* This article was published in the New Straits Times (Life & Times) on 15th June 2011.

Chulia Street in Penang is not only known for its many budget hotels but also for inexpensive meals. It’s a popular dining destination with locals and tourists alike. At night, a section of the road is lined with stalls selling a good mix of street food. Do not make your choice immediately. Take your time and have a closer look at what’s on offer.

Worthy of mention are curry mee and wantan noodles. Springy wantan noodles are served with slices of char xiu (barbecued pork) and wantan (dumplings). For the curry mee, medium-sized fish ball is added to the standard ingredients of coconut milk, cockles, blood jelly, cuttlefish and tau pok (fried tofu). The slightly sweet coconut milk is flavoured with a blend of aromatic spices. Expect a queue as the curry mee is popular.

Chulia Street curry mee

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Tags: Aromatic Spices, Barbecue Pork, Barbecued Pork, Charcoal Fire, Chulia Street, Chulia Street Curry Mee, Chulia Street Hawker Food, Chulia Street Penang, Coconut Milk, Creamy Sauce, Curry Mee, Deep-Fried Snacks, Fish Ball, Fish Balls, Fried Noodles, Fried Snacks, Fried Tofu, Generous Portion, Hainanese Satay, Hawker Food, Inexpensive Meals, Meat Rolls, New Straits Times (Life & Times), New Straits Times (Life & Times), Red Bean Paste, Sized Fish, Sour Plum, Street Hawker, Sweet Coconut, Wantan Mee

* This article was published in the New Straits Times (Northern Streets) on 1st February 2011.

Bukit Mertajam houses plenty of eateries, and Ah Meng Coffee Shop is one ideal eatery where one can find cheap and good teatime snacks. Located along Jalan Pasar, this coffee shop is famous for its Rojak Orang Hitam Putih and the Li Guang Popiah.

The ingredients of the popiah include fried bean curd, fried egg, prawn, bean sprout, crunchy lettuce and turnip. The popiah is dressed with chili and hoisin sweet sauce and topped with fried garlic oil, chili sauce and turnip-based gravy.

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Tags: 1st February, Afternoon Snack, Ah Meng, Assam Laksa, Bukit Mertajam, Bunga Raya, Chili Paste, Chili Sauce, Chilli Paste, Coffee Shop, Coffeeshop, Eateries, Fried Bean Curd, Fried Egg, Fruit Juices, Garlic Oil, Jalan Bunga Raya, Jalan Pasar, Kedai Kopi, Kedai Kopi Ah Meng, Kopi, Li Guang, Li Guang Popiah, Mouthful, New Straits Times (Life & Times), New Straits Times (Life & Times), Penang, Penang Hawker Food, Prawn, Rm3, Rojak, Rojak Orang Hitam Putih, Sour Plum, Sweet Sauce, Tea Time, Teatime Treats, Upmost

Yee Heong Restaurant is a great place to enjoy a Chinese meal. It is one of the Chinese restaurants in Campbell Street, Georgetown that not only serves dim sum for breakfast but also Chu Char for lunch and dinner.

Over a period of time, we have been having our lunch and dinner at this Chinese restaurant which is located right opposite the morning wet market. The menu is expansive, with plenty of Chinese dishes!

One of their signature dishes, Braised Lamb!

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Tags: Aik Hoe Restaurant, Bean Curd, Bitter Aftertaste, Bitter Gourd, Braised Fish Head, Braised Lamb, Campbell Street, Chinese Dishes, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Chinese Ingredients, Chinese Meal, Chu Char, Clay Pot, Claypot, Fish Dish, Fish Dishes, Fish Head, Flavorful Sauce, Herbal Aroma, Herbal Chicken, Penang Restaurant, Sambal, Signature Dish, Signature Dishes, Sour Plum, Spinach Soup, Steam Fish Teochew Style, TekSen, Vegetable Dish, Vegetable Dishes, Wet Market, Yee Heong Restaurant

In ushering the Year of the Tiger, I had the privilege to indulge in a traditional yet superb Cantonese delights prepared by Executive Chef Jason Tong at the Grand Palace Restaurant @ Pavilion Kuala Lumpur!

Grand Palace’s Special ‘Yee Sang’ with Salmon

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Tags: Abalone, Assorted Salads, Braising, Buddha Jump Over The Wall, Buddha Jumps Over The Wall, Celebrating Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year, Cilantro, Clay Pot, Earthy Aroma, Executive Chef, Executive Chef Jason Tong, Favorite Dish, Fish Maw, Grand Palace Restaurant, Hearty Soup, Imbi Palace, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Jaya Palace, Klang Palace, Kuala Lumpur, Palace Group, Pan Fried, Pavilion, Plum Sauce, Pomfret Fish, Salmon, Set Menu, Shark Fin, Sour Plum, Spring Onion, Thick Piece, Wax Meat, Year Of The Tiger, Yee Sang

There are several variations of beef noodles in Penang with the all time favorite beef ball noodles and the Hakka beef ball noodles.

This time the focus is on the Ngau Larm Mee stall (Chinese style braised beef brisket noodle) at Sai Lam, an old coffee shop at the corner of Chulia Street and Carnarvon Street. This delicious braised beef can be served with variation of noodles: springy thin or the broad wanton noodles or better still with hor fun.  Whatever the choice is, it comes with generous portion of flavorful beef pieces.

Dry Ngau Larm Mee with broad noodles

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Tags: Amp, Array, Bakery, Beef Brisket, Beef Broth, Beef Noodle, Beef Noodles, Beef Soup, Beef Soup Noodle, Beef Stew, Braised Beef, Business Hour, Carnarvon, Carnarvon Street, Carnavon, Char Siew, Charcoal Fire, Chilli Sauce, Chinese Style, Choices, Chulia Street, Closing Time, Coffee Shop, Coffeeshop, Commo, Creamy Sauce, Cucumber And Onions, Dry Noodles, Egg Noodles, Father And Son, Flat Rice Noodles, Flavorful Beef, Generous Portion, Green Onions, Handful, Hor Fun, Kampung, Lai, Malabar, Old Haunt, Peanut Sauce, Peddler, Penang, Penang Food, Pho, Pork Satay, Rainforest, Sai Lam Coffee Shop, Satay, Side Dish, Side Dishes, Soup Base, Soup Broth, Soup Noodles, Sour Plum, Stew Beef, Tan Tan, Tea Time, Tender Beef, Tender Pieces, Third Generation, Toast Bread, Variations, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Language, Wanton Noodle, Wanton Noodles, Wanton Soup, Wantons, Wet Version

I’ve always made it a point to visit Kuala Lumpur several times a year, as the cuisines there are a nice change from what we get in Penang. Their style is slightly different, the taste and ways of cooking are unique as well. We made our way down to Sek Yuen Chinese Restaurant just down Jalan Pudu, for one of our Chinese New Year meals. We started off our meal with the traditional Yee Sang mixing, and indeed it was different from Penang.

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Tags: Amp, Arp, Array, Chinese New Year, Chinese Restaurant, Cucumber, Cuisines, Delicious Cuisines, Different Style, Ginger, Ginger Slices, Gravy, Hubby, Kuala Lumpur, Naked Sun Bathing, New Year, Parking Spaces, Penang, Perfect Appetizers, Pineapple Slices, Prawns, Pudu, Raw Fish, Right Moment, Roast Duck, Secret Blend, Several Times, Signature Dish, Sour Plum, Sour Pork, Steamer, Style Text, Vegetables

We went to Swee Garden Restaurant for lunch with our friend, Dr and Mrs Lim (they recommended this place after browsing through their Rasa Rasa Penang book). It is located behind Maybank in Nibong Tebal, Seberang Prai. It is frequented by many outstation customers. Its speciality dish is the Thai style fried pork trotter.

The skin is crunchy, yet the meat is very tender and comes with some pickled onions. Indeed very delicious. The restaurant also serves many varieties of seafood. We had the steamed fish, fried lala, assam prawns and some vegetables.

Would like to recommend you to try their umbra juice suan -boi (sour plum) that comes in a jug. Penang has a lot of coffee shops and restaurants that serves this juice but this one is the best that we had tasted so far. It is so thick and pure (not mixed with a lot of water). They provide ice cubes for the juice.

The food was nice but it was a bit uncomfortable as there were many flies flying around.

Tags: Assam, Coffee Shops, Dish, Flies, Fried Pork, Ice Cubes, Jug, Lala, Lot Of Water, Lunch, Maybank, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Pickled Onions, Prawns, Rasa, Sour Plum, Thai Style, Trotter, Vegetables