Showing posts with label Penang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penang. Show all posts

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Evergreen Laurel Hotel @ Gurney Drive, Penang

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Located at 53 Persiaran Gurney, it was about 40 minutes ride from the Penang International Airport. On weekdays evening, expect heavy traffic and it'll take probably 15-20 minutes longer. Taxi fare from airport would be about RM50. There are private cars awaiting passengers and those are cheaper by RM10 although one ought to be careful.

Evergreen is one of the older establishment along that area. Not the best, and not the worst one either. Don't quote me, this was what one of the hotel staff told me. Haha!

Check-in was a breeze and a deposit of RM100 was required, refundable at check-out. However, on the day of my stay, the hotel was experiencing an issue with their airconditioning. "No aircond for the time being till it is fixed." That did dampen the mood of the guests quite a bit!

'premium' king sized bed
desk and sofa area
deluxe sea-facing view

Sunrise was approximately at 713am, so went out the next morning to catch it. Weather was a little hazy.

sunrise

good morning

The sea is at the opposite side of the hotel, and the pedestrian path was popular with joggers and people out doing their morning walk. It was a Friday that felt like a weekend. Holidays feels so good!

walking
waves rushing onwards
no flowers to smell, so will just watch the birds
slow down and enjoy the view

On days like this, I'd like some dim sum please. Coincidentally, found one about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

dim sum for breakfast
variety of steamed dim sum
fried stuffs

Did a take-away back to the hotel. Amusingly, the shop doesn't provide any disposable chopsticks as they didn't stock any.

coffee
assorted dim sum @RM15
century egg with fish and pork paste
yam puff with char siew

Skip the brinjal and handmade fishballs as brinjal was too hard and fishballs were too mushy. This dim sum shop seemed to fare better with fillings that include pork and prawns, and deep fried. Yam puff was half-half as one tasted good but the other had fillings that tasted bland. But its exterior was well-fried and crispy.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

New Lane Hawker Centre @ Lorong Baru, Georgetown Penang

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This hawker centre is located like a minute's walk to Sunway Hotel in Georgetown. Was staying at Glow Macalister Road, and to get to New Lane from Glow, is approximately ten minutes walk along the same side of the hotel. Yay to no road crossing!



New Lane, stalls getting ready

New Lane Hawker Centre or rather hawker street is actually a collection of smaller stalls selling various street food that converges daily after 3+pm. Numerous stalls would lining up along the road and some would be ready for business at about 4+. By 6pm, this place would come alive with wok sizzling, customers placing orders, chefs busy dishing up their wares and vehicles trying to squeeze in and out of this small lane.

New Lane Hawker Street

Over a span of 2 nights, I've managed to try a few stalls from this makan area. Street food hunt.

seafood char koay kak

For the uninitiated, seafood char koay kak's taste is akin to char kway teow plus fried carrot cake. Instead of radish, koay kak is normally rice flour. Lots of chai po and garlic was fried and thus, it was very fragrant. This stall was rather generous with the amount of dough too.

char koay kak takeaway @RM$5
it should be renamed as prawn char koay kak instead

Still preferred fried carrot cake's taste though. Not used to the rice flour cake's taste here, though the rest of the ingredients were actually very fragrant. Prawns were unfortunately overfried too.

There are stalls located within the coffeeshop too. Tried the roasted chicken wing that many has blogged about. Minimum order is 2 pieces and each piece goes for RM$2.20. Drumstick (more apt to call it chicken thigh) is RM$6 per piece.

roasted chicken wings & drumsticks
roasted wings - takeaway

Liked the wings here better than the one I tried at a coffeeshop in Gurney Drive, near Evergreen Laurel Hotel. The chili sauce here was green in colour and the wings were glazed with sweet sauce. Drumstick looked good too.

Outside the same coffeeshop, there is a stall selling congee. To be precise, it sells 猪肠粥 or chee cheong jook (in cantonese) or pig intestine congee. Hmm, but its chinese sign says it sells pig mixed parts congee. Also can lah... Not sure if the boss had retired or not but the stall was manned by two foreign workers.

pig intestine congee stall

Had the congee inside the coffeeshop. For this privilege, one need to order at least 1 drink from the coffeeshop.

chee cheong chook - RM6.50

It was one, glorious bowl of congee. Liked it very much. Loaded with ingredients - stomach, shang cheong (生肠), meat, deep fried intestine, liver and char siew. I think it'll taste much better without the sweet char siew. Less sweet and more savoury would be good. Congee was smooth, just how a good Cantonese porridge texture should be. Recommended. Just tell the guy you want everything inclusive of the deep fried intestine. Yummeh!

Along New Lane, one will find a loh bak stall. Not the ones within the coffeeshop but the one outside.

loh bak 卤肉
closer view

Penang Loh Bak is actually a myriad of deep fried items, usually fried upon order. For first timer who can't decide, just let the stall owner know that it's for one pax and she'll pick something for you. Tried this twice and the common items that she puts in there were loh bak (meat roll), prawn fritters, fish ball and tofu. Felt that it was value for money as the pack had 5 items for RM$5. Liked the sauces too. The gooey brown sauce and the sweet chili sauce with peanuts. Dipped into both for maximum taste! Liked this loh bak so much I had it twice during my 2 nights stay at Glow Hotel Macalister Road.

loh bak @RM$5


Monday, August 4, 2014

Gurney Drive Hawker Centre (Pusat Penjaja Anjung Gurney) @ Gurney Drive Penang

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Visited Penang island recently, and stayed at Evergreen Laurel Hotel at Gurney Drive. Did what most tourist would do, which was to explore the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre. It was a 15 minutes walk from the hotel.

evening walk towards Gurney Drive Hawker Centre

Along the way, one would pass by coffeeshops, restaurants, cafes, malls, condominiums and finally, the hawker centre.

seafood restaurant where mostly tourist buses will unload
teochew food
Gurney Plaza shopping mall
Gurney Drive Hawker Centre

One thing that I've learnt while in Penang, was on how to cross busy roads.

lots of choices
what to eat?
kangkung sotong

One local taxi driver divulged that locals won't be flocking to Lorong Selamat, Gurney Drive Hawker Centre, Line Clear etc if they want good food. They would hunt down different stalls that sells tasty individual items. For example, a Malay stall along Jalan Macalister that sells very good stuffed fried fish or, a stall in Air Itam that sells assam laksa etc.

For myself, hawker centres plays the role of conveniently bringing lots of different types of food under one roof. Though, sometimes one need abit of luck (or do some research first) to get tasty good food.

Throwing caution to the wind, I didn't do any research on this one and just went around looking for things to eat.

what's a prawn lam mee?
Decided to try Prawn Lam Mee as I have not heard of this before.

just a small one and add a side of intestine
prawn lam mee

Soup tasted like regular Penang prawn noodle (or here they called it Hokkien mee) but not as robust. Ingredients were few and little. Almost meatless and with a thin slice of egg. Total cost was RM6.50 due to the added intestine (生肠). Would not recommend.

Feeling unsatisfied, walked around the hawker centre and spotted a stall selling apom.

snacks

Observed it a while, and looks quite good so bought some. Regretted not buying more!

sweet apom
small modern mini woks for the crispy ones
pancake making in progress

Two versions of the pancake, crispy or with banana version. Tried the banana pancake and it was good. Sweet, light and has abit of banana slice and some coconut shreds. RM3 for 6 pieces or RM2 for 4. One pax can eat 6 even right after dinner. It's really tiny, probably just 2 bites.

banan apom
with coconut


 
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