Buzzing with FOOD

Today marks the last day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Hokkien: Kow Ong Yeah). This Taoist festival is a nine-day celebration where Chinese Taoist will go on a strict vegetarian diet lasting from 3-days to 9-days. In Penang, many will make a visit to the Nine Emperor Gods Temple located at Burma Road to pray and make their aspirations.

(For further reading: Nine Emperor Gods Festival, All set for the Nine Emperor Gods Fest)

The strict vegetarian diet means there should not be any consumption of dairy, onions or garlic (believed to give bad breathe, hence not allowed), spring onion and also other products from animal source. Even the cooking utensils, cups, etc. are strictly used only for this vegetarian period or completely new.

I’m not a Taoist but I joined in the vegetarian diet since it’s been practised in my household and also I somehow prefer to eat less meat these days, so going through this vegetarian diet is not a big change to my usual eating habit. My mum also cooks during this period (using all utensils used only at this time of the year), so it’s a healthy vegetarian diet for me (outside vegetarian food seems very oily nowadays)

I managed to snap some photos of the temporary stalls set up for the public to buy vegetarian food. This was taken in Madras Lane, just opposite the Nine Emperor Gods Temple. They have practically everything from economy rice, curry mee, loh mee, char hor fun, nyonya kuih, pau, poh piah, to even satay, pizza and bak kut teh. There’s also an array of snacks like crackers, biscuits and pastries.

Tonight, there will be a grand send-off procession to the sea for the nine emperor gods to mark the end of the nine day festival.

Now on to the food available in Noodle Station. For a look at what beverages they have, look here.

With over 70 items to choose from, here are some of the more widely ordered dishes. 

Curry Springy Noodle With Prawn & Fish Ball (No. 25) @ RM 7.50
Springy Noodle Soup With Tom Yam Seafood (No. 32) @ RM 7.50

This two dishes came out first. Curry was a little tad salty and tomyam was sweet instead of hot+spicy. Nevertheless these two are the more popular dishes here. I do agree too that these two are some of the better choice to order.

Curly noodles are used in all their noodles dishes. Not as springy as I thought it would be.

Fried Springy Noodle With Thai Style- Spicy (No. 40) @ RM6.50
Fried Springy Noodle With Prawn- Non Spicy (No. 39) @ RM6.50

 Look almost the same except that one is in a darker shade than the other. I know ‘al-dente’ does not cover this kind of noodle category but not al-dente is what I feel about these two dishes. There’s also not much ingredients other than a few prawns and greens.

Springy Noodle With Fried Chicken Dumpling (No. 7) @ RM 6.50

It’s a little dry and that’s why this dish is accompanied by a small bowl of clear soup. I think making the soy sauce seasoning more fragrant will enhance the noodle’s taste.

 Springy Noodle With BBQ Honey Whole Leg Chicken (No. 15) @ RM 8.00

The first look of this dish is indeed impressive but as you dig in, you’ll realise that the whole leg drumstick is a little of a hindrance. Chopping it into a few pieces but presented it in the same way will make it more realistic I think.

Spicy Fried Kuey Teow (No. 44) @ RM6.00

Before I talk about the koay teow, compare the drumstick below with the one above. What’s the difference? Shinny right? It’s the wonders of honey!!

The spicy fried koay teow taste ok but as we all know, Penangnites are spoilt with great choices for char koay teow. But this version is of course halal and that’s a plus point for some.

Fried Rice With Prawn (No. 53) @ RM6.00
Tom Yam Fried Rice With Prawn (No. 54) @ RM6.50

Both fried rice lack the thorough frying effect. The tomyam version has more flavour than the normal version but the tomyam paste seems a little too much.

Ladna Kuey Teow (No. 45) @ RM6.50
Fried Yellow Noodle Hokkien Style Kicap Hitam (No. 49) RM6.50

Dishes such as these two seem very little when served but this is actually due to the plate size, not the portion. If you prefer something not too dry, then try it. Can’t fight the hawker version though.

Honey BBQ Chicken Wing- 6pcs (No. 72) @ RM14.50
Fried Chicken Dumpling- 10pcs (No. 73) @ RM5.00

The BBQ chicken wings are of the same style as the whole drumstick served with the springy noodles. I feel it’s a little dry, i.e. not juicy. The fried dumplings is very crispy but the filling is quite little. Nevertheless, it makes a good finger food!!

Super Sandwich With Smoke Turkey (No. 67) @ RM7.50
Chicken Chop With Brown Sauce (No. 57) @ RM10.90

If you want to take something light, then go for the sandwich. I like the fact that they use the thick ‘roti benggali’ style of bread and lightly toast it. The chicken cop is one of the western food dish available here. I don’t fancy the brown sauce and funny thing is that a fried egg is served with this dish.

Overall, Noodle Station does serve with it’s mission of providings food with fast service. Lots of choices and and cafe-dining concept is a plus point here. Food-wise, some hits and misses, but with further improvements, they should be able to cope in this business.

Here are some of the branches available across the country. 

 The year come and go. It’s time again to celebrate the Mooncake Festival, or formally known as Zhongqiu Jie (Mid-Autumn Festival).

What is this festival all about and how did it started? How do the Chinese here celebrate it? Some dailies have written and compiled some history, the significance and also the observation on how this festival is celebrated here in Malaysia.

Read: Moon Struck, A Full Moon on the Rise, Tales and Legends, Moonstruck Lady, Mooncake Festival 2009.

There are tons of versions on this folklore. But I feel, the essence of it is that it is celebrated together with the family to build a stronger bond, from adults to children. Undeniably though, I truly agree with one of the article above saying that "For the Chinese, it is another excuse to indulge in feasting and merry-making."!!!

Mooncakes (surprisingly also known as reunion cake) traditionally used to contain fillings of lotus paste with or without a salted egg yolk in the center to symbolize the full moon. But nowadays, with the modern era, there are a variety of flavours like five kernel (A filling consisting of 5 types of nuts and seeds,), green tea lotus paste, black sesame paste, six-grain paste and pandan lotus paste. Some unconventional ones include green tea with dragon fruit paste, nuts with roast chicken, durian lotus paste, red bean paste with chicken floss and sunflower seeds, pandan paste with egg cream and walnuts, coconut paste with pineapple. (I’m not making this up. It’s really something which is now on sale to the public in Malaysia). Recently, everyone is also more health conscious, and hence there’s a variety of low sugar paste fillings.

Too mind-blogging to consider? There’s even more now with the addition of ’snow-skin’ (non-baked, chilled mooncakes) versions, with fillings like mango paste, black sesame with tiramisu paste, green tea with white lotus paste and sake kuaci, chocolate whiskey, and even ice-cream and coffee versions!!

And now there’s even jelly mooncakes!!!

All these is enough to make the excuse of indulging in feasting these mooncakes forgive-able!!

Anyway this post is to wish all Chinese a Happy and Joyful Mid-Autumn Festival.

Here are some mooncakes which I managed to get my hands on.

Consumers nowadays prefer to buy smaller ones (like the mini mooncakes above). The one here has pandan lotus paste filling.

This baby mooncake, reputably to be the best in Shanghai, made by Sheraton Hotel, Shanghai. Looks normal, but it cost almost RM 30 per box!!! Each box is the size of a mini mooncake like the local ones here. Imagine the quality of ingredients used (and of course with the addition of "Shanghai’s living cost"..this baby is really an indulgence!!!). I really have to thank a dear family friend for sharing this with us.

Not forgetting, the moon biscuits (gong zai peng) which is usually filled with desiccated coconut or lotus paste. 

Have a feast of mooncakes and tea but remember to eat in moderation to avoid complications :)

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Coffee Island @ Gurney Drive, established last year was more tuned towards a trendy hang-out place for youths and young adults to come and have a drink over some business or coffee talk. After it started for a few months, we tried it out.

When we asked for the menu, they said they only have this order form for us to choose our order. That was a little funny.

The interior

We ordered a snack, Tempura Bowl. Pieces of brocolli, carrot, mushroom, cauliflower and corn. Nothing spectacular and certainly way below par of real Japanese-style tempura.

Seafood Spaghetti Marinara. I think any of us can attempt to do this at home and give this dish a good fight. The sauce was not tantalizing enough and there’s no sight of Italian herbs or the taste of it. 

Fish in honey sauce. Nothing to shout about for this one. A little too plain in my opinion and the fish is not grilled well enough.

That was my first visit.

Then recently…..

We were undecided that night on where to have dinner, and it’s already quite late, some shops are closing already. Since my dinner-mate has not been here, I said ok but forewarned her that there shouldn’t be any good expectations towards the food.  

Now they have a menu for the customers to look at what they have to offer.

The new menu, with lots of food photos. Don’t fall prey to the looks though…it looked better in the photos.

They served western and local cuisine. This page is showing the western food

And this is the local food.

New ordering form

Cold Chocolate Island (RM 5.90) and Mango Smoothies (RM 7.90)

Dragon Silk Shrimp Roll (RM 8.00). Some crunchy snack. Lots of crispy threads (made of flour??) coated on the shrimp rolls.

Cheesy Fish Cutlet Rice (RM 10.50). This has got to be the worst cheese bake rice I’ve tasted. Goodness, how can they even think of putting this in the menu??? The cheese taste just like the square cheddar cheese we buy to make sandwiches and turned real hard and tasteless after baked. The fish cutlet is not well-marinated with seasoning thus taste bland and also very dry.

And the funny thing is they serve this dish with sambal!!!! But the sambal was the only thing which pushed me through to finishing this dish without wasting food. In fact, the sambal, with crushed dried shrimps turn out much better than the main dish itself!!! What an irony!!

Southern India Chicken Curry served with tomato rice (RM 12.50). This one fared much better, at least. The curry and sambal was ok but the whole dish was served cold. Hmmmm….

Maybe they are better at local dishes. Western food needs improvement for sure.

There is far more choices of drinks for those who just want to hang out. Lots of tables in open air and near the roadside of Gurney Drive but be careful not to simply pay the bill when you are approached with out requesting for it. Heard of a case where an outsider acted as the waiter and ask for payment, then ran away with the money.

They have free WiFi and even a mini room equipped with 5 computers for you to go online!

You’ll definitely see this outlet when you drive by Gurney Drive. It’s near to Bali Hai Seafood Restaurant.

Now can someone tell me what decent food is worth ordering here??

Many moons ago….I went to Lavender Bistro.

Lavender sounds more like a tea house to me but this outlet is actually a bakery cum bistro.

The abundance of pastries and bread are displayed at the front section of the shop.

The open kitchen, meanwhile, is located at the side of the outlet. Here you can see the pastry chefs creatively making all sorts of pleasing-to-see delights.

Further into the outlet is where the bistro is, tables, sofas and chairs nicely placed to give a place for diners to sit and have a complete meal.

I like the classy look and feel of the interior although it is not using really classy materials. Don’t get what I mean?

The chandelier is actually a wall tile and not a real one, although from far it could fool the eye.

There are also string of beads or some sort hanging down from the ceiling and nice but not overly-bright lighting.

The menu consist of light to heavy meal.

For breakfast, one can opt for set meals such as Healthy Country Bread set, Wheat Bun set, Butter Roll set or Florentine Egg set - each comes with a complimentary coffee/tea.

For a more heavy meal, you can opt for soups, pasta, burgers or even fried rice and tomyam with vermicelli.

Of course the ‘sweet temptation‘ section of the menu like cakes and puddings can be ordered at anytime while stocks are available.

Red Plum Lime Soda (RM 5.90) and Iced Peach Tea

I had Honey Green Tea (RM 5.90). Haha sounds funny right?! Usually green tea is taken without sugar or honey but this combination taste quite pleasant after a few sips.

Also, Americano Coffee (RM 2.45 after a 50% promotional offer)

And we were there to actually get a bite on the sweet temptation. It was way past lunch time…so it’s more like having tea.

Cocoa Barry Walnut (RM 4.80)

Really soft and ‘chocolaty’ mousse. This was gone in a matter of seconds!!!

And a few pastries chosen from the front bakery section. Select what you want and put in your tray, then pass it over to the counter and tell them your table number. They will serve it to you.

Chicken floss bun (RM 2.50), Egg tart (RM 1.50), Charcoal (RM 1.50) - black square pastry, Chocolate Marble Square (RM 1.50) - layered square pastry, Xiao Ge Ge (RM 1.50) - long cake-like pastry. Not expensive considering the environment and service of the bistro. But a 10% service charge and 5% gov. tax is applied.

Now how I wish I can find such outlets in Penang. By the way, this shop is in the Jusco Mall in Bukit Tinggi, Klang.

Lavender Bistro
Lot G18, Ground Floor, Aeon Bukit Tinggi Shopping Centre
Tel: 03-3326 2793 

 Note:

This is going to be a start of more ‘many moons ago’ series post which I will be posting from time to time.

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