vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
With GPS Coordinates
D Kuang Seafood Restaurant @ Kampung Baru, Bukit Mertajam
Jul 8th
For a cheap and tasty meal, D Kuang Seafood Restaurant at Kampung Baru (Bukit Mertajam) would be a great choice. Here, a dinner for a family of four would cost only a little over RM50 and you could have five dishes inclusive of seafood, meat and vegetable. Sounds good? Read on.
Kung Pao Mantis Prawn @ RM8 – one of the crunchiest and freshest mantis prawns I have tasted so far. The portion is small but definitely sufficient to share among three or four pax. One of the things I like about D Kuang is that they prepare the dishes’ portions according to your preferences. Some restaurants would deliberately prepare dishes in big portions in order to charge more in the bill later. Here, you get to specify the portion in headcount. No need to worry about being ‘chopped’.
Fried Squid @ RM8 for the smallest portion. About two large sized squids were used and they were great because of the freshness and not to mention the really crispy coating. Soggy coating is a no-no in any fried seafood caused by low temperature of the oil.
Seafood Popiah @ Gerai Gerai Padang Brown (Dato Keramat Stalls)
Jul 4th
I believe the Seafood Popiah at Gerai Gerai Padang Brown (or also known as Dato Keramat Stalls) is one of the oldest in Penang with a history of over 60 years, even older than the food court which was opened back in 1966. Currently run by uncle Ong, it could might as well be the only popiah stall in town that include real crab meat as one of the ingredients.
Two pieces are the minimum order priced at RM2.80. As you can see the popiah is done the wet way, drowned in the ‘bangkuang char’ (stir-fried turnip/radish) gravy.
Firstly, a quick glaze of Hoisin and chili sauce on the paper thin crepe for the basic flavors.
Then a leaf of lettuce is laid on top of the crepe and followed by the remaining fillings of shredded omelette, a scoop of ‘bangkuang char’, a handful of crab meat and a sprinkle of fried shallots. Some fillings that can be found in the other popiah stalls like the sinful lard, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts and sliced meat are not included here.
Apom Chooi 老字号 Apong @ Jalan Burma, Penang
Jul 2nd
Apong has got to be one of the perfect snacks to go when you are breaking for tea. And if you are a Penangite you would have known that there are 2 pushcart Apong (or Apom) stalls along Burma Road – the first stall is Apom Chooi and about 20-30m away is Apong Guan. Both stalls even have the same pricing for their apong. Kinda ironic eh? But do you also know they are also real life brothers? I didn’t until I read the article displayed in front of Apom Chooi’s stall.
It is undeniable that Apong Guan is the more popular one and has been receiving the limelight more than Apom Chooi due to his good PR skills. Guan has always been the funnier and cheerful one while Chooi is seen as a quieter and more serious person.
Anyway, Chooi is the first person to setup his stall at Burma Road in the 1960s – selling banana fritters initially then decided to sell apong later on. A while later he also persuaded his younger brother Guan to shift his banana fritter stall from somewhere else next to him. As to why Guan also switched to sell apong too and why they aren’t on talking terms now, I do know a little but I won’t make any conclusions. I believe only the two of them know the best themselves.
Premium Pork Belly Satay @ Kwong Satay, Geylang Lorong 29
Jun 30th
Remember I mentioned before Kwong Satay serves the best pork satay I ever had in Singapore? I still stand by my statement after going around the island trying the rest. The second best’s taste doesn’t even come close to Kwong Satay to be honest. This would be my top recommendation for pork satay if you’re planning a trip to Singapore soon.
Anyway after giving up hope on finding a better one I returned for it again one day but for their premium pork belly satay instead, priced at $1 a stick.
This is how the premium pork belly looked like, a piece of pork belly meat side by side with a piece of crunchy pork fat on a skewer. The texture of the meat and fat from the pork belly part is indeed different from the rest of the pork cuts – just more tender and succulent.
