Club goers or night life people may know about this famous spot at Penang Road. My friend called this place Abu and so, I also called this place Abu. The mamak stall is actually not named Abu, it’s just there’s a graffiti of Abu and one of the very friendly Indian worker named Abu, so we called this place Abu.

Open at night till late midnight and there’s always many youngster. Serving malay food eg. roti canai, nasi lemak and more, but I always go there to eat their Maggi Goreng + Ayam Goreng (Fried Maggi Noodle with Fried Chicken). Delicious.

On the last visit, brother and I was so hungry, we ordered two plate of Maggi Goreng to eat. Be sure to drink a lot fluid after it because it has MSG.

It’s a good supper place. =)

I am glad that I was invited to be part of the food review session with other food blogger. This had given me an opportunity to know more about Indian food and also a chance to taste it because there’s no one at home is interested in Indian food except me. I like eating food of different places. =)

Karaikudi Restaurant serves North and South Indian Chettinad Cuisine. Chettinad is actually a part in the south of India and Karaikudi is the capital of Chettinad. Chettinad cuisine is more likely south Indian food but Karaikudi serves both north and south Indian food. The difference between north and south is way of cooking and the different spices use. From what I’ve known, south Indian food is more spicy than north’s.

 
Let’s into the food part. We got a few starters to try out. First, we got this Vegetable Soup (RM3.00) It’s a homemade vegetable soup cooked in Chettinad style. It’s not like any of the Western’s soup which is very creamy, this is not. At the bottom of the soup, you’ll find a lot of vegetable cutlets and be sure to drink it when hot, it’s not good when it is cooled.

This Bitter Gourd Chips (RM6.00) is something that caught my interest. It look like potato chips to me, it’s just that the colour it not same, but it does tasted crispy. It’s sliced bitter gourd marinated with spces and de-fried. The bitter gourd pieces were really fine cut until very thin, it’s pretty. First bite is a little salty and later you will taste the bitterness after a while. For me, it’s not very bitter, I like bitter gourd.

Chicken Cutlet (RM6.00) is something that looks like chicken nugget but after you got the first bite, you will know it’s nothing feels like a chicken nugget that you eat in McDonald’s or KFC. It’s actually boneless pieces of chicken marinated with egg and bread crumps and then deep fried. The meat is soft. It’s better to dip it in ketchup.

Squid Fry (RM8.00) is another deep fried dish. It’s just squid fish dipped in spicy batter and de-fried. It tasted a little bit Indian but it’s still squid afterall, maybe it’s my type of food, it just feel simple to me. But if you are a squid lover, you should order this to try out. =)

Here comes something more familiar which is the Chicken Briyani (RM9.50). The rice used is not like any of our local rice, it’s basmathi rice and is cooked with spices. Hiding under the rice is a piece of drum stick. You can try eating it with the curry chicken sauce so that it wouldn’t feel so dry. Another thing is, there’s an egg served on top of the rice.

Naan is another food that I believe some of you guys know what it is. This is their Kashmiri Naan (RM6.00) with dry fruit stuffed in it which is famous among the kids. You should aware that this tasted sweet and it’s better not to eat with any sauce because you won’t taste any dried fruit afterall. There’s dried coconut in various colour in the between the Naan.

Looking at the photo of above dish, I think you got no idea of what it is. I didn’t know at first too only after the man introduced it to us. It’s Chicken Kothu Paratha (RM9.00) which is their prata bread cut into very small pieces and cooked with chicken.

This colourful dish is what they called the “Indian Pizza” which is just a nickname for it. It’s nothing feel and taste like pizza. The real name for this dish in their menus is Chettinad Special Dosai (RM4.00). It’s very thin and with assorted vegetable mainly chopped coriander, onions, potato, chili flakes on top which made it looks colourful. Eat it when it serves so that it’s wouldn’t turn un-crispy after some times.

Next, we got some little dishes that serves well with rice or naan or perhaps eat-for-fun.

The above is Ladies Finger Pepper Fry (RM7.00) I like the crunciness of this vegetable after it’s fried. The ladies finger is sliced into tiny peices and saute with pound black pepper. Tasted a little bit spicy not you won’t feel hot.

Chettinad Potato Masala (RM6.00) is cybes of potata saute with special masala. A very simple sweet vegetarian dish and good to serve with the naan.

I like eggs. The Egg Podimass (RM4.00) is good. I don’t know why it is called Podimass but it’s just scrabled egg cook with onion, salt and pepper. There’s also tiny cut chilli so you might spicyness if you get a bite on the little cut chilli.

Kadai Vegetable (RM9.00) is assorted vegetable cook with rich gravy.

Here’s something spicy, to some food blogger there, it’s spicy; but to me, it’s not. Hehe. This is Mutton Chukka Varuval (RM18.00). I got no idea what it means, I only know the word, mutton. It’s diced mutton saute with chettinad spices. People told me lamb is smelly but in this dish, the smell is not very strong, in fact the smell of spices and pepper covered over it.

Coming to the end. We got a coffee and sizzling brownie as desserts.

Let’s start of with the sizzling brownie (RM10.00) first. I got to say that it’s delicious and I like it a lot. However it makes my cloth smelly because of the sizzling oil spilled into the air. It’s not an Indian food but their very own recipe with freshly baked chocolate brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate suace and cashewnut served on hot sizzling plate. You taste something special when you put it into your mouth as one part is very hot and another part is very cold. Eat fast or the ice cream melts fast.

Next is a small cup of Chettinad Coffee (RM2.80). Fresh coffee bean powder and steamed with boiled water to prepare a decoction and added fresh milk. It’s not coffee like any of our Old Town, Georgetown or local Kopitiam, it’s Chettinad style, that what I can say. Taste nice to me too, I don’t really know how to describe a coffee, but it’s good. One thing to say is, the taste of milk in the coffee is heavy.

The restaurant is a halal restaurant and what makes is so special is that 95% of the spices are from India. There’s another branch at Hillside, Tanjung Bungah but you will get a difference experience here at the Market’s Street outlet. It’s worth trying out if you like Indian food or if you have not try any Indian food before, you can check this place out. =)

Market Street is Lebuh Pasar in Little India in Georgetown.

People has been telling me they got nice roti canai and we went to try it out in the morning for breakfast. It’s located on Jalan Tanjong Bungah and is just right opposite the Crown Jewel Prince Hotel, Sandy Beach Hotel and the Dalat International School.

It’s morning and I can see tourist having their meals there as well as some locals. It’s a restaurant that has a nice pretty nice interior which more or like to attract tourist. They do serve western food as well as some local cuisine and I think the main attractive food is the roti canai, tandori and sort of.

The main food that we were to eat was the Roti Canai. We ordered a few pieces and asked for oiless one. It’s actually not oiless, but it’s less oily than what you normal order. To me, all roti canai is the same but this one with less oil is nice. Though, if it’s crispier like Roti Prata in Singapore, then it will be good.

The dalcha gravy for the roti canai was nice but then we ordered a curry chicken for the roti canai. I’ll say this is nice, it’s a little bit spicy and I like that the chicken is cut into small pieces so it’s easy to eat. Do ask for more gravy, it’s very little.

I ordered a plate of Maggi Goreng or known as Fried Maggi Noodle (a kind of instant noodle). It’s different from what I had at a mamak store, it’s nothing near to like a maggi mee. To me, I’ll say I like the one at the mamak store than this one. Waited 15 minutes for this and I think I won’t be ordering this again on my next visit.

As for the price, it’s a little bit more than mamak store because it’s a restaurant with nice table and chairs, wifi and located in a tourist area. That’s explain the pricing but it’s still not very expensive.

Click here for map to Sri Ananda Bahwan.

Taking a look at the interior, it’s very nice and classy looking restaurant in a old settlement building. Nicely decorated and with the soft jazz music playing, it feels like being in a high class restaurant and yes it is. It’s located at the corner of Green Hall and just right opposite of the court house.

At first, I thought this restaurant serves western cuisine and mom wanted try out the set lunch. Unfortunately, set lunch is served on weekdays only. After checking out the menu, only then I get a mind of it is a restaurant serving Indian cuisine. It was me and mom and we don’t really know what is nice and good. We don’t really know about Indian food but I’m sure I like it. The waitress was kind enough to do some recommendation to us. Everything is quite expensive, all are above RM10 per dish and rice too except for plain rice.

As usual being in a Indian restaurant, they serves a kind of biscuit as starter or appetizer. I don’t really it because it’s pretty salty.

Here is a Chicken Varuval. It’s dry with a lot of spices. It’s quite nice, the chicken is quite soft and not spicy at all. However the portion is pretty small.

As for this, this is not curry but actually vegetable. It’s called Vege Khajana. It’s assorted or mixed vegetable cooked in some sort of sauce which tasted a bit sweet and spicy. Mom likes this and putting it on top of rice is nice to eat.

We had a plain briyani rice and it’s good. The waitress said that it’s better to order a plain one than those that with chicken or meat in it.

Overall, it’s all nice but I felt it’s too expensive to me. It’s better to go there on the weekdays where set lunch at RM15++ is served. 2 dishes and a briyani cost 2 of us RM43.70. Woah. By the way, it’s a lovely place to dine at night and I like the environment a lot.