19/2/2025 - Wu Jia Chinese Restaurant, Tmn Perkaka, Gelugor, Penang.

Wu Jia has always been a favourite haunt for the Eating Kakis. We have been there a couple of times and we left with fond memories of delicious Chinese cuisine at reasonable prices. Wu Jia’s more expensive cousins are the Five-Ten Chinese Cuisine @ Precinct 10 and the W World @ Drury Lane. I believe our last visit to Wu Jia was before the Covid Pandemic.

For this lunch, we decided to go with their famous curry prawns with bread and Japanese pan-fried lamb shoulder. The curry prawns were well prepared with lots of fragrant spices and the curry was rather thick. Thus, it went very well with the soft bread. And the lamb dish was just as  flavourful! 

The third dish, the Wujia Spare Ribs was quite tasty too.

We also settled for signature Homemade Bean-curd with Minced Pork and Salted Fish and the Deep-fried Chicken with Mango Sauce. The Fried Mixed Vegetables with Sambal was the only vegetable dish. All three dishes did not disappoint. Nicely done. Finally, we opted for  their Steamed Red Snapper Fish with Pickle Radish. It was a good choice. We finished off with Ai Yu Jelly for dessert. Seven dishes plus a dessert for 8 persons at RM500 is certainly reasonable.

It was also a joyous occasion for all of us as we surprised Cewie with a Birthday Cake. On that note, many thanks to Cewie and hubby Vincent for cooking and introducing many wonderful dishes over the years - the special Medan cuisines, crispy and crackling siok bak, delicious bak chang, mouth-watering hokkien mee … just to name a few. We all concur with Allan’s birthday wishes to Cewie, “We missed the big birthday party to the most amazing person we know. Many Happy Returns of the Day, Cewie!”

 

19/12/2024 Maple Palace @ Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah

Just a week before Christmas, we had a welcomed invitation from Raymond Wong who had returned from Guangzhou. What’s the occasion? Well, our Qigong friends from Toronto, Sifu Fred and his lovely wife, Doris are back in Malaysia!! Welcome back!

We started with a Grouper Steamboat - just the right tonic to whet our appetite. The yam based soup was simply delectable. 

Maple Palace were also on song with their Spanish Iberico Pork Loin Rib, Pork Belly with Preserved Cabbage, Chicken Feet with Black Mushrooms and Signature Curry Prawn with Crispy Buns. 

We had the Chilled Osmanthus Jelly, Chilled Mango Sago and Chinese Pancake with Lotus Seed  Paste for desserts. And added to that, the service was impeccable and the ambience was top notch. Double thumbs up for Maple Palace!

As usual, we value our camaraderie more than anything else. It was nice catching up with David, Lai Teng and his wife, Lily.

 A wonderful fellowship indeed! Many thanks Raymond for your treat. We look forward to more “Food Adventures” in the Year 2025!

 

 

Kitchen of Countryman Revisit @ Jalan Bawasah 3/12/2024

 Kitchen of Countryman Revisit @ Jalan Bawasah 3 December 2024

As the busy Christmas-New Year Holiday approaches, we decided to have a year-end lunch to close the year. We chose to revisit the Kitchen of Countryman! 

This time around, we resolved to try their dim-sum as we had three RM59.90 food vouchers. One of the vouchers includes 6 different kinds of dim-sum, suitable for 3 persons. The servings were large and we could sample the Har Kau (Shrimp dumplings), Steamed Siu Mai with Roe, Golden BBQ Pork Char Siew Pau, Crispy Salad Prawn Dumplings , Crispy Seafood Rolls with Bean Skin and Fried Radish Cake. The dim-sum, in particular, the Crispy Seafood Rolls and Fried Radish Cake, were actually delicious enough to whet up our appetite for the main dishes. 

The Deep Fried Whole Mango Sauce fish at RM88.00 is actually value for money. Tasty and quite a big fish! The fish was nicely plated. We repeated the order for the Canton Style Braised Pork as it was well-received at our last lunch. The Fried Kampung Chicken with Ginger Slice and Stir-Fried Eggplant with Minced Pork and Salted Fish completed our order. A satisfying lunch!

Many thanks to Vincent for providing us with the special Da Hong Pao tea! 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20/11/2024 Kitchen of Countryman @ Jalan Bawasah

 Kitchen of Countryman@ Jalan Bawasah- 20 November 2024

After over two months of relative “inactivity”, the eating kakis decided to try out a newly-opened Chinese restaurant in town called “Kitchen of Countryman”. Parking at the restaurant or at Jalan Bawasah is somewhat limited. So it is advisable to park at the ample lots of the Penang Plaza, a mere 5 minutes walk away.

We preordered a Peking Duck for our lunch, a day before. At RM128 per duck, the pricing is quite reasonable. The whole duck looks well-marinated and well-roasted. It came with the usual condiments like thin pancakes, cucumber slices, sweet bean sauce and scallions. However, looks can be sometimes be deceiving - the skin is not as crispy as we would like it to be and the meat is not as tender and juicy.

 

The Fried Noodle was quite tasty with a generous number of big succulent fresh water prawns. However, the noodles were a bit of a let down. It was on the tough side. The stand-out dish was easily the flavourful Canton-style Braised Pork. It was cooked to perfection in premium soy sauce. Double thumbs up! The other dishes were the Hong Kong Kailan with Abalone Sauce and Minced Meat Braised Tofu. Commendable.

Kitchen of Countryman does serve dim sum too and it has decently priced set packages. A RM59.90 set cash voucher will allow 3 persons to sample a few of their dim sum dishes or 3 of their chef’s dishes. We will likely return to try other dishes as the service is quite attentive and the ambience is good.

Let’s be reminded by the Italian-American chef, writer and TV personality, Giada de Laurentiis’ quote, “Food brings people together on many different levels. It’s nourishment of the soul and body; it’s truly love.” Food has brought the eating kakis together for nearly 10 years! Right on!

 

11.9.2024 - Ala Carte Buffet Lunch @ Hut Sake Bar

 Ala Carte Buffet Lunch @ Hut Sake Bar @ City Junction, Tanjung Tokong - 11th September 2024.

The eating kakis rarely go for buffets as there’s only so much we can consume. And the tendency to overeat does not bode well for us. However, Hut Sake Bar @ City Junction was highly recommended by a friend for its ala-carte buffet. So, we decided to give Hut a try. 

As it is a Japanese ala-carte buffet, a high pricing is definitely on the cards. The good news is seniors above 60 years old are entitled to a special price of RM138++ per pax for the Premium Ala Carte Buffet and RM688++ for the Luxurious Ala Carte Buffet. Please note that the pricing is for lunch on weekdays and it starts at 11 am. The last call is at 1.00 pm. Prices are more steep for dinners (RM158++) and weekends (RM178++). 

We chose the Premium Ala Carte Buffet. This buffet comes with “all kinds of everything!” There’s beverage and desserts which include the house sake, Carlsberg beer, Elixir, Hawaiian and Russian cocktail! You can also opt for non alcoholics like green tea, ribena and tropical fruit-juice. Quite a few flavours of Haagen Das are available for ice-cream lovers.

For food, you will be spoilt for choice if your love Japanese food - be it cooked or raw. Hut has lined up a dozen dishes under Starters and Salads. Try the salmon skin salad and foie gras tamago. Donburi and pastas adds to the list with dishes like pasta with salmon and caviar. Nigiri Sushi, Makimono and Temaki offers another 20 varieties! Not to be missed is the seafood platter, beautifully presented with dry ice!

More than 15 cooked dishes are available. There’s snow crab nabemono, soft shell crabs, saba shioyaki (fish), salmon teriyaki and hamachi kama yaki (fish). The barbequed prawns, unagis (eels) and raw toros (fatty tuna underbelly) were simply delicious. Service is good. The photos of the 30 or more dishes that we sample will suggest that this ala carte buffet is value for money.

Emboldened at the front of the restaurant are the words, “I lost some weight once, but I found it again in Hut”. There’s some truth in it!    Oishii!!