Homemade Bakery, just a perfect teatime party

It's the month of June whereby all June's babies are gathered up for a birthday celebration together...

Joining a new company, this is a culture of my department whereby they'll organize the birthday celebration on monthly basis. For this month of June, ZeroOne Homemade Bakery has been selected to prepare the teatime party pack. This is a new bakery to our news, but the food... really a homely deliciousness.

Wow, variety of desserts and teatime snacks! The fried popiahs and curry puffs are filled with ingredients fully and they're very crispy; every single bite is crunchiness. My favourite dessert is the mini blueberry cheese tarts. On my first bite, the blueberry jam flows out... Oh, there is a layer of jam underneath the cheese. The tart is not too cheesy and it's soft, making it just nice to melt in the mouth. While for the cream puffs, the fillings are corn custard whereby I can find some small corns that are blended with the creamy custard. I don't quite like the cream puffs as the dough is a little too oily and I personally will prefer the custard filling to be sweeter.

Not to forget the main character; the birthday cake. My first impression is a white cream cake that is decorated with strawberries and kiwis; simple yet it's triggering my curiosity on how will the taste be. It's actually a vanilla cake that is layered with Pandan Kaya. Everyone of us gives a 'Thumb Up' for the deliciousness as the cake is soft and it's not too creamy. The sweetness is just perfect that it's not making us feeling too greasy or too full.

Info: 'Kaya' is a type of 'jam' that is made from egg and coconut milk, with sugar as sweetening; then being steamed on a pot of boiling water till it's thick and brown.

I enjoy this type of functions in my new working place. Thanks to the team whom has been planning and organizing such activities. Oh ya, another special thanks to LP for sponsoring the prawn crackers ;)

By the way, if you like to order for the homemade desserts or snacks, I've managed to snapshot the contact as below...

Mille Crepe, the creations of 'Humble Beginnings'

Mille Crepe, it's a French Cake whereby 'Mille' means 'Thousand'. As its name, the layers of crepes are stacked together with the combination of fresh cream and vanilla custard between each layer.

Humble Beginnings is proudly presenting their essential creations of Mille Crepe with a large variety of flavours to choose from. Every Mille Crepe is hand-made and hand-layered to give the utmost satisfaction of deliciousness. As the first-time customer, I'm recommended with the French Vanilla taste. Cutting into the cake, you can find the layer by layer of crepes with the richful cream in between. Every single bites is a complicated feeling of crepe and cream in a thousand layers, never ending... As they're using fresh cream in between the thin crepes and with the perfect blend of sweetness, I don't find the taste to be too creamy or too full. Another specialty from Humble Beginnings is; the topmost layer of the Mille Crepe is caramelized to give it a sugary flavour.

Humble Beginnings serves only Delivery and/or Pick-Up Point service. Firstly, you've to pre-order your Mille Crepe through their website. Then, you can choose either to be delivered to your doorstep or self pick-up at designated locations.

Mille Crepe is just perfect for a teatime dessert. At Humble Beginnings, it's the exploration of tasty journey into the world of Mille Crepe.

Online Order

Ecco Cafe, your True Italian's Gateway

Wondering where can I find a true, original Italians' taste in Penang? Along the busiest street of Jalan Chulia, there is a restaurant that specializes in homemade Italian food like pasta, pizza and bread and it's called 'Ecco Cafe'.

The restaurant is indeed an old 'Kopitiam' style town house of decades long. The wooden sun-shades that are painted with the name of 'Ecco Cafe', the inscription of the Chinese name of the coffee shop on the round pillars in red, the wooden tables with the metal chairs and the bronze fan; they're reminding me to my childhood time whereby this type of coffee shop rarely exists during the urbanization nowadays.

Let's start with the drinks; my cup of brewed coffee and my Boyboy's mango lassi. You don't hear it wrongly, there's few types of lassi drinks on the menu and the food here is generally brings in a little influence of Indian's cuisines. The aroma of the coffee is very appealing with a strong, pure coffee taste and I like it without sugar or creamer. While for the mango lassi, it's not too thick and not too creamy but lack of the natural sweetness of mango fruit.

The always must-try starter that we'll not miss out is the mushroom soup. The mushroom soup comes with a slice of French bread whereby I prefer it to be a little over-baked for a crunchier taste. The mushroom is chopped into tiny pieces and it's perfectly blended with the light cream; every spoon is a richly, creamy taste except that I'm wondering where has gone the aroma of the wild mushroom...

Our main orders of the day are Chicken Pot Pie and Calzone. Chicken Pot Pie is filled with chicken cubes, peas, carrots, potatoes in a creamy sauce with a pie crust. A little spiciness of herbs in the sauce is creating a nice aroma besides to reduce the greasiness of the creamy taste. The Chicken Pot Pie comes with a side salad and two bread sticks. Calzone is breaking the traditional pizza whereby it's a turnover pizza dough that is stuffed with turkey ham, tomato, capsicum, onion, tomato sauce and cheese before it's being baked till golden brown. The Calzone is just nice as it's not too cheesy but the tomato taste is too sour.

To compliment the ending of our meal is a delightful dessert that is called Creme Burlee. It's actually the egg custard pudding with the melted brown sugar on top, forming a thin yet hard caramel; to give a crunchy sugary flavour to the soft, smooth pudding.

Ecco Cafe is definitely a nice place for your favourite pasta and pizza. The location...

Location Map

'Lok Lok', shall I call it as Steamboat on Bamboo Stick?

'Lok Lok' is just alike a type of steamboat, except the variety types of ingredients are cooked in boiling water on bamboo sticks and to be dipped in different kinds of sauces instead of to be eaten with soup. Alternatively, the food on bamboo sticks is nice to be deep-fried as well.

'New Corner Lok Lok'天天新乐乐 is located at the end corner of Chai Leng Park food street. There's a variety of ingredients for your choices; range from sausages, fish balls, crab filaments, till vegetables, mushrooms and even seafood. You can find cuttle fish, clam, octopus and sometimes mantis prawn here and they're all well preserved in a very fresh condition. The most specialty that I like the Lok Lok here is on the different types of sauces. Six... they've 6 sauces that you can dip in; the sweet dark sauce, the mild spicy sambal chili, the chopped onions and lemongrass in sweet and sour sauce, the hot cili padi, the salty shrimp paste and the popular satay sauce. Irregardless if you like sweet, spicy or salty, they've all the flavours to fulfill your appetite.

I always like to get ready my favourite ingredients while waiting for the water to boil. To my Boyboy whom is a fried food lover, he'll never miss to pick some ingredients for frying. The one important observation that I like about the fried Lok Lok here is they're not so oily as other stalls whereby the owner will ensure the excessive oil is dripped on the oil-absorbing paper.

Ooppss... another point before I forget; if you're unsure the sauce to choose from, you can always ask the boss to mix it for you. I don't know the exact portion of each sauces, but it tastes special when they're all mixed together. It's another wonderful journey for your tongue ;)

There's a wide selection of food stalls that you can find at Chai Leng Park food street. I personally like this Lok Lok stall for their fresh ingredients and sauces.

'Lorong Selamat', I bet you know the most famous hawker food here...

'Lorong Selamat', it has always been well-known for the local Penang hawker food; 'Char Koay Teow' and 'Ice Kacang'. Char Koay Teow is a type of flat, white rice noodle that we'll fry with prawns, bean sprouts, clams and sometimes addition of sausages, then with dark soy sauce, chili paste and salt as seasoning. People like this local food for its delicious taste; dark soy sauce to create the aroma and sweetness, chili paste for a little spiciness, salt to compliment the sweetness and also the rich ingredients in a small plate of dish. Char Koay Teow is normally non-halal as pork oil is commonly being used to enhance the aroma.

Char Koay Teow is kind of heat food, so what you've always liked for the cooling? Coming into my mind is the Ice Kacang or we used to call it as ABC. I don't exactly know the reason behind of the name as ABC, but to my understanding, it means the mixture of vary ingredients or whatever ingredients that you like or you can find; in a bowl of machined ice. Usually, we've red beans, corns and jelly underneath the ice, before pouring in the red and black syrups. Nowadays, people like to add in one-scoop of ice cream on top and lastly, the not to be missed is the condensed milk. Overall, the Ice Kacang is a sweet dessert that is nice for hot days.

I do like the Char Koay Teow in Lorong Selamat as the owner is so generous with the prawns. The price is not cheap at RM7.50 per plate but it's worthwhile for me whom like rich ingredients in my plate. Besides, they Koay Teow is fried with enough heat whereby the aroma is released and the taste is enhanced to its optimum. If talking about the Ice Kacang, I'll admit that I'm shocked by the RM3.00 per bowl. Is this a common price nowadays? The Ice Kacang here is kind of normal, that you can find the similar taste anywhere. However, the restaurant is always full with customers... An Ice Kacang after the Char Koay Teow; always a perfect matching.

If you're searching for simple hawker food, do have a try at Lorong Selamat. It's a strategic place to find varies local Penang food here.

Location Map