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Category: Food / Many Choices

Chawan, Bangsar

One fine Sunday night, I and my friends were searching for food at Bangsar area. We are all Penang people and do not familiar with the area. The area was rather quiet. Our mind is all about Chinese-style kopitiam, but somehow I couldn’t find any at Bangsar area. I parked the car at Bangsar Village Mall and decided to go tour around the place to look for cheap and good food. Unfortunately, none, and lastly we went to another Old Town-style restaurant, the Chawan.

One thing, do you know that the word “Chawan” actually means tea bowl? It’s a kind of bowl use for preparing and drinking Japanese tea. In Malaysia, Chawan means cup, but the spelling is Cawan.

Looking through the menu, the first impression wasn’t very pleasing because the menu was not in a good condition. Like I said, it’s another Old Town-style, so don’t be surprise to see the food choice similar. HOWEVER, Chawan is more centered on Malay cuisine, with a quite a number of Nasi Briyani, Nasi Lemak and more.

I read on Foursquare that the Kopi Frappe is a must order. So what it’s actually about is the mix of two different coffee. Like Ipoh White Coffee mix with Hainan Coffee. There’s many kind of coffee for you to choose on the menu.

I order Nasi Tomato Beef Rendang Tok RM10.90. I know you are now wondering what Tok is all about, beef rendang is curry beef cook in rendang style but what about beef rendang Tok? I also don’t know, it’s just appear that the beef is in dark brown color and doesn’t taste any spicy which is just not an good experience for my mouth. I was expecting something spicy with good spices. This disappoint me, and one thing, it tasted like a rock. It’s so hard to chew with my strong teeth.

On the other hand, Nasi Tomato Beef Rendang (RM10.90), without the word Tok tasted good. The spices fill my mouth and the spicyness exploded right in my mouth, gusting down towards my stomach and I felt awesome. It’s not super spicy, yet it brought me an all new experience after eating the beef rendang tok.

The Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang (RM10.90) was up to my expectation. The lemak rice, sambal, curry chicken rendang, ikan billis, half boiled egg, cucumber slice and a little bit of kang kung, serves on a piece of banana leaf which made the presentation beautiful. In my opinion, it’s so much better than Old Town’s. The curry sauce was actually same as the beef rendang, but using chicken instead. What’s best about this is the sambal gravy which makes the dish perfect. First taste of it tasted normal, 2nd taste of it makes you eat more, 3rd taste makes you feel hot, and yes it’s spicy and good.

Lastly, a glass of sky juice completed my meal and I find it awesome because it’s the cheapest drinks among the menu at only RM0.50. =D

Chawan

69-G Jalan Telawi,
3 Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur

Telephone: +60322875507

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=215278323465761497274.000469feb8850ec72b675&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=3.130071,101.671085&spn=0.005142,0.006866&z=17&iwloc=0004ace07fdda2c10890a&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

September 14, 2011
Dinner at Clinic Cafe, Seberang Jaya

I want to tell people that I went to clinic, to eat dinner. LOL. It’s the Clinic Cafe at Seberang Jaya, near to Sunway Carnival Mall. It’s more likely a themed restaurant with a hospital/clinic feel. I read about it in the newspaper and pretty curious about the place so I and some friends went to check it out. I believe there’s already one similar in Singapore’s Clarke Quay, but that’s more on drinking instead of meal.

It felt a little bit creepy to me when dining in there because, the waiter and waitress dress like a medical officer and it’s like dining in a clinic. Well, this is a simple one, the one in Clarke Quay, Singapore is more beautiful than this. We went there during dinner time but there’s like only 2 tables dining, include us. Pretty quiet. I think old chinese people wouldn’t want to eat here because of pantang.

After looking at the menu, the food is cheaper than I expected, but not very low price yet. It starts from RM7 and above, serving local oriental and some local western food.

I ordered the cheapest Tom Yam Fried Rice at RM7.80. They have put in a lot of spices and there’s tom yam taste but I dislike the spices, maybe some like it but not me. Don’t you feel creepy when eating rice in kidney bowl which use during surgery? Eww, haha.

My friend ordered the Yang Zhou Fried Rice, looks not bad, and tasted pretty good too. There’s lots of vegetable and forgot to mention that all our fried rice came with 4 crispy fried shrimp.

Oh shit, I’ve forgotten what my friend ordered for this beverage. It’s chocolate milk shake with vanilla ice cream if I am not mistaken, taste good, but RM5.80.

Have you been here before? I not sure whether will I return to this place or not, it’s far! Come open up one in Penang island then that’s good. =D

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100073510666181549549.000469feb8850ec72b675&ll=5.397466,100.397851&spn=0.003471,0.005354&z=17&iwloc=00048a3785a6e10d19669&output=embed&w=500&h=325]

June 30, 2011
Mews Cafe At Muntri Mews Flashpacker Hotel, Muntri Street

The number of flashpacker and boutique heritage hotel is growing in heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, George Town. These flashpacker hotels don’t really offers accommodation to tourist only but they also have little cafe/restaurants which feature a heritage dining experience and some nice local food. It’s getting a trend of Penangite going to these place to dine.

Recently, I have been seeing people checking into this cafe of a boutique flashpacker hotel, Muntri Mews through social media like Facebook, FourSquare and Twitter. With much curiosity of these checking-in, I went to check out the cafe – Mews Cafe of Muntri Mews Hotel with my mom for lunch.

Parking was not really easy as the road is narrow, but I believe it would not be a problem if you don’t mine to walk further up a bit.

Upon entering the cafe, you will see a corner that serves as the reception for the hotel, and the cafe is pretty small, yet can pack 30 customers. The minimalist interiors and the usage of heritage furniture showcase the boutique hotel well.

Food menu wise is Asian and Western food starting from RM16. As Today’s Special for yesterday was the Ipoh’s Hor Fun (RM16). My last Ipoh Hor Fun was in Ipoh, it’s chicken slices hor fun with beansprout and shrimp, the soup tasted chicken. However, this Ipoh Hor Fun tasted like Hokkien Prawn Mee, just that’s the taste it’s not strong. The taste of prawn can bee tasted, with ingredient like fu chok, chicken, bean sprout, and shrimps. The hor fun can be be distinguished with local koay teow, it’s more thick and not so sticky like koay teow. Overall, it’s OK-good, but with that price range, I might not want to eat it again. Haha. A bowl of koay teow th’ng or the real Ipoh’s hor fun, cost as little as RM4, it’s like 4 times the price.

The Nasi Lemak Bento (RM16) is one more the most discussed topic on the social network and I have been hearing many good review about it. I ordered this for my lunch meal to check out whether it’s up what I expected. The presentation looks really awesome as it blended the Malaysian and Japanese culture. Nasi Lemak usually is placed on banana leaf and being in the Japanese bento box is my first time see it. It separated the rice, omelette, curry chicken, sambal sauce and shrimp, ikan bilis, nuts and cucumber well.

Usually nasi lemak uses hard boiled egg but with this, it uses omelet instead. Well, how about the taste? The shrimp and the sambal gravy were in fact good, but than the portion of serving was too little. As for the rice, it’s not lemak enough, so do the curry chicken. Unable to conclude that it’s not good, it’s still good as I like the sambal gravy quite a lot.

RM16 per meal for Nasi Lemak, is again, not that good, as you can actually buy 16 packs of RM1 mini Nasi Lemak packs. But with the dining experience in a boutique hotel, and enjoy the atmosphere being in the middle of the UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s good.

Muntri Mews
77 Lebuh Muntri
10050 Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

Tel : 04 263 5125
Fax : 04 263 4125

Email : info@muntrimews.com

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=215278323465761497274.000469feb8850ec72b675&ie=UTF8&ll=5.42153,100.335592&spn=0.005127,0.006866&z=17&iwloc=0004a6b4fa8602713d40f&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

June 28, 2011
Lunch At Kopitan Restaurant #2

Today’s noon was raining heavily everywhere in Penang. Was thinking to eat at Sin Kheng Aun Hainanese Food but it was difficult to look for a parking, then changed our mind to TekSeng Restaurant but it’s not open today and finally we went to Kopitan Restaurant for lunch with mom and dad.

Kopitan’s Coffee – RM3.50

I found it not bad last time, so it’s a OK-GOOD lunch place. Luckily we found a parking right outside the restaurant and it was full of people inside. Surprisingly, the serving time for beverage and rice meal was fast. But it take rather slow for the toast.

The rice dish was fast in serving is probably because it’s easy to prepare as the chicken is chicken chop, just poured with different type of sauces. I ordered myself a plate of Mushroom Chicken Chop Rice (RM8.90) which I couldn’t find any mushroom on it. It’s the sauce on the chicken that tasted mushroom. Somehow, I think this is s0-so only, nothing much special, I more prefer the Kam Heong’s.

Mom likes the toast at there. She always praised that the bread use for the toast and how good and soft it is. This time, she ordered a Sausage and Cheese Toast (RM5.90) which I could say, it’s good! I like the softness of the bread, the little sausage slice on top of the bread, the cheese melts in the mouth and the sweetness of sugar on the bread. This is good.

Kopitan Restaurant
4A/B Logan Heritage,
Beach Street,
10200 George Town,
Penang.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&source=embed&msa=0&msid=215278323465761497274.000469feb8850ec72b675&ll=5.419362,100.343124&spn=0.005127,0.006866&z=17&iwloc=0004a52fccb2bc5fce85c&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

June 21, 2011
Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup for Supper

Satay Celup is the lok-lok of Malacca! How can you not eat Satay Celup when visit to Malacca? Haha. Basically Satay Celup is actually raw food on stick, then to be dipped into a kind of peanut satay sauce to cook the food. It’s like lok-lok which you cook your own stick food, just not dipping into boiling water. At this moment, I only find this Satay Celup in Malacca, and not anywhere else.

The one I visited when I was in Malacca was Ban Lee Siang. One of the two famous one, another is the Capitol which always has a long queue in front of the shop. Since Ban Lee Siang is near to where I stayed, so we went there on foot from Jonker Walk.

The price for per stick is RM0.60 flat rate but when you see it’s so cheap, you tend to take more and then turn out many money. And the food on stick is kinda little, so you need more to fill the stomach.

I actually pretty full after having my street food hunting on Jonker Walk so I didn’t eat much, just want to try the Satay Celup feel. Everything was fun, I like the way of dipping food into the peanut sauce, but then it lack of my favourite, si hum cockles. Haha. If there’s cockles, then it will be damn awesome. Hopefully there’s Satay Celup around Penang or KL, with cheap price of course. =D
View Shiok Or Not : Food Map in a larger map

45-E Jalan Ong Kim Wee

75300 Melaka, Malacca

012-6515322

April 8, 2011
Dinner at Who’s Bryan Cafe, Raja Uda

Recently, I just found out that Raja Uda of Butterworth has many hidden gems. There’s lots of nice cafe, and food lying around Raja Uda, Butterworth area. Luckily, Penang island and butterworth is only just a little sea across or to be specific, half an hour away. I should go there hunt for food more. =)

So one fine tuesday, I went over to Raja Uda for dinner. At first, I wanted to go for the famous tomyam noodle but then it didn’t open that day. Weird. Then I just went around Raja Uda area to look for restaurant randomly and I found this nice looking restaurant + cafe, Who’s Bryan, located on Jalan Ong Yi How, somewhere near Jalan Raja Uda.

It was kinda late already and feeling hungry, so I didn’t care about looking for other already, so dearest and I just went in and sit down.

It’s a nice looking restaurant. The interior is quite nice, with live band playing nice Chinese music at there, the atmosphere seems good for youngster to hangout and chit chat.

Well, looking at the menu, they serve mainly western food with some local dishes like fried rice.

There’s also combo or also known as set meal for some where you top up some money and get extras like soup, salad and beverage.

Let’s go into the food. I ordered my main course with the combo D, so it comes with a mushroom soup, with a little garlic bread cube in it. Tasted a little bit salty but kinda nice. I like this.

Then the next thing that come with the combo is the salad. It’s just vegetable, plain salad with very little sauce and it’s not so nice because of that little sauce.

Here comes the main course. It’s the spaghetti bolognese, chicken. To be honest, it’s so-so only. It seems like asian style to me instead of western-ish feel with creamy bolognese sauce. I should try other food next time.

So, the food is so-so only but this is a nice place to hang out and chit chat with friends at night because of the atmosphere, live band and some snacks to order, there’s beer too! If got chance will go back and try other food. =)

Tel: +6-04-3329097

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=215278323465761497274.000469feb8850ec72b675&ll=5.435009,100.391243&spn=0.005127,0.006866&z=17&iwloc=000498f3d8df7b20f421e&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

January 4, 2011

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