegetables was priced at Rm 9.90. It comes in a rather small portion at that price but the texture of the vegetables was perfect. They were perfectly cooked and the juiciness was well kept inside the vegetables.

One of my favourite dessert, Water Chestnut and Coconut Milk (Rm 4.50) I just love the texture of the water chestnuts, wrapped in tapioca flour, it creates two layers of texture inside the water chestnuts, chewy on the outside and crunchy in the inside. The source of sweetness comes from the jack fruits and the coconut milk. Coconut milk just lights up the whole thing by adding some little coconut flavour onto it. Highly recommended as well.

Very cozy and comfortable interior design, so does the lighting, the restaurant is a bit small in size, so reservation is recommended just to avoid disappointment. Note that there will be 10% service charge added to your bill.

Ratings:
Taste: 7/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Price: 6/10 (1-3 expensive, 4-7 average, 8-10 cheap)
Parking: 5/10 (1-3 bad, 4-7 average, 8-10 good)
Services: Very Good
Government Tax: No
Service Charge: Yes
Additional Information:
Address: 387, Jalan Burma, 10350 Penang.
Business Hour: 11.00am - 2.30pm (lunch); 6.00pm - 10.00pm (dinner) Closed on every Tuesday.
Website: http://www.aroithai.com.my/
Phone Number: 04- 227 6771

Friday, June 10, 2011

KOI Japanese Restaurant @ Gurney Plaza, Penang.

Coincidentally, i was introduced to this buffet sushi promotion at KOI Japanese Restaurant few days ago on facebook through my friend....but i was shocked to know that all tables have been reserved on dinner slot for 5 continuous days !!! So i had to make a phone reservation as well to avoid disappointment since their buffet promotion lasting for 5 days only (6th june - 10th june) The price for an adult is Rm 25++ and they offer 40 types of sushi/hand rolls for their customers. For the lunch session, it starts at 2pm until 5pm on those particular dates. Unfortunately, it was their last day as of today (friday, 10th of june). Anyway, I'll just post and share my thoughts and comments on their buffet promotion....

Wasabi wasn't provided on the table, you have to actually request for it. Other than that, the drinks are not included in the Rm25 either. Extra charges will be imposed on your drinks. I had ocha (japanese green tea) for Rm 2.50. It was refillable so it was okay for me.

So they have this specially made menu for the buffet promotion event. You can order as many as you like from the menu above. The menu consists of 40 types of sushi and hand rolls. No prawn sushi tho. Sad case.

For every round of orders, you are limited to 10 types of sushi/hand rolls only. I find it rather amusing that the  portion of the sushi rice was actually much bigger than the usual ones which you will find yourself full after having a couple of them. The prawn roe sushi and the squid sushi were disappointing, prawn roe was too few up to the extent where you can see the white rice underneath the roe and the squid sushi was tasteless, the texture doesn't taste like squid either. Others were okay tho.

More tempting photos on the sushi.....

Various types of sushi rolls offered.....there was this special sushi roll, they actually fried the outside of the sushi roll until crispy and served them with some very special sauce, i find it very special and compared to the usual sushi rolls since the texture was way better and it was much fragrant than usual.

California hand rolls.....pretty much common and usual...i tried to order the fried salmon skin hand roll but unfortunately, i was told that they were sold out and not available currently....

The food was okay but the size of the sushi rice ball was a little too big for me...and Rm30 for pure sushi and hand rolls wasn't too worth for me since I'm not a big fan of them, but if you are a sushi lover and you can take a lot of sushi at the same time, do try it out !

Ratings:
Taste: 6.5/10
Price: 6.5/10
Parking: 7/10
Services: Good
Government Tax: Yes
Service Charge: Yes
Additional Information:
Location: 170-02-59 and 60, 2nd floor Gurney Plaza (New Wing) Pesiaran Gurney, Penang.
Business Hour: Monday to Sunday, 10am to 10pm
Phone Number: 04-227 7112
Website: http://www.koijapanesecuisine.com/