vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Bukit Mertajam
Dim Sum City @ Insa Dunia Food Court, Bukit Mertajam
Nov 11th
The famous Wong Chow dim sum restaurant in Bukit Mertajam is getting worse with sub par food being served and choices are very limited too. I have since blacklisted the restaurant, which is a shame because it used to be my favorite dim sum restaurant. Luckily I have found an alternative for my weekend dim sum fix – Dim Sum City (Dian Xin Cheng) at Kampung Baru.
I won’t be going into details about the dim sum here but they are mostly good tasting. I also think that their dim sum is the top in BM currently for quality and variety.
Hakka Noodles @ Jalan Kulim, Bukit Mertajam
Oct 31st
I am a sucker for Hakka Noodles and I would always order it if it’s available. One day I saw this Hakka food stall next to Kang’s Beef Noodle in Bukit Mertajam. And as far as I know, it is the very first in BM to sell Hakka noodle. So, I gave it a try with fairly high hopes it could rival the quality in KL.
The minced meat was OK but the noodles was a disappointment, pretty bland tasting. Sad to say it still has a long way to go before being able to match the Hakka noodles in KL. Even those prepared by foreigners taste better. The only consolation is the cheap price @ RM2.50 per bowl.
Oops, crappy photo due to backlight lol. Besides Hakka noodle, Yong Tau Fu and Lui Cha are also available. Although I am Hakka, I am not a big fan of Lui Cha at all lol. If you haven’t had Hakka noodle before but curious about the taste, you can probably give it a try.
GPS Coordinates: N5 21.245 E100 28.289
Cheok Sah Hokkien Mee @ Bukit Mertajam
Sep 29th
It’s really kinda hard to find good Hokkien Mee (prawn noodles @ KL) in BM nowadays. The once famous [tag]Hokkien Mee[/tag] at [tag]Cheok Sah[/tag] Square opposite Cheok Sah cinema is fast becoming bad too. Back in the 80s when I was still a small kid, the noodles was quite tasty and the stall had a good customer base. In the 90s the quality started to drop a lot and now it is no better than any average Hokkien Mee you can find in normal hawker centres.
Since then, eating here is a thought that would have never crossed my mind. So, the only reason I went back for the noodles was solely for nostalgia’s sake. Sitting in the coffee shop while looking at the old abandoned cinema and people carrying out their daily lifes on the market streets sure brought back some fond memories.
My first ever experience of going to the movies was here too – I went to see Terminator at Cheok Sah. At that time, where got GSC, TGV or Cathay? LOL. And our snack would be cotton candy and those round keropok resembling steering wheels in a cone shaped packaging.
Like any other soup based noodles, the problem with Cheok Sah’s Hokkien Mee lies in the soup. It might be due to the rising cost of ingredients and the owner trying to keep the price as low as possible. So, the soup was very diluted and you can’t really taste much prawns in it. Kinda pity eh since it seemed like quite tasty from the looks.
Next to the stall is Yoong Kee Restaurant, which is famous for their Teo Chew dishes. Actually, one of the reasons I am posting this even though the noodles does not taste that good is because I want to fish comments from my fellow BM kias, lol. Any BM kias reading this reading mind telling me where to look for good Hokkien Mee in BM? Sri Rambai? Taman Bukit? Berapit? Kampung Baru? Name it and I will try it on my next trip home during the Raya holidays. Kam siah!
GPS Coordinates: N5 21.724 E100 27.641
Kang Beef Koay Teow Soup @ Jalan Kulim, Bukit Mertajam
Sep 22nd
Kang Beef Koay Teow Soup @ Jalan Kulim, Bukit Mertajam was recommended by a fellow reader. I have always knew about the stall and its popularity among BM’s [tag]Beef Soup Koay Teow[/tag] lovers, just that I didn’t have the initiative to try it. But, I finally tried it on my last trip back to hometown.
I ordered the dry version which cost RM6 for the smallest order. Price wise it was kinda expensive if compared to the ones I could have had in KL. Anyway, the preparation was really simple – by adding dark soy sauce and chopped garlic with oil on it. Sad to say the noodles tasted pretty bland – I could only taste dark soya sauce and nothing else.
For dry beef koay teow, the beef meats are served separately in a bowl of beef soup. It tasted quite good with plenty of ingredients. I think I could have enjoyed the soup even more if there weren’t so much chopped coriander leaves in it. Although I don’t particularly dislike coriander, the amount was just too much and overpowering for my liking.
If you can read Chinese, you will see that they serve bull penis as well, just add RM8. Well, I am not that daring yet lol.
There aren’t many Beef Soup Koay Teow stalls in Bukit Mertajam. So, unless you are willing to travel to Butterworth or Penang island for the really good ones, Kang’s is still quite OK to satisfy some cravings for beef koay teow soup.
Map: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=5.3540448&lon=100.4714298&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2
GPS Coordinates: N5 21.247 E100 28.286
