Xuan Xin Restaurant at Gurney Plaza, Penang

So, her niece and sister completed their full month and it was time for all of us to celebrate! And they decided to dine at this restaurant with the big huge family! :) Actually the reason we settled for this restaurant is because the rest of the chinese restaurants in Penang are all fully booked for the weekend. So yeah..

We ordered so much that we could not finish eating them. You will see only a few dishes because after the food kept coming, we totally forgotten to take photos. Hah. Who can blame us right? If any of you were there, you won't even take any photos! Haha. Anyways, enjoy yourself! :)

When we reached, there were so many people lining up to get a place to seat. Good thing for us is that her sister called earlier for reservation for 15 pax!

The inside of the restaurant. Pretty spacious and huge.

Sauteed Sliced Beef with Pepper Sauce (RM19.80)

He says: The beef tastes very good together with the pepper sauce.

She says: The meat is pretty soft and not that chewy. Kinda like this dish. Not a big fan of black pepper dish though. 

Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Seafood & Crab Roe (RM28.60)

He says: Thumbs up for this! The colour is different from the normal shark fin soup though! haha. =D

She says: I don't usually drink shark's fin soup. Not because I think it's cruel and stuff like that. It's just I feel there's like not much taste in it. But this one, I love it! I finished one whole bowl by myself, which is like so rare! :)

Fried Rice with Seafood and & Salted Egg Yolk

He says: Fried perfectly nice. Not oily and the rice tastes really good!

She says: Not bad for a dish of fried rice. Not bad! :)

Deep Fried Pork Cube with Sweet & Sour Sauce (RM16.80)

He says: Typical sweet and sour pork. Just okayyyyy..

She says: Love the meat. Very soft and the sauce is sweet. Not too sweet. Just alright sweet. Nice dish :)

Pan-Fried Prawn with Chef Sauce (RM26.00)

He says: I'm not going back there for that. Cant really taste the sauce AND it is super expensive some more for probably just 6 prawns?

She says: Hmm.. The sauce is not that yummy and impressive. The prawn meat not so fresh because it sticks to its shell. Not that great!

Braised Sea Cucumber with Black Mushroom and Brokolli (RM28.00)

He says: I kinda like this one. Like every 8 course dinner, this one will always be one of my favourite! And this, even better than those in hotels. The sauce is slightly too sweet though.

She says: This one is not bad. The black sauce is pretty normal. 

Stewed Ee-Foo Noodles with Seafood (RM13.80)

He says: Hmm its not bad.. Like the texture of the noodles!

She says: I like this dish just because the noodles used is yummy! Ee foo mee is not one of my favorite noodles but this dish is yumms. 

Xuan Xin Restaurant at Gurney Plaza, Penang

Location: Gurney Plaza, Penang

Direction: Level 3, New Wing of Gurney Plaza, Penang

Price: Expensive

Ratings:
His rating: 7/10
Her rating: 6/10

Famous Roadside Fried Snack at Chulia Street, Penang

So, we were eating at Chulia Street sometime ago and decided to review on the wan tan mee or more so the one we had a post of the battle between two wan tan mee, which you can read here! And while we were there, we saw this stall and decided to try it out! No regrets whatsoever since then. Curiosity hah :)

You must know by now, that we both are BIG LOVERS of snacks and we LOVE snacking away everytime we see a snack stall. Okay, maybe not everytime. Most of the time la! Anyways, enjoy this post I hope you will. Go give it a try if you haven't try it! :)

They have a few different kind of FRIED snacks. Non-halal by the way.

Fresh from the deep-frying and people are ordering away all the good stuff d.

Char Siew Foldover - RM1.30/piece

He says: Crispy outside and char siew which is really good inside.

She says: It's like a normal crispy fried stuff with pork meat (char siew) inside. It's quite nice. The inside ingredient is good :)

Yam Cake - RM1.30/piece

He says: This one gotta be in one of my top snacks list in Penang! You go try it then you'll know =)

She says: The crispyness outside and the soft tender porky meat with cubes of sweet potatoes, BEST COMBI EVER! This is the best yam cake I've ever tasted. I can have lots of these and not get sick of it. The inside is not only soft, it's also tasty. LIKE REALLY TASTY! And I don't eat yam, but for this one, for sure exceptional case! :) GO TRY!

Roadside Fried Snack at Chulia Street, Penang

Location: Along Chulia Street

Price: Slighty pricey

Ratings:

His rating: 9/10

Her rating: 9.5/10

Famous Mama One Ton Mee at Lorong Susu, Penang

For those of you who have been following us since day one when we started this, you would know that lorong Susu is one of the place that we kinda love going because they have a few nice things to eat. We blogged about the ROTI CANAI and the ever famous CHICKEN RICE. Go read about it!

And then, there's this another shop that you must go in Penang called Mama One Ton Mee. She's not a big fan of wan tan mee, not really and he's just okay with anything. So, we decided to give it a try. What's an extra point to this shop is that we didn't know they serve other kind of food too. Thumbs up :) Not only wan tan mee. Heh. They have other noodles and rice sets served with soup.

We were there for breakfast before heading to church for Mother's Day Celebration! So, here's a-lil-belated Blessed Mother's Day to you all :)

Enjoy this one guys :)

Came out in newspaper also heh. Must be really good.

Although it's a corner shop, it's quite small and have very limited tables.

Kitchen will be the first thing you see as you walk in.

Item 1: The Signature One Ton Mee (comes with dumpling soup) - RM3.30

He says: Normal wan tan.

She says: The soup is averagely like other that you can get in any kopitiam. The dumplings, were so delicious. The ingredient they use to make it is sweet and fragrantful. I don't know.. One bite and the magic happens in your both, sort of. NEED TO TRY THE DUMPLINGS!

He says: The noodle is really smooth and nice. May be they can add some fried wan tan into it tough. Haha! Overall, it is not bad...

She says: Just like normal wan tan mee for me. The noodles might be a lil nicer than the usual ones. This one slightly thinner and smoother.

Shanghai Noodles with Mapo Tofu (Spicy) - RM5.00

He says: I discovered something new that I like to eat in Penang! The noodle itself tastes really good! But warn you, it is spicy. I think its cheap for that portion. For me, its a must try.

She says: First time trying this Shanghai noodles. It's super yummy. The noodles itself is so soft and at the same time chewy-but-not-chewy-kind. I don't even know how to describe it. It's smooth and delicious. The soup of the mapo tofu is soooo good! It looked like it's really spicy but actually, it's just right. And the minced meat that comes with it is soft and tender. This is one of the best noodles I've had. No kidding! MUST TRY!

Mama One Ton Mee at Lorong Susu, Penang

Location: Lorong Susu, off Macalister Road.

Direction: Going along Macalister Road towards Komtar, you will see the UMNO building on the left. Lorong Susu is in the opposite direction before the UMNO building (see last photo)

Price: Reasonable

Ratings:

His rating:8.5/10

Her rating: 9/10

Famous Seafood at Pulau Aman, Penang.

We are back! And this time we are back with our special guests. NINE of them :)

SPECIAL EDITION post coming up right now! So, this is gonna be a lengthy post for sure!

So, on Labor Day, a group of us decided to go makan at Pulau Aman, a small island off the coast of Bukit Tambun, Penang.  The seafood at Pulau Aman is famous for its freshness and price. People always tell us that this is one of the MUST GO places in Penang because it's really cheap and nice and fresh and all that. So, what better day to go than on a public holiday, right?

WRONG! There were so many people! Let's not go there yet. We will start off with how to get to this island first.

You've gotta drive towards Tambun and you'll find the Pulau Aman signboard. OR you can always type "Batu Musang Jetty" in Waze like what we did. Hah. We went in three separate cars. We left Penang at around 11am and reached the jetty at about 1145am. Quite a short journey.

This is how the jetty looks like. Kompleks Jeti Batu Musang.

Walk till the end of the jetty to purchase your tickets. Two ways is RM6. Funny place to sell tickets hah.

Just a very short (10-15 minutes) journey from the jetty to the island.

Once you're on the island, you'll notice villages everywhere and a small school.

Then, you'll see the "floating restaurant"

So, this is how it goes. First, you'll need to BUY the fresh seafood here (at the entrance part of the mini bridge) and then bring them into the restaurant for them to cook for you. Yes, that's a lot of people lining up to get their hands on those freshies!

When it was our turn, there were nothing left so we had to wait for the next boat to come. 

And when it did, they only have prawn mantis. No prawns, no crabs, no nothing else. That is RM50 for one prawn mantis. It's huge!

We obviously took the normal ones. And since there were nothing left, we bought 5kg of prawn mantis. Haha. Crazy huh. 5kg for 10 people!

Welcome to the floating restaurant at Pulau Aman.

It must be really good seeing that people are waiting for tables. It's either that or they have very limited tables. We worked as a team. Half went to wait for tables and another half went to select the seafood.

You must be wondering if that's all that we're gonna eat.

Nope. The seafood is like the main course and the side dishes (which are carbs) are fried rice and mee udangs. They have mee goreng udang as well. Everything the restaurant serves comes with prawns. So, we all ordered mee udangs and our main course was the prawn mantis!

Drinks: Teh O Ais Limau (Iced Lemon/Lime Tea) - RM8/jug (we ordered 4 jugs)

He says: I like this ILT! But there's traces of colouring in there.

She says: Not too bad. BUT THE COLORING HOW!?! Sorry, minus points for me in that. Thumbs down.

Andrew says: We were all too thirsty, and it was there to quench our thirst, but it was a good mix compared to the normal mamaks.

Beverly says: Thirsty? Absolutely refreshing to the max! :) just perfect. Wasn't too sweet, nor was it diluted.

Vanessa says: Very nice! maybe because I was too thirsty so it tasted superbly good.

Eulene says: The drink was quite refreshing. It's always nice when the sun is blazing hot.

Leroy says: Thirst quenched!

Ben says: The tea was mixed perfectly with the lemon and lime. Great refreshing taste.

Nicholas says: Just nice. Not too sweet, not too sour.

Justin says: Definitely better than mamak's or other malay joints.

Joshua says: Better than mamak's teh o limau ice.

Nasi Goreng Udang (Fried Rice with Prawns) - RM6

He says: Not so good. The rice is like super big and there is not enough taste to it.

She says: To me, it tasted more like salt and pepper fried rice. He can cook a better fried rice than this.

Andrew says: I actually like this better than the mee udang whch I think was supposed to be famous at Pulau Aman. The way its fried that every mouth is burst with a very fragrant flavor.

Beverly says: I thought it was ok-ok? Nothing fancy about it :) but still good.

Vanessa says: Just like any typical fried rice to me. All the fried rice taste the same to me. Teehee.

Eulene says: I'd give this 5/10. It isn't the typical chinese or malay fried rice. Something different about this rice is the curry powder taste in it :)

Leroy says: Not bad. Better than any fried rice I could cook at the moment.

Ben says: I think the fried rice is pretty flavorful. The huge prawns are an added plus.

Nicholas says: Not bad but it wasn't really that special to me. Just another typical fried rice.

Justin says: The vegetables were pretty nicely fried. I'll definitely order this if it was in our local mamak store.

Joshua says: It's nice partly because I was hungry, but no biggie about it.

Mee Udang (Prawn Mee) - RM6

He says: Mee Udang. The legendary mee udang!?!?! No. Doesn't taste good at all for me. "Maybe its a public holiday, thats why."

She says: This one is worse than the fried rice. The "kuah" is like soup. SO DILUTED. Not spicy. No prawn flavour whatsoever. Praws are fresh however. It's just a huge dissappointment seeing that everyone talks about its mee udang! BIG NO FOR ME.

Andrew says: It's just okay for me. I had better ones in Penang.

Beverly says: Wasn't really a fan of it, but the prawns were awesome :)

Vanessa says: It was okay, not the best tho. Definitely tried better ones.

Eulene says: Mee udang was not bad, the gravy was quite good. Could have been better if it was a lil more spicy.

Leroy says: Not too bad.

Ben says: I like the soup with the blend of spices and the sweetness of the prawns.

Nicholas says: It was good. But the portion was abit small for me. Well, everything is small for me :) Haha.

Justin says: This tasted like a mee soup/bihun soup which I always eat. Pretty good. Prawns weren't 100% fresh though. 90%-95% maybe?

Joshua says: It was alright though the noodle is not properly steamed or cooked so there's a weird taste.

Steamed Prawn Mantis (5kg - 38pieces) - RM250

He says: Its my first time eating this. And I love it! Fresh and sweet inside.

She says: LOVE THIS ONE TO THE CORE. Such natural sweetness as you bite on those meat. We had fun peeling/cut the prawns. I love sucking on the juice as you peel it open. Very sweet and fresh!

Andrew says: Totally not a fan of seafood but this really taste good, even the slimy ones.

Beverly says: Totally worth it. Sweet naturally and so fresh! :)

Vanessa says: It's pretty good. Glad that I tried this one for the first time. Fun thing was definitely peeling the shells. Challenging but painful. Lol.

Eulene says: I'm allergic to prawns. Haha.

Leroy says: Nice... Just not enough meat?

Ben says: It is extremely fresh. The way it is cooked sllow us to taste it naturally. The meat is succulent and sweet.

Nicholas says: Fresh. Cheap. Sweet.

Justin says: It was about RM6 for 1. Completely fresh. Just steamed only so it had the natural sweetness.

Joshua says: It was okay at first, but got the "jilak" feeling after the 3rd one.

Seafood Lunch at Pulau Aman, Penang

Location: 120 Pulau Aman, 14100 Simpang Ampat, Penang

Price: Slightly pricey.

Ratings:

His rating: 3/10

Her rating: 4/10

Andrew's rating: 6.5/10

Beverly's rating: 7/10

Vanessa's rating: 7/10

Eulene's rating: 6/10

Leroy's rating: 7/10

Ben's rating: 7/10

Nicholas's rating: 7/10

Justin's rating: 6/10

Joshua's rating: 6/10

From left: Andrew, Beverly, Vanessa, He, She, Eulene, Leroy, Ben, Nicholas, Justin and Joshua.