Best Steak in Town by Smoky Jack!

A restaurant that I want to introduce but I remember only when I'm housekeeping my pictures... Smoky Jack Ribs & Steak House at Upper Penang Road. I've always thought that it's either a bar or a pub because of its specially designed and freaky outlook... Stepping inside, it's like a jungle and I like the branches that crawl over the pillars and on the wall. They've different seats such as the cocoon, the comfortable sofa for family or the big rounded tank.

I've ordered a Boston Clam Chowder as the starter. This is a mixture of clams and seafood soup that is served in a bowl with a pastry cap on top. To make the pastry looking golden and with a little saltiness, melted butter is brushed on the dough before baking. The Clam Chowder tastes very refreshing with a very minor spiciness at the end of the tongue, just nice to go with the pastry.

For main course, I've ordered Capellini with Garlic & Seafood while my friend has decided to go for the Timbale of Chicken with Pinenuts. Capellini is similar to Spaghetti but it's thinner and easily to be known as angel hair pasta. Prawn, Mussel and Fish in the tomato-based sauce; the sourness of the tomato is just nice and has been absorbed completely into the thin pasta but somehow disappointing as the seafood is not so fresh. The Timbale Chicken with Pinenuts is in fact the chicken breast meat that has been stuffed with the Pinenuts, then baked and served with the special 'Jack' sauce. The chicken meat is juicy and tender while the pinenuts are a little crunchy, kind of an interesting meal. The sauce is also just-to-taste, just balancing the natural sweetness of the pinenuts.

The most satisfaction goes to the Cheese Cake. The cheese is very thick that gives the softness to the cake yet it doesn't make me feeling full or greasy. I love the dessert so much that I've been complaining on the small slice :(

I like the cozy environment and the special seats inside Smoky Jack. Anyway, the best is still the delicious food that I can enjoy from the starter till the dessert. Please call before going to Smoky Jack Ribs & Steak House as I can't remember the exact opening hours already...

Official Homepage

Foh San Ipoh... What You'll Ask for Dim Sum!

I guess everyone is so familiar with Restoran Foh San Sdn. Bhd富山茶樓 for their famous Dim Sum點心 during the morning times. We're there at 10am and the whole restaurant has been packed with the crowd, standing beside the tables 'staring' at you to finish your breakfast as fast as you can...

Foh San serves variety of Dim Sum that range from Prawn Dumpling蝦餃, Fish Ball魚丸, Siew Mai燒賣, Crispy Yam Ball芋頭酥, Chee Cheong Fun豬腸粉 till Porridge魚粥. Actually, I'm not so impressed by the Dim Sum here because the taste is quite ordinary. Anyway, it's great to see the varieties that they've here...

It's a tradition for Chinese to have Dim Sum as breakfast. An advice from Jackson, arrive here at 6am if you want to enjoy a nice Dim Sum breakfast slowly without too many crowd.

Official Homepage

忠記兵如港口大樹頭炸料粉... Ipoh!

Such a long name, but for me to remember is 忠記炸料粉 or I try to translate it as Fried Mixed Ingredients with Noodles. I'm definitely not familiar with Ipoh and Thanks to Jackson that has become our 1-Day guide. I'm so surprised with the crowd in front of this small stall whereby everyone is squeezing for a space, a narrow space that is sufficient to let them choosing and picking up the various fried ingredients that they want. People come here because what they're serving is so cheap, minimum price starts at 50¢! Where else that we can get such a price for a piece of fried fish meat?!! One funny fact about the stall is... They do have a branch just beside this stall, just neighboring at same place within walking distance but no customers want to visit the new place. Old stall, old memory?

The chef is basically to stand in front of the wok only, to serve the ingredients from the hot frying oil. Oh ya, the fried ingredients that are served here range from ladyfinger, bitter gourd, chili, egg, dumpling, Tofu till fish meat. Alternatively, you can choose to go together with noodle in Laksa or Curry soup. We've ordered purely the fried ingredients and this big bowl costs us only about RM7.

The meal is quite nice just because the ingredients are fried freshly from the wok. But, the cleanliness at this place is kind of bad.

Enjoy the Strawberry Moment... De Garden at Ipoh

Finally, I've managed to compile my pictures to write about the Strawberry Moment that is located at De Garden in Ipoh. In fact, this is the branch whereby the main dessert cafe is at Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. I like the simply red and white outlook of this cafe and with the wooden chairs laying outside, hinting for the time to relax.

I like the cozy ambient inside the cafe; the tidy arrangement of the souvenirs and chocolates on the shelf, the comfortable sofa and the mouth-watering Strawberry Strudel's painting on the wall. 'Please help me to decide', I just can't make my mind among the various selection of desserts.

Then... We've decided to go for the Strawberry Strudel草莓千层酥. The fresh strawberries and whipped cream are stacked in between of each pastry layers. This strudel is not too sweet and the fresh strawberries are really refreshing. As the pastry skin is somehow tasteless, it'll be incomplete if without the strawberry and cream. We've tried as well the Concentrated Strawberry and if not mistaken Cranberry Juices. The juices are very thick on its natural sweetness without preservatives. A very tasty juice except that... it's not cold without any ice under the hot sunny day :(

I'm a dessert lover. I do quite like the concept of fresh strawberry in a dessert cafe.

Official Homepage

Modern Australian by Woolloomooloo...

Woolloomooloo is a new restaurant that is located somewhere opposite the Queensbay Mall. Their selling point is the modern Australian cuisine. In fact I don't know what is the difference of Australian cuisine to European or Western cuisine. We're there just purely on Attila's desire about the specialty of Australian food that he has had back in Germany, such as Kangaroo or Crocodile's meat.

The inner of the restaurant is only black and white; an elegant matching of colours but somehow it's a little bit too bright to make ourselves comfortable for a meal. They've just started business whereby the menu is just simply of one page for food and one page for beverages. Attila feels so disappointed by the 'Non-Australian' in the menu that he has rejected to have the recommendation from the shop owner.

Finally, we've decided to go for the Grilled Pepper Steak with Roasted Vegetables & Potato and the Seafood Marinara with Linguine. The steak has been grilled to 'Medium' just perfectly as per requested. The meat is tender and juicy without any bloody smell that goes just nice with the pepper sauce. Neither too much sauce nor too thick but the pepper taste is just sufficient without covering up the natural grilling taste of the meat. Talking about my Seafood Marinara, I like the sourness of the tomatoes and additional with the onions that has given a nice aroma. But, it's kind of disappointing as the seafood, linguine and sauce are not united together; for instance the seafood does not absorbed the tomato sauce completely.

Attila is very satisfied with his steak that has been cooked perfectly but if to talk about Australian cuisine, the restaurant is making fun of him. To us, Woolloomooloo is just alike another Western or Italian restaurant that we can find in town.