BY CK Lam

Happy Duan Wu Festival to everyone!

The Duan Wu festival is celebrated on every 5th day of the 5th month, and it falls on June 23 this year. During this festival, many will be busy preparing the chang (glutinous rice dumpling), and with many people buying them.

In Penang the chang is sold commercially all year round in a number of places, and one such place is Cintra Food Corner. For generations, the Lor’s family has been dishing out the chang for customers to dine-in and take-away. Once located at the road side of the bustling Cintra Street, owner Lor Onn Kee has since shifted the business to a nearby shop house in 2006.

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Tags: Bak Chang, Bamboo Leaves, Cantonese Bean Dumpling, Chewy Texture, Chili Sauce, Chinese Chestnuts, Cintra Food Corner, Cintra Street, Dark Soya Sauce, Duan Wu Festival, Dumpling Festival, Egg Yolk, Fillings, Food Corner, Glutinous Rice, Glutinous Rice Dumpling, Guangzhou China, Lor, Mung Beans, Nearby Shop, Onn, Penang, Penang Glutinous Rice Dumpling Shop, Pork Belly, Rice Dumpling, Roast Duck, Roast Pork, Salted Egg, Shophouse, Tau Chang, Zong Zi

* This article was published in the New Straits Times (Life & Times) on 23rd June 2010.

Sakae Teppanyaki & Izakaya outlet in Autocity Penang has a unique 2-in-1 dining concept under one roof. Its menu has a wide selection of sushi, teppanyaki and fusion specialties; not many Japanese restaurants has the variety of fusion specialties as found in Sakae!

During this visit, I opted to try out the latest items in the menu rather than having the usual Japanese fare of sushi and sashimi.

The Sakae Izakaya Special

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Tags: Appetizer, Assorted Vegetables, Auto City, Autocity, Codfish, Condiments, Cuisines, Fillings, Flavorful Broth, Fleshly, Izakaya, Japanese Fare, Japanese Restaurant, Japanese Restaurants, Lobster, Love Fondue, Mayonnaise, New Straits Times (Life & Times), New Straits Times (Life & Times), Penang Japanese Restaurant, Penang Restaurant, Pita Bread, Sakae Teppanyaki & Izakaya, Salmon Oil, Seafood Dish, Seafood Lovers, Taste Buds, Teppanyaki, Teriyaki, Teriyaki Salmon, Teriyaki Sauce, Trio Ice Cream

This was our family first visit to Coconut Palms Delicious Seafood Restaurant located on Jalan Burma, Penang. Though opened recently, this restaurant is quite popular and usually crowded with diners.

Coconut Palms Delicious Seafood Restaurant has a wide spread menu ranging from pork, chicken to seafood. The place has a large dinning area, air-conditioned in the front and  non air-conditioned at the rear of the restaurant.

Steamed fish to get the appetite rumbling!

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Tags: 11p, Bangkok Chicken, Burmah Road, Business Hour, Car Parks, Chopped Garlic, Clams, Coconut Palms, Delicate Flavor, Delicious Seafood, Dipping Sauce, Fillings, Fish Tanks, French Beans, Georgetown Penang, Lemon Juice, Light Taste, Marvelous Sauce, Penang, Prawns, Seafood Restaurant, Sokka Gakai, Soy Sauce, Steamed Clams, Tumeric, Vegetable Dish

Snacks are available everywhere in Penang! Plentiful indeed, however one particular snack caught my eye while I was slurping away my bowl of Assam Laksa in the Air Itam market. This lady was selling deep fried buns, similar to Roti Babi but with different ingredients and she uses bun instead of bread!

She makes a stunning serving of these inexpensive priced fried buns. The white fluffy buns are battered, deep fried and stuffed with four kinds of savory fillings:  chicken curry, mixed turnip stuffing (similar to mangkuang char), sausage and luncheon meat…simple creations!

My favorite from this stall is the Deep Fried Chicken Curry Bun! Stuffed with pieces of chicken and potato, the filling is quite similar to curry puffs… however the deep fried bun makes it taste surprisingly good.

Chicken Curry Bun @ RM1.50

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Tags: Air Itam, Air Itam Laksa, Air Itam Market, Array, Assam Laksa, Babi, Bun, Buns, Carrot, Chicken Curry, Crowd, Deep Fried Chicken, Delicious Luncheon, Fillings, Left Hand Side, Light Moment, Luncheon Meat, Mushroom, Penang, Penang Hawker Food, Pot, Roti Babi, Sausage, Sausage Bun, Sausages, Simple Creations, Slit, Snack, Snacks, Spicy Food, Tea Time, Variety

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

During the journey back to Penang we had a Bidor stopover at the well known Pun Chun Restaurant located right in the middle of the town. It has been in existence for many great years and is a popular place for travellers to stop for a meal. The restaurant serves delicious chu char dishes, ark tui mee and wan tan mee. Pun Chun is also famous for their all time favorite Chicken Biscuits (Kai Chai Pang) and Sat Kei Ma (caramalize egg biscuit).

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Tags: Array, Bidor Perak, Blue Arrow, Cakes, Chai, Chee Cheong Fun, Chicken Biscuits, Chinese Biscuits, Delicacy, Fillings, Food Stall, Food Stalls, Fragrance, Gou, Homemade Cookies, Kai, Kampar, Kaya, Kok, Kopi, Lotus Seed Paste, Market Food, Nearby Market, Open Food, Orange Peel, Orange Skin, Pang, Pank, Pastries, Penang, Pun, S Market, Salted Egg, Sesame Seed, Shou, Soh, Sponge Cake, Stall Owner, Stopover, Tasty Biscuits, Traditional Chinese Pastry, Wife Biscuit, Winter Melon, Yong Tau Foo

All About Sugar & Gift located in Lorong Susu, Penang is a newly opened outlet serving Chinese desserts. This outlet with a simple and homely ambiance has different sweetened fillings of freshly prepared tang yuen made from glutinous rice in a variety of tong-sui.

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Tags: All About Sugar & Gift, Ambiance, Ambience, Aroma, Black Sesame, Business Hour, Cashew Nut, Chinese Desserts, Duck Rice, Fillings, Flavors, Glutinous Rice, Green Tea, Liking, Lorong Susu, New Trend, Onde Onde, Penang, Pulau Pinang, Red Bean Paste, Savory Snacks, Sui Tang, Susu, Sweetness, Tang Yuen, Tong, Tong-sui

Leong Chee Kee biscuits located on the ground floor corner of the People’s Court off Cintra street was known for its traditional Cantonese wedding biscuits. The business set up by Leong Chee Kee has since been taken over by his son, Leong How Keng.

On my visit to this biscuit shop, I had the opportunity to watch the owner make the Chinese snacks of Coconut Tarts, Khay Nui Ko/Gai Dan Go (egg cakes) and Hup Toh Soe (Chinese walnut cookie)…perfect teatime treats.

Yummy coconut tarts fresh right out of the oven! Fantastic!

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Tags: Array, Biscuit, Cantonese, Chinese Bakers, Chinese Snacks, Chinese Word, Cintra Street, Coconut Tart, Double Happiness, Double Happiness Chinese Character, Egg Yolk, Even Colour, Fillings, Flower Shape, Grated Coconut, Hup, Keng, Khay, Kou, Leong Chee Kee Biscuits, Lotus Seed Paste, Melon Seeds, Moulds, Nui, People'S Court, Preservatives, Red Bean Paste, Soft Texture, Sunflower Seeds, Tarts, Teatime, Traditional Chinese Pastry, Wedding Biscuits, Yummy Snacks

Passerby from town to Paya Terubong area will sure to bypass this stall located on the right side of the road, selling You Tiao or more commonly known as Yau Char Kwai. This deep fried Chinese crullers which originated from Kuala Perlis, are similar to the normal crullers except they are extremely long, around 14″. It comes with variety of fillings, indeed a great innovation from the original version. At times, the place which is operated by Mr Tan, would be crowded with customers dropping by for the orders. We had fun visiting the stall while watching the making of the deep fried You Tiao.

Golden brown deep fried Te Chang You Tiao Wang @ RM1

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Tags: 14inch, Afternoon Snack, Air Itam, Array, Avai, Black Coffee, Black Soya Bean, Business Hour, Busy At Work, Chinese Crullers, Cina, Cintra Street, Coffee Shop, Cooking Oil, Criz, Cruller, Delicious Pieces, East Coast, Fillings, Floss, Flour Dough, Foo, Fryer, Honey Butter, Hot Dog, Hot Oil, Hot Sausage, Kek Lok Si, Kek Lok Si Temple, Kong Ming, Kopi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Perlis, Kwai, Lao, Lintang, Lok, Mayonnaise, Original Version, Passerby, Paya, Peanut Butter, Penang, Rm1, Sarawak, Savoury, Seafood Restaurant, Seafood Restaurants, Sesame Seed, Sjk, Soya Bean Milk, Tea Time, Three Pieces, Tiao, Traff, Traffic Lights