Gurney Drive Hawkers Centre

I am quite a frequent here. I usually go with my friends, Penangites that currently living out of Penang and come back home for a holiday. (They miss Penang foods so much that they need to eat here every time they are back :-D) The menu that we chose usually are the same even though the centre sells a variety of foods.

The first one would be Pasembor. The price can vary depending on the amount and the types of 'cucur' that you choose. I usually just go with the normal fried potato, fried hard boil egg, 'cucur udang', crispy 'cucur', fried taukwa (fried firm tofu), and a fishcake. All this will amount to around RM 12 to RM15. The price can shoot up to the unreasonable range once you include squids, crab, or the big prawn. But feel free to try if you want.

Next is rojak. They have a nice rojak that comes with 'sotong' and crispy 'char kueah'. For Penangites, rojak means rojak buah and for the normal rojak it is called pasembor. Easier right. 2 different words for 2 different dish.

The other dish that I can't get enough is the 'siput duri' and 'sotong kurita'. The first time I had 'siput duri' was during my Sabah trip last year. The sauce in Sabah was better though T-T. But the 'sotong kurita' here is nice. A dish that a must try.

Other than the above, they also have Penang laksa, char koay teow, nasi ayam, and many more. For non-muslim, they have even a lot more dishes such as hokkien mee and lok lok.

However, please don't go there during school holiday or public holiday. It will be super packed and hard to find a place to sit and to park your car. Unless you park your car at Gurney Plaza and walk there.

Place : * * *
Food : * * * * * (variety of foods.. its a hawker centre.. duh)
Price : * * * * * (still cheap)

Hotmas (Sungai Petani)

Many people asked me to go and try out this restaurant. Located at the shop lot on the left hand side along the way to the Swiss Inn Hotel, Sungai Petani. You can google up the hotel and this restaurant will be on the left before the junction to the hotel.

Somehow this restaurant will always be full of customers but a good point is that their service was fast. 

I chose to try their chicken chop, Nadiah went with fish and chips, and Azfar with nasi goreng udang/fried rice with prawn and tom yam sotong/squid tom yam.

Honestly, the chicken was bad. They fried with the skin on so it makes the outer bread crumbs oily and soggy. The sauce was ok. It came with 2 types of sauce, black pepper and oriental. The oriental sauce has some nice unique taste compared to the black pepper. The coleslaw was a bit on the sweet side. Not so much for my taste. I didn't try the fish and chips because it was too small and didn't look appetizing enough for me to try. Hahaha

The tom yam was ok. I like that they still put veggies in the tom yam because nowadays most of the tom yam comes with a lot of onions and lemongrass, and no veggies. The nasi goreng udang also was ok. Both came with big portion.

Nothing special with the taste (some even bad) but the prices are on the cheap side and it comes with a big portion.

By the way, I still can't understand why people asked me to try this restaurant.

Place : * * *
Food : * * *
Price : * * * * (extra for the big portion)

Jemputree (Jalan Burmah)

Located at  No.64, Jalan Chow Thye, Off Jalan Burmah, this restaurant is beautiful at night. Suitable for couples and families since the atmosphere is calm and soothing so it is easy to have conversation. Plus they also provide enough fans to feel cool enough to stay comfortable. There are mosquitoes but they rarely bite, I wonder what their secret, hahaha.. However, maybe you want to apply some repellent before going there to be safe.

My friend who is a frequent there suggested nasi lemak (they come in many variations such as chicken rendang, beef rendang) and burger. But me being me, I ordered cordon blue chicken and their special coffee latte.

Unfortunately, something happened to their nasi lemak cook because that night, the nasi lemak tasted horrible however the cordon blue was nice. I love the gravy. It goes well with the chicken, cauliflower and even the corn. On the other hand, the coffee was not to my expectation. I mean for that price, it is just an ice coffee with whipped cream on top.

My friend did complaint on the nasi lemak and the restaurant did apologies and waived the nasi lemak from our bill.

They serve quite a variety of foods from tom yam, nasi lemak and some malay traditional like cucur ikan bilis and ubi rebus but I think, I will go there again to try all their western foods because it was nice and comes with reasonable price. Maybe this should be their speciality.

Plus the environment is nice and romantic.. hehehe

Place : * * * * *
Food : * * * (minus from the horrible nasi lemak - no consistency)
Price : * * * * (reasonable for this type of restaurant)

Gee Tomyam (Mutiara Height, Jelutong)

Hahahahahaha one more place that is super cheap yet delicious but very secluded and hard to park and dine there.

First introduced by my best friend who lives there. This place serve all the dishes like any other tom yam place including the steam fish which is my favourite.

Located on the ground floor of the Mutiara Height Condominium (from the main gate, it is at the end of the shops row, on the left side, next to the swimming pool). If you want to have dinner there, you have to park your car along the road side then go to the guard post and ask them to let you in because you want to eat there.

As for me, since my best  friend lives there, I am able to park my car inside the condominium area using the visitor pass. Maybe you too can try asking the guard officers to give you the visitor pass for a short while, just for dinner.

The tom yam arrived after I took this picture. Seriously these were one of the best dishes I ever had for the 'tom yam gang' category. The steam fish was not too sweet. Just a nice mixture of sourness, spicy and everything else. The portion was big and plentiful of ingredients especially in the tom yam. And you would not believe this. All of the above including the tom yam, rice, and drinks for four persons all amounted to not even RM40.

Except for the location, other than that, I am totally satisfied with this place. Do give it a try.


Place : * * * (very secluded)
Food : * * * * *
Price : * * * * *

Yeay! 5 stars for food and price!

Pulut Udang (Sungai Dua)

Today's entry is a bit simple. Just  a road side 'gerai'. Located next to the char koay teow (telur ayam dibasuh). Unless you dine in the char koay teow place, then you can have the pulut udang there, otherwise it will only be a drive thru purchase. They sell nasi lemak and pulut udang. I haven't tried their nasi lemak but I love their pulut udang.

The pulut udang is soft and the filling is savoury. Maybe for someone that prefer their pulut to be a bit on the 'garing' side might not prefer this, but still give it a try for their delicious filling. Great as afternoon snack with black coffee or tea.

I was a bit shy to buy just a few, so I bought 10 and gave the other 6 to my neighbour. hahaha. One pulut udang is 60 cent. A bit expensive but the size is large compared to the average others.

They start selling from around 5 pm until around 7-7.30 pm. Do give it a try!

Place : * * * (roadside)
Food : * * * *
Price : * * * *

Warung Cendawan (Teluk Air Tawar)

This is one of my favourite place to eat. Located next to the sea at Teluk Air Tawar area. It is a bit tricky to find (I have no clue why my favourite places are usually hidden) but hopefully the below directions will help.

" From Lebuhraya Lingkaran Luar Butterworth, exit to the Teluk Air Tawar. Go along the road, there will be Air Force base along the way, keep going until there is a traffic light with small police station on the right. Keep going until you reach the second traffic light, turn left then turn right at the first junction. Keep going until you see a small bridge with 'tali air' then you need to turn left right before the bridge. You have to go along the small road right next to the small river with a lot of fishermen's boats on the right side. The 'warung' is located at the end corner."

Just a small hut.. A bit on the rundown.

Sea view with a constant breeze.

Classic!

 However what they serve is quite the opposite. They serve a lot of dishes some of the famous are mee udang, nasi goreng udang, mee tulang, nasi goreng tulang, mee udang and tulang, rojak buah, ais kacang which all of these were delicious with reasonable price.

The prawns were big and fresh which also because they are located next to the fishermen's centre. The gravy was just nice and the ais kacang was superb. A simple ais kacang without any extra stuff that can sometimes change the taste.

However, the service is very slow. You need to wait quite a while, or if you are in hurry, you need to call first to make a reservation.

They open every Tuesday to Saturday from 12.30 pm to around 6 pm. But sometimes they will be out of stock even before 6 pm so it is advisable to go there early.


Place : * * * (extra star because of the sea breeze)
Food : * * * *
Price : * * * * (reasonable)

Le Boss (Sungai Petani)

This is my first post outside of Penang. The other day I went to Sungai Petani to meet up with my friend and together visited my other friend who just gave birth to a cute little daughter. So, I had the opportunity to have my lunch at Le Boss (Lagenda Height).

They serve western foods, some asian delights, steamboat and BBQ. They also provide some catering services. They have a fresh and nicely put interior decorations and they also have quite a few of aquariums inside the shop which was nice and soothing. I believe all these will look better at night.

I have no idea at first that they serve steamboat and BBQ, because I just went there from a friend's recommendation, plus I don't have enough time and crowd for that so I just opt to have their western foods.

Nadiah chose to have the mashed potato and mushroom soup served with toasted bread while I chose to have the salmon spice with salad, and macaroni with cheese as the sideline. Seriously, the foods was just so-so. The mushroom soup tasted just like from the can and a bit watery. The same goes with the mashed potato. Nothing special and the gravy was watery. As for my salmon spice, it tasted just like 'ikan goreng' as per what Nadiah said. I mean, the spice doesn't give any extra kick and quite bland and the tartar sauce tasted like a store bought. However praise for the cook because the fish is not smelly and macaroni with cheese was nice.  They also come in quite a big portion.

You see, I won't be this disappointed if the price was cheap because it is understandable that they have limited budget to prepare their own. However, with the price that they charged it was a bit overprice for  foods that tasted like a store bought. I'm sorry. Maybe they serve the BBQ and steamboat better. I don't know about this. I should go and try that some other day for further review.


Place : * * * * * (I love the aquariums)
Food : * * (as the above)
Price : * * (as the above)