Jasmine Garden Cafe at Macalister Road, Penang

"Everytime we drive pass this road, you sure look at this place. You want to try the food there isit?"

What he said every single time we drive down Macalister Road. Haha. 

The truth is, she grew up coming to this place for a family meal. Since she was a very young girl. He has never tried out this place before so he decided to bring her whole family there one nice sunny noon and gave them another walk down memory lane.

This place is run by Catholics where there are rooms upstairs for rent, prolly for those who would like to spend few days in Penang in a budgeted way. Not so sure about that though..

Anyways, no need to say also you will know that she was excited to have lunch that day. She kept checking her watch to make sure we go there earlier than planned. Crazy girl.

Simple place to dine for lunch or dinner.

Signature dish: Belacan Fried Chicken.

 He says: Belachan chicken can hardly go wrong! Thumbs up! Hot and crispy! 

She says: First bite so juicy and yummy. This one ten-fingers-licking-good. We ordered round two BTW. I can just order this next time. IT'S SERIOUSLY SO YUMMY!

Stir-fry Kailan.

He says: Could be better if there is more taste to it. Maybe a bit more salt?

She says: A normal dish with maybe more taste needed.

Black Bean Soup.

He says: Ermmmm..  Nothing special but pretty decent soup!

She says: Like having a hot water soup with some beans in it? Nehhhh.

He says: Taste okay but the curry is a bit diluted. 

She says: Fish fillet is fresh. It looks better than it tasted. To be honest, it was prolly one of the worse I've ever tasted. I remembered it being one of the best I've tasted last time. Maybe change of chefs.. 

Jasmine Garden Cafe at Macalister Road, Penang

Price: Expensive

Ratings:
His rating: 4/10
Her rating: 4/10

Ini Karilah at Jalan Masjid Negeri, Greenlane, Penang

Another Groupon-inspired dinner! 

Okay, Groupon-inspired because his mom got it at RM35 for four people. 

The price is inclusive of:

Salmon head curry with orka and tomato claypot (RM55 value)
Sweet and sour lychee boneless chicken (RM15 value)
Vegetables of the day (RM10 value)
4x embryo rice (RM8 value)

So, can say that it was a very good deal. We ordered an extra plate of golden fried bean curd with sesame sweet sauce because we thought it was going to be too little for 5 people to share. Wrong! More than enough actually. 

Anyways, it was a nice dinner with his family :)

Good to know that they use kangen water and embryo rice.

Salmon head curry with orka and tomato claypot

He says: The BOMB. The curry is simply authentic! And the fish head served is salmon fish head! My first time trying it this style. Interesting!

She says: The portion was simply madness. I remembered being in a shock mode when it came out. Even more when we discovered that the fish head is of a salmon's. Yummy curry! 

Sweet and sour lychee boneless chicken

He says: One of my favourite dish that evening. When you bite it, everything just fall into place inside your mouth. Haha!

She says: What a funny combo huh? I love lychee drink, but I find this combo a bit funny. Don't really like it. Fried chicken is okaylah.

Vegetables of the day

He says:  Decent. Could be better if served hotter!

She says: Typical dish. Nothing special.

Golden fried bean curd with sesame sweet sauce

He says:  Crispy outside and soft inside. Also, the topping of pork floss could only make is even better. 

She says: Crispy outside, soft inside. This one I like. It's not like those typical soft kind of bean curd. This is probably the softest bean curd I have ever eaten. No kidding. 

Two types of sauce that came with the fried bean curd

He says: Spicy and sour on the left and sweet on my right.

She says: Funny and weird. No thanks :)

Ini Karilah at Jalan Masjid Negeri, Greenlane, Penang

Price: Quite expensive (ala carte) / Cheap (Groupon)

Ratings:

His rating: 7/10

Her rating: 6/10

Wei Universal Curry Fish Head at Lorong Perak, Penang

A good friend of ours just came back from the OZ land for a very short holiday, so we met up for dinner. We were on the way to another location, when we passed this place and immediately he said that the curry fish head here is gooood. So, we made that turn and wala! We ended up dinner-ing here! :)

You can see our first entry on curry fish head HERE!

We have two very special guests here with us, that will comment from their side too :)

Eveyone, meet Kelvin Lim, the OZ boy :)

And Mr Jack Lee, our joker :)

Making a new pot of freshly made curries. Yums.

Other than fish head, you can add in squid and prawns. All very fresh :)

A plate of vegetables as one of the dish :)

He says: This one is kinda bad but the bak hu made it a lot better! hahaha! 

She says: Typical vegetable, but the black sauce is a bit too plain and watery.

Kelvin says: It was okay.

Jack says: Typical vegetable.

Deep Fried Belacan Chicken

He says: Typical belacan chicken. 

She says: Okay okay la.

Kelvin says: The belachan chicken is not very fragrant. Quite standard but compliments with the curry fish.

Jack says: Belacan chicken nice.

Curry Fish Head + Squid

He says: Milky/santan-ish kinda curry. It pretty good but could be better if it is spicier! haha! 

She says: Smells good even when it hasn't reach our table. It's pretty yummy. And the fish meat is so fresh and huge! Love it! :)

Kelvin says: Fish pretty fresh, curry sweet and a little viscous.

Jack says: Fish tasted good.

 I compared the size of the fish tail with a spoon. It's seriously very big piece.

Wei Universal Curry Fish Head at Lorong Perak, Penang

Location: At the junction of Lorong Perak and Jalan Jelutong traffic light.

Price: Slightly expensive

Ratings:
His rating: 7.5/10
Her rating: 8.5/10
Kelvin's rating: 8/10
Jack's rating: 8/10

Famous Fried Fish and Chicken (Malay Food) at Tanjung Bungah, Penang

MALAY FOOD ON SUNDAYS!

That's like our usual routined Sunday meals with a bunch of hungry people after our weekly captain ball games! We uaully settle for Malay food because.. actually I have no idea why.. It's like Sundays ARE for Malay meals. Haha.

Anyway, though this one was all the way up north just before Batu Ferringhi, it never stops us. Nothing stops us. Good meals like this makes everyone happy :) So yeah, we were there at 9pm and all their fried chicken, sold out! Only fried fish was left. A few of our friends managed to order a few fried chicken so good thing for us, we get to try both of their main dish out! :)

It was a good Sunday meal on a nice Sunday night :)

Freshly fried on the spot :)

Bowls of curry that comes together with the set meals.

Complimentary dish: Malaysian style salad.

He says: Not a big fan of sambal belachan but this one is a bit sour..

She says: The sambal belachan is yummy. Not super great but still, pretty yummy!

Thier signature black sauce with diced tomatoes, onions and cili padi.

He says: Yummy yummy! Its a must when i comes to eating the deep fried fish!

She says: The black sauce is sweet. The onions, tomatoes and cili padi in it just makes it even better. It's crunchy sweet and a lil juicy because of the tomatoes. LOVE THE SAUCE for sure! :)

Fish/Chicken Set (RM6/RM7)

Comes with a bowl of curry and a lady's finger.

He says: Typical curry..

She says: Just like any normal curry. Not that yummy.

Fried Fish (RM5 if you order only fish)

White Pomfret/Ikan Bawal

He says: Thumbs up! You can literally eat the whole fish! Crispy and hot. Love it!

She says: DELICIOUS when it's super hot. It's so crispy that you can chew every part of the fish. Even better when you eat it with their signature black sauce!

Fried Chicken

He says: Fried chicken! Very hard for any fried chicken to go wrong unless its cold and soft already.

She says: It's pretty huge for RM6 for one set. To me, it tasted a lot like any normal fried chicken. Nothing very special on this fried chicken. If I were to choose, I would choose the fried fish over the fried chicken anytime!

Famous Fried Fish/Chicken at Tanjung Bungah, Penang

Location: In front of Maybank Tanjung Bungah, Penang.

Direction: Head towards Batu Feringghi, the stall is right in front of a Maybank on your left.

Price: Reasonable

Ratings:
His rating: 8/10
Her rating: 8/10

Fufah Mas Indonesian Food at Tanjung Tokong, Penang

Simple dinner wins us all the time. Sometimes, we do want fancy dinners but most of the time, we could and would settle for simple ones, just like this one. We were at this Malay Food Stall along Tanjung Tokong and this little Indonesian Stall was just right at the corner of this stall.

He saw that the aunty was alone and she wasn't doing anything and there were no business. And all our friends were not ordering from her, so he decided to walked towards her and asked her to make whatever that she would recommend. Since we both have never tried any Indonesian food before. He had completely no idea what he ordered. No idea if it comes with fish or chicken or if its noodles or rice. Well, let's see what we think of it..

This is like foreign language to us. No idea what is what. He ordered Pecel Ayam.
(which you can't see the name of it as it was written below Pecel Lele in pen)

Kitchen area..

Pecal Ayam - RM5

He says: Ayam pecel turns out to be reaaaaallly good. The kakak will immediately deep fry it for you..  and the sambal/curry is super spicy. Love it.. *if you can't take spicy food, do not order or may be order something else* 

She says: The soup and rice is like a typical Malay kind of meal. The fried chicken is finger licking good and it's sooo good that we ordered another fried chicken after we finished our dinner. Oh and the sambal that comes with it is just one of a kind. So spicy and yummy! Of course we ordered another extra rounds of sambal! Two thumbs up! :)

Fufah Mas Indonesian Food at Tanjung Tokong, Penang

Location: It's situated at one of the Tanjung Tokong Malay Food Stall along Jalan Sri Tanjung Pinang.

Direction: Directly opposite Tesco Tanjung Tokong.

Price: Reasonable 

Ratings:

His rating:8.4/10

Her rating: 9/10

Nasi Beratur at Kapitan Keling, Penang

Midnight makan always somehow happens around mamak or nasi kandar. I have no idea why. I mean, sure there are people who will eat at Green House or some other coffeeshops that open till the wee hours. But in the end, Penang people will still settle for nasi kandar or roti canai. SOMEHOW!

And this time, she wasn't gonna just go to any mamak/nasi kandar place to eat. She had already planned one day earlier to go for the ever-famous nasi beratur since she will be out till so late d. For him, he had already gone there like so many times since he's such a night person.

That's 79 years of business yo!

The extended under canopy area. Pretty cool.

How Nasi Beratur got its name.

The many varieties of curry and dish for you to choose. If you're a clean freak, don't think you'll feel comfortable eating here.

Our main course.

He says: The chicken meat in the picture above is super hard. So, grandparents, you better stay away from that. Haha! But this place serves really good nasi kandar. The 'kuah'/gravy is simply awesome.  Even the rats and cockroaches risk their lives to get a bite of it. =p I recommend you people to try the beef meat, and the ayam ros. Also, some say that the squid eggs is a must!

She says: Fried chicken is definitely not the best. But the gravy is powerr! I never actually expect that the curry would be so nice. I mean, that kinda explains why there are so many people in the midnight onwards and people actually will BERATUR for it. But partly also cos the man who serves is freaking slow. He takes like forever to scoop the rice onto the plate. Haha. I will definitely go back there again and again. Go Nasi Beratur!!

Nasi Beratur at Kapitan Keling, Penang

Location: Just right beside the ever famous Masjid Kapitan Keling.

Price: Reasonable

Ratings:

His rating: 7/10

Her rating: 8/10