CRIZ BON APPETITE

Note: Please take note that Ah Leng Char Koay Teow had relocated to another coffee shop named Restoran Tong Hooi, opposite the current place and next to the Federal Place.

Penang is ranked by CNNGo as one of Asia’s 10 Greatest Street Food Cities with a list of the Top 10 Penang Street Food ranging from the top rated Penang Assam Laksa, Hokkien Mee, Wantan Mee, Nasi Kandar, Rojak, Loh Bak, Curry Mee, Char Koay Teow, Kuih Chiap and Ais Kacang. I have a lot of foreign/outstation readers asking me where would be the best place for Char Koay Teow but I would give them a blank look as I seriously don’t know even though I was born as a Penangite. Instead, I would throw them some questions, “What sort of Char Koay Teow would you be looking for? Would you be looking for one that would have all the high heat frying (wok hei) where you can taste the true flavors of the koay teow and scrambled eggs, one with nice spicy fragrance from specially selected chilies or one with all the fresh seafood added in?” Eventually as an island with fresh seafood catches daily, most would opt for the one with the added seafood. Most would end up at one of the famous ones (commercially recommended by tourists) at Ah Leng Char Koay Teow located at a corner coffee shop along Jalan Dato Keramat, Penang.

A basic plate of Char Koay Teow at Ah Leng would consist of koay teow (flat noodles), prawns, cockles, chicken egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives. Each plate would cost RM6.00nett. If you requested for the special with added prawns (x4) and mantis prawns (x4), it would be priced at RM10.50nett. Extra noodles and/or with duck egg would cost an additional of 50sens nett per ingredient.

This is how a special plate of Ah Leng’s Char Koay Teow with Duck Egg (RM11.00nett) looks like. I was wondering. Am I having fried seafood with koay teow or fried koay teow with seafood? The seafood practically drowned the few mouthfuls of noodles as shown below.

Overall, I would think that the Char Koay Teow is a bit too overpriced with barely 3-4 mouthfuls of koay teow. I could easily get a decent portioned Char Koay Teow (minus the big prawns but with duck egg) for RM3.50nett and you can truly taste the “wok hei” on the koay teow distinctively. Even with the big prawns (RM1/prawn based on market rate) and mantis prawns (RM0.40/prawn based on market rate), the whole plate would cost around RM9.00nett. I’m sure through bulk purchases, the ingredients cost would even be lower. I personally feel that if I wanted to have seafood served that way, I would rather go to a seafood restaurant instead. However, the prawns served here were no doubt super fresh and firm to my liking. Unfortunately, the flavors on the koay teow were under my expectation. They were rather little and mushy from the lack of “wok hei” and were more to the sweeter side compared to other outlets. I really detested having any authentic savory street food being turned sweet.

Since there is only one way to find parking spaces along Jalan Dunlop leading to Jalan Dato Keramat where the coffee shop is, I’ll show you the easiest way. If you are coming from Jalan Macalister via Loh Guan Lye Specialists Centre, you would reach a traffic light (Ghee Hiang). Keep to your right and turn into Jalan Anson. Drive on until you reach the 5th junction on your left (Jalan Dunlop). Turn left into Jalan Dunlop. Drive on until you reach almost the end of the road and find any parking spaces available. Walk on and you will see the coffee house at the junction of Jalan Dunlop/Jalan Dato Keramat.

Name: AH LENG CHAR KOAY TEOW @ KAFE KHOON HIANG
Address: 358 Jalan Dato Keramat, 10150 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 012-498 3962 (Ah Leng)
Business Hours: 8.30am-2.30pm (Closed Thursday)
GPS: 5.412953, 100.319552

Branch Address: 30W Jalan Chor Sin Kheng, Air Itam, 11500 Penang, Malaysia.
Business Hours: 5.00am-11.00pm (Closed Wednesday)
GPS: 5.402892, 100.284337

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: 7/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 8/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 7/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Gambas Al Ajillo or commonly known as Garlic Prawns is a Spanish dish that is easy to cook and delicious to go with any type of bread and buns. Normally, it’s served as one of the tapas during parties. However, it’s up to your own creativity on how you would serve them. I had this dish served as a main course as well as tapas to tempt my taste bud for something not on my regular menu. Instead of using virgin olive oil in my recipe, I used virgin coconut oil instead to pep up a more exotic and tropical flavor. It was a hit amongst my “guinea pigs” aka food tasters~ Haha!

As a main course, I served with some freshly made salsa and some mildly toasted herbed pita bread. Every bit of the dish was simple and nutritious.

As for tapas or party finger food, I just sliced some pita bread pieces, brushed them with the cooked oil, filled up with some juicy prawns, baked them in oven at 170°C for 6 minutes and garnished them with some alfalfa and mustard sprouts. Bingo! I had my sought after tapas~ 🙂 I’m using pita bread here because the texture and bites were smoother than having a harder version of baguettes or French loaf.

The recipe is so simple that you can have your meal within minutes. Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
600g medium size prawns (peel, remove vein and slightly slice at the side)
6 large garlic cloves (minced, put more if you like garlic)
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil (can be replaced with virgin olive oil)
1/4 block butter (about 110g)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2 tsp chili flakes (more for extra spiciness)
2 stalks flat leaf parsley/coriander (finely chopped, about 4 Tbsp)
A pinch of grounded black pepper
Salt to taste

GARNISHES (OPTIONAL):
Alfalfa, mustard sprouts, flat leaf parsley, coriander, etc.

PREPARATIONS:
• Melt the butter and oil on MEDIUM-LOW fire.
• Add in the minced garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.
• Add in the prawns and sauté until curled.
• Add in the chopped parsley, chili flakes, lemon juice, grounded black pepper and salt to taste. Stir for another minute.
• Scoop on a serving plate, garnish with some greens as suggested above. Serve hot with some toasted or steamed bread.

(Serves: 3-4)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Since I did not have the opportunity to visit another seafood restaurant that was much recommended by the Kuala Juru village folks as it was closed during my visit to Kuala Juru earlier, a small group of us decided to go for another food hunt to the small fishing village deep into the outskirt of Juru. This time, I had revisited Restoran Nelayan Kuala Juru as well as the much acclaimed Warung Pak Su. I won’t touch much on my earlier trip as I had updated the post itself with some new information and photos. Let me share what I had dined at Warung Pak Su instead. Somehow this visit had a few hiccups as the sky was pouring heavily and the pricing for the food was a bit of surprise to us but these hiccups did not did not deter us from savoring some of the good food around that area.

Being a well established restaurant, Warung Pak Su surprisingly did not provide any printed menus and indeed it was a risk we had to take when ordering a few of the dishes. As most of the seafood items were freshly bought daily, all the items were based on market rate. The first dish that we ordered was the Ikan Siakap Bakar (Grilled Perch – RM30). The fresh fish was cut into halves, marinated with some spices and wrapped in banana leaves and grilled for a certain period of time. The end product was a nicely cooked fish, mild in spices taste and fresh in juiciness. The grilled fish would go well with the special sauce which consists of sliced onions, chili paddy, lime juice, soy sauce and sugar but I personally found the sauce to be a bit overpowering with lime taste.

While waiting for the fish to be grilled, we also ordered some satay to try out. Although we were still quite full from the earlier meal at Restoran Nelayan Kuala Juru, the juiciness and fragrance emitted from the chicken on skewer boosted up our craving for more. The taste of the large sized satays were great and it was only at 60sen each.

The restaurant will also have Kerang Bakar (Grilled Cockles – RM5/plate) but we did not order them as we were scared of food poisoning after seeing how cockles were harvested. 😛

Since the villagers highly recommended the Mee Udang (Prawn Noodles – RM10) and Mee Goreng Udang (Fried Prawn Noodles –RM10), we decided to order a plate of each. The difference between this restaurant and the one at Restoran Nelayan Kuala Juru was the use of different species of prawns. Restoran Nelayan Kuala Juru uses Udang Rotan (Cane Prawns – thicker shells) whereas Warung Pak Su uses Udang Kertas (White Prawns – paper thin shells).

I found the prawns here to be fresher compared to the ones down at Restoran Nelayan Kuala Juru but somehow the noodles were not up to my expectation. Both the fried and soup based noodles tasted kind of sweet without the taste of prawns in them. They tasted just like those you can get at any tea time Malay stalls except that here you will have huge cooked prawns being nicely decorated on the noodles. Luckily, the fresh prawns complimented the noodles or else it would be a total disappointment. My preference would still be those delicious prawn taste enriched noodles at Restoran Nelayan Kuala Juru.

It would be easier to reach the restaurant if you know your way to Auto City. As you come to the Juru Interchange, you would pass through 3 traffic lights to reach Auto City. At the last traffic light at the T-junction (McDonald’s), turn left and drive all the way up Jalan Perusahaan/Jalan Tok Kangar until you have reach a traffic light at Jalan Juru (Map A), turn right into Jalan Juru (Juru Villa Show House) and drive all the way until the end. You would pass through a few sign boards of the district on your left namely Kampung Sekolah Juru (Map B), Bagan Nyior (Map C), and a sign board showing direction to Sungai Sembilang and Kuala Juru (Map D). At the T-junction (Map E), turn right and you will see the restaurant just on your left (Map F). You can click to enlarge the two maps below for a clearer direction.

Name: WARUNG PAK SU MEE UDANG
Address: 385, MK12, Bagan Nyir Juru, SPT, 14000 Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 12.00noon-10.30pm (Closed Thursday)
Contact: 012-409 0771, 012-493 5771
GPS: 5.326817, 100.414767

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

Please bear with me this time on the lengthy post as it involved traveling and trying out new food during a totally out of the way island hopping adventure trip. I was off exploring for great food again and this time it was an adventurous trip involving traveling by land and by sea. The destination was Pulau Aman, an island covering an area of 288 acres and is 25 nautical miles from the mainland just off the coast of Seberang Perai’s southern district of Penang, Malaysia. It’s quite a nice island to be on with affordable chalets. You could also book your lodging through KOPEL HomeStay Project or Ministry of Tourism HomeStay Project to stay with the locals and experience their daily lifestyles. There are many activities on Pulau Aman as well as nearby Pulau Gedung such as fishing, snorkeling, camping, hiking, jungle trekking, kayaking, canoeing, historic site visits or just a visit to the bullet warehouse plus the pirates’ cave. It’s truly a back-to-the-nature outdoor experience for those who won’t mind roughing it out in the wild.

A 10-15 minutes boat ride from the Batu Musang new jetty brought us to Pulau Aman where there existed the famous floating seafood restaurant. The seafood is real fresh as you can see fishermen bringing in all the live catch, which include varieties of shell fish, fish, flower crabs, prawns and mantis prawns. You can even try catching your own and get the restaurant to cook for you at minimal charges.

The only disadvantage of patronizing this restaurant is their limitation of food choices. There are only three choices of rice/noodles dishes for you to choose from. Each plate of rice or noodles would cost differently depending on the sizes of the fresh prawns given. It could be as low as RM5 and as high as RM10.

The first dish that arrived was the Prawn Noodle Soup (RM5.50). This was the best prawn noodles I had tasted so far. The soup base was slightly sweet but was rich in flavors with one fresh gigantic prawn, some slices cabbages and fried bean curd. The prawn was almost half the size of the plate of noodles. This is a must to have if you ever visit Pulau Aman. In fact, this dish is one of the most ordered in this restaurant.

The next was the Fried Prawn Noodle (RM5.50). The fried noodles were cooked in a different way compared to the Indian style fried noodles which was slightly drier. It has 3 medium sized prawns, some cabbages and bean curd slices, garnished with chopped spring onions and chillies. Somehow the Malay lady cook knew the combination of sauces real well. The dish was also superb.

Fried Rice with Large Prawns (RM5.50) was served next. I had frequent so many Malay styled hawker stalls and restaurants but normally found their fried rice to be a bit damp. This Malay lady cook surprised us with one of the best fried rice I had eaten. I could not had imagined how such an elderly lady would be able to provide us with a plate of wok hei (high heat cooking) filled fried rice full of flavors. Accompanied by 3 large and juicy prawns, I almost ordered a second round. Unfortunately, she was out of rice. What? At 1.10pm? She must have a great demand for the day.

Since we had almost an hour and a half left before the next boat leaved the island, we went for some sightseeing. It was quite an experience witnessing the lifestyle of the Malay villagers on the island. Although the villagers were living a simple life with basic necessities, they were filled with smiles and contentment. Children were seen playing along the trekking paths and by the semi mud filled beaches but they were seen to be very happy. Even the school and clinic available were such a small scale compared to how fortunate we were to be in the city. One thing which caught my attention was the stray animals on the island. There were barely a handful of dogs but cats could be seen everywhere even by the beaches.

Visiting a historic site on this island could be real taxing as every site seemed to be so far apart, although it did look near in the map provided on the sign board on the island. We were traveling almost a quarter of the island before we managed to find the Telaga Emas (Gold Well). History stated that a villager found some “gold” in the well. Eventually, those were discovered to be some colored stones. What amazed most of the visitors was that in it contained fresh, energizing and pure water. Although the well was dug just next to the sea, it did not contain any salt water taste in it.

Strolling within the fishing village, we noticed an abundance of a certain 20m trees. It has leaves almost similar to that of a papaya tree, fruits with texture similar to our cempedak and flesh as white and powdery as tapioca. The locals called them Buah Sukun (Breadfruits), a fruit native to the Malay Peninsula and western Pacific islands.

We happened to see a stall selling some fried chip-like food by the jetty and thought it was potatoes. As an adventurous foodie, I immediately bought a few packets of the fried chips home, after knowing that they were breadfruit chips. The taste was unique. It was like munching a cross breed of potato and tapioca chips with a hint of jackfruit flavor. After all, a pack was not expensive as it cost me only RM3.50 for a small one and RM5 for a big one. In fact, I bought 3 packets of the smaller ones for only RM10.

The nearest way to reach the island would be at Batu Musang Jetty (GPS: 5.265888, 100.406928), Batu Kawan, Seberang Perai (Butterworth). A trip from this new jetty at Batu Musang to the island would take about 10-15 minutes or at the Bukit Tambun jetty which would take about 30 minutes (Update: all transports had been redirected to Batu Musang Jetty unless there are some private operator available). If you find it rather taxing to drive all the way to Batu Kawan, you could always board a boat at Batu Uban or Batu Maung jetties but the charges would differ as it would be run by private operators. It would take about 45 minutes to reach the island. Going to the floating restaurant won’t be a problem after all as it’s at the old jetty which is next to the new berthing area. Please get a sea sick pill or a sea sick wrist band from the nearest pharmacy if you are sea sick prone. Just as a precaution, make sure you call up to ensure that the restaurant would be open on the day of your visit (although it’s supposed to be open daily) or you might just waste your effort visiting the island to try out their delicious food. Boat trip charges for return ticket would be RM6 per person (collected at Pulau Aman dock). Operating time would be 8am-7pm (Scheduled ride from Batu Musang: 10am/1pm/4pm/7pm. From Pulau Aman: 8am/1pm/3pm/6pm. There are more trips on weekends and holidays or if there are more passengers to and fro.)

As you come out from the toll plaza, you would reach a T-junction. Turn right and go over the overhead bridge towards Batu Kawan. Drive a few meters away and you would reach a cross junction. Turn left towards the Batu Kawan Stadium (There will be a signboard showing left towards the stadium. You would pass by the stadium on your left. Drive on until a roundabout. Drive towards your 12 o’clock (leading to Jeti Bandar Cassia) and go straight until you reach a turning on your left (no through road ahead). Turn left into the road (a quarry is on your left) and it would lead you to the Batu Musang Jetty. Take a 10-15 minutes boat ride to the floating restaurant.

Name: RESTORAN TERAPUNG PULAU AMAN
Address: 120 Pulau Aman, 14100 Simpang Ampat, Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 016-495 5125, 019-476 6125
Opening Hours: 11.00am-9.00pm (daily)
GPS: 5.268310, 100.391495

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