2022

 

 

 After a 4 month hiatus due to the Covid pandemic, the Eating Kakis met together to celebrate Raymond Wong’s birthday (8^th April). Where shall we go to celebrate this special occasion? A few names and dates were floated and we finally zeroed in on Daily Fish @ Jalan Logan on Tuesday, 12^th of April.

Daily Fish (previously Everyday Supreme) has already made a name for itself as a dim sum place with an extensive menu. It has branches in Butterworth and Air Itam. The restaurant is located in a huge mansion and it is very spacious. Parking is ample, a big plus. Our contact man, Ken was gracious enough to offer us a private room upstairs – it comes with a karaoke set too!

The 5 Sets were available for lunch. We opted for Set A - 6 dishes and a dessert. An amenable Ken threw in an extra complimentary dessert. The Daily Fish Five Combination Platter was great for appetizers. A creative presentation of 5 small but yummy dishes. 

The fish maw, crab meat with shark fin soup, and the clay pot pork trotter followed. Thumbs up for the pork trotter! 

Next, came the steamed Thai-style prawns and lala – tasty and really nice sized prawns.

The oyster sauce dry scallop with cabbage was easily the stand-out dish. Remember, it has to be pre-ordered and this dish was cooked to perfection. 

As it was a birthday celebration, we requested “Birthday Mee” in place of the steamed rice with Chinese sausage. A wise choice, Vincent. 

We had three desserts (!) to finish off a wonderful afternoon of fellowship. 

Two from Daily Fish and a Mocha Coffee Cake from Jenny's Cake House.

Let us all pray and hope that the Covid pandemic is tapering to an end.

Once again, Blessed Belated Birthday Raymond!

Click to see the above video. 

 

It was going to be an eating kaki lunch with a different twist. Why? Because we have a small group of serious foodies joining us. There’s nyonya cuisine school teacher and expert, Pearly Kee, “Food Whisperer Extraordinaire” Peter Yeoh and Lily Moh whose father is Mr. Moh Teng Pheow, the man behind one of Penang’s earliest nyonya kuih factory. Other not-so-serious foodies joining the get-together include Vincent’s globe-trotting brother, Patrick, Hideki, Robert, David, and Charlie.

As always in our visits to Vincent’s home, the sio bak appetizer was “cuit a la perfection” – ticking all the main criteria for top notch roast pork belly: soft and tender with just the right amount of fat and a crackling skin! For sure, a lot of processes went into making this delectable dish an instant winner for everyone.

While we got acquainted with our guests, the much-awaited HKM or hokkien mee made its entrance. A wonderful bowl of delicious goodness – the toppings include the usual pork and prawn slices, sliced boiled eggs, kangkung, bak eu pok, and shallots. There’s additional pai kut, sio bak and special sambal on the side. The broth is made up of the real deal – a solid fill of prawn heads and bak kut stock. Cewie even allowed additional toppings and for some of us, HKM diehards, a second helping. Even Hideki, a Japanese national gave it the thumbs up. A dish to savour!!

Desserts were a-plenty too. Pearly brought an assortment of tasty home-made nyonya kuihs including the rarely seen durian pulut seri muka. Kamsiah, Pearly for the treat. 

And we ended the over two hour lunch with pulut hitam with dried longans and extra santan – enak sekali!!

Many thanks, Vincent and Cewie for the invite.

 A Delightful Surprise @ Maple Palace - 22nd June 2022

Maple Palace is one of the well-established restaurants in Penang. Located at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, this Cantonese restaurant serves quite an extensive menu in a classy set-up. It may be a bit pricey but the service is tip-top! Well, many from our Group of 8 aren’t aware that it was a special occasion.

The mixed platter appetizer was well-received – iced plant prawn salad with their signature char siew. Nicely presented with orchids. 

One of the top draw dishes, the suckling pig was a disappointment. It is not as crispy as we want it to be and somehow it doesn’t taste right. 

The “green dish”, spinach with egg white and scallop is a nice-twist. Lots of egg white and kaychee. And a generous portion of greens too. The egg white could have been done better.

The prawns with pork lard have got to be the stand-out dish. Just the right mix of the spice with curry leaves to give the dish an extra kick! 

The next dish, the estuary grouper in cuttlefish was a bit overcooked, as pointed out by David. 

However, the Hong Kong Ee Fu noodles with seafood was everyone’s favourite. 

Simply delicious. The dessert was Osmanthus Jelly with Almond. A lovely dessert to close the lunch.

Wait … wait. Vincent brought a Birthday Cake, a delightful surprise. 

Happy Birthday, Arthur! You have always been a joy in our Eating Kakis group.

When Ray, the Captain found out about Arthur’s Birthday, he canceled the earlier bill and re-issued a new bill with a substantial 20 percent discount! Once again, many thanks for the treat, Arthur.

 

 Brunch @ Tea Hall, Lorong Abu Siti on 30/6/2022 

We were all looking forward to eating the famous One Corner Hokkien Prawn Mee (HKM) in the comforts of a nice tea hall at Lorong Abu Siti. As luck would have it, the hawkers at One Corner Hokkien Mee were taking a short holiday. Ms. Beh, the Manager at Tea Hall then decided to order the HKM from the famous Old Green House @ Jalan Burmah. Old Green House is a favourite hawkers’ joint for late-nighters. Perhaps the HKM is not as good as the one at One Corner but an able replacement, nonetheless. 

For side dishes, we had lor bak, prawn fritters and yong tau foo. The prawn fritters, stuffed with lots of small shrimp is a Tea Hall signature dish. In fact, we polished off three plates! Tea Hall is certainly a pleasant place to meet for a chit-chat, enjoy a nice bowl of Hokkien mee, and of course, multiple cuppas of Chinese tea. Many thanks, Raymond for the treat. 

The Eating Kakis visited The Meg showroom at Andaman Island

• Our conversation somehow led to the development at the newly constructed “Andaman Islands” at Straits Quay. Willie duly arranged for us to visit the site to see the show houses and the model of the new township. A nice outing. Kamsia, Willie.

 Da Jie (Sisters Cook)@ Jalan Cantonment, Pulau Tikus - 12^th August 2022

Da Jie or Sisters Cook is one of the few restaurants that serve the rare Sha Xian cuisine. In fact, the owner himself hails from Fujian Province. As most of us are new to this restaurant and its brand of cuisine, we left it to Brother Willie to recommend the dishes. Willie has been faithfully sampling Da Jie’s dishes over the years. We ordered 7 dishes in all: 

SZECHUAN FISH 

CHONGQING STYLE DRY-FRIEND CHICKEN  

STIR-FRIED BRINJALS WITH LONG BEANS 

CHICKEN AND 'TOO TOR' PEPPERY SOUP  

DRY FRIED MINCED PORK WITH CABBAGE 

MAPO TOFU

Knowing the reputation of the “mala” chefs for extra spiciness, Willie has asked the chef to tone down a notch or two – for our sake!

The Chongqing style dry chicken is an interesting and delicious fare – crispy and spicy with a nice fragrance from the chili peppers and “after taste” peppercorns. Willie explained that the “challenge” of this dish was to keep on looking for the little “chicken cubes” that are forever hidden among the “abundant reds”. The other dish, the mapo tofu with minced meat was rather flavourful. And the Szechuan fish on a stove is a must-have, definitely different from your usual hot plates.

Thanks, Willie for introducing us to this type of cuisine. We also had a wonderful turn-out, a full deck of ten eating-kakis. Welcome back Andy, after a long hiatus due to the Covid pandemic.

“A good meal soothes the soul as it regenerates the body”. Cheers!

The Eating Kakis decided to try Nyonya cuisine at Jason’s Nyonya House. Although Jason’s has been around for quite some time and getting good reviews, strangely, none of us have tried its cuisine! Perhaps, that part of town is best avoided due to congestion and limited parking space. Do not despair, underground parking is just a short walk to the AIA Building.

We ordered a variety of small dishes to allow us to sample as many servings as possible. One of the dishes like Roti Babi has to be pre-ordered the day before.

Other dishes included: Loh Bak, Tu Kah Chor, Kapitan Chicken, Jiu Hu Char, Sambal Hare Bee Egg Plant, Tau Yu Bak, Curry Chicken, and Chincalok Omelette. 

 

 

The Tu Kah Chor, Loh Bak, and Jiu Hu Char were their stand-out dishes. Lots of lettuce leaves were provided for wrapping the Jiu Hu Char.

And the boss threw in a complimentary Lek Tau Th’ng (green peas soup) for dessert.

Price-wise, it was quite reasonable. It’s quite a small place, so you need to book a table. Once again, we had a full quorum of 10. There was talk of a 3 Days-2 Nights road trip to Malacca, with perhaps a pit stop at Ipoh and Kajang? (the talk of the town now). 

Bon Appetit!

Blue Chang (behind Hong Leong Bank, Pulau Tikus) is a modern Thai cuisine restaurant. 

We ordered a variety of Blue Chang specialties like Black Pepper Stirfried Soft Shell Crab, Creamy Egg Curry Crabmeat, Whole Barramundi Fish with Red Curry, and Stirfried Melinjo Leaves with Eggs. There are also the traditional Thai “staples” – Tom Yum Goong, Crispy Pork Knuckle, Crispy Thai Omelette, and Claypot Vermicelli with Prawns.

On the whole, the dishes were delicious, in particular the creamy egg curry crabmeat and crispy pork knuckle (huge servings). The crispy Thai omelette and stir-fried soft shell crab were nicely done. The tom yum goong was a bit less spicy and we requested our second bowl be served piping hot. Due to some miscommunication, we missed their special crab omelette. A reason to return to this place, perhaps?

The Fisher is a newly opened authentic Thai restaurant. It is located at the old Embassy Restaurant on the Jalan Burmah-Jalan Transfer junction. The building has been nicely renovated. 

We tried quite a selection of dishes. This included the followings:

Thai Crispy Papaya Salad  

Crispy Fried Enoki Mushrooms  

Thai Green Curry Chicken 

Belacan Fried Rice

Thai White Tom Yam Soup Grouper 

Grille Thai Lemongrass Chicken

Phad Thai Shrimp

Curry Kembong

All the above were on recommendation from Venice, the boss.

The Thai Green Curry takes first place. The gravy was thick and it had the right mix of good green curry paste, coconut milk, kafir lime leaves, ginger, and other ingredients. 

Everyone gave it two thumbs up. Their white tom yum was also refreshingly good. The other dishes were Okay although a few of us found the dishes a bit sweet and saltish. 

In any case, this is a wonderful place to have a gathering. Service is excellent and the environment is quite cozy. 

Come for dinner and it may be different. 

In the evenings, a duet will entertain you while you dine. And there’s quite a good selection of alcoholic drinks available.

Good food warms the heart and feeds the

 27/11/2022 Yean Yean Restaurant @ Jln Lembah Pantai, Tg. Bungah    

Located opposite Tenby International School, Yean Yean Restaurant is a no-frills and reasonably priced restaurant that serves home-cooked-styled dishes. No air-conditioning. 

The servings are rather big. We ordered 7 dishes with curry fish, bitter gourd with runny egg and belacan fried chicken as the stand-out dish. The other dishes are braised pork leg, fried fish skin, braised tofu in brinjal, and fried kangkung in sambal. These dishes were average but tasty.

We decided to meet up to celebrate the formation of our nation’s first-ever unity government. It had been two tense weeks of election campaigns. And the finale as to who should take the mantle of Prime Minister and set up the new government was equally tense. In the end, good sense prevailed and we look forward to a New Malaysia! Cheers!  

 

soul!