Sweet-I Desserts House

MIA for such a long time I guess its time to come out of hibernation.

Well its not exactly that I have not been eating or photographing food, more like the opposite but just doing it differently.

First off, I would like to thank Jacgyc of FoodTok and Criz Lai for this invite to join them for this review at Sweet-I Desserts House located at Sg Dua, Penang. Actually this shop which specializes in Thong Sui is located at the row of houses right across the road from Tesco Extra. It's not exactly easy to spot as its blocked by some undergrowth and trees but keep an eye for the bright red banners.

This place is owned by Mr and Mrs Soon and they are really a very friendly couple. They have devoted their passion into this place and now they cater to the very whims of Chinese Thong Sui lovers in Penang. One thing that one will notice immediately about their dessert is that it doesn't look watery or bland. They have a very wide variety offered daily and I must say, when I first saw the many different pots of desserts on the table, I was in awe. These guys must be working overtime to be able to churn out so many different Thong Sui. I cooked, and I can tell you that making a good bowl/pot of this delicacy is no easy feat. It takes lots of love and effort and it clearly shows with the desserts here.

Thus without further ado, let the pictures do the talking.

I guess another thing is that I probably will start less rating on my foodie blog, and just put a recommendation and let the readers decide. All in all, this place is a must try for Thong Sui lovers. Of yeah, the price starts from RM2 till about RM4.50 for the ones that uses more expensive ingredients/effort to produce. Well worth the try!

Wikimapia : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=5.3512728&lon=100.2985078&z=18&l=0&m=b

The exterior of the house/shop
The many pots of Thong Sui
The small living room with the pots on the right and tables on left
The man, Mr Soon
Green bean, sweet potato & sago Thong Sui ~RM2.70
Pumpkin, sago, glutinous rice with coconut milk ~ RM3.00
Tapioca jelly Bobo Cha Cha ~RM2.70
Black sesame soup ~RM4.00
Ginger, dates and coralline algae ~RM3.50
Sha shen, red dates, medlar, white fungus and winter melon soup ~RM4.50
Black glutinous rice ~RM2.00
Tapioca jelly Bobo Cha Cha ~RM2.70, another view
Combination of many Thong Sui... yummy
More.....
OK this 2 herbal tea I do not know its name but its for cooling and another helps with imsomnia ~ RM2.00 & RM3.50
There were many bloggers that day...
Barley, white fungus and dried bean curd skin (fu zhuk) ~RM2.50 Add RM1.00 for gingko nuts
Lotus seed, gingko nuts and red bean soup ~RM3.30
Kelp with red bean paste soup ~RM3.00. Kelp is a type of thick seaweed
The herbal tea in nice miniature glasses
Groundnut cream soup ~RM3.00
Tapioca jelly Bobo Cha Cha with shaved ice ~RM2.70 (Love this as its cold)
Special porridge of the Day ~RM4.50 (the ingredients used in the porridge varies daily)

Sri Malaya Heritage Restaurant @ Penang

Well, it was by chance that I managed to meet up with Ocean Teh, owner of Sri Malaya Heritage Restaurant located at Jalan Pintal Tali, or Rope Walk in Penang. Sri Malaya is housed in a restored heritage building, along the historic Rope Walk, which was famous in the past as the place to get ropes :)

Back to Sri Malaya. Here they serve a mixture of Western and local menu. Its interesting to see that you can have an affordable and delicious meal for under RM20 at such a nice restaurant setting. What catches my eye immediately was that they have great lunch promotions :) A free drink with any meal order. WOW.

My family and I ordered a few items when we were there. For drinks, we ordered fresh mango and it was the start to a great evening. The mango juice was thick and you know its made with real mangoes and not some syrup.

First entree to arrive was the wild mushroom soup. At first the soup looks like any typical mushroom soup, but once we tried it, we were immediately hooked to the taste. It was fresh, full of mushroom flavor and more importantly, even my 3 year old daughter was giving the thumbs up! Now you can't cheat a 3 year thats for sure. The soup has a nice texture and you can really bite into the finely chopped mushrooms. I have yet to find out what types of mushrooms were used and will probably need to return to find out more.

Next we had the Lamb Shank. After the delicious and appetizing soup, we can't wait to see the Lamb Shank as its supposedly one of their top dishes. When the staff brought the plate to the table, our eyes widened. The plate was big, and more so what was on the plate. The Lamb Shank was a sizeable portion and it was sitting on top of a good helping of mash potatoes. Oh I forgot to mention, when you order a main course, you get to choose to have fresh garden greens or roasted garden greens. Basically how you would like your vegetables at the side. We chose to have fresh garden greens and got a good amount of fresh salad. Besides these, it also comes with big chunks of roast potato and nice cherry tomatoes. Just talking about the plate of Lamb Shank makes me hungry. Now to the taste. Before biting into it, I can see that the meat is well stewed. The lamb was falling off the bone which is a good sign that its nicely done. And yes, I was right. The meat was very tender, not tough at all, and I can taste the marination and herbs going through my mouth. A scoop of mash potato plus a slice of lamb together, excellent combination. I was very happy with this Lamb Shank and with the portion, it will definitely fill you up.

The other main course that was ordered is the Seafood Platter. As one would expect from the description, it is a combination of grilled seafood. Hmm, mouth watering indeed. Again, when the plate arrived, it was a very nice portion. Big chunks of fish, large prawns, muscles and a big helping of calamari (yeah nice name for Sotong!). Now the trick with grilled seafood is that there is always a worry that one will spoil the taste of the fresh seafood. But I was not disappointed here at Sri Malaya. Their chef got their timing right on. The fish, is cooked nicely, with the outer layer nicely scorched. The fish is surely fresh to begin with too. Nice. Then the large prawns, has the shells cut at the back to make it easier to dig in. No regrets here too. The muscles, were grilled well too, and I was enjoying myself thoroughly using a knife to make sure I get every bit of the muscle. Finally the calamari. I must say this is the best grilled calamari I have ever had. The calamari was just so juicy and tender, not at all tough to the taste which is very common. I must applaud the chef for being able to cooked it so well. There must be some secret method of cooking it. Oh, for this, we ordered grilled garden greens and got a combination of grilled broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. The vegetable was just nice and went well with the seafood.

To end the evening, we had the cake of the day, which was chocolate cake. One can have it serve hot or cold. It was coated in chocolate and looked very appetizing. On first bite, I could taste the richness of the cake. It was moist and the the combination of the chocolate on the coating makes it very filling. The family enjoyed this cake very thoroughly indeed.

Before I end this, I would like to highlight some of the uniqueness of this place. It has an upper floor, which was initially planned to be the home for the owner. But to overwhelming response from diners, he will now make it into a private dining area or place for gatherings or parties. Prior booking for its use would be best to avoid disappointment.

Besides that, the restaurant also have a side door which lead to a very nice garden. Ocean has made a very nice vertical garden from some of the salvaged building material and it looks marvelous. Ocean definitely have green fingers when it comes to plants too.

All in all, Sri Malaya is definitely a new place to have a good meal and would suit all. Do check it out!

Their details

No. 1 Rope Walk (Jalan Pintal Tali), (Opposite Air Asia @ Chulia Street)

Opening hours : 11.45am-3.00pm, 6.00pm-11.00pm, Closed on Tuesday

Phone : +604-261 3763

Getting there:

Get to Chulia Street and turn into Jalan Pintal Tali. You need to get in from Chulia Street as Jalan Pintal Tali is a one way street. The restaurant is 30meters on your left after turning into Jalan Pintal Tali. Its the bright yellow building. Can't miss it!

ps, tell them you heard about it from an email recommending the place :)

Long time no post

Wow, its been such a long time since I posted into my food blog
Hopefully more will be coming soon

Tian Wai Tian Buffet Steam Boat @ Ximending Taipei

After about 3 months hiatus, I'm finally back to blogging on this food blog of mine. It has been crazy schedule after schedule, and the good news is, the archive is overflowing with food goodies to share. During this past 3 months, I was fortunate enough to have visited Shanghai and Taipei, and also have some very homely meals during Chinese New Year.
Without delaying, this is a recall of a place which I wish was available in Malaysia. Its something that everyone in Malaysia is familiar with, and its Steam Boat. So whats so special about another steam boat right. Well, for starters, I had this in Taipei. Ximending to be exact. Tian Wai Tian, serves buffet steam boat and so far, I have not encountered one that serves such quality food for steam boat such as theirs. The price varies according to the time that you visit. Kids are also cheaper.
Here, there is a selection of 6 type of soup, from spicy hot pot (Ma Lat in Taiwanese) to mild tomato or lemon grass soup. I actually have been to this place 2 times now, hahaha, so I have tried the hot pot, lemon grass and tomoto soup myself. Its very good soup, not like some watery ones which are so common. Now, the big deal here, its the selection of condiments available. There are meat, seafood, vegetables and many more. My pick, lamb slice (because I don't take beef), pork meat balls, scallops (yes!), bamboo clams (they are huge), prawns, slipper lobsters, and some local vegetable. And then we have the dessert, a large array of sweet stuff as well as cakes. More importantly, free flow of Haagen Dazs ice cream with 12 flavors to choose from. Mouth watering yet? A definitely must try if anyone stops by Taipei Ximending. Price is deemed to be well worth the value!
Rating : 5/5

More photos : http://www.apples-studio.com/gallery/TianWaiTian_Ximending_Taipei/index.html

Wikimapia link : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=25.0463621&lon=121.5058064&z=20&l=0&m=s&v=9&show=/15658405/ ~ Do take note that I might have got this wrong else it should be one or 2 blocks away.

Wedding Dinner at Sun Li How Fook Restaurant @ Ipoh

Well, last weekend my good buddy Jen Sen got married and held his wedding reception dinner at Sun Li How Fook Restaurant at Ipoh. Yeah, its not near thats for sure. Since I wasn't shooting the wedding, I focused instead on the food. Hehhehe.
Well, the restaurant was really big with 2 levels. We were at the upper floor which was smaller, I think there was about 20 tables in total.
As with all chinese wedding dinner, its a typical 8 course meal
I will go through each of these with pictures to follow in my link.
1. Appetizer : Four Season platter
This four season platter basically have a combination of hot and cold dishes. As the name implies, there is 4 varieties here. When I first saw the platter, there was a lobster shell on it. I was like, wow, lobster. Alas, it was a recycled lobster shell. Was a good deco though. So there was a cold jelly fish with mini octopus and mango salad. I liked this one. The jelly fish was cut in big chunks giving it a good crunchy taste. The octopus are those standard mini ones which have been marinated in the red sauce. Too bad they cut it in half and not whole pieces.
Then there is a baked prawn with cheese. This really tasted like a fusion dish and nothing chinese traditional about it. The combination of the prawns and the cheese was good.
Next is chicken stir fried with hand made fish ball. This one was rather plain, and not very exciting.
Last on the platter was fresh scallops wrap in fish paste. I felt that the amount of fish paste was abit overwhelming and voided the taste of the fresh scallops. But nonetheless, it was pretty good with the chef adding some kei chi on top.
Rating : 3.5/5
2. Sharks Fin soup was next. Well, I can't recall if the menu mentioned sharks fin or not but there wasn't any sharks fin for sure in the soup. It was mainly fish maw, chinese ham and crab meat. The good thing was that besides the usual vinegar, the restaurant took the trouble to serve a bowl of whisky together. This I like. So with some whisky mixed in, it gave the soup some needed oomph.
Rating : 3.5/5
3. Steamed white pomfret followed. Now this is a very nice fish if its fresh and big. The one we have on the night was of a pretty decent size. It wasn't super big but enough for the table. When the fished arrived, it looked abit firm. I was correct, the fish was overcooked. Oh well, can't be perfect. The fish was not superbly fresh as well as can be seen from the eyes and taste. The good thing was the chinese cilantro and light soy sauce blended in well with the fish.
Rating : 3/5
4. The next dish was interesting. The item which they put on the table was a glass of fresh spring onion stalks. I immediately wondered if this was to go with the suckling pig. I was right. The funny thing I don't get it is how do they expect people to eat such a big stalk of spring onion? The buns and suckling pig was much smaller in size, so even though it looked good, it was not practical or tasted nice as well. The suckling pig on the other hand was pretty good. I like the fact that they left some meat besides the skin as this gave it much more flavour. The buns though were not that great and tasted like those u get from the super market.
Rating : 3.5/5
5. Next up was prawn fried with soya sauce. Now finally the seafood was fresh. The prawns was succulent and juicy and you can easily peel the shell. For this kind of cooking, one must make sure to peel the shell with your teeth to be able to taste the slightly crisp soya sauce coating. If the prawns used were XL size, I would give this a 5.
Rating : 4/5
6. Lo Hon Chai, of mix vegetable. This is a disappointing dish. There was no gravy, and hardly any flavoring at all. Dry dry dry.
Rating : 2/5
7. Steamed rice with chinese wax sausage in lotus leaf. Yeah super long name. I'm not a fan of chinese wax sausage but I can tell you that the rice was poorly cooked because when I ate the rice, there was hardly any taste of the wax sausage. This means that it was probably not cooked well enough. Mostly this was fried earlier and then just wrapped in the lotus leaf and served. there was no hint of the lotus leaf as well.
Rating : 2.5/5
8. Dessert was last. It was a pancake and beancurd skin with gingko nut thong sui. I didn't try the pancake but my friends mentioned it was the best dish of the night. I did try the thong sui and BIG failure. How can the restaurant serve gingko nuts without removing the bitter stem in the middle? When I took a bite of the gingko nuts, any feeling of niceness about the thong sui disappeared immediately. Else it would have probably been better.
rating : 1.5/5
Overall, I had a hearty meal as my table only had 8 person. Jen Sen, no offence ya but I'm a food critic ma. I'm sure the restaurant should serve better when its not a wedding dinner as the chef could probably pay more attention to the food. Cheers and leave some comments too

More photos : http://www.apples-studio.com/gallery/ww50.6_09_dinner/index.html

Wikimapia link : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=4.58451&lon=101.0909128&z=18&l=0&m=b&show=/14750539/Sun-Li-How-Fook-Restaurant

Yam Rice with Salted Vegetable Soup @ Chai Leng Park, Prai

This post is way overdue mainly in part to a very busy work schedule as well as the fact I went on a week long holiday to Taiwan in November. Yes, there will be a Taiwan foodie report out soon, I promise. Hahha. OK, back to this lunch.
Even though it was a while back, almost a month and a half, I can still vividly remember how the food tasted. Why? Simple. The food is great. Yes, a simple yam rice with salted vegetable soup with all the internals of the pig thrown in. My favourite.
The yam rice has very good texture and flavor, thanks to an abundance of dried shrimp thrown in. The yam was also plentiful and the flavoring done just nice.
The soup was also excellent. Not too salty with plentiful of stuff in it. And the added bonus is that the soup is refillable. Yes, drink away as much as you possibly can.

Sorry not much pictures as we were on our way to a photoshoot at Autocity that day :) Definitely a place to return
Rating : 4.5/5

Wikimapia link : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=5.3842848&lon=100.3917789&z=17&l=0&m=b&show=/1513471/Yam-Rice-Restaurant

Lunch at Sakae Sushi @ Queensbay Mall Penang

Well, like in my previous blog, I did mention that I'm on a home run for good food and today I think is another one. Got a friend who brought us to Sakae Sushi for lunch. Well, I decided that today I will not order any of the heavy meals and just have some maki's. So I ordered a few premium makimono (which is a sushi roll instead of just the typical sushi).
I would say that all the items which I ordered is good today. The ones I would like to point out would be the Unagi Maki which I feel would be something most would like as there is no raw items here and would work well on most palates. If you like salmon, then the Ura Maki is definitely a must try as it not only have salmon sashimi but it has fried salmon skin wrap in the middle.

Also ordered was the soft shell crab crepe and another new premium makimono which I forgotten the name. Of course, side dishes ordered were salmon sashimi and also Ajitsuke Idako or baby octopus. I'm gonna rate the place overall as I think it deserve it.
Rating : 4/5

More pictures : http://www.apples-studio.com/gallery/ww43.3_09_lunch_SakaeSushi/index.html

Wikimapia link : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=5.3407882&lon=100.3024292&z=15&l=0&m=b&show=/608887/Queensbay-Mall-Jusco-Penang

This is the Ura Maki
Unagi Maki
The one I forgot the name