* This article was published in the New Straits Times (Life & Times) on 19th January 2011.

Ivy’s Kitchen is offering an alternative from the common Chinese meal for this coming Chinese New Year festive season with a menu sprinkled with several tantalizing Nyonya dishes. This restaurant is offering two different menus, priced at RM388++ and this special menu at RM688++. Both the food menus boast a wide range of dishes filled with auspicious meanings for this special day.

Traditionally the Chinese New Year banquet is kicked off with the Yee Sang. This dish of raw fish, crispy cracker and colorful ingredients which are symbolic is eaten with a coarsely ground peanut, plum sauce and lime juice dressing.

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Tags: Chicken Meatballs, Chinese Meal, Chinese New Year, Chow Thye Road, Cod Fish, Colorful Ingredients, Deep Fried Chicken, Dinner Price, Festive Dish, Food Menus, Glutinous Rice Ball, Ground Peanut, Ivy’s Kitchen, King Prawn, Lime Juice, New Straits Times (Life & Times), New Straits Times (Life & Times), Nyonya dishes, Oyster Sauce, Pacific Clams, Plum Sauce, Pork-free Restaurant, Raw Fish, Salted Fish, Sea Cucumber, Stewed Assorted Mushroom, Vegetable Dish, White Fungus

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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Tags: Array, Assam, Bbo, Bee Fish, Big Boys, Black Meat, Blog, Bloggers, Business Hour, Compliment, Curry, Decades, Dishes, Fish Curry, Fish One, Flavours, Freshness, Fried Fish, Fried Pork, Gps, Gps 5, Gps Coordinates, Gravy, Hainanese Cuisine, Halal, Hokkien, Huin, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Kedai Makan, Lady Fingers, Leeks, Lunch, Meat Selection, Minced Meat, New Kid, Onion, Onions, Ooi, Penang, Penang Chu Char, Penang Hokkien, Plenty Of Times, Point Of Interest, Prawn, Prawn Sambal, Prawns, Sai Kong, Salted Fish, Sambal, Sambal Prawn, Shanghai, Signature Dish, Soy Sauce, Steam, Steamer, Stir Fried, Suan, Transfer Road, Vege, Vegeta, White Rice, Zhar

Updated on November 2010 : All the hawker stalls have stopped operation.

During my last makan outing at 127 Food Court on Burma Road I was recommended to try out their chu char stall, Anson Park Seafood. It has been around for a few years but it was only recently that we went to try out the food. Most of the table was having their signature dish of Curry Fish Head and the Nam Yue Bak and I was enticed by the looks of.

This Curry Fish Head is the milk-based curry rather than the usual santan (coconut milk). The curry is not really spicy yet very flavorful with lots of lady fingers, tomatoes, onions and mint leaves, served hot in a claypot. The taste of the curry is more towards Indian Curry with the usage of curry leaves.

Highly recommended – Curry Fish Head with your choice of fish

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Tags: Anson Park, Banana Leaf, Bean Curd, Brown Beans, Burma Road, Claypot, Coconut Milk, Curry Fish Head, Curry Fishhead, European Cuisines, Fried Vegetables, Funky Monkey, Green Vegetables, Hawker Stalls, Indian Curry, Kangkung, Kerabu, Lady Fingers, Otak Otak, Salted Fish, Sambal, Santan, Signature Dish, Signature Dishes, Sitr, Spare Ribs, Sparerib, Taugeh, Vegetable Dishes, Western Cuisine

Hubby and I came across this old eatery on Magazine Road which has been around for 60 over years. This place which serves porridge is operated by the elderly Mr Tan with the help of his son. This eatery has an amazing seating arrangement, with tiny wooden stools (bangku) on top of long benches.

Amazingly, this place is one of the handfuls of stalls left in Penang that does not even have a signboard!

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Tags: Amazing Art, Bench, Benches, Bowl Of Porridge, Business Hour, Chairs, Chili Sauce, Coordinates, Deep Fried Fish, Dishes, Earthen Pots, Earthern Pots, Eateries, Eggs, Exprience, Garlic, Handfuls, Hubby, Lala, Limited, Low Stools, Lunch Hour, Mcnair, Monday Tuesday, Mustard, Omelette, Penang, Penang Food, Pickled Eggs, Piping, Salted Egg, Salted Fish, Salted Radish, Seating Arrangement, Side Dish, Side Dishes, Signboard, Soy Sauce, Spring Onions, Style Type, Tables And Chairs, Tofu, Traders Hotel, Vegetables, Wooden Stools, Yue

Fried beehoon and oyster mee…. with plentiful ingredients.

Big plate of fried oh chien..

Kailan stir fried with salted fish (kiam hu)…very tasty.

Five Spice Tau Kua stir fried with big size prawns and leeks (suan nah).

This very satisfying lunch with chinese tea cost RM95.00. Will definitely come back again for another bite in the near future!

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Tags: Cabbage, Chien, Chinese Tea, Cornstarch, Dish, Fried Oyster, Kua, Leeks, Long Time, Lunch Time, Map, Meatballs, Penang Hokkien, Restaurants, Salted Fish, Serving Dishes, Spice, Suan, Tau, Tiau