Buzzing with FOOD

Checklist

If you think that you:

• want to have steamboat but too lazy to prepare it yourself
• crave for steamboat but put off by the weather and heat, wishing there’s air-conditioning while enjoying steamboat
• want to have steamboat yet don’t want to miss the bbq-ed food but don’t fancy doing it yourself
• long for chocolate fountain dessert but think it’s only available in hotels/classy restaurants
• want a safe (no gas tanks around every table) yet fast way to enjoy your steamboat

As mentioned, if bbq-ing or grilling is not something you enjoy but don’t want to miss the food, it’s here where you pick what you like and this man will kindly prepare it and serve you when it’s done.

The interior of the outlet. It’s fully air-conditioned and all tables uses electronic stoves.

The ingredients:

Record breaking number of sauces

Soup variety:

(left-to-right) Fish base and Chicken base

Tomyam base and Herbal base

My verdict and order of liking of the soup:

• #1- fish (pleasant taste at first, ginger covers up the fishy taste, but very salty after a few rounds of ingredients)
  
• #2- herbal (no over-powering strong herbs taste, a bit mild in the beginning but nice ending taste as the ingredients adds saltiness to it)
  
• #3- chicken (taste pretty normal)
  
• #4- tomyam (a bit too mild and lack of aroma, not spicy enough)

All done and ready to be eaten

Finger food:

Item includes fried noodle, fried rice, nuggets, fried chicken wing/drummet

BBQ/Grilled items:
(items not at the grill section can also be sent to grill)

Mix skewer (prawn, chicken meat, capsicum)

pandan-wrapped chicken, squid, beef slice, chicken slice, mussels, ham, sausages, turmeric-marinated prawns, stingray, crab (seasonal)

Favourite grilled of the night (which happen to be not at the grill section but from the steamboat section); fish cake and Japanese tofu

Desserts:

Fruits, tong sui (black glutinous rice that night), jelly, chocolate fountain and ice-cream (5 flavours)

Creativity award goes to:

Worst+no-artistic-skills award goes to me (right pic) (As long as get to eat, cincai la right??)

Now in promotion:

Daily Lunch Set @ RM 6.90 (includes free-flow drink and a dessert)

Steamboat Price:

Business Hours:

11.30am - 3.00pm
5.00pm - 11.00pm

Contact:

No. 27, Jalan Nagore,
10050 Georgetown,
Penang.

Tel/Fax: 04-210 1122
URL: www.jlsteamboat.com
(Catering service available too)

For other reviews:

Criz
Steven
Jian
Mary
Allen Ooi

Overall, I feel it’s a cozy and quiet place to have a nice steaming pot of steamboat. Not a huge outlet but enough to accommodate at least 10 small tables and 3 big round tables. Service wise, attentive at the beginning and it’s mostly self-service after that. Grill service might be a little slow depending on the crowd. A reasonable place to consider.

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Gasoline Cafe is one of the few outlets now open in Penang Times Square. This cafe takes the concept of being in the wild. Wallpapers are made up of jungle animals, tribe faces and random wildness.

The interesting part is at one corner of the cafe. They have creatively made 3 cave-looking table section. It’s made of cement and feels cooling while sitting in there.

Upstairs it’s tatami-style seating with partitions separated by curtains. There’s cards and some board games provided for your use.

The menu is nicely done with lots of photos to help you decide what to order.

They started their first branch in Serdang, Seri Kembangan. I used to go there a few times while I was staying nearby. It was very much a simple cafe then but they have grown and now their latest outlet in Penang spots a much better plan and concept.

Lots of choices of food (from local chinese to western) and beverages (fruity to caffeine)

Hot Honey Lemon (RM 4.50) and Jasmine honey tea latte (RM 6.50)

(from front) Eternal Fire Flame (RM 6), Beauty and the Beast (RM 6.90) and Chocorange (RM 6.50)

I liked the eternal fire flame. It’s blended ice with sour plum. Chocorange is chocolate blended with orange juice (duhh!)

Both taste a little weird to me

Mongolia fish fillet rice (RM 6.90) - deep-fried fillet stir-fried with onions, capsicium and sauce akin to sweet and sour.

Marmite chicken rice (RM 6.90) - chicken, capsicium and cabbage in marmite sauce.

Portuguese seafood rice (RM 7.90) - a seafood combination of squids, fish, prawns with long beans and onions. The taste is quite pleasent. Just a hint of spicyness.

Portugal fillet rice (RM 6.90) - deep-fried fillet done in the same style as the above.

The dine-in was actually to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Happy Birthday YM!!

Chocolate and vanilla mousse cake I bought from Bread ‘R Us.

Gasoline Cafe is a cafe targeted for the youths (from it’s outlook and menu choices). Food is just normal while beverages have a fair share of focus to attract customers to come for a drink and relax. Overall, a simple cafe with an interesting concept, but don’t put too high hopes on splendid food. It serves it’s purpose as a cafe, more for people to hang out, to have a drink and snacks.

Location is at 77-G-20&21, Ground Floor of Penang Times Square. Contact number is 04-227 1339.

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A group of us met up again and this time with the courtesy invitation of Mr. Teh of Siong Ho Fish Head Bee Hoon and Criz for the liasing.

Siong Ho Fish Head Bee Hoon/Porridge stall is the only stall in Village Cafe, just by the roadside of busy Weld Quay (directions at the end of the post).

Look for this brown building landmark across this cafe. It’s a pretty small home-turned-business outlet and can accommodate only about 10+ tables. But although it’s just a small shop, there’s lots of customers buzzing in non-stop to taste the delicious dishes. It was full house that night and it was not even a weekend!!!

Among the ingredients to suit your palate.

The giant grouper fish head shown courtesy of the chef/boss.

Usually the patrons will just let the chef to choose a few common ingredients for their bowl of noodle/vermicelli/porridge but among what you can choose are, fish meat/fish head pieces (raw or deep fried), squid, frog, prawns, quail eggs, crab, pig’s kidney, fishball, meatball, minced meat and beancurd. Looks little but a combination of these can give you a whole lot of different types of servings.

The tomyam paste used for the fiery soup. It is not done by them but bought. There’s a choice of thin or thick vermicelli, instant noodles and porridge.

Tomyam ingredients of tomatoes, chilli padi, mushrooms, and mint leaves. Clear soup ingredients of chai poh, kiam chye (pickled vege), deep fried garlic, and spring onions.

This is the sought-after deep fried fish fillet or fish head pieces. Very crispy!!

Fish head (left) and fish fillet (right)

The chef proudly showing the grouper fish head and busy preparing + dishing out bowls after bowls.

The budding chef, learning and helping his sifu.

We were first served with the coffee shop’s specialty drink, Hot/Cold Blended White Nutmeg Juice with Plum - RM1.70/glass.

I’ve drink nutmeg juice in a lot of shops but most (if not all) of them uses the instant ones (syrups from bottles) to make this drink. But this shop blends it’s own nutmeg juice, hence the freshness is there. A refreshing juice!!!

We chat and chat away like we’ve known each other for years, and soon the first dish and many more starts to trigger in.

(Note that prices of some dishes are based on weight and selection of ingredients)

The most common type which is Fried Bass (Kalak Fish) Fillet Thick Bee Hoon Soup - RM5. The soup base is sweet due to the hours of boiling with bones. The deep fried fish fillet adds extra sweetness to this dish.

It’s best taken with cut red chillies and chilli padi for those who loves spicy.

Then came the tantalizing Tom Yam Prawn Maggi Mee - RM9 for 3 large prawns. All the "ooo-ahh" can be heard from us as the tomyam really captured our attention and the aroma was really captivating!!!

This tomyam is hot but yet has a hint of sour and sweetness. Added with prawns, it is a clear winner among the dishes that night!! Thumbs-up as I love spicy stuff!!!

Squid Maggi Mee Soup - RM5 is another variation prepared by the chef. The seafood taste is apparent here in the soup. The squid is cooked just right, therefore does not taste rubbery.

Prawn Bee Hoon Soup - RM9 for 3 large prawns. This time thin vermicelli is used and makes it a nice combination. The vermicelli is smooth and the sweetness of the prawns can be tasted even in the soup. I did not have the chance to try the prawns but from the look of it, is is real juicy and sweet (as apparent in the soup taste).

The chef added kiam chye in and it adds another dimension this dish. Good one!!

First four bowls up and gone in seconds!!! Haha 

Second round came soon after we were finished with the noodles. This round includes porridge. First was Fresh Grouper Fillet Porridge - RM7.50 (75gms). This porridge is like "moi" (rice cooked in soup base) instead of "chok" (rice boiled until it turned thick). The fresh fish fillet is appetizing and sweet!! Adding deep fried chopped garlic to the porridge is highly recommended!!

Frog Porridge - RM12 (RM6/100gms). I have not tried any frog dish before and not likely will, so I hardly touch this dish. I just took a sip of the porridge to taste the flavor and it turned out sweet and meaty, like meat porridge. How does frog meat taste like anyway??

(Don’t worry froggy, I’m too timid to eat you!! Won’t dare to try it anyway)

Then came another dish which made us go "ooo-ahh" again, Crab with Thick Bee Hoon Soup - RM10 (RM5/100gms). The crab is undeniably good but I feel this combination of thick bee hoon is not suitable. It’s just my opinion, as I prefer other type of noodle/vermicelli compared to this thick version.

We also has the chance to try the Fried Bass (Kalak Fish) Fish Head Mee Suah - RM5. The fish head is very good and mee suah is another version to savour the sweetness of this dish!!

And finally, as the saying goes, "save the best for last", the chef indeed save the best for the finale by presenting to us a huge claypot bowl of Mixed Seafood Tom Yam Soup - RM17 (based on selection of ingredients)

We were so delighted as the earlier bowl of tomyam noodle was not enough for us to savour this yummy tomyam. Almost all of the ingredients displayed were added to this tomyam, making it really the best dish to end the night.

(We actually ordered another small bowl of tomyam after this, with beancurd, minced meat and meatballs. The soup taste turned out a little different due to the beancurd. It became less sour and hence more adaptable for those who can’t take too sour/spicy soup. Haha we are indeed people who had to try different versions as taste-buds experiments!!)

The soup was fiery hot but makes you crave for more, spoonful after spoonful!!  

Directions:

Along Weld Quay main road, if you are coming from the ferry terminal, look out for these signboard on your left - Lim Jetty (temple), Chew Jetty (hawkers), Tan Jetty, Lee Jetty. After passing all these clan jetties and a Shell petrol kiosk, there’s a few attap houses before you reach this shop. The Village Cafe is just next to Trans Mission Enterprise and Chun Heng Auto Repair. Siong Ho Fish Head Bee Hoon/Porridge is closed on every 1st and 15th of the chinese calendar month.

Name: SIONG HO FISH HEAD NOODLES AND PORRIDGE
Address: 107-A, Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay), 10300 Penang, Malaysia.
Opening Hours: 12.00noon-11.30pm
Contact: 019-458 8693 (Mr. Teh/Ah Ho)
GPS: 5.411497, 100.336845

For other reviews:
Criz
Steven
New Kid On The Blog
Cokeworld Citizen
Gourmet Garden

This stall does serve a good deal of fish head bee hoon/porridge and tomyam dish. The ingredients are all very fresh.

Vegetarianism has recently become very popular. A choice of only a few last time, now many has taken the step to go veg either totally or on certain specific days. Whether it’s due to health, religion, culture, or just tired of eating meat reasons, being vegetarian does have it’s good sides. Besides our personal health, it is also good for the earth as we cut down on the demand for animal meat. How is that? Animal agriculture is the number one source of methane gas (non-CO2 greenhouse gas) producer. Read the Methane and Vegetarianism section in this article to find out more

And did you know there a a few types of vegetarianism? Here’s some common terminology (in case you go blur when a friend tells you they are one of these)

Vegetarianism

• Lacto-ovo vegetarianism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish but allows egg, dairy and honey.
• Lacto vegetarianism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish, egg but allows dairy and honey.
• Ovo vegetarianism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish, dairy but allows egg and honey.
• Veganism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish, egg, dairy and honey.

Additionally, many individuals describe themselves as simply "vegetarian" while actually practicing a semi-vegetarian diet.^[19]

• Semi-vegetarianism—A diet that excludes certain meats, particularly red meat, but allows the consumption of others.
  • Pescetarianism—A diet that excludes all meat except fish, shellfish, and crustacea.
  • Pollotarianism (also Poultratarianism - slang)—A diet that excludes all meat except poultry and fowl.
• Flexitarianism—A diet that consists primarily of vegetarian food, but that allows occasional exceptions.

Unlike last time when the "trend" has not set of, we can hardly find shops and outlets which serves nice vegetarian food. But there’s an abundance of such shops nowadays. Just an example, in Farlim (Bandar Baru Air Itam) alone, there are about 5 vegetarian shops, all located within few hundred meters apart!!

One shop which has been around for a long time since this new township is set up is Chong De Vegetarian Restaurant. It is located behind Alliance Bank (opposite Shell petrol kiosk) and a walking distance from Bandar Baru Air Itam supermarket.

This shop serves vegetarian economy rice during lunch time. For dinner time, food can be ordered from the menu list and cooked upon receiving orders. This includes, char hor fun, noodle soup, fried rice, fried meehoon, etc.

Lunch time usually packs a crowd, especially so when it falls on the 1st or 15th of the Chinese calander month. There are at least 25-30 varieties to choose from and the dishes are constantly being dished out during peak period of lunch time. There is also a choice of white rice or brown rice for those health concious.

For me and my family, we usually prefer to take-away our meal since the parking over there can be quite a hassle. Parking are limited to lots outside all the shophouses and the roads are pretty narrow.

You can see that their vege are usually very fresh and colorful, hence looks simply appetizing. Most vegetarian dishes are made of bean/soy products and greens. Only the way it’s cooked and the presentation differs.

Vegetarian char siew (dark colored) and sweet and sour potatoes with pineapple and cucumber.

Fried tanghoon with cabbage and beancurd. The rice is totally covered beneath the vege!!! We usually take more of a certain dish in our own box and share it later so that we can taste different varieties.

3 boxes only cost less than RM10. Economy yet satisfying to the tastebuds and stomach!

Most vegetarian shop in Penang are the ones like above, selling economy rice. I tried before a Vegetarian Cafe in Taman Desa, KL and it was really good and the ambience is like well-established cafes (air-cond, waiters, menus, beverages section) and not hawker-style type. Is there any vegetarian cafe in Penang?

Seoul Garden is located at Sunrise tower, at the junction of Gurney Drive. It’s concept is different from the other Seoul Garden located inside Gurney Plaza, which is a buffet steamboat outlet. This Sunrise Seoul Garden purely serves authentic Korean fair.

The shop is on the first floor, accessed through a flight of steps just beside Pizza Hut outlet. The restaurant is spacious enough and can accommodate about 10-15 tables of four seats.

The entrance.

Taken while we were zooming pass the traffic light. If you are observant, you will know why we were "zooming" by!! Seoul Garden is on the right of the pic.

Various barbecue, hot pot and noodles dishes to choose from.

Korean tea is served without charge and is free-flow.

Even the cutlery have korean wordings

The appetizers and side-dishes are served right after you made your order. It includes thinly cut sausages, seaweed, picked vege - beansprout, jellyfish, chilli, malabar spinach, and of course the dish Koreans can’t do without, Kimchi cabbage.

Kimchi

Kimchi (pronounced /ˈkɪmtʃiː/, Korean pronunciation: [kimtɕʰi]), also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, roughly translated, means "to preserve." It is a traditional Korean pickled dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. Its most common manifestation is the spicy baechu (cabbage) variety. Kimchi is the most common banchan, or side dish. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and combined with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap). Kimchi is so ubiquitous that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) developed space kimchi to accompany the first Korean astronaut to the Russian-manned space ship Soyuz.^[1]

The Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul has documented 187 historic and current varieties of kimchi. Although the most common seasonings include brine, scallions and seasonings, ingredients can be replaced or added depending on the type of kimchi being made. Common seasonings also include, ginger, onions, aekjeot (hangul: 액젓, fish sauce) and fresh seafood.

Also included are freshly cut garlic slices, a special puree paste sauce and a kind of oil with salt (what’s the name??) for you to dip with the grilled meat.

Sam Giap Sal (RM 22) - 4 pieces of pork belly. It came frozen and directly put on the griller to be bbq-ed!!

Grilling station is placed beside you so that you can savour the food while watching the grill in action.

We ordered a bowl of rice (RM 3) as well. As rice is not a staple korean food, the price is above average. So do consider that before ordering.

Halfway done and getting very fragrant. Looks at how juicy it it.

No it did not suddenly explode and turn into pieces. It is cut into pieces by the waitress for easy consumption.

They are very generous in serving the vegetables dish such as lettuce. There was a mountain of it and we only managed to finish half!! It is also very fresh.

There are many ways and combination that you can try with the ingredients and wrapping. Do be adventurous and taste the variations.

This is the ultimate, with every side-dish included and the pork slices hidden in between. Certainly need a larger mouth to fit this in!!! Hehe

The pork is also good to be eaten with rice.

We also ordered the Kimchi Jeongol [small] (RM 25) - Kimchi stew/soup. It came in a pot and put under low fire to make it boil and keep warm after that.

The soup looks fiery hot and spicy. It is really infused with kimchi spice and seasonings. The ingredients include sliced sausages, enoki mushrooms, toufu, kimchi chinese cabbage, and "Tang Hoon (冬粉)" (transparent noodles made from green beans). The silky and smooth tang hoon goes very well with this spicy soup stew. Perfect!!! We practically dried up the soup from the bowl!! I love spicy stuff!!!

Watermelon is served at the end of the meal. Big slices again shows their generous portion of food.

Total comes to RM 55 with service charge of RM 5. (Shouldn’t the charge be RM 5.50 @ 10% ??)

Overall, the food is satisfactory, the service is attentive and the ambiance is quiet+comfortable. There’s a view of busy Gurney if you sit beside the window. Can’t really compare the taste with other authentic Korean food outlets coz this is the only one I’ve been to!

Seoul Garden Korean Restaurant

1st Floor, Sunrise Tower,
Pesiaran Gurney
Penang
Tel: 04-2298705