As a practical joke from this God person, people are made in such a way that food always tastes better when we have to travel long distance to obtain them. Something that you can get right next door is never as satisfying as the one you have to spend an hour’s journey getting there.
Hence, the place to go for seafood when you’re in Penang is not located on the island, it is this little fishing village called Tambun on peninsular side of the stat. The place is anything from 40 min to 1.5 hours away from the island, depending on the mercy of traffic.
Jon, Jun, and Wai Meng, check out the big fat mantis prawns swimming!
And since we were in Penang over the long weekends, it took us well over an hour to get from the little motel at Tanjung Tokong to Gee Seng Seafood Restaurant at Tambun. The road from Penang bridge onwards was alright, it was getting to the bridge that took the longest time ever.
Lesson Learned: never try to drive anywhere far within Penang over any long weekends.
fried squid, prawn with Nestum, fried noodle, crab with salted egg
This was actually my first time at Gee Seng seafood restaurant, and it was almost a couple years since I last went to Tambun. We somehow found a parking space deep inside the village and made our way to the restaurant.
For the five of us, we ordered deep fried squid, prawn with Nestum, crab with salted egg, giant mantis prawn, noodle, and a plate of vegetable for some sense of balance.
love the giant mantis prawns, says Elfie
Despite the crowd, our dishes didn’t take long start arriving at the table. They were fresh and really tasty, despite having scored almost negative when it comes to presentation. I particularly like the giant mantis prawns (RM 60 for the 3 we had), very succulent and sweet, did you know that these creatures have polarized vision?
Nestum prawns (RM 23) and deep fried squid (RM 18) too were top notch, but I thought the crab with salted egg (RM 47) was kinda average, would have been better if they were bigger.
Together with the vegetable, noodle, and tea, the bill came to RM 155.50, which translate to only RM 31 per person for the 5 of us for some rather satisfying food. Everyone agreed that it was worth the drive, but perhaps next time we should try somewhere closer? emm
Address:
Restoran Makanan Laut Gee Seng
860, Bagan Bukit Tambun,
14100 Simpang Ampat, Penang
GPS: 5.271221, 100.443385
Tel: 04-588 7200
Just like the previous 5 years, I’m hosting another X’mas eve party this year at home, and the sixth annual party has Heineken providing plenty of cold beer for everyone, they’re the sponsor.
This house party thingy is starting to get more ridiculous, awesomesauce!
see? Heineken hat, last year’s good omen came true
Anyway, this year’s theme – GO GREEN!
Everyone is required to wear at least something green, be it a hat, a string, shirt, skirt, bikini (you’re not allowed to swim in the pond), or whatever. There will be certain consequences for those who fails to adhere to this theme, you have been warned.
The GIFT EXCHANGE draw -
Be creative, bring something interesting!
Party usually ends when all the drinks are consumed, or when the cops decided to pay us the 2nd visit.
I have created the event in facebook and started the whole invitation process, slowly (cos there’s limited space at my small house and I am also bad with names). Add me in facebook if you want to join us, I will try to accommodate as much as possible.
For those who received the invitation and still hasn’t responded yet, please do so ASAP.
Past party reports are here. Some of the highlights in previous parties include Kim picking a toilet seat cover for gift, HB showing something nobody really wanted to see, Patrick being drunk silly and fell down everywhere without spilling a drop from his wine glass, and Suan randomly led a group of people into singing really lousy x’mas carol on the street.
There’s always been one and only important mission whenever I am in Penang - to eat as much as possible. So in between late lunch and dinner, I slotted in another meal.
My initial plan was to find the famous mee sotong at Esplanade, but it was already closed by 5 p.m. Feeling a bit adventurous, I parked my car near Jalan Kapitan Keling in the older part of Penang town and got on my foot to search for something to eat.
kedai makanan Fok Kee, and old school kopitiam
Quite a few old school kopitiams are already closed by this time of the day since this area is not known to be famous for tourists when it comes to food, then I walked by Fok Kee kopitiam and saw that they have this interesting item by the name of Taiwan Fish Maw noodle, I just had to try it.
I had absolutely no clue how this was going to turn out.
pork skin, liver, tofu, and minced meat too
I sat down, order a bowl of fish maw noodle and a glass of nutmeg juice (I don’t know if you can find this outside penang, grated nutmeg and sour plum, I love it!).
The chef went to work, and a few minutes later I was presented by this big bowl of “noodle” that, frankly, looked a bit weird. But thank goodness the taste was actually quite delicious, if not just a bit different from your usual hawker food.
fish maw noodle and nutmeg juice, yums!
The “noodle” is actually made from fish paste (like those you get at steamboats) shaped into long strands then deep fried. Soup is half way between loh mee and clear soup in terms of consistency, and the served with vegetable, tofu, minced pork, liver, and pork skin.
The combination was actually quite good, and goes especially well with pickled chili padi. I wouldn’t say this is a must-have if you’re heading to Penang for vacation, but it was definitely worth the RM 3 or RM 3.50 that I had to pay, have your char kueh teow, laksa, and other must-haves first, and if you want to try something different, this wouldn’t be a bad choice.
Address:
Kedai Makan Fok Kee
Jalan Kaptian Keling,
10200 Penang
GPS: 5.417741, 100.338333
Xpax Advert
Out of the 4 people that live in my house, 3 are now using Blackberry, just one more to be convinced. Best thing is, we’re all under Celcom/Xpax packages, the same network that is known for to be most reliable among the big telcos in the country.
On a somewhat related news, Xpax is still running the XXL double bonus promotion until the end of the month, reload and get up to 16% discount!
Char Kueh Teow is often the first thing people think of when Penang hawker food is mentioned. So whenever I have a chance to play host back at my home town, I always make sure the guests get a chance to get a plate of good char kueh teow.
It’s kinda like you should have chicken rice balls in Melaka, tomyam in Bangkok, ramen at Akihabara, or KFC in the state of Kentucky (ok just kidding about the last one, it sucked, I had.)
check out the size of them prawns on the char kueh teow!
The most famous of all the Char Kueh Teow places in Penang has got to be at Lorong Selamat, operated by this lady who now also owns Kafe Heng Huat.
As some of you might remember, this stall was previously operating at another kopitiam just a stone’s throw down the road (that is famous for its ais kacang), that shop now has another CKT stall operated by a guy, and to be frank, I think both stalls serve up equally delicious CKT.
yes, Elfie uses fork & spoon for CKT
Since it was going to be Elfie’s first taste of Penang char kueh teow last weekend, I decided to bring her, Jon, Jun, and Wai Meng to the original version at Lorong Selamat even though I had once decided to not pay the old lady a visit anymore due to their extremely bad service while still operating at the other kopitiam.
However, I have heard that they have improved ever since operating the new kopitiam, and true enough she wasn’t at all the angry old lady anymore. I guess a little bit of competition from the other guy helped too.
KY, Elfie, Wai Meng, Jon (also known as Don Juan), Jun
A plate of CKT here goes for RM 6.50, or more if you asks for extras. The photos you see here were the Rm 6.50 plates, with three really huge prawns that is properly marinated with salt to give it that extra kick, there’s also egg, cockles, Chinese sausage (lap cheong), chives, bean sprouts, and of course, a handful of kueh teow.
They are the best char kueh teow there is, the only way to improve this would probably be swapping the chicken egg with duck egg, and perhaps add a bit of lard? I’m asking too much, it’s about lunch time now, and I am hungry! haih…
Address:
Kafe Heng Huat,
Lorong Selamat,
Penang
GPS: 5.417183, 100.324831
Remember the previous post on Brand’s Generasi Hebat contest where you “express yourself” creatively with the green tie to win awesome prizes? Well, the same campaign now releases a music video. Check it out below!
Gotta say it’s pretty catchy, multi-lingual too! Title of the song is Juara (not to be confused by the pretty tragic Proton model), basically saying that we’re all born to be champions if we just open our eyes, be creative, believe in ourselves, and not listen to those who are negative!
Like President Kennedy once said “we choose to go to the moon within this decade not because it is easy, but because it is hard!”.
I say to myself, “I will eat this crab not because it is easy, but because it is hard… and also tasty” 
Anyway, nonsense aside, do check out the contest on Generasi Hebat’s facebook page and participate in it.
After all, the prizes includes 20 trips to HK Disneyland, LG LCD TVs, or LG Arena phones. If you can do better than the four actual examples submitted, I’m sure you’ll stand a pretty good chance of scoring one of the loots.
I am keeping my fingers crossed, I wanna be a champion too!
