Days back while driving through the Jelutong Express-way, we noticed a typical looking Malay eating outlet beside the ramp just after the old land fill area along the express-way. As we just finish the eLawyer seminar at USM and had no plans of where to have lunch, we decided to try out the Malay eating outlet that we saw previously. When coming from the Georgetown area, just keep to the left after the Jelutong xpress-way Shell petrol station. The “makan” area is just after the old land fill. But if you are driving from the Bayan Lepas direction, after Tesco stay to the left and turn right at the first traffic lights and you will see the “makan” area.

The name of the stall is “Ani Nasi Campur Gulai Sembilang”, and it is housed in the “Balai Nelayan Jelutong”. The stall open’s for business daily except Sunday and their business hours are from 11:30am onwards until everything is gone from their trays. It literally closes after all their dishes are all sold out, and would just take about 2 to 3 hours. We were there some where near to 2:00pm and everything was all sold out except for some beef, squid, and some fish curries.

And thus, that is what we had for lunch that faithfull Saturday. 2 plates of white rice, 1 nasi tambah, 1 curry sembilang head, 1 piece of curry ikan pari , 3 pieces of beef and some chilli squid. And the total demage is RM 17.00.

The “Ikan Pari” or stingray curry had some hint of “balacan” or fermented shrimp paste in it. The taste is of this dish is quite light but the gravy was creamy. It is a dish that I would not miss if the run out of stock on my next visit there.

Next on the table was the “Gulai Sembilang”, which is actually our local catfish cooked in their special “gulai” or curry. The gulai was light, sweet and full of fragrant of spices. As the gulai is light, it did not go well with white rice alone; one would need to mixed it with other heavier tasting gravies. But to enjoy it like one would do with soups would be a better way to enjoy the flavour the sembilang gulai has to offer. As for the sembilang fish head, it was creamy or “lemak” especially with those entire soft cartridge like flesh encasing the skull of the fish head. The mixture of spices used in the gulai was well balanced to rid the sembilang of any unappetising taste but yet left that sweet taste of fish still intact in the dish. No wonder Ani is famous for their “gulai sembilang”!

Wish to read more about the cat's fish curry? click here

aaaaahhhh………Still remember Ivy’s Kitchen Combo Meal posted a month ago?

I feel a bit bad towards to Mr.Tan & Ivy for owing the a-lar cart dinner post for such a long time.

Ok now, Ivy’s Kitchen also have available dishes on a-lar-cart order for dinner time besides the lunch combos that cater to the OLs and OMs in the near by office blocks.

At Night they serve Chinese and Nyonya dishes, and the followings are my verdict for some of the dishes served for the invited review dinner do:

The Big Banner hanging in front of the restaurant is eye catching. Jason has given Mr. Tan some ideas to make the restataurant’s brand name more visible to attract those who drive on Jalan Chow Thye. One of them was to place a extended vertical banner similar to that used by Japanese restaurants to show-off its name because the current banner is slightly out of sight by car drivers.

Sweet and Sour Flower Crab (market price)

The sauce combination is thick and very flavorful, and i can taste the distinctive sweet crab meat flavor from the first mouthful.

The flower crab flesh was indeed very meaty & fresh, it is a testament to the quality ingredients that they used here. To be frank, is my first encounter with such a meaty flower crab. Usually flower crab ain’t that meaty. The dish is a good mate for a bowl of fragrant white rice.

It was good, but there was a slightly sweet after taste. Light handed on the sugar is necessary.

Rating for the dish: 3.9/5

Gulai Tumis Chinese Silver Pomfret (market price)

Gulai Tumis usually would be Malaysian’s favourite, when talk and think about the dish one would start begin to experience a saliva tsunami in the mouth. Hahaha…

What is so special about the Gulai? It is all about the spiciness of the chili paste, sourly taste of tamarind, pungent smell of lemongrass, light perfumery bungah kantan (tourh ginger) to make it became a mouth watering dish.

Above all ingredients, Ivy’s Kitchen version has additional Green Chilies and tomatoes. The Silver Promfret was fresh, but the fish was slightly over cooked because there some late arrivals due to the traffic situation. I personally would prefer the silver pomfret put into the steaming tray rather into the gulai tumis if the fish still extremely fresh. :)

Rating for the dish: 3.7/5

Assam Prawns (RM20 for 10 prawns)

Look at that divine caramelised colour!

There are 2 types of assam prawn, either with thick gravy or dried. And here they served dried and crispy assam prawn with wonderful flavors .

I would say this nyonya assam prawn was very authentic to me. Although here in Malaysia there are tones of restaurant serving the same dish, but rarely you would get the same “good” nyonya assam prawn.

But don’t be sad, you can now taste the very nicely marinated and pan fried to perfection assam prawn in Ivy’s kitchen. The tamarind flavour is not overpowering; sweet and sour on the right balance. Thumbs Up!

Rating for the dish: 4/5

check the rest of the food list and rating here

It was a hot late afternoon and what the hack my appointment was canned, so we detoured to the old “Bubur” push-cart-stall on the sidelines of the busy Penang Road in the heart of Georgetown. The stall is no other than the famous “Kamblis Bubur” at the junction of Penang Road and Jalan Dato Koyah. It is just directly opposite of Ho Ping coffee shop and just at the door steps of the once famous Kayu Nasi Kandar.

It has been quite sometime since I last ate at this bubur stall. So you when there is an opportunity, I can’t resist. At the stall you can see people from all walks of live, from different ethnic group, of different skin colour etc enjoying a bowl of thick, sweet and rich “bubur” and mingling about the daily happenings. There is no tension or disharmony to be seen.

My favourite is their “bubur gandum” or wheat porridge in direct translation. The bubur gandum is actually whole wheat grains cooked in coconut milk and sweeten and seasoned to produce that seemingly sinful tea time snack for people of all ages, except the diabetic. A bowl of bubur with a scoop of glutinous rice only cost RM 0.70, but take-away would cost 30 cents more. The bubur gandum is only available on weekend(s), which I am not very sure. On week days they would cooked up other types of bubur which they daily changed so as not to bore their patrons with the same old thing everyday. It is a bit cliché; you can say it is like a pot of chocolate, you won’t know what is installed for the pot cover is lifted.

Want to know more where is this old school dessert located? click here

Last Saturday on (13th June 2009) we revisited Blue Reef, the fish n’ chip joint at 32 Permai off Vale of Tempe that we visited early this year. The revisit to Blue Reef was partially to meet a friend and also to find out whether their quality food is still consistent to that we had early this year. We had to find out for our selves because we have read some ‘not so good’ comments of the place.

It has been almost 6 months since we set foot in Blue Reef, and we didn’t know what to expect from them. Not much has changed since then, the only thing that we notice is the little drawings that were pasted on one side of their wall. It is good to see that our ideas were accepted and used, but the actual idea was to have the photos of patrons and their fun moments captured and enshrine on their wall. At least the idea was used in some way!

Currently there is an offer for a full meal option, excluding dessert, for an additional RM1. It is a good promotional strategy at this current economy phase. Many are looking for bargain and money saving deals for their daily needs and wants. With an additional RM 1 added to the cost of the chosen main course, I was served with a glass of ice-lemon tea and a bowl of the soup of the day.

The soup of the day that we had was their green pea soup. It tasted kind of earthy, nutty and sweet. There was some sandy texture to the soup which I find to my liking. Served with the soup, was piece toasted garlic bread. On seeing it, we thought that the bread would hard to consume due to the thicker shaped. But surprisingly the bread was quite manageable because it was crisp on the surface and moist and soft inside. Thus, it was not crumbly and hard to bite into.

For the main course, I had their Salmon Burger. The flaky salmon patty was well caramelised on the surfaces and yet retaining the juicy moisture. The seasoning of the salmon meat was well choreographed as it did not totally overwhelm the distinct taste of salmon. The crisp and soft sesame seed bun and the sauté onion toppings was a good combination to the salmon patty. There was only one thing that I felt bad about the burger was the amount of tartar sauce. I would personally leave the tartar sauce out and may be sauté the onions with some balsamic vinegar to give the burger some added flavour.

Gill had their Aglio e Olio as usual. But it was a bit of a disappointment for her because they have substitute the pork bacon for the anchovies as they are now a pork free restaurant. With the anchovies, it tasted a bit weird to us. We asked Chris why not use beef bacon, and he told us that it did not have enough flavour. Anyway, I guess we would be going back for try their Aglio e Olio again because the Chris mentioned that they might change it to Seafood Aglio e Olio. The previous trip to Blue Reef, the Aglio e Olio was excellent and the pasta strands were firm and springy.

No signs of beer batter fish? check it out here

It was a sunny morning somewhere in March this year that we were invited to interview the owners of an unique bakery located on the busy Chulia Street in the Georgetown area, Rainforest Bakery. The bakery has been in operations since year 2000/2001 which at those days were only supplying their breads wholesale to eateries, etc. But as time goes by and from the request of their ‘door-knocking’ customers, Rainforest began to plan for a retail outlet which was finally materialised at its current location on Chulia Street in year 2008. At Rainforest, one could see that customers from all walks of life and nationality wondering and choosing their pick of the day from the selection of continental breads that are baked daily.

At current the bakery is being managed by a pair of identical twins, Jerry and Jesse Tan(short spiky hair do). Jesse whom entertained our question and answer session was actually MIA from Rainforest Bakery for approximately 3 years not for fun, but to work in London and travel around Europe to acquire the skills and knowledge that they require to differentiate their breads from the localised bakeries and to provide better and healthier loafs of wholesome organic breads to its patrons. The daily fresh baked loafs uses the traditional or organic methods of preparing the dough for each individual type of bread that they offer today. Organic does not only mean that the ingredients are organic, even the preparation and baking process must be organic in every way that is what sets them apart from the rest. What they are selling at the bakery is not only bread, but also the concept of healthy organic traditionally baked and non-localised bread.

The daily fresh baked loafs uses the traditional or organic methods of preparing the dough for each individual type of bread that they offer today. Organic does not only mean that the ingredients are organic, even the preparation and baking process must be organic in every way and that is what sets them apart from the rest. Enjoy with assurance that no preservative, no MSG or enhancers and no essence are use in their bread. Even the yeast they used is self-cultured!

Alot more bread to browse here

We have heard and read much about the new fad in town, Coconut Jelly. Thus, during the Labour Day weekend after much request from our church members, we organised a ‘makan’ trip in the Georgetown and Tanjung Tokong area. And for the finally of the trip we brought them to the current food fad, Coconut Jelly, located in one of the old districts on the Penang Island.

Legend has it that the trend started from here at Joez Coconut. This Joez Coconut, under another business name, traditionally sells coconut base products like the refreshing coconut juice, coconut milk, etc. But after the son of the proprietor and yours truly, Joel Jeyachandran took over the business from his dad they begun to venture into producing and selling the now famous coconut jelly.

The coconut jelly is produced by heating and cooling the coconut fruit whole, no sugar or other chemicals and preventives are added. But sometimes a small amount of sugar would be added if the coconut fruit is too young or the meat is not ripe enough which would produce a sour end to this otherwise refreshing dessert. As the product is without any preservative, therefore it must be refrigerated to ensure that it can last at least 5 days.

The end product of the secretly kept recipe is a very smooth and silky pure coconut nectar jelly with fragrant coconut aroma and sweet flavor of ‘Pandan’. If luck is on your side, you might also get to scavenge mouthful of rich coconut flesh with every spoonful of jelly.

Get to know more about this new dessert? click here to read more

After a meeting with our business partners at Queensbay, I decided of bringing Gill to the Thong Shui stall that I used to patronise occasionally after meeting a client in the Sungai Dua area during my working days. This thong shui or dessert stall is manned a husband and wife team who started this business some 2 yeras ago. The stall is located directly facing the Sungai Dua Tesco Extra main entrance at the end of the ‘T’ junction opposite it.

The stall sells a variety of traditional hot desserts and some cold ones like ‘loh han goa’,'pak mok yee’, etc. Majority of the hot desserts are rotated or changed either daily or weekly depending on the supply of ingredients to give their customers a sense of surprise when they open up the pots to see what do they have install for them. Basically their desserts cater to those who prefer a taste of the old and those who do not wish to be overwhelm with to much sugary sweetness. To me it is a good cool-off place and ’snake’ for a while before continuing with the daily chores.

One of my favourites is the whole-wheat or ‘gandum’ congee. It is not as tasty as those famous ones in Georgetown but it do suffice the craving when it creeps up. The sweet taste of melted sugar and the bid like texture of the bloated grains of wheat is something that you would not forget.

The black glutinous rice congee or ‘or chu bee’ is also....

Click here to read more in our shifted blog @ gourmetgarden.com.my

A cruller in western context is a fried pastry made of dough which may resemble the shape of a doughnut or twister sticks with some cake characteristics. Crullers are often topped with powdered sugar or icing, but now-a-days with more sinful ingredients. Traditional crullers were being made and sold at Dunkin’ Donuts, not until 2003 when they decided to stop these delicacies due to the labour-intensive nature of the process.

In this part of the globe, crullers are almost the same as those found on the western hemisphere except that they are coated nor topped with any other ingredients. Chinese crullers or commonly known as 'you tiao' are sticks of dough deep fried till goldenly crisp, with the inners of the 'you tiao' should still retaining some softness. Last Sunday, after reviewing the Ivy's Kitchen and after picking Gill up at her friends', we went to this road side stall along the main road of Paya Terubong in search of the not-so-well-known 'Te Chang You Tiao' or extra long crullers.

The 'Te Chang You Tiao' stall is manned by Mr. Tan junior and his pretty efficient workers. Over here one could get a glimpse of how the traditional Chinese crullers are made. It all starts with a batch of dough which is then separated into smaller batches or blocks. Then the dough is left to sit or rise before they are prep for the fryer. What is so special of the crullers stall is that they produce extra long golden crisp cruller sticks which are around 14 to 15 inch. The normal Chinese crullers in town are half the length of Tan's crullers.

Read more about this article in our self hosted blog

gourmetgarden.com.my