Gurney Drive Hawkers Center

When we  speak of Gurney Drive. No will say they dunno about it except they are from Sabah and Sarawak. Gurney drive is well famous for tourist spot for hawker foods. It is located at a park area facing the sea. For Penang people, that place is considered a cut throat hawkers center. This place is not a place for you to visit during public holidays and weekends. All the foods quality will drop drastically! Getting a place to sit also is not easy.

I usually visit Gurney Drive for their snack foods like Mua Chee (Glutinuous Rice With Mixed Crunched Sugar Peanuts), Fruits Rojak (Fruits Salad), Pasembor/Indian Rojak, Soya Pudding and also the bbq squid. For this Gurney Drive review, actually this is the second spot which myself, Daniel and Lingzie [www.lingzie.com] went after the Fettes Park Western Food Review.

Upon arriving, straight away I pay a visit to my regular Mua Chee Stall.

The Mua Chee uncle busy cutting and mixing the flour dough with the peanuts mix.

The crunched peanut and sugar mix

Tada!!! After all those chop and stir actions on the Mua Chee, here’s the final product. With a bit fried shallots on the top. Taste Rating 4/5and it is priced at RM1.20 for a standard size.

After that I go and order my favourite Rojak at Tan Swee Hoe’s stall no 52. I choose this stall is because of their Rojak is pretty special. They got the option to add sotong bakar(BBQ Squid), eu char kueh (Chinese Fried Cruellers) and of cause have plenty supply of the baby mangoes (SUA YA CHU). A plate of rojak without fresh supply of SUA YA CHU will spoil the whole plate’s taste. The crunchy and super sour feels will definitely make you drool when imagine of it.

Look at all those mangoes!

Taste Rating 4/5 and price is RM5.00 with added eu char kueh.

Daniel went and order a plate of Indian Rojak or commonly known as Pasembor in Penang. The peanut gravy and chili combination are perfect. It is not too spicy and well balanced. All the cut prawn fritters, bean curds, bean sprouts and cucumber are very crunchy. Taste Rating 3/5 and is price at RM10.

* CAUTION! Never ever pick their crabs or self pick on the ingredients. You may end up paying up to RM50 for that damn plate of pasembor. I had this experience before.

My favourite stall for BBQ squid. It is very clean and hygiene for this stall.

All the squids were dried on the charcoal stove first …. then it is rolled flat on a roller to shread it a bit. When customer order, she will reheat it on the charcoal stove again before serving it with a shrimp paste sauce with a cut of lime juice.

BBQ Squid. RM10 with taste rating 4/5

Then for dessert, I ordered for the soya pudding which comes with 2 pieces of longan fruit on top. RM2 each with taste rating RM3/5. This is nice when taken cold.

Place: Gurney Drive Hawker Center

Location : Gurney Drive
GPS Coordinate : N5 26.406 E100 18.537
Location Maps :

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Address : Refer Map
Contact No :
Website :
Business Hour : 4pm to 11pm
Off Day :
Food Type: Street foods
Price: Moderate
Payment Terms : Cash
Cleanliness Votes : 1/5
Food Votes : 3/5
Air Conditioned : No
Halal : Yes and No
WIFI : No
Smoking and non smoking zone :
Tax :None
Recommended Foods : Refer above

Recommended Drinks : Soya Beans or Chinese Desserts

Remark:
Open air dining next to the road. When rain, you have to carry your own food and find shelter at the nearest Mc Donalds.

Honda Asimo Humanoid Robot Live In 1Utama

Yesterday I was in 1Utama to have my brunch and watching the latest movie Madagascar 2. After finish the movie I can heard there’s a big crowd over in the main hall located at the new wing of 1 Utama. When I look down …. I can see the word Honda Asimo with plenty of posters showing their robots. ASIMO is a short term which means ADVANCED STEP IN INNOVATIVE MOBILITY.

This kind of show are very very rare and might be the only chance in your lifetime to be show cased in Malaysia. It is a very very high tech robot which resemble the movement of a human.

Just look at the crowd below.

Parents and kids were given priority to sit in front and I was on the first floor right next to the stage on left side to have the nearest coverage.

This is the stage where I can see from the first floor and ASIMO is just behind the door in the center.

Below is the video which I capture for the 2 session of its showcase.

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More pictures :

The big screen which enlarge the view for people who stand at the back to see

ASIMO say Hi to everybody

Back Look Of ASIMO

Details of ASIMO’s road tours:
Nov 14-16, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya
Nov 20-23, City Square, Johor Bahru
Nov 27-30, Queensbay Mall, Penang

DON’T MISS IT!!!

Sin Yin Nam Cafe [New Lane / Lorong Baru Food Street]

Penang ….. a heaven of hawkers food paradise. When you speak of hawker foods to tourist, they will tell you Gurney Drive straight away. This is due to a lots of publicity have been done to this spot by the foreigners what came before.

To me as a local, I will not go there during the holiday season or weekends. I will only go for their few specialties like Rojak, Tau Fu Fah, Toast Squid and Mua Chee. The rest are pretty repititive or highly over rated by the tourist. If my coleaques wanted to have a spot fully loaded with hawkers food, I’ll definitely bring them to Sin Yin Nam Cafe or more popular known as New Lane by the locals.

There are more than 30 stalls located here which sell different type of hawker foods which come with a reasonable price. However lately due to more and more tourist patronize these stalls, the price is slightly higher compared to the last time. It is still affordable though.

There are stalls which refuse the pay the rental in Sin Yin Nam cafe and operated across the road instead. However the environment here are not as hygiene compared to dining in the cafe. The foods here are equally good though.

FOODS SOLD HERE

Basically to locals, the most famous stall here is the PORK INTESTINE PORRIDGE.

Look at those pork intestines hanging like an intestines show case. This stall is the most famous for their porridge.

The brownish colors are deep fried and the white color ones are boiled together with the porridge

The intestines were cut into small pieces together with char siew as the condinment for the porridge. Don’t just by the look for the fried intestines. It is very crunchy!

White and smooth porridge. A bowl will never enough. Each bowl cost range from RM4 to RM5 depends you got add in extras. The rating for this porridge goes 5/5 for me.

Next we move on to the next stall which is just right behind the pork intestines porridge would be the PORK RIBS HOKKIEN PRAWN MEE. This hokkien mee’s rating is 4/5.

In front of this stall is the roast chicken wings. It comes with a rating of 4/5 from my past test.

All the chicken wings and drumsticks are hand roasted directly on the charcoals.

All the chicken wings and drumsticks were roast 1/2 way done to shorten the preparation time when customer placing the orders.

Next we went to the Chee Cheong Fun stall. This stall have been selling here since the coffee shop started.

Cold Chee Cheong Fun. It needs to be heat up to taste good. Some people like it cold though.

Basic Penang Chee Cheong Fun Dressings and Condiments. Sweet sauce, shrimp paste, chilis, pre cooked oils, fried shallots, light soya sauce and sesame seeds.

My plate of Chee Cheong Fun with the roll in tact. Most people like it unrolled. The rating for this plate of Chee Cheong Fun would be 4/5. RM1.80 for 2 rolls

My Fried ordered the crab meat char koey teow. It taste really good but a bit pricey lately. Rating of 4/5 for this. RM5 if not mistaken.

My old friend were craving for the popiah also. So I went and place an order for him and at the same time takings some shots.

Turnips … the main ingredient for popiah

Fillings for popiah would be crushed bean curds, chilis, sweet sauce, spinach and cooked turnips

The turnips need to be dried off a bit as it would be very messy and hard to wrap into the popiah skins of too much sauce in it

Popiah wrapping in progress

Then it is cut into mouth size and poured a bit of the gravy on top. This is truly Penang style of eating popiah. Not like other place which their popiah are very dry. Rating 3/5 for this popiah. 2 rolls come with a price tag of RM2.40

Seafood Char Koay Kak …. this stalls Koay Kak Taste so so only and the price are a bit cut throat to me. It cost RM4.50 per plate and the taste rating is just 2/5 to my personal taste.

Pork Satay. Gosh …. both of us can’t eat anymore when we walk by this stall and it smells so good. We had it before and the taste would be 3/5

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Place: Nasi Kandar Line Clear

Place:Sin Yin Nam Cafe [New Lane / Lorong Baru Food Street]

Location :Lorong Baru Penang
GPS Coordinate :N5 24.898 E100 19.583
Location Maps :

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Address :Refer Map
Contact No :
Website :
Business Hour : 6pm till sold out
Off Day :
Food Type: Hawker Foods
Price: Cheap
Payment Terms : Cash
Cleanliness Votes : 2/5
Food Votes : Refer each individual above
Air Conditioned : No
Halal : No
WIFI : No
Smoking and non smoking zone : None
Tax : None
Recommended Foods : Pork Intestines Porridge, Chee Cheong Fun, Crab Meats Char Koey Teow

Remark:
Look at the weather to decide whether sitting outdoor or indoor

More Pictures :

Lenglui Dessert at Jelutong Wet Market [Mat Toh Yau]

After a full course curry and spices all the way dinner with Daniel, we definitely need something to cool us down internally. We were thinking something refreshing and first thing that came into our mind is the Jelutong Leng Lui Dessert.

Few years back, they made a huge fuzz in the night market for hawker foods in Jelutong. Everybody were talking about them where pretty chicks are selling desserts. Now they are very successful and able to take over the 2 coffee shop lots where they operate at the front last time.

They are occupiying the corner lot. So they paint the side walls in to their theme color.

However they still maintain selling their desserts on the van where they started. Since then many of celebrities have visited them.

A lots of combinations for your dessert.

Their most famous combination and pricing.

I ordered my self a leng chi kang which cost RM2.70

It comes with longan, sweet potato, red beans, ginkgo, lotus seed, big sago, white fungus and home boiled longan juice. This bowl of dessert make me feel cooled down on a heaty night after all the curries and spices. It taste really good too. Different combination will come with a different taste. But the base longan soup is used to mix all these ingredients together in a bowl.

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Place: Lenglui Dessert [Mat Toh Yau]

Location : In Front of Jelutong Wet Market
GPS Coordinate : N5 23.391 E100 18.744
Location Maps :

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Address : Refer map
Contact No :
Website :
Business Hour : Dinner till 12am.
Off Day :
Food Type: Chinese Desserts
Price: RM2.70 per bowl
Payment Terms : Cash
Cleanliness Votes : 3/5
Food Votes : 4/5
Air Conditioned : No
Halal : No
WIFI : No
Smoking and non smoking zone :
Tax :
Recommended Foods : See Koe Th’ng and Mix everything

Recommended Drinks : Longan Juice

Remark:

Sup Hameed (Famous For Sup Torpedoes) at Upper Penang Road

Upper Penang road have been the most happening place in the island when the sun goes down. There are plenty of pubs around that area. In the middle of those place, there are a special restaurant which sell Indian Muslim soups.

The restaurant name is called Sup Hameed.

The environment to dine here isn’t good either if you prefer to sit outdoor. It is in the middle of the busy Penang Road where all traffics are constantly flowing. However they do have a restaurant for you to sit.

Checkout their extensive menu on soups

All the soups were cooked in big stainless steel pots and constantly kept warm

All the meats were cut and put into bowl first for faster serving during peak hours.

Cow Penis (They rename it to torpedoes for 18SX purpose)

Menu and Price Board

This is my bowl of chicken soup. It carries a strong spice and pepper taste. With a sprinkled of spring onions and fried shallots, it taste even better. RM3.00 per bowl

Even though the chickens where cooked together with the soup, it still very tender and juicy.

Not to forget to accompany your soup with a slice of roti benggali. This old school high fiber bread are taste perfect after you drench it into the soup. RM0.30 per slice

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Place: Nasi Kandar Line Clear

Place:Sup Hameed

Location : Upper Penang Road
GPS Coordinate :N5 25.328 E100 20.040
Location Maps :

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Address :Refer Map
Contact No :
Website :
Business Hour : 24 Hours
Off Day :
Food Type: Indian Muslim Foods
Price: Reasonable
Payment Terms : Cash
Cleanliness Votes : 1/5
Food Votes : 3/5
Air Conditioned : No
Halal : Yes
WIFI : No
Smoking and non smoking zone :
Tax :
Recommended Foods : All sorts of mamak soups

Recommended Drinks : A glass of teh tarik would be nice

Remark:
Very pack when you went there after midnight when the pubs and discos close.

Line Clear Nasi Kandar at Upper Penang Road

The word Nasi Kandar, came about from a time when nasi [rice] hawkers or vendors would kandar [balance] a pole on the shoulder with two huge containers of rice meals. The name has remained and today the word Nasi Kandar is seen on most Tamil Muslim or “Malaysian Mamak” restaurants and Indian-Muslim stall meals.

The rice for a nasi kandar dish is often placed in a wooden container about three feet high, giving it a distinctive aroma. The rice is accompanied by side dishes such as fried chicken, curried spleen, cubed beef, fish roe, fried prawns or fried squid. The vegetable dish would usually be brinjal, lady fingers “bendi”. A mixture of curry sauces is poured on the rice. This is called ‘banjir’ (flooding) and imparts a diverse taste to the rice.

Traditionally, nasi kandar is always served with its side dishes on a single plate. Nowadays, small plates are used for the side dishes. Nevertheless, the curry sauce mix is always poured directly onto the rice. In Penang there are a few which still cook and serve the same nasi kandar taste which dated back in pre war time. Those stalls are Nasi Kandar Beratur which next to the Kapitan Keling Mosque and Line Clear Nasi Kandar which located at upper Penang Road (Since 1930). Daniel and myself just couldn’t feel right if we don’t drop by for a round of nasi kandar here.

They do not have any shop but they are operating for a long time already at the small walkway in between 2 shops.

Though the place is not hygiene with full of dust from past by traffic, you can be assure that their food are fresh and clean. A proper toilet is provided too at the back by renting people’s back yard and build a toilet there.

There are basically a few curry which made the basic nasi kandar tasty. They are the beef curry, chicken, fish and dhal curry which later will be mixed together.

All you need is just to point what you want and that fella will pick it for you. Daniel ordered a fried fish submarine style.Beware of what you pointing. You point and the dish will straight go to your plate and the fella will always ask you “LAGI?” what else? till you say enough.

The fella that help you pick your dish will throw the whole fish into the hot curry pot to soak that fish. It taste really good!

The we usually will sound the banjir signal! An Neh !!! Kasi banjir ["An Neh" means Brother in Indian language and "kasi Banjir" means flood it] … there goes your plate of rice … it will go around all the curry dish to mix their gravy on your plate till it is soaked.

Special Sambal Curry

The plate of rice getting flooded! At first I don’t intend to eat it cause I just had Sup Hameed before Daniel come and see me for Nasi Kandar. But when the fella banjir the rice, the aroma …. ~.~” I just couldn’t tolerate it and ordered a plate too.

My plate of nasi kandar with a piece of beed and 2 pcs of ladies finger plus banjir of course. RM2.60

Daniel’s plate with fish, chicken, squid eggs and banjir RM8.80

If we eat it this way in KL, at least it will kill us RM16 or more. Both of us will only let loose/run wild in Penang when eating nasi kandar.

Oh glorious freshly fried papadums

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Place: Nasi Kandar Line Clear

Location : Upper Penang Road

GPS Coordinate : N5 25.182 E100 19.948

Location Maps :

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Address : Behind 177, Penang Road, Penang

Contact No : 04-261 4440

Website :

Business Hour : 24 Hours

Off Day :

Food Type: Authentic Mamak Hawker Food

Price: Reasonable

Payment Terms : Cash

Cleanliness Votes : 1/5

Food Votes : 5/5

Air Conditioned : No

Halal : Yes

WIFI : No

Smoking and non smoking zone :

Tax :

Recommended Foods : Beef, Chicken, Squid Eggs and Lamb Curry

Recommended Drinks : Susu Tarik

Remark:

It taste even better when eat with hand.

More Pictures :

Kedai Kopi Liong Huat Seng - Sungai Tiram Char Hor Fun

In Penang, there are a type of noodle which comes in big pieces. It somestime can be bigger piece than a spreaded Chee Cheong Fun but taste like typical koey teow. In Hokkien, they call it “TUA PAN“. Before you cook it, you will need to cut it into smaller piece.

In KL people call this “WAT TAN HOR” [Smooth Egg Koey Teow], Ipoh people call it “SAR HOR FUN” [SAND KOEY TEOW??] and Penang people call it “CHAR HOR FUN” [Fried Koey Teow]. Basically it is cooked the same way just come with a different name according to where it is sold. Our of this 3 I still prefer the Penang Char Hor Fun more than the rest.

Penang island has a few reputable Char Hor Fun restaurant which have been selling since the pre war time. They are Foo Heong [Cintra Street], Tai Tong and Kafe Tong Hooi. There are a hidden gem situated near a small place a long the Penang Airport runway called Sungai Tiram where it is right next to the air strip. When you dine here, you can see a lot plane take off or landing.

The Char Hor Fun stall actually is located within a small food court where they got sell seafood noodles as well.

Seafood Noodle Stall

Char Hor Fun Stall

Stir fried TUA PAN with rice vermicelli with soya sauce. This is prepared in advance to shorten the cooking time. They don’t fry much and put a side. They just cook it in advance because of the orders are coming non stop. Each time the TUA PAN are stir fried, the frying pan need to be cleaned before they can cook the gravy and the ingredients.

EE Fu Mee

The TUA PAN running low …. time to fry some more to top up …

Stir Fry Tua Pan in action. The TUA PAN must fried until got a bit overcooked or in Hokkien called “CHAU HUI TAR” a bit. Without that, it is not enough kick in the Char Hor Fun.

Then the cravy are cooked and poured on top of the stir fried. The gravy are cooked with special boiled soup, corn starch to thicken it, CHAI SIM (dunno how to call this vege in english), prawns, pig liver and egg. It look simple to prepare but the skill to prepare it is not easy.

The it must be accompanied with pickled green chili. Without this, it doesn’t feel right when eating your Char Hor Fun.

See the bottom part …. a bit of the over cooked TUA PAN coated with soya sauce ….. That is the best part. We did order another plate of EE Mee which cooked the same way. That time myself and Daniel busy gawking down the Char Hor Fun already …. forgot to take picture of the EE FU MEE. It is basically looks the same with different noodle only.

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Place: Kedai Kopi Liong Huat Seng

Location : Near Penang Airport. It is the food court next to Petronas Petrol Station.
GPS Coordinate :N5 18.039 E100 16.356
Location Maps :

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Address : Checkout the map
Contact No :
Website :
Business Hour : Dinner time only. Mostly start at 6pm onwards.
Off Day :
Food Type: Chinese Hawker Food
Price: RM4
Payment Terms : Cash
Cleanliness Votes : 2/5
Food Votes : 4/5
Air Conditioned : No
Halal : No
WIFI : No
Smoking and non smoking zone : No
Tax : None
Recommended Foods : Char Hor Fun, Ee Fu Mee, Belacan Chicken

Recommended Drinks : Kopi Oh KOW!

Remark:
This coffee shop got inner and outer part. Inner part serve only coffee/tea. If you want juices, you need to sit at the outer area. For breakfast, PenangTuaPui mention their Hokkien mee are nice.

Kafe Fettes Park Western Food

In Penang …. When you mention to people about Fettes Park, the first thing that would come into your mind would be Tua Pui Loh Chicken Rice. That is for lunch and day time. For dinner, the shop next to it are selling a nice and affordable western food. The shop is called Kafe Fettes Park Western Food

This is the place where I first met Lingzie [www.lingzie.com] before the first gathering was held.

The kitchen is located right in front of the kafe where you can see the chef busy frying and grilling non stop.

The kafe entrance is behind the kitchen.

While you walk inside you will notice there are 2 old rusty bicycle on the roof. You think it might fall down. Do rest assured. It is secured there.

Some decorations above the toilet roof

Then without wasting anytime we place order for our dinner. Lingzie ordered a garlic fish and I ordered a chicken gordon bleu or myself.

Lingzie’s Garlic Fish

My chicken Gordon Bleu …..

See the ham and the hot cheese dripping out from the chicken gordon bleu

Plenty of sliced ham inside

Extra bowl of gravy

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Place: Kafe Fettes Park Western Food

Location : Fettes Park
GPS Coordinate : N5 27.153 E100 18.175
Location Maps :

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Address : Refer map
Contact No :
Website :
Business Hour : Dinner Time Only
Off Day :
Food Type: Chinese Western Foods
Price: Reasonable
Payment Terms : Cash
Cleanliness Votes : 3/5
Food Votes : 4/5
Air Conditioned : Yes
Halal : No
WIFI : No
Smoking and non smoking zone : No
Tax :
Recommended Foods : Chicken Gordon Bleu and Garlic Fish

Recommended Drinks :

Remark:
Ask a bowl of extra gravy ….. initially they give you very little only …

Bayan Baru Market Food Court, Chicken Lam Mee

Besides the Ban Chen Kuih located at stall no. 81, there are another stall which I pretty frequent with that is the Chicken Lam Mee at stall no 13. I like this Lam Mee so much is because of the way they prepare is so much different compared to the KL’s version which using thick yellow mee and starchy soup type.

This stall have been operated for more than 20 years also and nowadays the lady only open on Fri to Sun. It only available for breakfast. The reason why is that the lady don’t have enough man power to operate the stall which she need to cook, prepare and serve.

Our Penang version come with a clear chicken soup and also taken together with blanched bean sprouts, sliced omelette, sliced prawns, shredded chicken meats, pork lards, garlic crisp and a sprinkle of fresh spring onions. Not to forget the fantastic sambal belacan which we usually mix into our soup when we eat.

Place: Stall no 13 - Chicken Lam Mee

Location : Bayan Baru Wet Market Food Court
GPS Coordinate :N5 19.504 E100 17.148
Location Maps :