[Travel Penang] 3 Days 2 Night - Day 2 Jalan Jalan at Chew Jetty and Hins Depot, Makan at Hins Depot Festive Market vibe and Dinner at Ivy's Nonya Cuisine

The girls were excited to take Free CAT Bus. CAT refers to "Circular Penang Tourist Bus". No, the bus is regular shaped but I guess the route is circular. Haha.

Let's go let's go! We're reliving our youth again! (somewhat, and it's probably just in my head only). Hehe.

The nearest stop was the Komtar one. So we went about that direction, asked someone for directions, passed by a public toilet, then checked online and voila, found it!

right spot

Luckily, not many people were waiting so we managed to get seats when the bus arrived. After a short journey, the gang decided to alight to do some sightseeing and shopping 

one of the landmarks in Penang

Suddenly, the girls disappeared into saree shops and one came out half an hour later with a purchase. 

Next, we continued on foot towards Chew Jetty. It's near, they said. And then, it rained. 

sights at Chew Jetty

popular photo spot

The girls shopped for trinkets and we went back to our hotel to freshen up. Then we walked to Hins Depot which is nearby the hotel.

Now, the sky has cleared and to my surprise, from the outside Hins Depot looked like a place for photo-op but on the inside, at first it felt somewhat like an art gallery and once inside, it's a whole festive kind of Sunday Market vibe! 

There's an area for music bands to perform, place for people to relax and enjoy the performance, various stalls selling food or trinkets etc and also some regular restaurants inside the area. Nice.

festive vibe

popular coffee truck at Hins

spicy beef noodles

beef begedil

quesadilla

The food that some of the girls got from the stalls looked pretty amazing and tasted good! But payment is via Touch&Go or Duit Now which I don't have.

Puey Ling likes this place

boba milk tea (less sweet)

spicy shrimp dumplings

Then we went back to hotel to relak relak before meeting Thanges (coming all the way from Kedah!) for dinner.

Took a Grab to the restaurant as it was raining again. We were late and the restaurant was nice to allow the change in time in reservation to half hour later.

nice decor

we were in a group of 8 pax

table full

ala-carte order of telor belanda (tomato sauced fried eggs)

hee peow soup

ala-carte order of perut ikan

First time I've of heard of 'perut ikan' dish but can't really distinct the 'fish stomach' in there as it tasted like a vegetable dish. This dish was appetising and tasty.

ju hoo char

The ju hoo char here was a standout. The chili dip was pretty amazing. I liked the assam fish dish too. Lovely soft bendi as the perfect accompaniment.

assam fish

It was a fun evening where we learnt new happenings in the lives of our childhood friends, now most have their next generation and the happenings in their lives.

Just want to say "Thank you, dear friends".

Chew Jetty

Address: Georgetown, 10300 George Town, Penang

Hins Depot

Address: 31A, Jalan Gurdwara, 10300 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Website: https://hinbusdepot.com/

Business Hours:

Daily: 10 am–10 pm

Osmanthus Alley

Address: 59, Jalan Gurdwara, 10300 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Osmanthus-Alley-Restaurant-619221172066919/

Business Hours:

Closed on Mon.

Tue to Sun: 11 am–9 pm

Ivy's Nonya Cuisine

Address: 100,102, 104, Jalan Kedah, George Town, 10050 George Town, Pulau Pinang

Website: https://www.facebook.com/ivysnyonyacuisine
Business Hours:

Closed on Mon.

Tue to Sun: 11:30 am–3 pm, 5:30–9 pm

Dinner at Mosella @ Pan Pacific Orchard

We've known each other for like 3 decades (since Primary School days) and everyone's gone off to different continents in the world, though a handful of us are in Singapore. So when Jun Ling says Lydia is in town, it was decided that the 'locals' will bring her out for dinner.

Dinner reservation for 6 pax was made, though the booking site required some inputs that was kinda confusing for me. Nevertheless, I was excited to connect again with old friends. 

The restaurant lights were rather dim, so it would've been romantic if not for us oldies who needed light to see the menu proper. 

Some of us opted for sparkling, and some opted for still water. All bottled, and service was good with staff coming by to top up the water in our glasses, or just to come round to ask us if we would be needing anything else.

sparkling water

I've already seen their online menu and was just waiting for the rest to choose the dishes. We opted for a rather conservative selection of 2 appetisers, hamachi tiradito, burrata and heirloom tomatoes, 2 pasta dish; King Crab spaghetti and spinach ricotta ravioli, 1 grill; Cochinillo Asado and 2 desserts; mangosteen and pionono. 

Complimentary bread was served after food orders had been confirmed.

rosemary bread

bread dips

The rosemary bread was mildly scented by the herbs and goes well with both the dips. Loved the salted center.

Burrata & Heirloom Tomatoes @$28

My first impression of the burrata was not great... I was like, "why is it so flat..." But it was soon replaced with a pleasant surprise as the overall taste together with the arugula, basil oil and candied walnut was good.

little bit of creamy burrata, sweet tomatoes, tangy dressing

Hamachi was alright but it didn't stand out. My friends said they enjoyed the appetiser.

King Crab Spaghetti @$38

tasting portion of the spaghetti

Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli @$32

Thanks to Jun Ling who chose the ravioli dish. It had strong flavours and at least 2 pieces for each of us. All things combined, this was tasty and a delightful. There was some rosemary bread left from earlier, so I used that to mop up most of the ravioli sage butter sauce. Delish.

small morsels of flavour

The Spanish Suckling Pig did not disappoint. Originally plated as two pieces, so we asked the staff to help slice it for the 6 of us. It came back beautifully. While the skin was not as crispy, its meat more than made up for that with its gentle tenderness.

Cochinillo Asado @$38

Then, it was time for desserts. The signature Mangosteen was cutesy but it was indeed smallish in size. The mangosteen 'fruit' was cream-like while its 'skin' was thick chocolate shell. 

The Mangosteen @$14

Spanish Pionono @$12

The Pionono was well-liked by our table. Loved the pastry, the cream and mascarpone. 

Staff brought out a towering slice of cake for the birthday girl and we ended the evening, feeling contented. 

Thank you to the service crew who took care of our table that night, especially Yusof and Ms D. 

Special thanks to Jun Ling (who gathered us), Lydia, Su Chin, Lily and Yen Boon for spending time together and reminiscing on our school days as well as catching up (maybe just a small snippet) with the latest in everyone's life.

Mosella 

Address: 10 Claymore Rd Singapore 229540

Website: https://mosella.sg/

Business Hours:

Sun - Thu: 6:30 AM–10 PM

Fri: 6:30 AM–10:30 PM

[Travel] Exploring Chiang Mai - Dinner at Baan Rai Yarm Yen , and then supper at The Beast Burger and Pizza

We had a fruitful day visiting the places of interest, and what a pleasant surprise by Salina who was in Chiang Mai that day. She made reservations for dinner at Baan Rai Yarm Yen when we said we would like to try more northern Thai dishes.

The rain was relentless and it didn't let up even during dinner.

resident cat guarding the shop

The restaurant was bustling that evening and we were early. It was interesting to see staff deployed to the car drop-off/pick-up area when it is raining as staff would provide the service of shielding customers with umbrella while they boarded the vehicle there.

Our group of 6 pax was led into the inner section of the restaurant so that it is somewhat further from the live music, to allow us to converse better and still able to enjoy the vibe.

The restaurant has a western country-music style vibe and the live singing was pretty good. They have one or two singers, a guitarist/bassist and a keyboardist from what I observed.

Ed and Salina helped to order and soon our table was full of delicious looking foods.

sausages

Northern appetisers

grilled honeycomb/larvae

stir-fry wild vegetables

deep fried mushrooms

deep fried fermented chicken

I'm eyeing those pork cracklings

We ate a lot and everything was delicious. I loved the sausages here better than any that we had thus far in this trip. The meat texture was softer and the sticky rice was good too. Ate half a pack.

The appetiser came with the green chili dip and it was more mellow tasting in this place. There was a fermented bean/fish paste that came with one of the dish and I liked that too.

There were two dishes that one normally would not order; fried bamboo worms and grilled honeycomb that turned out to be grilled larvae. Fried bamboo worms actually tasted like any twisties or mamee snack due to its seasoning and its hollow body actually made it easy to like, and goes well with iced cold beer. The grilled honeycomb tasted of mild honey sweetness and egg-like texture. Like eating steamed omelette that's sweetened with honey.

draft beer, cheers~

We had steamed fish here as well and it was also one of the better ones that we had thus far.

To end the meal, we tried their housemade coconut ice-cream dessert which was highly recommended by the staff.

The dessert came looking pretty, with purple sticky rice at the bottom and decorated with cut mangoes. Ice-cream was creamier and milkier than any coconut ice-cream tried thus far, and I do understand the rationale of such. Eaten together with the sticky rice and mangoes, the creamy parts does a good job in providing the overall creaminess expected in such dessert. Am also amazed that the warm sticky rice doesn't harden when paired with cold ice-cream. 

Thank you Salina and Ed for the dinner treat!

Baan Rai Yarm Yen ร้าน บ้านไร่ยามเย็น

Address: Ban Rai Mu 3 Alley, Fa Ham, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand

Website: https://www.wongnai.com/restaurants/2686yj-%E0%B8%9A%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%99

Business Hours:

Daily: 11 am–12 am

And since the night is still young, we made our way to the next dinner/supper spot. Ed and Salina initially thought we were joking...

menu

signage

order at the counter, make payment and pick-up the food when it is ready

window seats

The burger place is pretty close to the a few hotels and hostel but a tad far from ours.

Since it was only 40 minutes after we've had our dinner, I'd opt out from supper but would try a bite.

Hot Honey Chicken Burger with fries @฿255

I thought the burgers would come with the default crinkle fries but it didn't. Maybe they ran out of it?

inner profile view

Jalapeno Chimichurri Burger (beef) @฿275

Beef Bacon Cheeseburger with sweet potato fries @฿235 + ฿50 (upgrade to sweet potato fries)

closer view of the bacon cheeseburger

The guys seemed to enjoy the burger very much. I liked the sweet potato fries here.

Beast Burger and Pizza (Chiang Mai)

Address: Nimmanhemin Soi 17 Suthep, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

Website: https://www.facebook.com/beast.burger

Business Hours:

Daily: Monday, 11 am–10 pm