Back to Penang again 2011

It was since 2 years ago I had visited Penang. And now I am back to that wonderful island again with stomach craving for good foods.

But this time, I am not with friends but with my siblings of 2. Because this was only a 2 days and 1 night trip, I will heavily concentrate my time to hunt good foods instead wasting it on temples and museum visit.

I borrowed a GPS navigator from my cousin to guide my way to food heaven. But later on, it get me so fucking frustrated and damn piss-off. Later on baru cakap la.

 

I have prepared a list of foods to eat (not place to visit) a night before the trip.  Thanks to 

http://www.vkeong.com/

this fantastic food blogger wrote a super good food blog. So, I was scanning his entries on Penang and on the same time jot down the location on paper. Not to mention that his food photography is very good. 

Before heading out to PLUS highway, we had our dimsum as breakfast at Menjalara

Bandar Sri Menjalara, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur

Restoran Fu Lai

Actually we have planned to eat dimsum at Butterworth the next day at Penang, but erm.... We like Dim Sum so much !!! The dim sum here is not the freshest and most delicious. But it offer an affordable price to local.

Ahoy and here we go ! Drive all the way till Penang. 

After a slight jam in the island, we finally arrived at Chulia Hotel. 

The out look of this hotel is white. Inside also white. When we get our key and heading to our room, it is also white ! I think the theme for this hotel is white

No need to say, the interior in this room was also white. Two queen size bed and a flat screen television.
 

Just one thing, toilets are located outside. Be it bathing, brushing teeth or dumping facets, it have to be performed here. 

Though it sound not that good, but in fact, it is not bad though. The facilities provided in this toilet is way better than those dirty toilet embedded in room at other hotel I visited. seriously, I love the big head shower of that.

and one of the best part was, we got a free parking and security if we are the hotel guest. This is very good because it save our time to hunt safe place to park our car.

After dumping our luggage in room, I start key-in GPS coordinate into GPS navigator before heading out. Thanks to the famous food blog, I got all the coordinate and even their operating time ! and so we headed out to our first eating which was

Mr. Gan Fried Oyster

It is crispy on below, soft and flavorful on top. We ordered the biggest portion which cost MYR 10 and I think it is worth it because the oyster is fresh and big. around 20cent - 50 cent of coin size.

That is Mr.Gan frying oyster.

and a lot of good 'Work Hei'. Place here was quite hard to find a parking so I resorted to park my car illegally but professional without obstructing the traffic. Well, this is what Kl-lite good at.

Lam Ah Coffee Shop (opposite Beach Road fire station)

Lebuh Chulia

The Fried O-chien was delicious, but it was more like a mouth-opening foods to us. So, we headed out for the next hunt.

Ah Hock Wan Tan Mee

This wanton mee was special and a little different from what I ate at KL. Though it was served 'gon lou' / dry, but it was more watery than KL. Don't take it the wrong way, the taste was uniquely awesome in its way. The unique thing was, it can be ate with sambal/ chili paste. So I mix the sambal into the soup and wallop the bowl till the bottom. Ah, the soup is very good.

Stall at intersection of Lebuh Melayu (Malay Street) and Lorong Ikan

One of my objective here was to survey the price of a camera lens that I am so curious of it's rumored sharpness.

Canon Ef 50mm f/1.8 

The price in KL was about RM300-350. So I was heard that Penang will cost lesser and so I headed to the famous camera shop at Komtar called 'Click N Snap' that was recommended by my friend and forum.

So the first thing I done was lens testing ! For so long I had never take off my heavy tamron lens from the body. I put on the 50mm and gave it a first shot at f/2.8

Pow ! to able to produce such a sharp shot , nice bokeh, and fast focusing ability with only MYR 290. I decided to buy that. And I get myself a uv-filter for that at MYR 30.

Anyhow, the 50mm is so plastic-ly and light compare to my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. But of course la, One cost at MYR 1300 and another cost only MYR 290. Can't complain much as long it does the work.

I am a bit paiseh to bored my sibling for following me a long walking distance to find this shop. After that, we went to nearby attraction to eat the famous Penang Cendol

It is sometime a good thing to travel at weekdays and non-public holiday because you get to find your parking easily and need not to queue for too long. Last time I came for this Cendol, gosh... the crowd was so 'crowd', until it take so long to order a nice bowl of cendol during hot day. Not to mention the car had to parked really far far away. Now it is all good. The quality was better than last time as the boss can put more concentrate on our bowl.

Penang Road Cendol

Joo Hooi Cafe, 475, Jalan Penang

 After a big bowl of cendol for each of us, we were quite stuffed. The planned was to visit Siam Road Char Koay Teow after the Cendol, but since we were quite stuffed so we planned to go to Gurney Plaza for a stroll.

Gurney Plaza

The beach was still that dirty and smelly. Hahaha. Like I said, it was weekday and non-holiday. So there were ample of parking on roadside with only MYR 0.30 for every 30 minutes.

So we wondered pointlessly in the plaza while waiting our stomach to cool down. But my brother un-dieing crave for Donut had slowed our cool down time. LOL

And I played with newly bought 50mm. The time was 4.40 PM, and it was about time we should hunt for that Char Koay Teow ! Which was my main objective here in Penang. To eat a very good Char Koay Teow.

Siam Road Char Koay Teow

I swear. This is one of the best Char Koay Teow I ate in my life. The 'Wok Hei' was so strong and with a lot of 'lard' (crunchy fried pig' fat)... man I am in heaven. This will surely promise my return next time.

ooo, I ordered a drink called 8 pou milk.

Hmm, I can't describe how this taste, but it seem like mixing milk with 'leong cha' / herbal drink. and it taste very pleasant and fresh.

I read on that famous food blogger that this uncle who fried this Koay Teow do not like being photograph, and you might get scolded for that. So I have to stand far away and take a pot shot at him real fast while he was busy frying. 

Siam Road (Jalan Siam) Char Koay Teow End of Siam Road

 Stomach filled and it was 5pm already. First thing came in mind... Afternoon nap. Hahaha what a terrible habit. So we headed back to Hotel to bath and rest.

But that GPS bring us rounding and rounding the town with all the screwed up navigation really make me frust !!! It seemed it do not recognized one-way road and insist on I drive against it ! WTF. No matter how I re-route it, it still bring me back to the same road and insist that I FUCK UP the law.

So, I have to rely on my sister phone 'papago' to reach our hotel after a 30 minutes of circling the town like moron.

Anyhow, we reached the hotel and have a good warm bath. And for me, of course I can't resist myself to test further my lens.

The first shot was taken by Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8.

Exif was focal length : 50mm , aperture : f2.8 , iso : 800 , shutter : 1/60 second.


The second shot was taken by newly bought 50mm f/1.8

Exif was focal length : 50mm , aperture : f2.8 , iso : 800 , shutter : 1/60 second.

Notice the sharpness taken by 50mm ? haha. But there was one weakness of 50mm compare to my Tamron. It seem the 50mm can't take a very close-up shot. My Tamron lens on the hand can take a more closer shot by 25% more closer. But, in term of sharpness, 50mm was real sharp.

Okay la, enough with my camera talk. After we rest enough, we decided to hunt for dinner at Bukit Mertajam. The time was 7.15pm and I think the traffic had subsided by then cause it was a working day. Another Char Koay Teow feast incoming !

We took ferry at Pengkalan Weld to cross the sea. My mistake was, I trust that GPS again. And because of that, I had been fooled on the road once more. Imagine my frustration when I am so angry that I actually heed the GPS device to drive against the one-way traffic !

And so, I fucking shut down the moronic GPS and use my phone's garmin instead. Thank god ! my phone garmin was so pin-point precise. And it brought me to the famous Duck Egg Char Koay Teow in Jalan Kulim in no time.

Duck Egg Char Koay Teow

I had drove all the way from Chulia Street at Penang till Bukit Mertajam just to eat this claimed best duck egg Char Koay Teow in Bukit Mertajam.

Taste wise = satisfaction. Fuel wise = Suck it.

We were so hungry that we ordered the largest portion and on top of that, we add-on a fried duck egg for just MYR 4.50 . And we dig in like Barbarian. The Fried duck egg was crunchy on outside but still maintain its juiciest on inside. One poke on the yolk and it flow out to blend with the noodle. Gosh.... saliva keep on dropping.

But, to be honest... it was super oily and the 'Wok Hei' was not that good as the one I ate at Jalan Siam. The jalan Siam Char Koay Teow was still the best I had so far in Penang.

Duck Egg Char Koay Teow
Jalan Kulim.

After such a sumptuous meal, going back to Penang just like that sound stupid. So, we decided to stop by Auto-City for a night stroll. I was feeling sad all the morning because it seem Penang had lost its pretty girls. Oh ! now I knew where the pretty girls had went to. All of em were in Auto-City !! So many of them. Hahaha

I hope KL will have such a big yam cha place to hang out. It was so... got 'feel' either for dating couples or friends gathering.

We went to old town Kopitiam to enjoy the free wi-fi and some drinks.

and we went back to Penang Island to hit the sack. Tomorrow morning we will check-out early to try out the famous dim sum at Butterworth ! Hahahahaha

Dim sum at Chew Chun Butterworth

It was a non-holiday for Penang-lite and it was not a weekend either. But for normal like this, it was already packed with customers. But we were lucky to find a table once we walked in. So we dig in !!!

We eat eat and eat... and end up the bill was just MYR 34. For the amount of dimsum we ate, the price we paying was cheap ! compare to the Dimsum we ate at Kepong yesterday morning, it cost us MYR 49 when we just ate lightly. Not to mention it was a lot fresher and tastier.

Chau Chun
6970, Jalan Ong Yi How
Butterworth, Penang 12300

And we headed back to KL around 9am ++. Initially we still wondering if we want to stop at Ipoh for lunch because we ate too full  for breakfast.

LOL, we still stopped at Ipoh for lunch. We ate 'hor fun'

Ipoh Hor Fun 

Smooth noodle, sweet soup and very succulent chicken. Best. I ate it once a year ago with Yc and Junyen and I was missing this noodle.

Thean Chun Coffee Shop

73, Jalan Market, Ipoh, Perak, 30000

Ahhhh, at last our food journey had ended. With a satisfying and happy stomach we headed back KL.

Will back to Penang anytime soon ? Yesh !! anytime. There are still a lot of foods I want try but was limited by my stomach capability.