Wishing all readers a Happy Chinese New Year!

~May you be well, be healthy, be happy, be merry~

Have a lovely reunion with your loved ones!!!

Head over to Buzzing Life's FB page to view Kek Lok Si Temple's lighting this year

Kek Lok Si Penang CNY 2012

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G Hotel, Penang's Sesame + Soy

G Hotel is famed for its luxurious business style rooms. Coupled with its location at the heart of Gurney Drive, all praises goes to the comfortable rooms and the great service.

But G Hotel offers much more than just that. Lodging can hardly be complete without food. Food and lodging, lodging and food. That is where G Hotel's Sesame + Soy Restaurant comes in. With it's "Pan Asian Chinese Cuisine" theme, the chefs whips up a variety of fusion, Chinese dish from different parts of Asia.

Soy takes up the front portion of this dual restaurant. With a less sophisticated setting and menu, this suits the business customers who seek for a quiet place to dine with business counterparts.

 As you walk further into the restaurant, you will realize a transformation in terms of environment and style. Sesame prides itself to having an elegant, modern, and contemporary dining setting serving Chinese fusion food.

Another secret that I can happily reveal is that they can cater for a small-scale wedding dinner too. Three private rooms are also available if there is a need for privacy.

They are currently running a Business Set Lunch promotion. At RM 30++ per pax, you will be served two dishes accompanied with steam/fried rice, soup, and dessert of the day.

The menu changes every month. When I sampled it, we had Stewed Beancurd with crab roe and crab meat. The beancurd was silky smooth with a mild taste of sweet and spicy gravy. But unfortunately I can hardly trace any crab meat in there.

This dish was not in the business set lunch list but instead came from the Taipei Specialty Cuisine menu (list is at the end of the post). If you are familiar with Taiwan's popular food, this will look very familiar. Fine Noodles Chowder with Oyster and Shredded Chicken is it's long name, or I guess it's better known as oyster mee sua!

It came with huge sized oysters and a very sweet chowder with just the right consistency.

Braised Duck Wing with Spicy Masterstock is another item from the Taipei Specialty menu. Although it looked real spicy with its fiery red sauce, it was actually just moderately hot with a tinge of sweetness. The meat was also very tender and filled with juiciness of the stock.

The item I admire the most is the dessert. It is made from its kitchen with a fresh source of fruits and pastry. The dessert for the day was Jackfruit pastry with Ice cream.

Even before you cut open the pastry, the sweet and fragrant smell of jackfruit greets your senses. This sweet and flaky dessert was purely a heavenly combination of warm (jackfruit pastry) and cold (ice cream) elements. It really ended the meal on a high!!!

Below are photos of other dishes, provided by G Hotel's graphics team.

Steamed Snapper Fillet and Braised Moi-Choi Duck Breast

 Hunan Style Beef Cubes and Jin Dou Chicken

(clockwise) Baby Chinese Cabbage, Crispy Snapper Fillet,and Snake Beans

Soon after, a blogger friend decided to give it another try to see if it's up to standard. This time, the menu has changed.

Sichuan Smoked Duck with jellyfish and Steamed Snapper Fillet with egg yolk puree

Besides the two dishes that you can select, the set comes with rice, soup, tea, and dessert.

 This is their Taipei Specialty Cuisine Menu.

Overall, the quality of each dish is certainly up to expectation of this renowned hotel. The ingredients are carefully picked to have a good blend of taste. Another plus point is its conducive dining environment which adds the the satisfaction scale. However, the portion of each dish is rather minuscule. It might be just nice for a lady/small eater but male eaters definitely will need to pile on the rice to satisfy the tummy!

Between quality and quantity, what's your pick?

Information

 Sesame +Soy

Opening Hours:

Soy : Mon-Sunday (including Public Holidays) 12.00pm-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm

Sesame : Mon-Sunday (including Public Holidays) 6.30pm to 10.30pm

Tel : 604 – 238 0000, Fax : 604 – 238 0088

Address : 168A, Persiaran Gurney, 10350 Penang, Malaysia.

Website : www.ghotel.com.my

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Manhattan Fish Market

Sometimes you want to go for some seafood in a cool and clean environment, or look for a place to sit and chat while having a ton of western food variety on the menu. Manhattan Fish Market do have a ton of variety that satisfies most people of all ages in this region but sometimes it can be draining to your mental power of selecting if you survive till the last page of the menu. However, hardly anybody complains about such 'positive' thing!

Manhattan Fish Market in Gurney Plaza is housed in a two-story outlet and the ground floor has access to outdoor dining tables, boosting more seating capacity.

They have recently added a handful of new items to some sections of their menu. So let's take a look at how they fair.

Beverages:

 These beverages are the popular orders of Manhattan Fish Market. They are not new but gets its rating due to its uniqueness and right blend of ingredients.

Clock-wise from above:

Oreo Kaboom (RM9.90)
Crushed Oreos blended into rich vanilla ice-cream

 Sweet Alabama Smoothie (RM9.90)
Indulging treat of chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, swirled with peanut butter

 Sunset on the Ocean (RM9.90)
Vanilla ice-cream blended with orange and creamy yogurt

 Citrus Mint (RM7.90)
Crushed ice in refreshing lemon juice with a dash of cool mint for a cooling effect

Starters:

Kickin’ Shrimps (RM13.90)
Succulent shrimps deep fried then tossed in our tangy kickin' sauce, served over a bed of coleslaw with raisins

This is one of the new offering. Baby shrimps are deep fried for the slight crisp and firm texture before it is mixed in a sweet and tangy sauce. As an appetizer, this hits the ground running for more scrumptious meal to come i.e. not too heavy.

Fried Calamari (RM9.90)

 The crisp fried calamari is their signature starter dish. Light and mildly herb batter wraps around the squid bites. The sauce and salad goes pretty well with the calamari.

Quad Delights (RM15.90)
Fried calamari, fried country mushrooms and fried shrimps served with coleslaw with raisins

If you've got a group dining together, then the quad delight will be good for sharing. Three main starters are served together, accompanied by some coleslaw and three choices of sauces. It's always hard to get a bite of everything because it's gone as fast as it's served!!! I guess you can't go wrong with this trio of calamari, shrimps, and mushrooms!!

Garlic Herb Mussels (RM14.90)
Mussels poached in garlic herb sauce, served with baguette slices for more dipping

This dish needs a bit of getting used to. The taste is a little strong at first because the sauce is infused with garlic, herbs, and cream. But once you dig in, it doesn't taste like overpowering, thick cream but more like a gravy to the mussels. The baguette slices keeps the taste balanced. A comparison of eating roti bengali with curry?

Soup and Salad:

Soup of the Day (light – RM4.90, regular – RM5.90)

 Their soup of the day, as the name implies, differs from day to day, so you've got to check with the servers before you order. Their mushroom soup is usually the star here. Just the right thickness and filled with chopped mushrooms and sprinkled with herbs.

Chowder of the Day (light – RM5.90, regular – RM7.90)

 The chowder also differs on different days. The one above is a seafood chowder. This is a very refreshing change from the usual mushroom soup. Slightly sweet yet sour, it has a pleasant taste of seafood bits blended in the concoction.

Garden Salad with Grilled Salmon (RM8.90 + addon salmon RM4.90)
Crunchy garden greens drizzled with your choice of thousand island, cajun honey mustard or Italian dressing

I liked the fact that there's a whole bunch of fresh vegetables in this dish and the dressing are set aside. This won't drain all the ingredients into a pool of oily/creamy dressing. There are choices of add-ons like grilled salmon bits shown above.

Manhattan Favorites:

Manhattan Fish ‘n Chips - Cherry Snapper (light – RM13.90, regular – RM19.90)
Signature! Served with garden salad with a choice of chips/garlic herb rice/more garden salad

 What's western food without fish and chips? It's a signature dish here and comes with a choice of sides like chips or rice. The fish fillet and the garden salad is enough to fill you up if you wish to avoid the carbs

Fiery Cherry Snapper with Mussels (RM23.90)
Grilled Cherry Snapper specially prepared in homemade spicy marinade, topped with mussels on a bed of garlic herb rice with scrumptious broccoli and carrots

Another new item in the menu is this grilled cherry snapper with spicy marinade. Mussels, garlic herb rice, and vegetables gives it a complete meal. The grilled snapper is juicy on its own, but when eaten with rice, the combination then becomes a tad on the plain+dry texture. Some gravy on the side would be nice.

 Grilled Catch of the day - Halibut (RM35.90)

Grilled Catch of the day - Cod (RM45.90)

Grilled fish served with scrumptious broccoli and carrots on the side, with a choice of chips/garlic herb rice/garden salad

 Their grilled catch of the day gives you a choice of dory, salmon, halibut, and cod as the mains with sides of vegetables, garlic herb rice or chips. The gravy splattered on the grilled fish is creamy and slightly sourish - some sort like a mixture of sour cream, thousand island, garlic, and herbs.

 Manhattan Flaming Prawns (RM28.90)
Famous flaming tiger prawns served with chips

If you are a fan of prawns, then this is definitely the choice to order. Tiger prawns takes the center-stage, topped with melted cheese and flamed to give a smoky taste. Pleasing for the eyes as well as the palate!!

Strictly For Sharing:

Manhattan Seafood for 2 (RM49.90)
Fried calamari, fried fish nuggets and oysters with out famous Manhattan Flaming Prawns served on a bed of garlic herb rice and chips with scrumptious broccoli and carrots

Another choice when dining in a group is the 'strictly for sharing' section in the menu. The one above is recommended for two person but I feel it's enough for three small eaters. With this, you get all of the signature items - fish and chips, flaming prawns, fried calamari!!!

Pasta:

Shrimp My Olio (RM17.90)
Sauteed shrimps and spaghetti swirled in garlic, coriander and olive oil dusted with zesty chilli flakes

Spaghetti in the Sea (RM20.90)
Mussels, shrimps, and calamari tossed in delicious marinara goodness

Creamy Seafood Pasta (RM19.90)
Fried calamari and fish fillet tossed in creamy garlic herb sauce

Manhattan Fish Market's pasta selection usually takes second place with its ever popular flaming and grilled seafood as the shining stars. However, they do have quite a selection of pasta to choose from. It cuts out just right but frankly, it can hardly fight with those Italian restaurants.

Wrap ‘n Roll:

Chicken Tortilla (RM13.90)
Tender grilled chicken wrapped in tortilla, packed with veggies, drizzled with Manhattan Flaming sauce and served with chips 

 For light eaters, don't fret as they have a new wrap and roll item on the menu. Previously only serving tuna wrap, now they have grilled chicken wrap as well. Nevertheless, it has a pretty dry filling of lettuce and tomatoes.

Share ‘n Care:

 As they know people usually come in groups and wish to share the food, occasionally, promotions will be available like the one above -  'Share n' Care' for 2, 4, 6, or 8 pax. All set will have soup, starter, drink, and your choice of mains which are the favorite flavors as shown below.

Favorite Flavors (grilled/baked/fried/poached):

Manhattan Fish ‘n Chips - Dory
Signature! Served with garden salad with a choice of chips/garlic herb rice/more garden salad

Grilled Catch of the day - Dory
Grilled fish served with scrumptious broccoli and carrots on the side, with a choice of chips/garlic herb rice/garden salad

Manhattan Baked Fish
Dory baked in coriander marinade, served with garlic herb rice with scrumptious broccoli and carrots on the side

Poached Dory in Minty Sauce
Dory poached in a delightful minty sauce served over a bed of delicious garlic herb rice 

 Be it fried, grilled, baked, or poached, you will spoilt for choice in this promotion set. All types of mains will come with sides of vegetables, garlic herb rice or chips.

 Dessert:

Brownies with Ice-cream (RM9.90)
Fudgy and delicious chocolate brownie topped with vanilla ice-cream

Manhattan Mud Pie (RM7.90)
Signature dessert - rich chocolate cookie ice-creampie topped with nuts and chocolate syrup

Tuscan Tiramisu (RM6.90)
Italian dessert made with the best coffee and cream cheese

 There's always space for dessert no matter how full you are. That's the popular saying and oh boy, over here, it is really tempting and will lure you to 'make space' for some sweet dessert even if you can take even a bite more. The mud pie and tuscan tiramisu is their chef's recommendation. The picture says it all isn't it?

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Information:

Manhattan Fish Market @ Gurney Plaza

170-G-71/01-67, Plaza Gurney,

Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang.

Tel: 604-229 9251

Business Hours: 11.00am-10.00pm daily 

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