*** Updated on 1/5/2011 – The coffee shop has since been taken over by a new owner.

One of my favorite breakfast joints in Penang is Eng Loh Coffee Shop in the heart of Georgetown. It is located at the end of Church Street, diagonally across the Pinang Peranakan Mansion and is exceptionally crowded during lunch hour.

Besides serving good coffee, the coffee shop operator also serves choices of Western breakfast of sausages and egg together with toast bread. There are ten over choices of bread and my favorite is the Roti Taiwan.

Delicious Roti Taiwan

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Tags: Breakfast, Chai Kuih, Char Koay Teow, Chewy Texture, Chili Sauce, Church Street, Coffee Shop, Dumpling, Eng Loh, French Toast, Gereja, Grated Coconut, Jalan Gereja, Kuih, Kuih Kosui, Kuih Koswee, Loh, Lunch Hour, Palm Sugar, Pandan, Penang, Penang Food, Roti, Roti Taiwan, Shop Operator, Smooth Peanut Butter, Soft Dough, Sugar Version, Taiwan Version, Toast Bread, Wanton Mee

This time around our Penang food outing in the Mainland continue with Teochew cuisines at the popular Restaurant Chao Zhou. This Teochew style restaurant also serves a wide selection of dim sum for breakfast and numerous cuisines for lunch and dinner. I chanced upon it through its restaurant website. Heard that their dim sum is very popular too. Together with my In-laws, we made the trip to this restaurant which is located in Chai Leng Park, Penang Mainland. The restaurant has a large air-conditioned dining hall and a pleasant outdoor sitting area.

Straight to the dishes we indulged that evening!

We started with the superb deep fried items. There is a good variety to choose from and varies based on the customer choices. We had three different types of items, with the fried cho, ku chye kueh and prawns wrap with crisp vermicelli. All the deep fried items were served hot and crispy…very fragrant. Excellent appetizer to kick off the meal.

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Tags: 3pm, Abalone, Amp, Array, Bean Curd, Bitter Gourd, Bitter Groud, Business Hours, Cashew Nuts, Chao, Chao Zhou, Chili Sauce, Chives, Cuisine, Cuisines, Customer Choices, Delicacies, Delicious Dessert, Delicious Dish, Dim Sum, Dining Hall, Dinner Restaurant, Dishes, Dumpling, Fillings, Fine Cuisine, Fried Vegetables, Ginkgo, Ginkgo Nuts, Hong Kong, Inlaws, Kailan, Ku, Kueh, Kurau, Leng, Leng Chai, Location Restaurant, Lunch, Mainland, Mash, Menu Restaurant, New Taste, Orh Nee, Parking Space, Penang, Penang Food, Prawns, Pumpk, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Dessert, Restaurant In Penang, Shark, Small Pieces, Style Restaurant, Sweet Dessert, Tender Pieces, Teochew Cuisine, Thin Layer, Traditional Dish, Vegetable Dishes, Websi, Website Www, Wel, White Rice, Yam, Yam Paste, Yoke, Yummy Dessert

The day started with a “yum cha” session at the old eatery, Aik Hoe Restaurant located in Carnavon Street. This restaurant which occupied two shop houses still managed to retain its old nostalgic charm after fifty over years. The fixtures of old ceiling fans with flooring of small squares of blue and white tiles still remain there after all these years, making this place a real heritage in its own way.

Nothing much have changed and the restaurant still has the very ‘Chinese old school look’, even still with its signature metal chairs. The shop’s name has been embedded into the metal chair itself; a real rare find nowadays.

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Tags: Aik, Array, Bamboo Basket, Black Fungus, Carnavon, Char Siew, Char Siew Pau, Chinese Chestnut, Chinese Tea, Chinese Water Chestnut, Dim Sum, Dumpling, Feature Writer, Fish Egg, Glutinous Rice, Guang Ming, Har, Hk Version, Hot Tea, Interview Session, Kow, Kuen, Lean Meat, Metal Chair, Nostalgic Charm, Old Charm, Penang Food, Penang Restaurant, Pork Roll, Push Carts, Roast Meat, Shop Houses, Signature Dishes, Thin Layer, Thin Skin, Ti Kuan Yin, Varieties Of Tea, Water Chestnut, Waterchestnut, Yum Cha

After much delay and location change, Canton-i finally opened their doors at the ground floor of Queensbay Mall, Penang. This brand; which is associated with the Dragon-i line of restaurants, offers varieties of authentic Hong Kong cuisines. Upon stepping into this restaurant, the ambiance and atmosphere radiating from its surrounding was completely different of Dragon-i. Well, the open kitchen concept is still adopted, but the interior design; laced in pink and white colour themes, was a pleasant change. As I browsed through, I noticed the walls were mounted with huge mirrors, giving the place a spacious feeling.

The interior shot of the restaurant.

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Tags: 3 Pieces, Ambiance, Ambience, Aromas, Array, Cantonese, Cantonese Delicacies, Chefs, Chinese Mustard, Comfort Food, Condiments, Congee, Counterpart, Crispy Coating, Cuisines, Cuttlefish, Delicious Pastry, Dessert Menu, Different Types Of Rice, Dipping Sauce, Dumpling, Egg Tarts, Flaky Pastry, Gf, Glass Enclosure, Gravy, Guangzhou, Guangzhou China, Hong Kong Cuisine, Hongkong, Hot Beverages, Interior Design, Jelly Fish, Location Change, Meat Flavour, Meat Shops, Mustard Dip, Natives, Ngor, Open Kitchen, Personal Opinion, Piece Of Meat, Plain Noodles, Prawns, Purse, Queensbay Mall Penang, Red Amaranth, Rm5, Roas, Roast Goose, Roast Meat, Roast Pork Belly, Savoury, Seasoning Spices, Sesame Oil, Spices, Spring Onions, Sweet Sauce, Textur, Waitress, Wonton Noodles

For some of the best of Penang’s hawker food and snacks, pay a visit to Cintra Street – a bustling street located in the heart of George Town, Penang. Entrance to this one way street is via Jalan Dr. Lim Chwee Leong. Its located in the same vicinity as KOMTAR and Prangin Mall. You will be able to find many varieties of foods and snacks, from dawn to dusk.

Amazingly, the Yau Char Kuai (sometimes known as You Tiu) maintains its crisp nature even after a few hours. Definitely the makings of a good teatime, served with a cup of kopi-o kau.

The culinary journey continues! Wen Chang Hainan Chicken Rice shop; located just right opposite, sells traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice. Roast chicken, white chicken and loh bak are just part of its items. Other than chili sauce, they do have the grinded ginger which is a nice complement to go with white chicken.

This stall was previously located a stone’s throw away from the Dumpling shop (read below) and has since made it big; relocating to this shop of their own.

Right beside the chicken rice shop is Ng Kee Cake Shop. This bakery shop sells a wide selection of freshly baked Cantonese biscuits and snacks. They also accept orders of the biscuits for special occasion – birthdays and weddings. I do drop in once in a while to treat myself to a box of pepper biscuit. The biscuit is crunchy with nuts, sesame seed and pepper powder.

A few doors down the bakery shop, you will come across the all time favourite Dim Sum shop, De Tai Tong Cafe. Dim Sum is served during breakfast and dinner, while there is an ala-carte menu for lunch. For noodle lovers, do try out their noodle – Yee Foo Meen, Char Hor Fan and Hong Toh Meen.

Opposite the dim sum cafe is a small stall selling pancake and steam rice cake. It may look modest and simple, but I reckon this stall sells the best Ham Chim Pang & Pak Tong Goe in Penang. Among the few varieties of Ham Chim Pang ranging from sweet tau sar, with five spice powder and with glutinous rice.

Just look at the amount of five spice powder which gives it a slightly salty taste. Been having it for years now, and still enjoying it every time.

If you happen to be in town earlier in the evening, you can buy it directly from their shop which is just located behind De Tai Tong Dim Sum cafe. Of course its always fresher when its just out of the frying pan.

Across the junction of Cintra/Campbell, you will see the popular Dumpling shop – Cintra Food Corner on your left. This place is famous for its bak chang, tau chang, yam cakes and red bean tong-sui boiled with dried Mandarin peel. Environment is much better now since it has shifted into this shop as compared to its earlier trading days by the roadside.

Two doors away from the ‘chang’ shop is the Curry Chee Cheong Fun stall. You get to savour this curry version with tender pieces of chicken (only drumstick) and soft potato for RM3.50. The spicy flavors of the curry chicken makes this a delicious meal. You are allowed to bring the CCF and consume it in the ‘chang’ shop

 

Spoilt for choices? Me too! Which food are you going to have, the next time you visit Cintra Street? No matter which,  Happy Eating!

Updated on  14/10/2010 : There are two more food outlets just opposite the CCF – the chu char at Sun Yoon Kee Restaurant and the neighbouring chicken and fish porridge.

Tags: Bak Chang, Bakery Shop, Cake Shop, Cantonese, Chili Sauce, Cintra Food Corner, Cintra Street, Cintra Street Hawker Food, Culinary Journey, Curry Chee Cheong Fun, Dawn To Dusk, De Tai Tong Cafe, Dim Sum, Dr Lim, Dumpling, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hawkers, Komtar, Kopi, Loh, Ng Kee Cake Shop, Penang Hawker Food, Pepper Powder, Porridge, Roast Chicken, S Park, Sesame Seed, Sun Yoon Kee Restaurant, Teatime, Wen Chang Hainan Chicken Rice

We went for the basic item – the la mian and dumplings. The Chinese chef prepares the dumplings in the open kitchen which faces the entrance of the restaurant.

Besides the dumplings, we had the stir fried la mian with pork and another plate with beef. Both the noodles is actually quite nice and chewy. Their way of stir frying makes it very tasty and it doesn’t have the taste of our local fried noodles.

We paid over RM32 (plus drinks) for this full and satisfying lunch. We will be dropping by this place again to try their other cold dishes and hot plates.

Tags: Chili Oil, Chinese Chef, Chinese Dumplings, Chinese Noodles, Cold Dishes, Drinks, Dumpling, Fried Dumplings, Fried Noodles, Ginger, Ginger Oil, Hot Plates, La Mian, Noodle Restaurant, Open Kitchen, Pan Fried, Penang, Shanghai, Steam, Stir Fried, Tang Dynasty, Vinegar