birthday dinner @ penang chinese swimming club

firstly, this is one of the most strategic places to eat if you hv kids and if you need to hv rice with dishes. plus carpark + breezy + place for kids to run + fast service. i could not ask for more. we've come here a lot for our "family get-together" over the years and everyone likes the food here. i'm sure there are other places around tg bungah but i'm too lazy to explore. anyway, the management and chef has changed but it looks like the menu didn't change much. we started off with birthday mee.

and how can you hv a birthday without "birthday noodles"right?

choon phiah.. super huge

tomyam lohbak

stir fried veggies

the steamed fish

the pai kut wong, de-boned pork ribs

the whole shebang..

overall, it was a good meal. it could have been better . though i must say this is the 1st time that we've finished everything that we ordered.

duckrice@ carnavon st

The last time we were here was about 1 year ago. we were too hungry, we forgot to take photos

I consider this one of the best duck rice shops in penang.

why you ask?

well, other places i go to because of the rice or chilli sauce (yes, weird i know..)

but this place, its all about the duck.

delicious crispy roast duck.

The duck here is always excellent. The meat is very juicy, tender and full of flavor.

There was actually very little fat and the skin was nice and crispy

Same goes for bbq-pork, char siew.

Both taste great even without the chilli sauce.

We took a plate for 2 and its was huge.

We had to wait quite a while as it was lunch time and they were serving nonstop.

Lucky we even got a table.The food was worth the wait.

oh yea.. the complimentary soup.

Elpea felt that the sauce for the charsiew was a bit too sweet though.

okaaay... it was but i still liked it :-)

I give it 5/5.

slice of heaven?

Ti's the year of the tiger and CNY goodies beckons to us..

what is CNY if not for: mandarin oranges and cookies and packet drinks and coke and shandy and longan and steamboat and FAMILY.... :-)

.................AND lastly, CNY is not CNY without bak kuah..

delicious decadent slices of bbq pork.

our stock this year comes imported from kay-el..

we bought a few homemade ones as well but i still prefer the ones from kiew brothers

sure, many of you may disagree.. but, well to each his own, i say..

individually vacuumed packed slices.... times have changed... 2 important thing about bak kuah to me is : taste and texture

must not be too salty or too sweet.

must not be too "wet", oily, soft or chewy.

perfect texture is sometime very difficult but so far the ones we bought are all very consistent.

taste wise i have no complaints as well.

actually the "char" level is also equally important.. :-)

elpea likes her bak kuah extra black and crispy.

me? i like it like below.. just nice..

isnt that just beautiful??

food fest Q3 09 aka "How to lose weight laah, you tell me??"

My dad stayed over a few weekends ago and as you usual it was food fiesta time again... How to lose weight laah you tell me?? We bought some stuff from the pasar Ramadan and Lp made some stuff as well… LP made pork ribs Seasoned with soy and slowly cooked in the claypot for 2-3 hours

Its black because of the soy sauce…. Moist, sweet and tender flesh just slipping off from the bone. We’ll definitely do a grilled version if we ever get the BBQ up.

She also made a puff pastry with tuna filling topped with cut tomatoes and chillies. Very light scrumptious and definitely a good breakfast food I was actually quite disappointed this year with the fare from the pasar ramadan. Nothing that I bought tasted nice, not even remotely mediocre… And to make matters worse, our adventure to “karrukudi “ was just such a big letdown.. the briani rice was just plain bland and wet. And I’m never going back there again.

On the bright side, I found a place that sells better briani rice. Its from a nasi kander shop called tajuddin in queen street. And where is queen street? Well, it right there next to kings street and china street.. :-) (Googlemap it laah) Its only cost $3 for the rice which is quite a huge portion and $4 for a huge piece of chicken. The rice was very fluffy and it was very nicely spiced. Overall, it was so much better than the one we had at karrikudi for this one i could taste the spices, cinnamon, onions, cardamon, star aneis...etc... Mee goreng from the stall in front of the pulau tikus “mata-keng” . my personal all time favourite.

Mee goreng was as usual quite good but my dad commented that the mee rebus was not as good anymore.. also, I never buy from the Bangkok lane stall … I actually cant remember why its on my “banned” list..

And last but not least, not forgetting bran who had his porridge… hehehe…

Chicago ribs @ autocity

It was my 34th and we drove all the way across the bridge to go eat ribs. I’ve heard a lot about it and I especially wanted to go there since they serve pork ribs. You can hardly find good pork ribs on the island anymore. The last good ribs I had was in LA :-P The restaurant is hidden from view but it basically behind the mcD@autocity. We got there around noon and we were the 1st customers of the day. Soon after the lunch people started trickling in. Elpea ordered the lunch set, of ½ rack of babyback ribs with fries and slaw, mix veg soup and coke. I ordered the St Louis pork ribs, full rack, hot and spicy flavor, and for drinks I took the iced lemon tea. ( Next time, I go back I’ll be sure to try the original flavor ribs. ) I also ordered additional potato skins for starters. 1st to arrive were the drinks in 2 humongous glasses. Larger that what we normally see in crappy TGIF or Chili’s on the island. iced-lemon tea for me and coke for my lovely wife

Next came the potato skins Not as thick as TGIF’s but taste much much nicer. .

Elpeas mix veg soup came next. I don’t think there has been any soup from any restaurant that has met our standards. Every thing taste like it "fresh" from the can. elpea say so-so only.Then the main courses came.

Elpeas babyback ribs look really good The fries were very nice as well. the coleslaw was so-so only she said. the PORK ribs i ordered however looked super huge and elpea was laughing at me as it looked too huge for even ME to finish.

Don’t underestimate me dear… The meat on the ribs were very tender and it just peels away from the bone. succulent... :-) Taste wise it's better than what I had previously on the island. The hot and spicy flavour was very mild actually. not spicy also.

the Mash potato was excellent. not too soft and not too dry. Just nice. The broccoli tastes well, like broccoli but was suprising quite nice. I managed to finish the whole rack and ¾ of the mash potato but couldn’t finish the broccoli and no more space for dessert. :-( Overall 8.5/10 , good food and fast service