CRIZ BON APPETITE

Usher in the Year of the Water Tiger during this coming Chinese New Year 2022 with great feasts from Straits Café & Lounge @ Ixora Hotel, Bandar Perai Jaya, Penang. A few great deals will be available to celebrate the auspicious season. Call in +604-382 8888 to make your reservations today.

You could also enjoy their Chinese New Year Eve Tuan Yuan (Reunion) Buffet Dinner (31 January 2022) from 6.30pm to 10.00pm at The Straits Cafe and Lounge, priced at RM98+ (Adult) and RM68+ (Child aged 4-12).

They also have two sets 8-Course Lunar Feast Fortune packages for the Chinese New Year 2022 (for both lunch & dinner from 20 January 2022 – 15 February 2022), namely RM1288+ and RM988+.

Here are some glimpses of what you would be served for the RM1288+ 8-Course Lunar Feast Fortune Set.

You could also order their Ixora Spring Toss Yee Sang (Dine-in & Takeaways), which would be available from 20 January 2022 until 15 February 2022. Two sizes are available at RM108+ (Large: 5-7 pax) or RM88+ (Medium: 2-4 pax).

Getting to the Straits Café & Lounge @ Ixora Hotel won’t be hard as it’s just located next to the Megamall Shopping Complex at Bandar Perai Jaya. If you are coming from the island via the 1st Penang Bridge, just look out for the second exit on your left upon reaching the mainland. Drive all the way via Jalan Baru until you reach the 1st traffic lights. Turn left into Jalan Perai Jaya 1 and you can see Ixora Hotel at the junction of Jalan Baru/Jalan Perai Jaya 1. Drive straight for about 10m and you can see the basement car park on your left. Park your car and go up Level 1 and you can see the café & lounge there.

Name: STRAITS CAFÉ & LOUNGE @ IXORA HOTEL
Address: Jalan Baru, Bandar Perai Jaya, 13600 Perai, Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 604-382 8888
Business Hours: 6.00am-10.00am (breakfast), 12.00pm-2.30pm (Lunch), 6.00pm-10.00pm (Dinner)
GPS: 5.378357, 100.398322

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

To welcome in the 2020 Year of the White Yang Metal Rat, Swez Brasserie @ Eastin Hotel, Penang, with its Executive Chef, Chef Alex Leong, and his skillful culinary team would be crafting a delectable array of sumptuously delicious Chinese New Year menu, guaranteed to whet your appetite. Do check out the Family Reunion Buffet Package on 24 January 2020 at RM138nett per person and Chinese New Year Day 1 & 2 Buffet Lunch & Dinner at RM98nett and RM118nett respectively. Senior citizens aged above 60 years old would get a special 25% off, while children aged 6-12 years old would get a 50% off from the published price. For more information and reservations, contact Eastin Hotel Penang at +604-612 1111 or you can also email at info.pg@eastin.com or log in to the website www.eastin.com

No reunion dinner is complete without some Fortune Yee Sang with condiments and dressing, topped with freshly cut salmon sashimi. You could also dine majestically with their specially concocted Emperors Twin Dome (Poon Choi and Yook Poon), follows by palate cleansing appetizers such as Baby Octopus Salad with Spicy Jellyfish or perhaps some White Tuna Tataki with Citrus Dressing, while there would be more seafood-on-ice offerings such as Tiger Prawns, Scallops, N.Z Half Shell Mussel or Half Shell Oyster with condiments. Even their creamy bowl of Pumpkin Cream Soup infused with Lemongrass or a piping hot bowl of Szechuan Seafood Soup, would boost up your appetite to even feast more. Some of the highlights would include Roasted Lamb Leg with Parmesan Herb Crust and Mongolian Sauce, Rock Salt Baked Seabass infused with Traditional Chinese Herbs, Green Tea Dan Dan Noodles with Chicken Ragout with a local twist inspired by Penang’s very own famous Hokkien Mee broth, Mung Bean Jelly with Szechuan Pepper Sesame Sauce, Peking Duck Roll and more.

To finish off your imperial feasting, do check out Chef Alex Leong’s famous Japanese Cheese Cake that would melt in your mouth. There would also be some traditional classic desserts such as Sesame Ball, Tao Fu Fa with Brown Sugar, Mochi, and Double Boil Peach Gum with Red Dates.

There would also be a Chinese New Year Bazaar on 19 January 2020, from 9.30am until 3.30pm for you to grab some of your festive necessities. Do check out their 15% off code for their Sunday Brunch too.

On top of that, do visit them on 5 February 2020, 8.00am to experience the extraordinary Lion Dance Performance by an award-winning troupe.

Other ongoing promotions are as shown below.

Thanks to the management of Eastin Hotel Penang for inviting us to the CNY preview. Heng ar! Ong ar! Huat ar!

The Swez Brasserie is located at the ring wing of Eastin Hotel, Penang (next to Queensbay Mall). If you are coming from Georgetown towards Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone via Bayan Lepas Expressway, do watch out for the Pulau Jerejak signboard (leading to Pulau Jerejak jetty). Ignore the turning and drive on to the next left junction. Turn left into Jalan Aziz Ibrahim and drive on until you reach a roundabout. Drive on until you see a big Eastin Hotel signboard at the first right junction. Turn right and drive on. Park your car at the basement car park. Take a lift to the first floor of the lobby and you would see the restaurant there.

Name: SWEZ BRASSERIE @ EASTIN HOTEL
Address: 1 Solok Bayan Indah, Queens Bay, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 604-612 1128
Business Hours: 12.00pm-2.30pm (Lunch), 6.30pm-10.00pm (Dinner)
GPS: 5.33643, 100.306345

RATING:
Ambience: 8/10 (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)

About Eastin Hotel Penang: Eastin Hotel Penang is a contemporary International business class hotel. Strategically located within the integrated waterfront development of Queensbay, Eastin Penang is adjacent to Queensbay Mall. Its superb location is minutes’ drive away from the Penang International Airport and the iconic Penang Bridge as well as within the vicinity of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone. It features 328 meticulously decorated guest rooms and suites, facing the shimmering blue sea and the verdant green hills of Pulau Jerejak, home to tropical rainforest that is over 130 million years old. For more information, please visit www.eastin.com

As you can see, I have been rather busy during this year’s Chinese New Year. There were just too many projects to handle prior to the forth coming long stretch of holidays in which some of my Chinese based suppliers would be closed for business for almost 2 weeks. On top of that, I was mostly in the kitchen preparing some feasting goodies prior to the reunion dinner. Those included a few of my own recipes which included my delicious concoction of oysters and scallops and 30 liters of home brewed Herbal Tea to serve my guests during their visits on a humid day.

This year was one of the rarest celebration moments in my family as it so happen that the Chinese New Year which fell on 14 February 2010 coincided with Valentine’s Day. It’s a FIVE-IN-ONE CELEBRATION for the Lai Family! The celebration included the reunion dinner to usher in the Tiger year, my brother’s birthday on the eve, Valentine’s Day, my brother’s lunar birthday as well as his wedding anniversary which fell on Valentine’s Day. It was indeed a fun-filled celebration.

This year’s reunion dinner dishes were somewhat unique compared to the previous ones. In fact, other than the purchases of different types of meat and fish balls, the steamboat stock was another new creation for the family. It was ginseng roots based herbal stock for the first time in our steamboat reunion dinner history. Simple as it may look but it took more than 8 hours of low fire simmering and tedious filtering just to cook this up. Our steamboat side dishes this year was rather simple as we had other extra dishes as well. They included lots of crown daisy chrysanthemum leaves (tang oh/茼蒿), cabbages, wolfberry, prawns, silver pomfret (tao tay fish), chicken drumstick fillet, hair moss fish balls, vegetable fish balls, squid balls, large meatballs, 3 different types of wolf herring (sai to/ikan parang/西刀) fish balls, prawn & pork dumpling (sui kow/水餃), seafood tofu, Fuzhou fish balls (福州魚丸/Hock Chew fish ball – stuffed with minced meat), fish dumplings (魚餃/hoo keow/thin fish batter skin stuffed with minced meat) and fried chopped garlic as garnishing. The whole experience was rejuvenating after so many days of tiring preparations.

What would be new to most families would be our unique dipping sauce. It’s definitely not any hoisin sauce, chopped garlic with bird’s eyes chilies in soy sauce or bottled chili sauce but a concoction of red sweet sauce (甜醬), ginger and chicken fat. The fragrant gingery sauce with each bite of meat, seafood or balls would surely make you yearn for more.

As it was rare to have my brother’s birthday on such an auspicious gathering, we totally ignored on the fat and cholesterol intakes. LOL! I ordered one of my favorite Korean food – Jokbal (족발 – RM77), glazed pig feet meat slices. I believed that Sa Rang Chae Korean Restaurant is the sole restaurant in Penang to have this wonderfully cooked dish. It caught my brother’s attention immediately as I saw him applying nonstop the accompanied sweet and/or salty sauces onto the accompanied lettuce endlessly. Cool! At least he’s happy. Err… what happened to your diet plan bro? 😛

Now comes the interesting part of the suspense since my last post on reserving some of my home cooked Hokkien Mee stock and chili paste for this new recipe. What would a birthday be without any birthday noodles? Let me introduce you to my latest fusion recipe – Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles! The delicious dish had yellow noodles carefully stir fried in thick prawn stock, dried shrimps, meat, prawns, fish cake and flowering Chinese cabbage (chye sim/chai sim/菜心) with deep fried crab stick strips and fried shallots as garnishing. You can adjust your level of spiciness by adding more of the chili paste. Everybody, inclusive my two teenage nieces could not stop having this dish as it had a unique seafood fragrant. The more you take this, the more you want it for every meal!

I will not touch on the recipes here but I will share the recipes in the next few posts. Wishing everyone one a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year! Do drive carefully if you are traveling! Check out for more update here soon.

Chinese New Year would be celebrated on 26 & 27 January 2009. It’s time to give your Mum a rest and pamper her to a buffet steamboat dinner instead. Let your Mum have an enjoyable dinner without worrying about the hassle of cleaning up for once. She ought to be given the chance to have a full rest this coming year.

The Penang State Chinese New Year Celebration committee would be holding an exclusive Chinese New Year steamboat buffet dinner with live entertainment from 23-25 January 2009, along with Penang Times Square and Golden BBQ Steamboat Restaurant. Dinner would be served at the mall’s Urban Square, the largest open space in Penang, between 7.30pm and 10.00pm. Tickets are sold at RM280 for 10pax and RM140 for 5pax. Get your tickets fast before they are sold out at Ivory Corporate Communication Department, 73 Jalan Dato Keramat, Penang, 604-210 8000 or at Golden BBQ Steamboat Restaurant, 38, 40, 42 Jalan Nagore, Penang, 012-438 8324 (Joseph).