等到花都谢了

I saw the lotus flower on Thursday on my way out to work. Today (2 days later), when I wanna go and take a shot of it, the flower has fallen and this is all it left behind.

Trying to salvage anything that I can take from the lotus.

There goes the flower in the pond.

A pretty nice lunch prepared by chef from chef association of malaysia @ workplace cafeteria

Once a while, Malaysia Chef Association Penang Chapter's chef will visit our cafeteria to serve us delicious meal. Almost everyday, we are being tortured with sub-standard foods. Either my food expectation is high or the daily cafeteria food is bad. Going out for lunch is typically not my preference due to high amount of workload especially this year.

Okay, back to the food. Here we queue for the chef's food. I remembered I queue for nearly 20 minutes. While I am queue, I have no idea what they serve today. I am expecting something good.

When I am right in front of the fellow chefs, here it goes on the menu. The paper is so small. A4 sized to be precise. I believe it was written just before they serve to food.. LoL.

Here it goes, we got mussel, tomato (eh.. not tomatoes, because it is only half tomato), grill fish fillet topped with turkey ham and fresh cut-fruits with yogurt.Actually it comes with 2 triangle-cut breads too. Though badly written but the food tasted good especially on the main dish.

A chef's suppose to be judge and evaluated based on taste and presentation of his/her cooking. Others factors are secondary.

Potatoes, carrots, cut-fruits dessert, breads, mussel lining up on the special long rectangular space awaiting for the fish fillet and ham to be ready. Presentation wise, I would say it is quite good.

After the long wait, here is it. My lunch meal. The photoshot is blur probably due to I am taking it on the railing rather than on the table. My colleagues has finished their meal so it is a little obscene to photograph this wonderfully presented meal together. :) No offense.

Zoomed to the tomato (tomayto? tomahto?), mussel and bread. The tomato is nice. Mussel is already cold. Worse of all, the bread is just plain bread. I am expecting garlic bread of so. Anyway there is a good workaround on the bread, read on....

Ta..Da... main dish. Fish fillet topped with turkey ham on wild mushroom sauce. This tasted very good. As for the bread, I spread it with the mushroom sauce and I can get over with it.

Not forgetting the nice texture potatoes. It look nice, isn't it? Well, one of my colleague did commented that it is a waste to purposely peal away some of the potato flesh. I think in normal restaurant, those can be made into mash potatoes. I am not too sure what the chefs did with it here.

All done till the last bite. Cost me RM7 with RM1 subsidy from company. Overall, I will order again next time.

Dave Deli 30% off promotion @ Dave Deli, Queensbay Mall, Penang

This post has to start with price. Since the main reason I am recommending to Dave Deli here is due to price more than anything else. The 30% off gives the Dave Deli a competitive advantage with rival Kenny Rogers and probably Nandos. If all were same price, I would prefer Nandos but that's my personal taste bud preference.

Two person meal with 2 main course, a soup , extra garlic bread (why I ordered? see below) and a drink for RM28.90 is a bargain to me in Queensbay Mall.


Remember, the discount on meals only. Drinks are excluded.

Let's start with a soup, shall we? Okay.. country style mushroom soup with a slice of garlic bread. This used to be my favourite western styled soup back in my college days. Now? I would probably say TGIF's. :)

Haih.. the manager in Dave Deli didn't warn us the soup already served with garlic bread. So I ended up ordering garlic bread that comes with the soup and here is another 3 more. Fortunately the price is reasonable at RM3 for 3 pieces.

I am a fan of breast meat. I mean chicken meat. What were you thinking? So you can guess this is mine. It is quarter chicken meal and accompanied by coleslaw topped with shredded carrot, mashed potatoes, several slices of cucumber and generous portion of dave deli gravy.

It taste good when served hot.

Drumstick 1/4 chicken meal. If you have read a few of my food posting, you probably know this belongs to V.

Last but not least, a sprite carbonated drink to share between V and me.

Dave Deli
Lower ground floor, middle section, Queensbay Mall,
Penang.

GPS coordinate: N5 20.029 / E100 18.397

A long forgotten Satay post @ Ah'Basri Satay, Sg. Ara, Penang

Ah'Basri satay opened another branch at Sg. Ara, Penang. Here they serve many types of flame grill or charbroiled meats. Ranging from chicken till horse. Here I have chicken and lamb shown. The satay sold in here large in size.

Satay is best served with chunky peanut sauce. The sauce dipping saucer is rectangular shape. It fits the satay so well.

Satay alone is not sufficient to fill our hungry stomach. So we ordered nasi lemak as well.

Although Ah'Basri serve big skewer of meat, their drinks is awfully small cup. Standing side by side is V's samsung phone.

Ah'Basri Satay (Opposite Fisherman Grill)
Jalan Dato Ismail Hashim

GPS coordinate: N5 19.205 / E100 16.286

Visti to Hard Rock Hotel @ Batu Ferringhi, Penang

Hard Rock Hotel recently opened in Penang. We are the frontier :) my team hence organized a teambuilding event in the hotel. Here is a shot of the entrace during noon time.

Let's start the hotel pictorial tour from the interior walkway. Clean uncluttered walkway with some instruments and outfits of artists.

Here they also have the mosaic portraits of the Beetles.

Let's take a look at the outdoor. The poolside is sand covered. It has several long water slide and tall coconut tree provides some shades.

The poolside view towards the hotel building.

Turn your head towards the sea, this is what you will see. Beach covered with white sand, sea extending to the horizon and blue sky with a dash of clouds.

Walk out from the hotel pool side, here is what you will see on the left. What a nice view.

And on the right. Beach and sunshine :)

My colleague couldn't agree with me further. He is enjoying the great sea view.

The hotel's entrance during the night.

Hard Rock Hotel
Batu Ferringhi Beach,
11100 Penang, Malaysia
Tel:  +60 4 8811711
Fax: +60 4 8812155

GPS coordinate: N5 28.068 E100 14.501

Meal with nice dessert @ Swenson, Auto City, Penang

In swenson, the best food to me is still their ice-cream. However, today I come for something different.

This is spagetthi aglio olio. Spaghetti with mushroom, chili, garlic then tossed in garlic oil.

Deep fried mushroom. Golden-fried shiitake served with tartar sauce. A recommended appetizer for mushroom lovers.

Don't remember what this is called exactly. Forgive my short term memory.

Very nice banana crumble. Banana crumble on a sizzling skillet with caramelized fresh banana slices, Ol' Fashioned Vanilla ice cream and a drench of butterscotch cream sauce.

A definitely must try.

Closer shot on the banana crumble. A nice sweet tooth.

Beach view @ Paradise Hotel, Penang

This is where V and I gonna have our wedding dinner mid next year. Yupe, I paid the deposit already. So there is no way back.

p/s: it is a ballroom dinner. Although paradise do have beach wedding package.

Jade Blossom Restaurant 奥翠軒 @ Krystal Point, Bayan Lepas, Penang

Jade Blossom Restaurant is a upscale chinese restaurant in Bayan Lepas area. I came here is because V said there is a promotion. Otherwise, I might think twice before coming here.

It is not because I heard anything bad about Jade Blossom, it is because Penang has too many good and cheap chinese food around.

I couldn't remember the set was RM29.90 or RM39.90. If not mistaken, is RM29.90.

The appetizer is cucumber based salad. As usual, anything to do with cucumber, I am skipping it.

The lunch set come with free flow of chinese hot tea. The waiter/waitress will pour and refill the hot tea for you into your cup.

The set is for two person. It comes with 2 soups. Each person gets a bowl of its own. The soup tasted good and it is double-boiled.

3 main dishes are chosen from a long list. V and I chosen this taufoo with crab meat and fish roe as our vege dish. The crab meat is real unlike some cheaper restaurant uses crab stick as substitution. Two thumbs up for this dish.

2nd dish we chosen is sweet and sour pork. Before I forget, this restaurant is not halal :). We do appreciate if the pork is slightly crispier.

Here comes the 3rd dish, the steam fish in teochew style. I would say this dish is only so-so. The reason is the fish meat is not smooth enough. I suspect it is overcooked. Some of the fish meat also stick onto the plate. Overall still okay. No fishy smell or taste :)

Last but not least, the dessert is served. Each of us gets a bowl of red bean soup. The red bean is crushed till powder form. So it is a little thick. I personally liked it but V prefer the watery type. The choice is yours.

Side view of the red bean soup.

Jade Blossom Restaurant
Blok 1 Krystal Point 2,
Lbh Bukit Kecil 6,
11900 Bayan Lepas,
Pulau Pinang

GPS coordinate: N5 19.864 E100 17.926

Teppanyaki @ Sakae Izakaya / Teppanyaki, Autocity, Prai, Penang

V and myself went to Sakae Izakaya on our way home to Ipoh. This is our 1st visit. Our Taipei's teppanyaki experience is really good so we come with high expectations. Knowing this will be slightly expensive, we still headed in.

The interior of this restaurant is contemporary. Simple yet nice. It give us a feeling of fine dining. It has two level of dining area. Looking at the number of patrons, 2nd level likely to be close most of the time.

The seating is as usual surrounding the cooking area.
V and myself chosen the Gindara & Chicken set. The set has codfish, scallop and chicken. Price at a slightly premium RM39.90.

Here is the appetizer. Veges with mayonaise.

The set comes with a steamed rice. I prefer garlic rice hence upgraded it to prawn garlic fried rice. Where is the prawn?

Most importantly the cook didn't fried it in front of me. It was fried 4-5 seats on my right. I don't even know that is for me.. LoL

Here is the cod fish. This cod fish was again fried somewhere else, put in front of someone's face prior coming to me. Do I look like I am there for garlic fried rice only? Maybe I am because as usual, my out-of-work outfit is t-shirt, pants and slippers. The nicely suit up fella comes for tempura only yet the chef put the cod fish in front of him.

Anyway... forget it.

The cod fish not put on the frying plate to keep warm, instead just put on a clay plate. I start to miss Taiwan.

Here is the teppanyaki chicken. Taste good. I am not sure I am going to recommend this place for good. But for the food, it is good enough.


Sakae Teppanyaki / Sakae Izakaya
Auto City, Juru

Opening hours:
Mon-Thurs: 11.30am-10pm
Fri-Sun & Eve of Public Holidays: 11.30am-11pm

GPS coordinate: N5 20.309 E100 25.699