I went to Hat Yai, Thailand recently. It’s very near to Malaysia and it can be said as my first trip to Hat Yai because I don’t really have any memory of my previous trip when I was very very very young. Thai food are very nice, I like but then some are not very hygiene, anyway, don’t care about the cleanliness, let’s talked about food I had.

After a nice tradition Thai foot massage, it’s 12am Malaysian time and it’s only 11pm Thailand’s time, we were walking along the street, on the way back to hotel. Then we saw a street food stall by the road side and dad decided to eat something.

he stall sells Koay Teow Thng ala Thai’s Chinese style and Chinese desserts (Tong Sui). Mom went to buy Thai’s 油条 (mandarin:you2 tiao2), a.k.a. yao zhar kway or Chinese doughnut. The shape was so different from what we have and it’s not hot.

The way of eating it is not eating with porridge as we Chinese do, or with Bak Kut Teh, or with soya milk like that Taiwanese does. They eat it with kaya sauce. Pretty special and the kaya sauce was sweet. First time eating you tiao in this way. One thing, if the you tiao was crispy and warm then it’s great.

We also ordered the Thai’s koay teow thng. From the look, it’s looks the same, but then when putting it into the mouth, it’s so different. There’s fish ball, meat balls, and some pork. The soup was very clear, different taste, like lack of lard and garlic. The koay teow, or aka flat noodle, was a bit fatter. Afterall, I still prefer Penang’s koay teow thng. ^^

I also ordered a bowl of their Chinese dessert aka tong shui. Tell you what, it’s super duper sweet, not good for health man. They really put a lot of sugar into it. Oh my god.

Can you believe it? Last Sunday I went to 7 Road Market and it was my first time going to that place after so many years of living in Penang. Lebuh Cecil is more to be known as Qit Tiau Lor to the local or literally means 7th Road in English.

I was talking about food with my friends in school and one of them introduced me to try out the Duck Meat Koay Teow Thng. We got no idea where to eat for lunch on Sunday so I told dad, “Let’s go to 7th Road to eat Koay Teow Thng.” Dad droves us there.

Lebuh Cecil Market or 7th Road Market is a wet market with the food court behind the market. I was surprised to see there’s so many hawker stall at the food court. There’s so many choice of local hawker food to choose from and I didn’t know where to start. I told myself I will visit this place again and again.

First food to order was the Duck Meat Koay Teow Thng since everyone was telling me that it’s good. It’s not hard to try, you can easily spotted the big lighted stall with it’s lightbox on top.

Dad asked for extra ingredient. It’s all duck meat with duck’s blood too. I don’t like the duck blood but the meat is nice. I like the fishball too, it’s soft and I can say that it’s not from the supermarket. The soup is sweet enough but then the taste of pepper is a little bit strong. Lesser pepper powder will be good.

Mom’s lunch was a plate of Lam Mee. I didn’t try it because I am not a fan of Lam Mee. According to mom, she said it’s good as there’s so many ingredients.

Dad loves Pasembur, we did order a plate to try out too. Pasembur is a kind of local Indian salad with shreded cucumber, turnip, potatoes, beancurd, bean sprouts, prawn fritters. The prawn fritters were crunchy enough but somehow dad says Taman Free School’s is better.

Lastly, we got a bowl of Fu Zhou Fish Ball Soup. If you do not know what this is, this is actually a bowl of fish ball in soup with tang hoon. The fish ball is different from the Koay Teow Thng’s fish ball as this has meat in the balls and it’s huge too. The soup is sweet and this is better than Taman Free School’s though. Hehe.

There’s so many stall of hawker food and I’ll go and try other next time. Any recommendation from those who have visited before? =)

This visit to Karaikudi North and South Indian Food Restaurant was actually my first proper Indian food meal. I had once tried Indian food at Spice and Rice (closed down) which was a very simple one and another one was at Sri Ananda, this was more to local style Indian food.

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.

Manila Place is not in Philiphines but in Gurney Plaza Penang. It’s also not a restaurant that serves Filipino’s food but a combination of local of western cuisine. So, it’s more likely a beautiful restaurant/cafe with a variety of food in the menu.

A few weekends ago, my friend invited for a dinner at Manila Place. In fact, it’s my first time having a meal there. The previous was just buying a beverage takeaway and another visit was an afternoon tea without eating, but looking at what my friend ate. Which means, this was my official first time eating out at Manila Place.

After looking through the menu, it didn’t give me a “reasonable price” feeling. There’s a set dinner menu and I picked the chicken set, which then I got to choose from a list of chicken meal in the menu but not Chicken Gordon Blue. My friend who had worked there as a part-timer before introduced me to this Grilled Bombay Chicken, I ordered it.

The set came with a starter of mushroom soup, bread and butter, and 2 pieces or fried wan tan.

The main course is the Grilled Bombay Chicken. Looked pretty in photo. After putting it in my mouth, the gravy tasted like the dalcha sauce which is use in some Malay/Indian food, it’s just it’s not spicy but sweet. No wonder it’s called the Bombay Chicken.

In my 2 cents, it’s me, myself that don’t really like this dish, it’s a good one, but it’s just not my favourite.

After main course, a very small cup of ice cream will be served and that’s the set dinner consisted of.

Manila Place is located at the alfresco area of Gurney Plaza.