Penang Again – Day 5 – Japanese food in Penang sucks!

With Nic being the ultimate fan of Japanese food, we absolutely had to give a chance to another Japanese eatery while we were up North. We decided to go to a restaurant just down the road  from our hotel which came recommended by my aunt. It's a chain of eateries which I've never heard of before but was apparently well known by Nic. Having had bad experiences with this particular chain at some of the Klang Valley outlets, she nevertheless decided to give it a try anyway. Honestly though, it was a waste of time and money. 

Nippon Yataimura on Burma Street. Do NOT go there. 

Now, don't get me wrong, the food wasn't too bad...if I were eating at a Japanese food stall in a food court. I  also wouldn't have had too much of a problem with the food if the prices were lower because the portion sizes were meant for smurfs children.

Salmon Sashimi...freshness wise-it was okay, but each slice was very thin and about the length of my pinkie (bear in mind I have short fingers!)...RM16.90.

White Tuna Carpaccio...very, very good, but fucking TINY! ...RM6.80...or was it RM16.80?

Aspara Bacon...this was good, but again (sigh) very small. It's such a close up, but yet you can already see it's a small pile...RM15.

 

Teppan Style Tofu...all I can say is 'okay lah'...RM8.

Garlic Rice, served in a heated stone bowl. The presentation on this one was good. Taste wise, it just tasted like garlicky fried rice. And again, portion size was meager...RM11

Teppan Beef...tough, overcooked, puny and generally a waste of good beef...RM18(!!!!)

The decor wasn't too bad. Each table was a booth seat, and they had wooden plaques of each menu item mounted on the wall in rows. I would recommend reading from the actual menu though..unless you wanted to walk the entire restaurant just to decide what to eat. 

They had a long piece of glass which divided the restaurant in half lengthwise and a conveyor belt running around the 2 rows of booths in the centre. But what I really don't get is, why are the headrests on the back of the booths so high? Fashion...or failure?

Being as hungry and unsatisfied as we were, we naturally had to have a couple plates of extra food... 

As bad as the experience was, just before we left, something else occurred that really left a bad taste in our mouth. In attempting to ask for the bill, we waved at a passing waitress. "Wait." was all she said, before walking to the end of the row to spend 5 minutes chit chatting with someone from the kitchen through the food delivery window. To make matters worse, there were no other waitstaff in the area for us to flag down. Finally the manager saw our near futile attempt to attract some attention and brought us the bill. 

When the bill came, we saw that they had overcharged us for something that we had ordered, but was never delivered to us. Nic was so pissed off that once we'd paid the bill, we immediately went to the counter to speak to the manager. Halfway through her diatribe, she suddenly stopped. I thought she simply couldn't think of the right word to use, and continued on her behalf. I discovered later that she'd actually been so angry that she was seeing red and was at a loss for words (a rare, but entirely possible occurrence).

After dinner, in an attempt to grab some internet time, we went to...

I nominate this my favourite place in the whole of Penang! Segafredo Jalan Burma! XD

Saw this stuck on the inside of someone's car on the walk over to Sega's. 

Despite drinks and a shared dessert, our tummies were still unsatisfied so we decided to go food hunting for some 'supper'.

We ended up in a huge joined coffeeshop with lots of choices. Which rather surprised me, because it was pretty late already by Penang standards.

I don't know what this stall was selling, but the things were very nicely arrayed. See if you can find the red crab. (Hint: near the top of the photo)

And then, it was finally back to our hotel...

...for SUPPER!

Boiled see-ham (cockles) with chilli...

Fried oh chien (mini oysters?) with egg and some gummy stuff (starch?). This one had too much gummy stuff in it till I had to dig it out in big blobs and throw it away because I was eating more gum than egg.

Curry mee (or prawn mee, as the locals call it), which was my favourite item of the night. Rather surprising, as I don't normally like curry very much.

Sotong kangkung! (Or squid and..uh..veggies? WTH is kangkung called in english?)

Mmmm...tongue...-I mean, prawn. Yes, I meant to say prawn!

It was all in all, a lovely cholesterol-raising evening.

So far, my gastronomic experience in Penang seems to be failing more than succeeding. On the bright side though, it just makes success all the sweeter. 

Penang Again – Day 4 – I drive 300 km to go to a pasar malam.

So Day 4 fell on a Saturday. Nic knew of a huge pasar malam (night market) that took place opposite the Tesco in the Bukit Gambir area from her last trip, so we had been planning to go there to check it out. I wanted to see how different Penangite pasar malams were from the KL ones. 

So we parked opposite the pasar malam in the Tesco parking lot. As with most good pasar malams, parking is always a headache, so we grabbed an empty lot after a short hunt.

At first glance, it was just like any other pasar malam.

Then I noticed, gosh, it was right outside the houses! Not at main roads or in front of shops like the usual ones here (as far as I've seen anyway). And of course I was too polite to take photos of the old uncles and aunties sitting at their front porches people watching.

Of course, some of those houses had also been converted into interesting looking...erm..cafe's? Home by day, cafe by pasar malam?

And of course we had to buy our favourite rojak buah with the delicious, delicious(!) prawn paste sauce.
 

There were lots of stalls selling the local version of what we had back in KL, but I was so busy walking, munching and looking around that I forgot to take photos most of the time. One thing I can say though, stuff was cheap! And the pasar malam was pretty big, though the layout was rather weird. It was shaped like a huge H, so instead of being able to walk in a continuous circle, we had to stop when the pasar malam petered out and make our way back to the starting point.

After the pasar malam, we made a quick stop at the Tesco because I was feeling guilty about parking there and not buying anything we had some stuff to buy before heading home. I ended up buying several packs of instant noodles to eat in the hotel. That was the first real admission I had made toward how bad most of the food was in Penang. So...I wonder why people keep saying that it's a food-lover's paradise?

Penang Again – Day 3 – Kozue and Nagore Road

Slept really late last night writing the previous post and woke up wayyy past lunchtime today. Decided to go to Gurney Mall and snoop around to see what we could eat. We’ve gotten the idea that most restaurants in Penang close between 2.30 and 5.30pm, which really sucks.

Browsing the food section in the information directory in the mall, we impulsively decided to visit a classy looking Japanese restaurant on the 3rd floor.

 Their menu was very stylish. (Though hard to understand cuz there were no descriptions!)

 The decor was unique too. They had a Zen Garden!

But we soon found out that looks can be very deceiving. From the moment we walked in, we found out that most of the staff couldn’t even speak English. Those who could, could only manage bits and pieces. But never mind, at least we still managed to communicate in Malay and bits and pieces of Mandarin from Nic.

Then the food arrived.

 The Mango Ebi Maki, which was…okay. It looked pretty, but wasn’t wrapped very well and kept on falling apart.

The food was generally very bland, nothing spectacular. I had a Teppanyaki Beef set, and Nic had a Unagi Tempura set. Those were still alright. But the Soft Shell Crab Temaki and Sushi Moriawase Kozue which we subsequently received were terrible! The crab wasn’t just a soft shelled crab, it was also soggy. Even the seaweed wrap wasn’t crispy.

It looked pretty though…or maybe that’s just my photography skills improving. :P

However, if you think that’s bad, I can tell you, the Sushi Moriawase was worse. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I think their sushi chef should be shot. Twice!

Firstly, it came so The sushi was mostly rice, but the rice was so incredibly sour that it was totally inedible! We think they might have accidentally poured too much vinegar into the rice, or perhaps didn’t stir it properly so it all collected in one spot. That was fine, however when we alerted the staff to it, they did not even offer to replace the damn thing. They just went off and told the chef about it. Not wanting to spoil the mood, we just ignored the rice and ate everything else.

The bill came up to a whopping RM110.40. Not too bad a price to pay if the food was good, but for the crap we got I thought it was very expensive. We would’ve had a better experience even if we had decided to eat at McDonalds.

After we left, we still were not satisfied and meandered around the mall for a little while before heading to pick up my personal tour guide (RE: my Aunt – and she’s an actual licensed tour guide) from her office. She brought us to a quaint little dessert house called Sugar Dynasty on Nagore Road.

I forgot to take a picture of it so I grabbed this off someone else’s blog. :P

Despite my lack of photos, I would definitely recommend going there. It was a tiny little family run shop, with only about 5 tables for eat-in customers. Desserts were RM2.50 each, and were thick and tasty. My favourite item was the sweet potato balls served with a mixture of sugar and chopped up nuts. Doesn’t sound like much but it was goooooood. And cheap too!

After that we walked around the road abit. Penang has quite a number of quaintly businesses.

 They’ve got bicycle cafes…

Art galleries run by bugs… 

Don't really know what this is for but it's cute all the same. 

And even restaurants for cannibals…

Before we headed home, we made one last stop in my desperate attempt to squeeze in some internet time…

Sadly though, their Wi-fi wasn’t working properly. I hate not having a 24/7 internet connection.

Penang Again - Day 2 – The Quest for Food Begins

We left the hotel for a late lunch because I was feeling lazy and lounged around in bed for the better part of the afternoon. Because we were planning to meet up with my aunt for an early dinner, we headed to Segafredo’s on Burma Road which was about 2 minutes from the hotel for a quick lunch and some WiFi time.

I had a delectable Baked Rice with Fish which was on promotion for RM12.50 and Nic had a superb Antipasto Platter which consisted of smoked salmon, several thick cuts of ham, some salad, bread, crepe tuna rolls, cherry tomatoes and green olives.

A pretty good deal for RM25…and very nicely presented too!

After that, we met up with my aunt and she proceeded to guide us to Armenian Road/Lebuh Armenian, where we were to have dinner in a German restaurant that her friend owned.

After some wrong turns, we finally arrived in this quiet little back road with some quaint shops that have recently (I think) been granted the Heritage status.

There were even some quaint little cars to enhance the quaintness to the area. :P

Since we arrived a little too early and the shop wasn’t open yet, I decided to play tourist (for once!) and take photos of several of the surrounding shops.

There were several interestingly looking lots in the area too.
 

There were also some unique decorations along that street.




Heck, it even had a temple.

Or at least I think it’s a temple…

Anyway, by the time I’d finished my mini-exploration, it was time for dinner.

We were eating at the Edelweiss Cafe. Like in the Sound of Music.

*Sings ‘The hilllls are aliiiiveeee….with the Sound of Muuuuusicccc…*


Anyway, it had lots of delicious things on the menu.

Even airplanes.

Just kidding!

The food and drink were pretty good…most of it anyway.

Nic and my aunt had Mango Lassi, RM12. They thought it was yummy. I thought it was…ick.

I had a ‘Jumble Jug’, RM12, which had strawberry ice cream in it. Mmmm…

My ultimate favourite of the night was the salad, RM22.

It contained pomelo and mango and was totally worth it. Deeelish! 

As for our mains, Nic had the smoked pork belly, RM34.90.

 Fat, fat, fat but reeeeally good. The stringy stuff in the middle were the mashed potatoes. We all thought it was some sort of mee or pasta at first. 

My aunt had the B52, RM36.50.

Which was, a HUGE sausage with a salad and an omelette sized hash brown (which they called a Rosti). VERY good with mustard!

I had the pork ribs, RM34. Sadly, they were extremely tough and dry. 

The barbecue sauce was also mixed with Worcestershire Sauce, which tasted a little weird to me. The fries and salad dressing were excellent though. 

We informed the Lady Boss of this, and she was very apologetic, even offering to make something else for me. However, I declined as by this time I had already struggled through 2 of the 4 ribs, and was starting to feel rather full. 

So instead, she provided us with a complimentary dessert. 

Chocolate brownie and the Edelweiss signature Movenpick ice cream. Which we had already started devouring by the time I remembered to pull out my camera to take this photo.

After the food was gone, I started exploring. The place was decorated with lots of antiques which ranged from interesting…


 

To unique…




To funny.



  Then it was time to move on to someplace else.


Unable to decide which new place to try next, I decided to revisit Coffee Island grab some new photos.



Which, of course, I had no problems in getting.

Anyway, we had more drinks, and even tried the garlic bread.

My mango smoothie. Very refreshing.

Nic’s flower tea. (I seriously don’t know how anyone can drink this stuff. Tastes like crap!)

  Garlic bread anyone? It had actual partially cooked chopped garlic generously spread on it. Those who like their garlic raw or love spicy food would like this. I didn’t fancy it so much. 

After chit chatting for another hour or so, it was time to return to our love-nest and get some rest for the evening.

While I was trying yet again to get a hint of the free WiFi available in the business district of Penang, I saw this.


LOL. I find that I’m liking Penang more and more.