Ahhhh~ finally a delicious egg tart in dim sum restaurant! The filling was thick, sweet, fragrant, and shining. The skin was like puff skin and wouldn’t mess all over the table.  At 8am, all egg tarts were finished.

The restaurant is Tho Yeun Dim Sum 桃园点心. It was located along Campbell Street, Georgetown, Penang (N 05.41806, E 100.33382). We went there in last Saturday morning around 7am. That was another weekend in which I had to stay in Penang island for another food review.

The host served you by pushing a trolley to your table. I saw an article on wall saying that the restaurant had been operating there for 80 years. The restaurant is also selling mooncake. I plan to get one “Single York Durian Mooncake” but sadly it is still not yet available that time.

Having said that, the restaurant was nicely decorated with lanterns even though it was an old building.

As usual, first time visit must order Siew Mai 烧卖 and Har Kao 虾饺. The Siew Mai tasted a bit sweet. From the figure above you see two more items I ordered – fish balls and “not-sure-whats-the-name” dish.

The prawns in Har Kao tasted fresh.

The Lor Mai Kai 糯米鸡 really got chicken taste. Too bad it was too dried.

The chicken legs was a bit hard for my liking. It was cooked with mushroom and ginger. I still prefer the one cooked with herbs.

Their fried stuff was not bad as well, namely their fried prawn stuff (虾卷/虾饺). They are not oily nor over-fried. You can select different type of fried prawn stuff and mix into one plate (each costs RM1.20).

They also have some specialties, including this “again-I-forgot-to-get-the-name” dim sum, which had fish and pork minced and wrapped in Siew Mai skin.

We were almost full… yet we did not try their bao yet.

My friend asked me is this Malai Gao 马来糕 (steamed egg sponge cake) or Ji Dan Gao 鸡蛋糕 (baked egg sponge cake)? To solve the mystery, I took one piece and tried it up. Yup, this is Malai Gao. It was still warm when served, which I liked.

At first glance, the egg tart is a must-try but be sure to go there early. Dim sum tastes a bit sweet but still not bad overall. Price is reasonable. Food presentation is just average. Two of us ate until peng toh (overeat) plus tabao 4-5 dishes and it cost about RM37. Will visit the restaurant again as I saw some customers enjoying claypot porridge, which looked unique… Heh~

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Usually I will go back hometown on Friday. If not, then I stay overnight in Penang and go for jogging the next morning. Recently got many so if you asked me what I did on Saturday morning – dim sum. Getting bored of those commercialized dim sum restaurants, I searched around and found this old dim sum restaurant – Aik Hoe Restaurant 益和茶楼 (N05°25.076′, E100°20.166′) at Carnovon Street, George Town, Penang.

In newer restaurants, you usually will notice a order chit placed on table. In busy days, you need to select dim sum from a counter. Items you taken will be recorded on the order chit. After the meal, some even want you to pay at the counter. This is not the case in Aik Hoe, in which maids will bring a basket of dim sum to your table for you to select. This kind of style is nothing special in my hometown, but in Penang island, it is rare. The price is quite reasonable. Normal dim sum only costs RM1.60 while special one is only RM2.00.

Tea is counted by headcount. I ordered Tie Guan Yin 铁观音 and it was only RM0.90 (versus RM1.00 in most restaurants).

These were what I ordered that day. The har kao 虾饺, siew mai 烧卖, and fish balls 鱼丸 were fresh but slightly smaller. For me, they are okay considering the price.

The tu kar chor 猪脚醋 was slightly disappointing – lack of vinegar taste (probably due to overcook) and lack of oily skin – which I like.

What is this? It consisted of minced pork wrapped in thick rice noodle. The taste was a bit dissapointing as it tasted more like the content of “Tua Bao” 大包… and was a bit sour. Yeww….

They do have some “choo char”. I did order fried noodle 煎生面 (RM4.50) – my favorite. It came with fresh peeled prawns and fish fillets. I noticed some tables ordered Wan Tan Noodle as well. Will try that next time.

It was Saturday morning and surprising it was not crowded. Parking could be a bit far since there is a morning market there. It is hard to find dim sum shops cheaper than this in the island (except the colorful dim sum in night market, of course). The female owner was friendly. It is a daily gathering place for old folks. For them, it is their happiest moment of the day. For me, it is another restaurant I need to share with you.

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This restaurant name is catchy – in Chinese it sounds like you need to reserve first before dining there. Situated in previous  Swenswen’s lot (next to Sakae Sushi) in Queensbay was a new high class Taiwanese restaurant called Xian Ding Wei 鲜定味. I first visited it on 30-Mar-2010. Cheap labor like me was not able to visit it again to cover more aspects so I might just post the “first glance” now.

I went there with my colleagues during lunch hour. That time we just received “bribe” ($$ a.k.a 遮丑费 paid by someone to cover crime, in this case, crime of intentionally underpaying employees) from company so we decided to pay this newly-opened (that time) restaurant a visit. We flipped through menu and eventually we all ordered “set meals” as those are the only items we could afford:

Taiwan Style Sweet and Sour Pork Set 糖醋咕佬肉套餐 (RM17.90++). As you can see from the figure. The set meal was nicely decorated. There was a bowl of soup of the day, rice (choose between white rice or braised pork rice 卤肉饭), few dessert, and the main course. The main course was served on metal pot/plate and was heated up to keep the food warm.

Similarly, soup was covered with a lid as well. By the way, Sweet and Sour Pork Set was just average according to my friend. Kind of hard and lack of sauce.

Braised Pork Leg with Peanut Set 花生卤猪脚套餐 (RM19.90++), however, was good. In fact, it was the best among others.

The pork leg was braised for long hour, allowing the sauce and fragrant of the spice penetrating the skin. It is not too salty and best consume with rice. The portion is “big” as well (well, at least the biggest among others).

I was the most unlucky person. I ordered Dry Shrimp in Sweet Ferment Rice Wine Set 酒酿干烧虾套餐 (RM19.90++). The menu screenshot looked promising with more than 2 big shrimps. When it arrived… however….

Two shrimps for RM20++? Also, there was no rice wine taste. More like Thai Sauce Shrimp to me. I ended up had to cut each shrimp into 10+ chunks and slowly consumed it with rice. While eating, I keep on comparing the portion with the screenshot on the menu. “How come like that?”

Last set meal was the Sweet Braised Squid Set 红烧蜜中卷套餐 (RM19.90++).

It was okay but again, the portion could be bigger.

Good thing is, their drink was somehow special. I ordered Mixed Fruit Tea 什锦水果茶 (RM5.90++) and it was excellent in term of presentation and taste.

It may be a bit too sweet for some people though.

My friend ordered Dragon Fruit Juice 龙珠果汁 (RM5.90++) and it was just not as pure as the one blended at home. From my understanding is that Red Dragon Fruit is session fruit. Wonder how they ensure that the item is available 365 days…

At first glance, excellent food presentation. However, we felt being cheated by screenshots from the menu. It is not about the texture of the food (even though there are differences), but the quantity. The actual food itself had smaller portion. With such price, I would expect bigger  portion, and also bigger bowl of rice. Perhaps the restaurant is out of my league. Four of us spent RM102.80 that day. There are lots of improvement need to be done. Will visit it again provided someone treat me.

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Area around Sunshine Square is a great place to work. There are many restaurants around. The only cuisines not available are “Choo Char” and dim sum. Last month, the first “problem” solved as Fisherman Wharf 东海渔村海鲜餐厅 initially opened at Bayan Lepas had opened a branch in Sunshine Square (the area where Nanyang computer shop previously opened). There was RM2 offer for certain dishes last month so we took that opportunity to pay it a visit.

I went there with my colleagues. Some of them already been there for 2nd time. The environment was nicely decorated and there are some private rooms.

On the wall there was a long painting showing the Penang Bridge. Take a look and you will see some funny elements in it.

The place was crowded that day since it was the last day for the RM2 offer. First item to arrive was the baby chicken 童子鸡 (RM2.00 each). Tasted good. However, we noticed that some chickens were over-fried than others.

We also got informed that the rice was by headcount. So take as many rice as you want.

The item of the day was actually Deep Fried Trotter in Thai Style (暹炸咸猪手) (RM40). My colleagues had tried last time and would like to try again. Note that we were not rich, but simply like to eat (a.k.a “tam jiak”). The portion this time, however, was slightly smaller.

When eating trotter, some of us preferred the meat portion, while some preferred skin + oily portion. I am the later type.

The trotter, as a whole, was not as delicious as the one I encountered in some of the restaurants in Kedah, but it was one of the best in Penang island.

By the way, the dark soy sauce was delicious. It is good to dip it with the lettuce decor on the dish.

After that dish, more and more customers flooded in and the serving stopped for quite some times. We waited impatiently and finally here came the signature bean curd 招牌豆腐 (RM2.00). This was the second time we ordered the dish and one funny thing is that the bean curd had been changed from homemade to Japanese bean curd instead.

My friend ordered Fried “Bee Hoon” Singapore Style 新洲米粉 (RM6). Tasted nice.

We continued waiting and we had to remind them on the last dish they missed out – Pork Stomach Soup 猪肚汤 (RM2.00) which was readily made. It came with ginkgoes. Sadly they were  a bit cold when they arrived.

Finally a fine dining Chinese restaurant in Sunshine Square area. It should be a good place to bring foreigners/visitors for local cuisine. Hope it will sustain after promotion period and the food won’t be “double standard” thereafter. Perhaps I am too handsome, we even got a “discount” on the bill (actually it was due to mistyping). Good thing is that the waitresses worked in professional manner even at peak hour. The Deep Fried Trotter in Thai Style was delicious. Will visit it again when someone treating.

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After having bak kut teh, I have a walk at a jogging place in Petaling Jaya before meeting with friends at Tai Thong Dim Sum restaurant. The different between KL and northern people is that they usually have dim sum late. Around 10am, you most probably have to queue until PLUS highway for dim sum in Ipoh. In KL, people still wearing pajamas to restaurant.

There are many Tai Thong restaurants in KL area so make sure you enter the right one. The one I went was in Jaya Square in Subang Jaya and is called Tai Thong Imperial China 大同皇府酒家. It shares the same building with Neway Karaoke and badminton courts.

This is the GPS location.

The restaurant is quite grand. We were one of the few tables having breakfast there. I was surprised that not many people there even it was a Sunday. Maybe it was expensive… or people did not wake up yet after dancing until pants drop on Saturday night.

This tidbits costs RM3.00++.

A napkin costs RM0.80++. Reminded me of some Hong Kong restaurants in Penang. Before eating anything, you already used RM3.80++ there.

The dish we should not miss in every dim sum restaurant is of course, the Siew Mai 烧卖. The dish was properly presented. This is the different between normal and high class dim sum restaurants. It had whole peeled prawn on top as well.

The har kao 虾饺 also meant business with clear and clean skins arranged in tidy manner.

The Chee Cheong Fun 猪肠粉 was not bad as it had some big prawns inside.

Char Siew Bao 叉烧包 was just average.

White carrot cake 菜头糕 was not bad.

This is Wu Kok 芋角. Tasted okay.

Egg tarts 蛋挞 also okay. I prefer hot from oven type but I guess it is hard to find nowadays.

Lor Mai Kai 糯米鸡, unfortunately, was too dry.

What caught my eye during that day is a trolley with claypots on top. Waitress was heating up the claypot on the spot before putting on customer’s table. I was curious and asked the waitress what’s the thing inside. It was pig bag in white peppers soup 猪肚汤. Three of us actually already already full but thinking of trying something new, I ordered one. My friends just watched me eating… sigh.

Three of us actually spent RM100.25 in that morning. Now I know why there was not many people even on Sunday. Burning RM100 in a single morning is not everyone’s cup of tea.

My friend was a photographer as well. She took a nice shot on the tea we drank.

At first glance, Tai Thong did provide quality dim sum and comfortable environment to dine in. It is a good place for once-a-while gathering in which you can spend your time chatting without worrying people staring at you for your table. The price, however, could be expensive for some people. Don’t try to run if no $$ cause the police station just next to it.

That’s all for my trip to PJ. After the meal, I went back to Penang. It was tiring but fun journey.

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After attending friend’s wedding dinner in the evening, I stayed overnight at Petaling Jaya. Cheap labor like me used to wake up early, including holiday. After visiting a jogging place in PJ, I ventured around to see if there was any restaurant for early breakfast. I then stopped by this Restaurant Grandpa at Taman Paramount for Bak Kut Teh.

The restaurant not only offered Bak Kut Teh, but some “Choo Char” as well such as steamed fishes. From the figures pasted on wall, I knew that the owner is a Teow Chew since most fishes are steamed in clear soup + tomato.

The bak kut teh was really my hometown bak kut teh. The soup was of clear type, in which it was not thick and tasted a bit sweet (甘中带甜).  Depend on personal favorite, some may like it some may not.

The yum rice.

It was nice to meet some Teow Chew people at PJ there. I was going to have another dim sum breakfast with friend so I need to reserve some tummy space for it later. There are two more branches: one at Batu Caves while another one at Sunway Metro.  Will try their steamed fish if got chance.

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After the Plus One Shabu Shabu lunch, we continued walking and chatting. We had so much to talk until we need to find another place to sit down. We passed by a “stall” at the center in which we found quite interesting… a dining place specialized in chocolate. We were already full and I was sick of coffee so we decided to give Theobroma Chocolate Lounge a try.

We sat down on a nice sofa, open up the menu, and ordered this Ms Coco (Belgian Dark Chocolate). There are two type of cups. One is simply a cup (RM9.90) (the cup for you to drink, not to wear one), while another one consists of a mug on top of a candle (a.k.a Mug n’ Warmer) (RM12.90). We knew that we will chit chat for quite a while so we order the later one. Furthermore, cold chocolate is not that nice anymore.

Now this dark chocolate is not bitter at all. It is rich in chocolate. Unlike Starbxxx in which their chocolate drink is more like Milo to me, the chocolate drink in Theobrama Chocolate Lounge is melted on the spot, and not made by powder. It is quite smooth and creamy. The two line of chocolates were made by purpose so that your girlfriend and you can “lick”.

Sadly, the candle went off many times and we had to call the patron to lid it up again… until eventually we gave up.

At first glance, if you like chocolate, you should try Theobroma Chocolate Lounge. Its high quality chocolate made this a place worth second visit. Sadly we were too full that day and could only order one drink. It is a good place for chit chat and for couple as well. Coincidentally, I was flipping through some old newspapers before selling them off for this month’s meal, and found an article about it in Chinese. You may view it for more details.

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I finished Lammeeya. It was still early to check in so I dated my friend at 1 Utama. (Before that I visited Thean Hou Temple to get some blessing for cheap labor like me. I never been there since primary school.) Compared to Queensbay Penang who some think it is everything they want in their life, 1 Utama is one big motherfxxxer. There are quite a number of restaurants in it and obviously we wanna try somethings not available in Penang. So we decided to go Plus One Shabu Shabu.

According to dictionary.com, shabu-shabu is a Japanese dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled quickly in broth and served with various dipping sauces. Unlike steamboats in Penang which one table shares one steamboat, this restaurant has one individual steamboat for each person. In general, it is more hygiene.

The steamboat uses induction cooker (电磁炉) to heat up. Below each table is a control panel, in which you can control the heat level. The higher the number, the higher the heat.

For the steamboat, you can choose different base soup. There are overall 17 different type of soups in the menu. There were also set lunches to order in which each costs RM19.90++.  The soups in set lunch menu, however, was limited. You may add RM1.00 for soups not available in set lunch menu. Personally I selected Chicken Marinated in Yellow Wine Broth (醉鸡汤).  I could smell the fragrant of the wine when the bowl arrived.

My friend selected Fish Broth 香浓雪菜鱼汤. The soup was boiled with fish slices.

Other than the soup, you also can choose one of 7 sets of ingredient.  I selected 石班鱼片 Slice Fish Set, which has additional fish dish.

My friend liked balls so she ordered Homemade Ball Set 手打双丸 (冬菇猪肉及鱼肉丸).

The rest of the ingredients were quite standard, which include prawn, squid, fake crab meat, chicken slice, eniki mushroom, veggie, fish balls, fried bean sheet, one or two slices of fish, and emperor noodle (皇帝面). The uncooked emperor noodle looks small, but will fill in one big bowl once dipped with soup.

For the drink, my friend did a good choice by ordering Heong Pin 香片 (RM7.00++). The pot looked nice and you could ask them to free refill.

Oh ya, you also can free refill base soup.

It is not shabu-shabu if it did not come with sauces. On a big table there are various kind of sauces. It looks like free, but it is not. I only found out we had been charged RM1.00 per person when I was writing this blog.

It had been two years since we met so we kept on chatting and refilling the tea. Luckily the manager did not chase us out. At first glance, the “one person one bowl” concept is quite popular in KL nowadays. For Penangites, it is a new experience. The variety of base soup, “self-playable” heat level, non-smokey environment, as well as variety of sauces make this place worth second visit.

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My friend’s wedding is at PJ so I booked a budget hotel nearby (already so can’t afford high class hotels). I reached PJ at 8:30am and I cannot check in until 1pm. At first, the hotel looked a bit scary (like for “open room” that kind). Surprisingly there are quite a number of convenient shops around…. including 7-11 (for you to buy rubbers), tires shop (in case your tires went missing), vegetarian shop (this looks good but I don’t have a chance to try), and this Lammeeya… which looks kind of familiar…

That’s it! I saw its advertisement in Facebook! To kill time, I plan to have my second breakfast of the day here (My first breakfast is in Ipoh).

The restaurant was quite hygiene.

I ordered Original Lam Mee 原汁淋面 set (come with 1 soy sauce and 1 small bowl of “yong tau foo”) (RM9.80). A not-so-cheap price tag… but let’s see how’s the noodle tasted like…

Obviously the addition of two fresh prawns was a welcoming sign. The noodle was similar to the one used in Tai Luk Mee 大碌面. The base soup is similar to Hokkien Char 福建炒.

The chili was just okay.

The soy bean drink was nice.

Here came the Yong Tau Foo, which consists of “satu batang and dua biji” (Fried Foo Cheok 炸腐竹 and 2 x meat balls 肉丸). The Fried Foo Cheok was fried on the spot but  personally I feel that the Yong Tau Foo was just average. Maybe I had tried some better ones in Penang with better price.

When paying for the bill, I asked for a name card, and I just found out that this is actually one of the 3 outlets. Other two are in One Utama and Lot 10 (Doh!). At first glance, this is another restaurant with repackaged local food. There are many varieties of Lam Mee in the menu. The food quality is good but they also could be too common for locals. I do hope to see more food other than noodle.

This is the location in case you wish to visit it.

I was almost full. I still need to meet friend later and have lunch. Time to continue driving and venture around.

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Last Saturday, I alone traveled all the way down to Kuala Lumpur to attend my friend’s wedding. It was an evening event but I started my journey from Penang at 4am, so that I could reach Ipoh at 6am to enjoy dim sum Previous I had visited Foh San. Now it is time to visit the restaurant opposite of it – Ming Court.

I was quite sleepy and arrived at 6am and there was a few tables occupied. Once seated, I still had to wait for the dim sum to finish preparing. The Preserved Egg Porridge (皮蛋粥) was ready so I took one. It was mixed with some salted egg york and was just okay. Addition of some dried mussel should be better.

While waiting for other food to arrive, I take a look on order chit…. Similar to other restaurants, whenever you take one plate of dim sum, the waitress will write “1″ on your order chit. I noticed that the cheapest you will get here was RM2.20

After a while, dim sum started to arrive. The waitresses will keep on pushing dim sum to you. Luckily my Cantonese is still not bad. Hehe~ This is Steamed Fish Ball.

Har Mai (虾卖).

Siew Mai (烧卖). It has chewy pork and prawn inside. Not bad. Just too small.  Seriously, their dim sum presentation sxxx!

Another cute item – Har Kao (虾饺).

Chee Cheong Fun (猪肠粉).

I also took away egg tarts (蛋挞) and Char Siew Bao (叉烧包) to one of my friends who I will visit her in KL. Her hometown is in Ipoh and she misses these two items. The Char Siew Bao aroma filled my car and I almost wanna swallow them before arriving at KL.

I feel awake after the dim sum treat. One funny thing I found is that people in Ipoh like to “tap toi” (share the table) even there are many empty tables around. At first glance, I would say that the dim sum is good. I like the homemade chili sauce in Ming Court compared to Foh San. In term of price versus quality, personally I felt that the price is a bit too high. I myself spent RM23.30 that morning…. and I have to pay some “kopi duit” to the fucking parking guy who was “controlling traffic” in the early morning outside of the restaurant.

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