What a steamboat!

I wish I remembered the name of the steamboat restaurant that a group of 10 went to a couple of weeks ago now as part of our eating extravaganza. It is on the top floor of the Vantage Mall on Jalan Tanjung Tokong heading out of Georgetown in the direction of Tanjung Bunga, on the right. Top floor and right at the very right hand end of the mall. Sorry, that's the best I can do for now. However, I will return and make sure I grab a card or something so I can report more accurately its name and precise location.

It is worth it for the place is great. Really great.

It could be the fact that it is something that is really unique, well to me anyway, so I will take a little time to describe it all in detail. (Others have very probably done this and more professionally that I will but I don't think they will do it this way).

This is the steamboat thing. In the centre of the round table is a recessed upside down dome under which is a gas ring (there is a big gas cylinder under the table that the waiter turned on and off) which heats it up. Into this dome shaped thing you dump...

... this time anyway, chicken or veggie broth and chopped up chicken. Turn the gas ring on and replace the holed round thing that you can see in the picture above on the left. It fits.

Next, order loads of stuff. The group of 10 left this arduous task to Lisa (from before), Lye Hock and Kee who between them ordered gargantuan amounts of food only partially shown on the trolley that the waiter brought over, He brought over many other dishes and trolleys before the meal was over, but this was the first.

First up was barbecued, well actually steamed chicken buns in the format of char siu bau. As this is a no pork restaurant, no surprise here and the buns were very nice indeed.

Next up was chicken and steamed veggies before the fishy stuff kicked in...

Big shrimps... 

Little clams marinated in garlic...

Scallops also marinated in garlic and coriander...

Amazing HUGE clams also marinated with coriander, garlic and a little ginger. This was a very strong middle order! I hadn't seen clams that big before and they were so sweet and tasty.

After a little breather came the fish ball/duck/squid combo... remember all the juices from these dishes were seeping into the porridge happily bubbling away underneath added to which the waiter who came with new dishes and took away the debris, would always scrape the food debris into the pot below and give it a jolly stir...

After the shellfish came the veggie mix, greens and mushrooms before the piece de la resistance...

The steamed fish was fresh tilapia according to the waiter with various chillies, scallions, chives, garlic and lemon/lime juice... probably limes on reflection as they are everywhere whilst lemons aren't so prevalent. Whatever, it was delicious and the juices kept on dripping into the bubbling vat below...

Then it was ready. The waiter scraped the fish remnants into the bubbling mass, stirred vigorously for a bit, added some white liquid (more broth I think) and then on top some scallions, coriander and chopped ginger. Very artistic...and yummy too. I had 4 bowls. It was incredible!

To follow, some sweet potato cleansers ...

What a dinner. Friends said that restaurants like this were all over Malaysia. I don't know about that but this was a first for us. 

Vantage Mall is in Tanjung Tokong on the main road, E6 or Jalan Tanjung Tokong, heading out of Georgetown towards Tanjung Bunga and Batu Ferringi. The restaurant is on the top floor of the mall on the right hand side. Go there and enjoy!

Fried Fish Belly

"Have you ever eaten fried fish belly, Mark?" Lisa asked one day out of the blue. I said, as a matter of fact no I don't think so and as things go when Lisa is around, she, husband Ted and I headed off to find same after tennis one day at THE best place in Penang.

Tong Lek 8 Cafe

Sited in Georgetown, Tong Lek is one step up from a hawker stand but remains a typically comfortable, family style restaurant in the Penang way. Don't expect fancy wall coverings or padded seats is what I am trying to say. However, you can as in so many places BYOB.

Ted is an experienced dining companion so doesn't get in the way of ordering when Lisa is around and I chose very wisely to do the same. I did put my foot down in choice of my curry mee dish (noodle soup) and chose to have mine with minced pork. It was fantastic.

Curry see with minced pork

By the time it had arrived, so had the fried fish skin nibbles which would have been great with beer but were also just fine with the vino that we had brought along too.

Deep fried fish skin

Not sure what the fish was but the main catches hereabouts are either red snapper or tilapia (not farmed) but the skin was amazing.

Deep fried fish belly

I did smirk a bit when the fish belly arrived as the much vaunted dish is just the same as that served at Ye Olde Chippy on Southend sea front, except without the chips, vinegar and lashings of salt. Or newspaper. It wasn't cod or haddock of course, rather red snapper (identified by the skin) and was again really nice.

Isn't everything? I have certainly found it so.... well except for my durian experience which was in all honesty a shocker. 100% for sure the worst thing I have ever had in my mouth. But that wasn't here and will likely be dealt with in a scathing expose at some point or other in these pages.

Veggies, steamed chicken and Loh bak

There was just the three of us so Lisa didn't order that many dishes, however, it must be said that Tong Lek 8 Cafe is a definite keeper in the pantheon of eateries in Penang. Great food, very affordable and if you want my opinion THE best place I have found for Penang style (that is white sauce base) curry mee.

Tong Lek 8 Cafe
16 Jalan Lim Len Teng
10460 George Town
Penang

+60 (0) 16-490 7260

Eating can be hard work

As I sit here typing on my laptop in Bermuda, I am remembering some of the meals that Vivien and I enjoyed in Penang in that last frantic week before we left on our annual pilgrimage. Why frantic? Well, it was because Viv had been away in China for a couple of weeks before that and I was pretty much laid up with a sports injury as well meaning that our fairly usual ritual of tennis, beers and then dinner at some restaurant with 8 or 10 others hadn't happened for a while. So when Viv returned and I made my first foray back onto the court post-lay off, there seemed to be some sort of almost desperate need to catch up. And as we only had a week in between before we left for Bermuda, all those dinners had to be crammed into a very short period of time.

I know, 'had to' does imply some form of compulsion that of course was not the case but when people that you haven't seen for a while ask you how you are, buy you a beer and say those dangerous words 'what are your dinner plans tonight?' .... well it would be rude to do other than agree to whatever was taking place for that night.

But it was relentless.

Curry mee and fried fish belly

Steamboat

Fish restaurant

Korean

Champagne brunch

Japanese homestyle

See what I mean? The steamboat dinner was especially memorable not only for the food but also for the other stuff....

Doesn't show the whisky to finish!

If this wasn't enough, when we arrived in Toronto we went to our favorite steak restaurant for a fix of large chunks of red meat...

I need a rest.

Hat Yai Part 1

It has been a while since I last made a post but in this time we have decided to spend more time in Asia to travel and experience as much as we can... not only food wise but of course...

We chose Penang in Malaysia as our base and at some point I will write more about Penang but for this post will concentrate on a weekend we just had in Thailand, based around Hat Yai, the biggest town in the south of Thailand. The reason was tennis so we stayed at a sports resort that had tennis courts but spent dining time in Hat Yai which is the context of this post.

The full itinerary. Hat Yai to Songkhala is at the top

On the day we left the resort and before we checked into a downtown Hat Yai hotel called Lee Gardens Plaza (awful incidentally), we drove out of town and headed... well wherever. It turned out to be northish according to Google Maps and towards Songkhala proper. Took about 30 minutes all told. Maybe more but not much.

Sirada Restaurant

The restaurant was on the lake shore and overlooked a multitude of fish farms which are very numerous in Thailand. The menu unsurprisingly was local and 100% devoted to seafood.  As not very many tourists come this way, the clientele is mostly Thais and local Asian tourists as in fact we were, from Malaysia.

Given that there were 40 of us, it was 10 to a table and one person or maybe two took it upon themselves to order the dishes. Typical of Asia is that the dishes arrive when they are ready, not necessarily in order so we had them as they came... which was totally fine by me of course.  One of our table took it upon himself to make sure we didn't run out of Tiger beers so we had plenty to keep us occupied.

Appetizer: fresh betel nut leaves wrapped into cone shape if you can then stuff noodles, dried shrimp, peanuts, anchovies, chillies inside and pop the whole lot into your mouth. Mass of flavors

Small shrimp drying in the sun. Much of the chilli here uses dried shrimp as a base

Grinding spices freshly

Deep fried fish

Grilled squid with lots and lots of chillies

Fresh greens sautéed with garlic

Scallops and asparagus

Omelette with chili

Fish stew stuffed into coconut. Lots of different fishes  plus of course chili

Deep fried minced shrimp rings... really good!

Piece de la resistance... steamed fish in broth. Eat with rice. Think this is fresh tilapia

What a feast! I certainly didn't need any dinner that night... but of course just had to. But that's another story.

Best thing was steamed fish, fried fish and the fried shrimp rings. Worked out to be 500 baht per head including quite a lot of beers... approx $15 USD per person. Try and find that in San Francisco!