Nasi Ayam or Chicken Rice by the Post Office

Phui Yee has no idea about the name of the stall, the available information to us is we're going to the Nasi Ayam that is beside the Post Office at Batu Maung. The official open hour is at 12pm that we've the only option to go for the Nasi Ayam Biasa instead the alternative of Nasi Goreng Ayam. The business is really good that they have started to pack plenty of Nasi Ayam for takeaway.

The Nasi Ayam Biasa is served with sliced chicken meat that is topped with soya sauce. It looks alike the Chinese style chicken rice but the soy sauce is not so salty that its taste is not so appealing to go with the juicy meat. Anyway, I find that the rice is special that it has a strong aroma of the clove and the star anise. I  do as well like the sweet-based chili sauce that is mixed together with cut Cili Padi and tomato.

Finishing our lunch at almost 12pm, we've decided to try their Pasembur. It's a mixture of sliced vegetable such as cucumber and turnip, bean sprout, fried Tofu, Cucur Tepung or fried cake that is made from the flour and hard-boiled egg that is then being topped with a thick sauce. The sauce is indeed too sweet and it doesn't taste spicy at all whereby it makes the whole mixture to taste a little too filling. However, they're really good at the Cucur Tepung that it's really tasty and very crispy.

I'm not really impressed by the Nasi Ayam here but it's definitely the best Malay Chicken Rice that I've ever tasted so far in Penang.

Only the Curry Noodles

Crossing over my mind that I've not been to the curry noodle in Butterworth for years. I've asked for the companion from the girls and I wish to show them the Butterworth Curry Noodles House北海咖哩麵之家. It's a big shop now that it can cater for more customers than the small roofed area in front of his own house in old time. They're opened from 5pm to 130am daily except on Sunday.

I've ordered a bowl of Curry Rice Noodle咖哩粿條. It's basically being topped with Bean curd豆腐卜, Cockle蛤, Pig Blood豬血 and Long Bean菜豆. The noodles are of course not enough to fill our appetites that we've ordered the side dishes such as Curry Squid烏賊, Curry Wild boar山豬肉, Mantis Prawn瀨尿蝦, the edible Mollusc that is alike scallop yet with unknown name, Fried Chicken and some meatballs. The reddish colour of the curry soup is really appetising and it has a creamy taste of coconut milk but it's more delicious and it tastes refreshing by adding in the sauce of the curry squid. The curry squid is quite sweet but it's still spicy and this is the reason that it's enhancing the curry's taste of the noodle itself. The squid has absorbed the curry completely but the meat is indeed slightly hard and chewy. I like it but how about you? The wild boar meat is quite hard except those that are with the fatty skin. I've definitely enjoyed my favourite mantis prawn but the scallop-alike Mollusc is indeed tastier because of the sauce that has a nice aroma of the lemongrass and the Limau Kasturi (Kaffir Lime). Lastly, the chicken meat is juicy and I indeed like the saltiness of the marination sauce.

If you're not fancy over the curry soup, you can go for the dried curry 干咖哩 or the clear soup清湯. It's not really cheap to eat curry noodle here as we tend to be attracted by the a wide selection of the side dishes. This is actually an innovative concept by introducing varieties into curry noodle.

Misai is Selling Nasi Ayam

We've noticed the Misal Nasi Ayam for few times while going for lunch to Sour & Spicy at Sg. Ara (Reminder: It's located at Jalan Dato Ismail Hashim whereby it's at the opened area that is just opposite SRJK (C) Chong Cheng崇正小学). Let's try out Malay food and we've decided to drop by this chicken rice stall for lunch.

The basic meal is the Nasi Ayam or Nasi Ayam Goreng that is the oily rice and the fried rice respectively that is then being served together with chicken meat, a bowl of soup and the blended chili. Alternatively, fried egg and anchovies are available as additional toppings. I prefer the fried rice because it's slightly spicy whereby I think that the oily rice is a bit too sweet. I guess this is because of the Margarine? The chicken meat is tender but it's quite tasteless that it's served with a dark sauce. This is the biggest shock for us as the sauce is extremely too sweet. We've to let the sauce to be dripped off from the meat. Luckily, the blended chili is tasty and its spiciness goes well with the chicken meat.

I'm happy to try out new dishes with the girls during lunch time. We're chatting and we're sharing opinions about the food.

Pass by Trang, Stop at Smile Bakery Cafe

A yearly bike trip to Phuket and we've decided to stay a night at Trang for this round. Making a stop to rest and to relax is definitely a good idea that we don't get too tired along the 650km. We've agreed that not to go for the freaky and dirty hotels again and here we've found the Thumrin Hotel at the center of Trang. As near as possible, Attila and I have decided to try out the Smile Bakery Cafe that is located at the ground floor of the hotel.

Let's share the Deep Fried Crispy Pork and Chicken with Green Curry! We're totally drowned in the tastiness of the thinly sliced pork that is salty and crispy. It's not oily and this is definitely the most perfect dish to go with cold beer. I've totally crazed about the crispy pork that has been further enhanced with the nice aroma of the curry leaves and the spiciness of the dried chili. By the way, they're edible! The green curry is creamy and it's indeed too extreme with its spiciness. It's a must to eat the green curry with white rice as it's really a fire-burning taste especially for Attila. We do like the taste of the green curry but it'll be great if they can use boneless meat instead.

Eating while we're chatting, we've indeed creating some damages by increasing the bottles of beer. The quantity is just sufficient to give all of us a nice sleep.

Kuala Sepetang... the Mee Udang Mak Jah

LP has shared about the article, people has always mentioned about the restaurant... Here we drive to Kuala Sepetang for the Mee Udang Mak Jah. The place is indeed quite faraway from Taiping town but it's grateful that we've our tour guide, Ms. Yau. This open-air restaurant is indeed a big and roofed area that has been placed with a lot of tables and chairs.

Checking the menu with the waitress, the difference between Biasa and Special is the quantity of the prawns. We've of course asked for Special as we're such big-eaters. Sharing... We've ordered the Mee Udang Special, Mee Goreng Udang Special and as well a bowl of Udang Special that is without noodle or rice. The Mee Udang looks yummy and the prawns are big. The Chef has used plenty of prawns that we can taste the freshness of prawns inside the soup and it's sweet. It tastes quite spicy on the 1st spoon but the spiciness is gradually decreasing with the sweetness of the soup. I don't really fancy over the soup for its strong prawn's smell and the noodle is as well a little too raw. On the other hand, I prefer the Mee Goreng Udang Special as the saltiness of the soy sauce goes well with the fresh prawns. By the way, the meal is very cheap here that each noodle that comes with 6 prawns costs us RM 11 only.

I've totally enjoyed the Mee Udang at Restoran Mak Jah especially with a 100% satisfaction towards Phui Yee's service to peel off the prawn's shell for me. We girls have decided to drive to Mee Udang Mak Jah again whenever we've wanted to.

Happy Birthday to the April's Baby... Su

Food hunting in Ipoh but our actual target is to celebrate Su's birthday. How old is she? Well, ask her by yourself... Planning from Penang to Ipoh, we're aiming to give her a colourful birthday cake. Discussing and meeting, we've decided to order the Rainbow Cake彩虹蛋糕 from M.S Cake House in Penang. They claim that the layers are made of natural flavours such as blueberry, lemon, orange, strawberry, pandan and yam.

After reviewing the pictures, Elaine and I have asked for purely plain and blue topping that is made by sugar paste. This is to prevent the cake from melting while transporting it all the way down to Ipoh. Disappointing to say that we're completely shocked by the outlook of the cake as it has a big and ugly brownish flower. We've never asked for it! Cutting through the cake and it's definitely beautiful. They're almost alike rainbow but there's only a total of 6 layers. The soft and spongy cake is tasty but it's definitely too sweet. I can't imagine that the Chef has indeed sandwiched the cakes with thick layers of icing sugar. We're all nearly to the extent of "sugar shock"!

We, the fussies are totally disappointed with the cake house as they've not complete our order as per our request. Luckily that Su appreciates our effort and she is happy that she has the birthday cake that she has dreamed of.

Chicken, Bean Sprout, Koitiau = Ipoh's Famous

Jackson has planned to bring us to the Assam Curry for dinner but it's a bad news that they've closed down. So coincidentally that it's opened on the night, we've decided to go to Restoran Cowan Street Ayam Tauge & Koitiau高溫街芽菜雞沙河粉. Steamed chicken, bean sprout with rice noodle is a famous dish in Ipoh. However, it's not easy to catch the Cowan Street Restaurant as they don't have a fixed day for "rest".

Let's order... we're firstly served with the Bean Sprout芽菜 and Chicken Feet雞腳. We claim that Ipoh's bean sprout is tastier as it's very juicy that I think it's because of the fatty and shorty size. The dish is complete just simply with the soy sauce, pepper and spring onions. The chicken feet are very soft and smooth that the skin can be ripped off easily from the bone and then into my stomach. But, the dish is definitely too salty.

The next dishes are our Koitiau河粉湯 and the Steamed Chicken白雞. The rice noodle is very smooth yet it's very oily and I find that I've too less soup in my bowl. The chicken meat is juicy but it's just too oily. Meantime, I dislike the softness of the meat that it tastes alike not being cooked completely and it has sort of "chicky" smell. I like the aroma and the taste of the soy sauce but it's really too sinful.

By the way, you can order the spare parts雞内臟 as well here. I don't dare to try it, so you've to try it out by yourself if you're fancy over it.

Surprisingly that the saltiness is not making me to feel as thirsty as I've thought of. I may not have made a good comment about all the dishes here but they've definitely better than the Ipoh's Hor Fun that you can find in Penang or elsewhere.

Be Healthy with the Traditional Hakka Rice

Strongly recommended by LP, we've decided to go for a healthy vegetarian rice at the 河婆健康擂茶 that is located at 494, Kampung Tawas. It's a home-cooked meal that is served in front of the housing estate. This is a traditional dish by the Hakka people客家人 and it's made up mainly with vegetables and tea. Can you imagine the combination of these ingredients?!!

"Lei Cha"擂茶 is named upon the greenish tea-based soup that consists of tea leaves and herbs that have been grounded with roasted nut or grain such as sesame. It's served together with white rice that is topped with various vegetables that have been fried with garlic. During our visit at Kampung Tawas, the aunt is serving the Long Beans长豆, Tofu豆腐干, Sweet Leave or Mani Cai马尼采, Fried Egg with Chinese Chives蛋炒韭菜, mixture of Fried Kailan芥兰, Cabbage包菜, Celery芹菜 and Chinese Flower Cabbage菜心, Dried Shrimps虾米, Salted and Dried Radish菜脯 and last but not least, the Peanut花生. I'm attracted completely by the deliciousness of this dish and the refreshing taste of the tea. I'll recommend if the soup is a bit hotter, to enhance the aroma of the tea.

Another surprise is the price of the "Lei Cha" that each big bowl costs us RM 3.80 only. I'll definite, definitely... visit this place again. It's just a little pity to Elaine that this is too "vegetarian" for her carnivorousness. Oh ya, I'm a little sad that I don't have the chance to take a look by myself at the special tool that is used to ground the "Lei Cha"!

Bake & Sell... the Pastry

"Oh, please get the Salted Egg Yolk Pastry and Kaya Puff for me! They're very delicious!". It's a hard task as everyone knows neither the name nor the direction of the shop, including Phui Yee herself. Thanks to Mrs. Lau that we've finally found the shop, the Sin Eng Heong Kedai Biskut新榮香淡汶餅店 that is located at Jln. Mustapha Al-Bakri. I'm a little impressed that they've providing various biscuits and pastries that are freshly baked each day here.

Queueing up again, I've decided to buy the famous Kaya Puff加椰角 and a Salted Egg Yolk Pastry咸蛋酥. The Kaya Puff is apparently smaller comparing to the normal puff that I've got elsewhere. The Kaya that is made from mixture of coconut milk and egg is very thick and the sweetness goes well with the pastry skin. I just dislike the edge of the puff that is slightly burnt. The Salted Egg Yolk Pastry is made up with an egg yolk being wrapped by the pandan bean paste. I'm not fancy about it because the pastry skin is too soft while I myself by default dislike the powdery egg yolk. Besides, I'm not really favour about the bean paste as well.

This shop is definitely an ideal place to get the localities especially the freshly baked biscuits or pastries. There's a wide variety of biscuits to choose from, whether in packets or in bottles.