CRIZ BON APPETITE

After all the Chinese New Year feasting with great food throughout the period of the celebration, we had another great feasting of steamboat. This time, it was beef steamboat at Kang Beef House located within the Jelutong district. This restaurant has operated since early February this year and has served many varieties of mouth watering and lips-sticky beef cuisines.

The taste of the beef steamboat stock here was a bit different compared to those I have tried elsewhere. On top of the many hours of simmering of the bovine bones, it had the sweetness from some chopped radish and the salty sour taste from some salted vegetables. It was quite unique I would say and the cost for a minimum twin pax order would be RM20 per person.

With an array of many smaller dishes of beef parts and vegetables, I was able to cook up a nice bowl of delicious beef soup.

You might be curious to find out what we had poured into the pot of beef stock right? We had a plate of raw local beef with an egg (牛肉 – 6 pax), beef tendon (牛筋), sirloin (牛腩) & tenderloin (裡脊肉), finely & coarsely minced beef balls (细與粗牛肉丸), honeycomb tripe (牛肚), omasum (leaf tripe/牛百葉), Enoki mushroom, iceberg lettuce and chopped cilantro (Chinese parsley/香菜). It was just a simple setup but it was enough for us considering that we had the opportunity to try 2 out of the four stomachs that a cow/bull has.

Having beef steamboat without the proper chili sauce would be a “no-no”. The restaurant did well in providing us with their delicious homemade chili sauce. Combined with the sinful deep fried lard and garlic in oil (supposed to be for garnishing the beef soup ), it became my favorite dipping sauce. It was just like the sweet and crunchy sauce I made for my Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Perfect!

There are also noodles and white rice (80sen/bowl) to order to go with your bowl of steamboat soup. The yellow noodles contained less lye water, thinner and flatter just like the wanton noodles. The rice noodles or commonly known as koay teow were also thinner and more translucent as the Vietnamese Beef Pho noodles.

If you feel that having steamboat would be too heavy for you, do try out their Beef Noodles (-RM6/RM8/RM10/RM12/RM15). The price will vary depending on what additional items you would like to add in on top of the regular sized one. Although the stock for this noodle dish was the same as our steamboat, somehow I personally felt that this combination tasted better. It could be I’m a noodle lover.

The next option would be the Herbal Beef Soup (十全牛什-RM7/RM8/RM10/RM12/RM15). The soup base is actually brewing of 10 complete Chinese herbs being cooked with bovine bones. It is also sometimes known as Shi Quan Da Bu Tang (十全大補湯) which is normally used in traditional medicine to alleviate symptoms of fatigue, loss of appetite, dry or scaly skin, night sweating, dryness of mouth and for cancer treatment. The formulae comprised of Panax ginseng (ginseng root/人參), Angelica sinensis (Chinese Angelica root/dang gui/當歸), Paeonia lactiflora (Chinese Peony root/shao yao/芍藥), Atractylodes macrocephala (white atractylodes rhizome/bai zhu/白朮), Poria cocos (tuckahoe mushroom/fu ling/茯苓), Cinnamomum cassia (Chinese cinnamon bark/rou gui/肉桂), Astragalus membranaceus (astragulus root/huang qi/黃蓍), Liqusticum wallichii (ligusticum rhizome/chuan xiong/川芎), Glycyrrhiza uralensis (Chinese licorice root/gan cao/甘草) and Rehmannia glutinosa (Chinese foxglove root/shu di huang/熟地黃). The dark colored soup with a slight bitter sweet taste went well with the meat and noodles but it could be rather “heaty” for the internal organs especially taken during hot weather. I tried that during one humid afternoon and eventually had one pimple popping out on my nose (even with the consumption of a 1.5L herbal tea/五花茶). Well, this could be a special case as I lacked in sleep. LOL!

If you prefer some fried dish instead, you could always try out the Crystal Beef Fried Rice (水晶牛肉炒飯 – RM12.80+beef ball soup). The beef slices were with the right tenderness and the rice had that special hidden crunch. It actually had two type of rice within such as white rice and deep fried rice for that extra crunch. This was indeed a great dish not to miss.

You could also try out their special Dry Fried Hor Fun with Beef (干炒牛河 – RM9.80+beef ball soup). The hor fun (broad rice noodles/河粉) had the right wok hei (high heat cooking), smoothness and taste even without the beef slices as it was prepared specially for one of our non beef eaters. The dish only came with hor fun, bean sprouts, egg, button mushroom slices, chopped onions, spring onions and some chili slices as garnishing. My advice would be not to have any non beef eater around as this is a beef specialty restaurant and no other meat and seafood would be available for any special requests.

There were also a few beef related dishes available if you decide to have them with steamed rice, namely Beef with Ginger & Spring Onion (RM15/RM28), Kai Lan Beef (RM15/RM28) and Black Pepper Beef (RM15/RM28). I quite like the Black Pepper Beef (the only dish we ordered since all of  us were quite full) as it had just the right amount of black pepper and the beef slices were very tender.

You might want to order their Claypot Beef Soup (RM8/RM15/RM22/RM28) to go with your meal or even some golden Crispy Beef Ball (RM4.80/6pcs) as light snack. I simply loved these bread cubes coated beef balls.

Overall, the food here can be real nice except that the pricing may cost a bit more for some diners. You can check out the below menu for a clearer picture of the items served there.

There are two entrances to this restaurant. One would be at Jalan Jelutong whereas the other would be at Jalan Perak. I would advise you to use Jalan Perak instead as there would be no parking space available at the heavily trafficked Jalan Jelutong. The easiest and smoothest way to reach this restaurant would be via Jalan Tan Sri Teh Ewe Lim (Lam Wah Ee Hospital entrance). Drive all the way until the T-junction (Jelutong Police Station on your left) and turn left into Jalan Perak. You will see the restaurant about 100m away on your right. You can check if there are free parking spaces within the restaurant’s compound. If not, try turning left into Jalan Bagan Serai for more car parks. Parking space could be real limited during peak hours.

Name: KANG BEEF HOUSE (江祖傳牛肉小鎮)
Address: 474 Jalan Jelutong, 11600 Penang, West Malaysia.
Contact: 04-281 0892, 016-416 5373 (Steve Kang)
Business Hours: 12.00noon-2.30pm, 4.30pm-10.00pm (Closed Tuesday)
GPS: 5.391811, 100.313605

RATING:
Ambience: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 8/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7.5/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 9/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Popularity: 52% [?]

It was a cold and chilly afternoon, thus Steven and I decided to go food hunting for something hot that would warm up our bodies. We ended up at a corner café located along Jalan Perak for our lunch. Was our meal Shabu Shabu? Well, not exactly but the beef slices was indeed thinly sliced and there was the hot pot that was solely manned by the ever smiling boss, Mr. Tiger. Yup, we were at the 2828 Café Famous Beef Koay Teow Soup stall.

On top of those few famous beef noodles stalls in Penang, this stall also has its own loyal followers. You can practically see that the whole café would be packed during lunch time and majority of the patrons would go for the beef noodles. There are so many beef parts available here which you could select for your bowl of soup. The soup base here would be of a clearer and milder herb version compared to the rest and one thing you can be sure of is that it would not contain too heavy beef taste. Your bowl of beef soup (as low as RM6) can go well with your bowl of rice (RM0.60).

Another option you can have here would be the selected ingredients taken with noodles. There are two types available here, namely the yellow noodles (mee) and flat noodles (koay teow). Each bowl would cost as low as RM6.

There’s one thing that I find rather inappropriate for my bowl of beef noodles – the condiment. It was too chili sauce sweet like. I rather have my beef slices dipped into a blended version of red chilies, garlic and ginger. At least that would cut down on the strong taste of certain beef parts.

Overall, this is still a great place for those who do not like their beef soup to be overpowering with herbs and beefy taste and the price here is still reasonable for all. Do also watch out for my next post on what to get from the same café during dinner time – affordable home cooked dishes at Kim Hooi Seafood stall.

It’s easy to find the stall as it is located at a corner lot of Perak Plaza, Jalan Perak. The easiest way to reach the place from town would be by using Jalan Macalister (as you would not be able to turn right from Jalan Dato Keramat). Drive all the way until you see the Jalan Macalister/Jalan Anson traffic lights (EON Automobile Showroom on your left). Turn left into Jalan Anson and drive all the way until you see the Jalan Anson/Jalan Perak T-junction traffic lights. Turn right into Jalan Perak and keep left. You can see the corner café immediately after a stretch of the General Hospital Officers’ residence on your left. Turn left into Jalan Lim Khoon Huat and park your car along the service road in front of the Perak Plaza.

Name: 2828 CAFÉ FAMOUS BEEF KOAY TEOW
Address: 56K, Perak Plaza, Jalan Perak, 10460 Penang, Malaysia.
Business Hours: 10.30am-3.00pm (Closed Monday)
Contact: 012-450 8177 (Mr. Tiger)
GPS: 5.416874, 100.316519

RATING:
Ambience: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 8/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 7.5/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Popularity: 32% [?]

Name:
BRAISED BEEF BRISKET WAN THAN MEE
@ KEDAI KOPI KEAN LAI SENG
Address: 55, Lorong Kampung Malabar, 10200 Penang, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 11.00am – 8.00pm (Closed Monday)
GPS: 5.419103, 100.332319

RATING:
Ambience: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 8/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Name: MEE MANJA
Address: 1F Jalan Hutton, 10050 Penang, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 6.00pm – 11.00pm (Closed on Tuesday)
Contact: 016-480 3568 (Encik Aman)
GPS: 5.419022, 100.331483

RATING:
Ambience: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 6/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 9/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Note: Check out the new location at http://www.crizfood.com/118/mee-manja/

Name: MEE MANJA @ KEDAI KOPI CLG
Address: Lebuh Clarke, Penang, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 5.00pm – 11.00pm (Closed on Tuesday)
Contact: 016-480 3568 (En. Aman)
GPS: 5.420195, 100.330775

RATING:
Ambience: 5/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 6/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 8/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 6/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Popularity: 9% [?]