See Kong Ooi Restaurant in Transfer Road Penang which specializes in Hainanese and Hokkien chu char dishes is fondly refer as Sai Kong Huin by most of the Penangites Hokkien. It has been around for several decades now, and is still going strong until today!

This post is a collection of my trips to this restaurant, so don’t be shocked by the amount of food! I’ve made the trip there several times with my family and food bloggers BBO, Lingzie, Ken and NKOTB.

First time visiting a “KEDAI MAKAN”!

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Gurney Drive is the food heaven for food lovers. It houses many seafood restaurants, cafes, fine dining restaurants and hawker stalls with some opening for business in the day and also in the night. One of the famous shops along the strip which was established decades ago is Song River Cafe, home to some of the tasty cuisines Penang has to offer!

With a group of visiting friends from Singapore, we dropped in Song River for the famous and unique Bah Kut Teh. Regular customers will know that this restaurant is managed by the same owner of Home Style Restaurant in Tanjung Bungah.

Chinese Tea for starters, anybody?

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Tags: Array, Bah Kut Teh, Bak Kut Teh, Bbq Chicken Wings, Bkt, Botanical Garden, Breakfast, Chicken Wings, Chinese Tea, Chives, Claypot, Coffee Shop, Dim Sum, Dishes, Fine Dining Restaurants, Fish One, Food Heaven, Food Lover, Food Lovers, Fried Prawn Noodles, Fried Seafood, Grill Chicken, Grill Fish, Gurney Drive, Hawker Center, Hawker Stalls, Home Style, Houses, Kuk, Kut, Lunch, Lunch Hour, Main Ingredient, Morning Exercise, Nice Restaurants, Noodles, Noon Song, Otak Otak, Oyster, Oysters, Penang, Penang Hawker Food, Pubic Cafe, Restaurants Cafes, Roasted Chicken, Seafood Restaurants, Side Dishes, Signature Dishes, Smoothness, Song River, Spring Onions, Style Restaurant, Wings Grill

Heng Kee Restaurant is a traditional Chinese coffee shop located on the left hand side of China Street in Penang. For those who are not familiar with this part of town, China Street is directly in front of the Goddess of Mercy Temple (Kuan Yin Teng). This place serves mainly chu char with variety of home-cooked style dishes.

It was much easier for us to patronized this place as it is open on Sunday. For the first dish of Curry Tumis, we chose to have the Kui Kau fish. The fresh pieces of fish were cooked in the appetizing tamarind gravy with lots of lady fingers and tomatoes. Its taste is less sourish and not as oily compared to those from Sin Kheng Aun Restaurant.

There are a few choices of fish to choose from

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Tags: Array, Bean Paste, Business Hour, China Street, Chinese Coffee, Chrysanthemum Tea, Chu, Coffee Shop, Curry, Dinner Hour, Dried Prawns, First Encounter, Fish Pieces, Flavors, Goddess Of Mercy, Goddess Of Mercy Temple, Goddess Temple, Gravy, Har, Home Dish, Kangkung, Kuan Yin, Lady Finger, Lady Fingers, Left Hand Side, Light Taste, Lunch, Makanan, Nutmeg, Penang, Penang Food, Pork Belly, Smooth Texture, Style Dishes, Tasty Vegetable, Three Houses, Tumis, Typical Dish, Vegetable Dish, Yoke

On one of my recent Kuala Lumpur trips, a few of us paid a visit to the district of Muar in Johor which is also known as “Mar Poh” in Cantonese. We went to explored the town and had a light breakfast before we paid a visit to Octhavia, a factory which produced the town gourmet specialty, the otak-otak (pounded and seasoned shrimp/fish paste).

Nothing can beat this fresh otak-otak right off the stove!

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Tags: Array, Assam Pedas, Breath Of Fresh Air, Bustling Town, Cantonese, Clams, Core Product, Fish Head, Fish Paste, Fishhead, Fishing Boats, Flat Fish, Food Trail, Foodies, Fried Clams, Fried Oyster, Gourmet, Heritage, Hot Afternoon, Johor, Light Breakfast, Local Delicacies, Lunch, Lunch Time, Muar, Omega 3, Otak, Otak Otak, Palm Leaves, Penang, Poh, Quiet Fishing Village, Shrimp Fish, Snack, Spring Roll, Taugeh, Tv Antenna, View Of The Sea

A food trip this time around across the bridge took us to Nibong Tebal, Penang. We patronized this old style kopitiam Lim Aik Chew. This place is known for its fresh large prawns, and is popular among the tourist and locals alike.

Top of the menu was the prawns, of course! These famous prawns comes in several sizes, and subsequently with different prices. Their signature cooking method of these prawns is the Dried Curry, although there are other methods as well.

Basket full of fresh prawns, just take a look at the size of the head!

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Tags: Acheh, Array, Authentic Ingredients, Bakery, Classmate, Cooking Method, Curry, Curry Leaves, Curry Prawns, Delicacies, Dish, Distinct Taste, Drinks, Fish, Fried Vegetables, Gps Coordinates, Gravy, Hubby, Kopitiam, Lazy Sunday, Lim, Locals, Long Trip, Lunch, Medium Size, Motorcycle, Mr Lim, Nibong Tebal, Old Style, Penang, Prawn, Prawns, Rice And Bread, Ringgit, Sauce Curry, Shells, Shopkeeper, Signature Dish, Signboard, Steam, Steel Bridge, Sugar Cane Juice, Sungai Bakap, Tanjong Berembang, Tasty Dishes, Thick Gravy, Tiam, Traffic Lights, Viaduct, Weekend Lunch

Azuma is the latest Japanese Restaurant which opens its door on 27th December in Queensbay Mall, Penang. This restaurant is very spacious with many tables and customers can choose to have a window seat to enjoy the view of the Penang Bridge. A section of this restaurant is occupied with a sushi bar, surrounded with a conveyor belt filled with plenty plates of sushi.

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Tags: Abalone, Array, Ascii, Asuma, Azuma Japanese Restaurant, Bayan Lepas Penang, Business Hours, Cambria, Conveyor Belt, Div, Fam, Family Auto, Font Definitions, Font Format, Gravy, Green Tea, Grilled Fish, Halal Restaurant, Hubby, Japanese Restaurant, Lunch, Many Tables, Miso Soup, Mso, Orphan, Pan Fried, Penang Bridge, Penang Restaurant, Pitch, Props, Queensbay Mall Penang, Raw Salmon, Restaurant Business, Rm1, Sanma, Sans Serif, Seared Salmon, Style Definitions, Style Type, Sushi Bar, Tea Ice Cream, Theme Font, Thick Pieces, Times New Roman, White Rice, Window Seat

Last Sunday, we went over to Butterworth to try out the seafood at Ong Cheng Huat Seafood Restaurant. Not knowing the exact location, I went to search for it in the Google map. With the helpful directions and the map in hand, we drove over to Bagan Lallang.

The place was crowded as it was lunch hour. We were introduced to their fermented coconut water, known by the locals as Tuak.  It is a popular drink in this restaurant. A one liter bottle cost RM5. It tasted a bit sourish sweet and has a gassy feeling. Recommended to try out this unusual drink.

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Tags: Ajam, Array, Baby Chicks, Business Hours, Butterworth, Chili Padi, Coconut Drink, Coconut Water, Fish, Fried Chicken, Ginger Garlic, Good Experience, Google, Google Map, Heh, Highway Exit, Hot Afternoon, La La, Lunch, Lunch Hour, Mak Mandin, Mussels, Natural Juices, Nothing Fancy, Ong, Penang, Penang Bridge, Piah, Popiah, Prawn Fritters, Prawns, Restau, Restaurant Phone Number, Rm, Rm5, Seafood Restaurant, Shredded Ginger, Spring Chicken, Steam, Stir Fry, Sungai Dua, Thick Piece, Thin Layer, Traffic Light, Traffic Light Junction, Tuak

In Penang, beef noodles are very hard to come by. There are only a handful of stalls selling beef noodles compare to other hawker food. For us, our regular joint is the stall located at Beach/Chulia intersection.

Besides beef noodle, we also like  the Hakka style beef ball noodle. From what we gather, this is the only stall selling this delicious noodle in town. The bowl of dried noodle is topped up with stewed minced beef cooked in dark soya sauce. Additional items of spring roll and bean curd can be added too. We usually go for the dried koay teow and loh sui fan.

Tags: Balls, Bean Curd, Beef Noodle, Beef Noodles, Chulia, Coffee Shop, Dark Soya Sauce, Delicious Bowl, Delicious Noodle, Hakka Beef Ball Noodles, Handful, Intersection, Kampung, Lunch, Malabar, Nbsp, Parsley, Penang Hawker Food, Penang Road, Pepper, Rm4, Spring Roll

Yong Tau Foo is basically fish paste stuffed into varieties of vegetables and tofu. The fish paste is very fresh and springy.

Another side dish – Beggar Chicken.

It was an enjoyable Yong Tau Foo lunch with glasses of  barley drink (foo chook yee mai).

Kampar Fish Jelly
Jalan Jerjak
Penang

Tags: Barley Drink, Beggar Chicken, Choices, Fish Paste, Glasses, Hakka noodle, Hakka Noodles, Ipoh, Kampar Fish Jelly, Lunch, Mai, Penang Food, Qbm, Queenbays Mall, Side Dish, Tasty Soup, Tau, Tofu, Vegetables, White Rice, Yong Tau Foo