vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Archive for June, 2006
Food @ Gurney Drive
Jun 7th
The hawkers at [tag]Gurney Drive[/tag] has been relocated to a vacant land along Jalan [tag]Tanjung Tokong[/tag] at the moment. This move is to make way for the authorities to upgrade the existing Gurney Drive [tag]hawker[/tag] centre. Among improvements being made are the lightings, flooring, landscaping and a much needed public toilet.
I still can remember when I went to Gurney Drive end of last year only to find the hawkers disappeared lol, not knowing they have relocated. I even made a phone call to Wen Fong to check with him whether the hawker centre existed before, silly me.
Actually there’s nothing special about Gurney Drive’s hawker center. It doesn’t really offer a large variety of [tag]food[/tag], but does provide a neat environment for dining. Gurney Drive is also a family and couples’ haven. Bring your loved ones here for a stroll after dining along the endless rows of restaurants, it makes good memory. Anyway look at the beautiful sky that evening, Siang Leng couldn’t resist taking a photo of it 
The fried oyster we had was really good, look at the photos we took. Plenty of huge oysters hidden under the egg! It is a hit with the customers, quite a number of people lining up to take orders.
And these are some other food we had: Muar Chee, Satay and Tau Fu Fa. Avoid buying Satay from Chinese, go for the Malays instead for better ones. And also, remember to purchase the Tau Fu Fa cold lol. The one we had was warm, it’d be much nicer if chilled
Our one-day [tag]Penang[/tag] trip ended here after dinner. As usual, we boarded a ferry home. It was a great day with plenty of nice food stomached, a good movie watched and an enjoyable trip back to BM.
Looking forward to visit here again but minus the traffic 
Food @ Lorong Selamat
Jun 6th
As the name implies, Lorong Selamat is a street in Penang Island that has a lot of good food to offer (although I am not very sure whether it is really that selamat or not ) I am neither familiar with Penang roads nor good at giving directions. To reach this place, just follow the road to Komtar and you will come across Macallister Road. Lorong Selamat is only 2-3 streets away from it.
The coffee shop is small but always packed with people. It has a traditional feel to it due to the tables being used. This lady clad in pink and wearing a cap shown in the photo below is very friendly with the customers
One of the must try in Lorong Selamat is their Ais Kacang. It is different from any other ABC because of its Sarsi flavored syrup and atapchi. It is very rare to see atapchi in ABC already nowadays. Anyway if you have the time, do walk accross the street to Lorong Swatow, which also features kick-ass ABC. The main difference is the amount of ingredients being served, Lorong Selamat’s ABC tends to be more stingy in this
The curry mee sold here is also good, RM2.50 a bowl. This was our lunch last Sunday before Siang Leng and I went to watch X-men 3 in Gurney Plaza.
Bukit Mertajam Duck Egg Char Koay Teow
Jun 6th
I bet many of you have heard of the famous “Sisters’ Koay Teow” from Lorong Selamat. Well, they can move aside. Being simply overrated and overpriced, RM5.00 for a plate? It is plain outrageous. It tastes like normal CKT you would buy from anywhere else, just with bigger prawns -_- Worse still, you have to QUEUE for it, self service!
If you are from BM, chances are you have already sampled the best Char Koay Teow (CKT) in Penang, and IMO the best I’ve tasted so far. Bring any of your friends to try it, they will simply agree with you that it is the best.
A good plate of CKT must fulfill the following,
- Fried using lards, plenty of them. It’s unhealthy but it makes the dish so much nicer, so who cares?
- Use charcoal instead of gas.
- Fried with duck eggs. Because fried duck eggs have a nicer feel to the bite compared to normal fried chicken eggs. They are more fragrant too.
- Include lots of cockles, and big fat prawns. Throw in a few slices of Chinese Sausage too if possible.
- And finally, serve on a piece of (clean) banana leaf, to enhance the aroma.
Photos of the CKT shown above are taken in the famous Duck Egg CKT stall in BM. This is a family business run by 3 brothers daily from 9.30pm until midnight in 3 separate locations: taxi station, train station and along Jalan Kulim. This stall is a must for me and my friends during Chinese New Year, we would have a great time eating and talking about our school lives. It is kind of like a reunion spot for us.
If possible, go to the stall along Jalan Kulim as it is the best. One of the younger brother (operating in train station) is relatively new to frying so it might not taste as good as the other two. Before this he only helped out by serving the customers and making drinks. He can be recognized very easily by his long hair.
A normal plate of CKT costs RM2.20, big ones cost RM2.70. You can opt for an extra “hor-bao” duck egg as topping for RM0.70. I didn’t know they raised the all the price by 20cents until I went last weekend. For me, RM2.20 a plate is still cheap and worth it because the boss is not stingy with the ingredients: 4-5 medium sized prawns and generous amount of cockles
Photography!
Jun 4th
I am ready to take up a new hobby, Photograpy This is probably the camera I am going to get, the Canon S3IS shown below. The salesman at Gurney Plaza did a good job in convincing me to go for it. Retailed at RM1,899 it is one of the latest DSLR camera released by Canon. Well lucky me I know a shop along Komtar that sells it for RM1,650.
For me, the price is reasonable as the cheapest 3G Nokia phone already costs RM17xx. Even my current lousy h/p cost me RM13xx a year ago -_- I should’ve saved the money for this. Anyway after I get the camera I am going to start a photoblog, and do lots of travelling as well as eating 
I have been doing some research and consider optical zoom is the most important factor while purchasing cameras. And this baby happens to have 6.0 Megapixel and 12x optical zoom! Don’t bother digital zoom, even if it features x 10000, it deteriorates your photo’s quality. Best of all, it uses AA alkaline batteries, which is good for travellers, AA batteries can be bought literally anywhere. Hope to get it later this month when payday comes~
