Adam's Kitchen at Perda, Bukit Mertajam

Get to know Adam's Kitchen when browse through offpeak.my, the new discount website which offer pretty good deals.

On this hot Saturday, I said why not give it a try. Although it is at Bandar Perda, a place where you hardly see Chinese nowadays since Aeon Jusco moved out, no offence, but I really don't understand why most Chinese only hang out at Chinese dominant place. Probably most Chinese lived in the city their whole life. Most, but not all. I just so miss my kampung. :D

Adam's Kitchen located at the same row with Kapitan Bandar Perda, facing the inner road.

The ambient is comfortable in the afternoon. With air-conditioning and light music. The staff is friendly and always with smilly face, make us feel really welcome.

Here comes the food...

Grilled Chicken Chop RM16.90

The chicken is served with generous mashed potatoes and the meat is tender. The vegetable is washed clean.

Grilled Lamb Chop RM22.90

I must say... the Lamb Chop is awesome! The lamb is cooked to its perfect tenderness and without the lambshy smell that some people might afraid of. Probably the best cooked in Bukit Mertajam I ever tasted. The taste is a bit salty to my liking, but it is still perfect. Salad was served with mint sauce instead of the typical mayonnaise nor thousand island sauce. Totally feel the sincerity in their cooking. I cannot believe there's such a good cafe hidden in Perda!

Mojito RM8.90

The Mojito is equally good and refreshing!

I believe I will definitely come back again very soon!

Penang Travel Privilege Card - Discount Card

The Ministry of Tourism & Culture and Tourism Malaysia Penang has partnered with Penang Tourist Centre to launched the ‘Travel Privilege Card – Penang’ (formerly known as Museum Adventure Pass), which offer a great discount for Penang attractions and participating cafe and restaurant.

Card holder can also get additional 5% discount when booking hotels or homestay at staynest.com.

This Travel Privilege Card providing up to 20% discount at over 100 outlets. It can be purchase at RM20 and is transferable with validity for one year.

Price: RM20
Validity: 1 Year

Where to buy the Travel Privilege Card?
http://www.penangtouristcentre.com/distribution/ 

Sources:
http://www.what2seeonline.com/2016/03/travel-privilege-card-for-penang-attractions-cafes/
http://www.penangtouristcentre.com/

Spade's Burger at i-avenue, Penang

We went to Spade's Burger at i-Avenue during lunch hour to try out this newly opened burger shop. It was not crowded but it took roughly 15 minutes to reach our serving.

Looking up on the menu, the price ranging around RM10-20. To make it a set, add RM5 to have french fries and bottomless drink. I was trying to keep fit and do not want any fries, but I was told I need to pay RM4 to buy the drink... Oklah, make it a set then (weird...I cannot have anything that is not bottomless?).

The special about the menu is that, they serve non-meat burger! I think this is a great news for vegetarian, although I am not sure whether their non-meat burger have any garlic or not for pure vegan. I haven't get the chance to eat their portobello mushroom burger, but with portobello plus the picture from other blogger, I think this non-meat burger looks really promising~

Come back to what I have ordered - Jack's Chick (C1), the basic chicken burger with cheese and special sauce. The sauce is indeed special, with a flavoury and sourly taste,  not typical thousand island, mayonnaise nor teriyaki taste.

The chicken meat is well done and tender. However, still lose to my beloved New York Pizza's burger at Sungai Dua, this burger is lack of juiciness and fattiness~ LOL~ The meat is more lean and less fat and might be preferable by health conscious people though.

The french fries portion is generous and the drinks come with a choice of various machine pressed soft-drink and Heaven & Earth Lemon Tea. The price is a bit high although bottomless drink is a plus. Overall, still a good experience and if I do come back, I will try their mushroom burger.

Self-order Counter

More Menu Here: (Click to Enlarge)

Spade's Burger
Address: 1-1-22, Ideal Avenue, Medan Kampung Relau
Bayan Lepas, 11900 Penang, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Tue - Sun: 11:30 am - 10:30 pm
N 5 19.959 E 100 17.582
(Same row with PC Depot & 100 Yen Shop)

Pulau Aman Mee Udang & Mantis Prawns

Mee Udang and the Mantis Prawns are like the whole point of going Pulau Aman to many people.

To me, it is an unforgettable brand new experience, yet I hope it won’t be happened again... What happened? Curious right? :p

After we get off from the boat, we head straight to the Restaurant Terapung (Floating Restaurant), no chance to get lost by following the crowd. When approaching the restaurant, you will see a dock where people queuing for fresh fishes and prawns. If you are not going alone, get some of you queue at the dock, and others can walk further in to queue for the restaurant’s table. Of course you only need to do that if there are a lot of people (avoid public & school holiday).  They are 2 different merchant, so you have to buy your own freshie, bring it to the restaurant and ask them to cook for you.

I was the one queuing at the dock, and I just wanted to get some mantis prawns. Like most of the famous food in Penang, the person-in-charge is kind of arrogant. The person kept saying, "No more mantis prawns for today." I was really curious and I see the people still queuing, and no movement. After 15 minutes standing there, I finally understand. There are fishing boat sending in supply like every 5 minutes, many of them bring in normal prawns, tiger prawns, fishes and crabs. Mantis prawns? Not much. Maybe because of the timing which is 1pm that time, or demand > supply.

However, people still show low interest on other fishes and prawns, even the big mantis prawns, as it is more expensive. So we just so willing to wait despite the uncertainty.

The Big Mantis Prawns costs RM120 for 4, I bet can just buy one though. Small Mantis Prawns costs RM50 per kg.

Finally, it is my turns, they got me 800g (7 mantis prawns) for RM40, without even asking me how much I want. Boat came, mantis prawns came, throw all in the plastic bag, weight it, hand it to you, take it or leave it. If you don’t want, the next person surely more than happy to take it. So I paid, bring my still jumping mantis prawns, walk towards the restaurant, where my friend still queuing. While waiting, V took a picture with it bravely.

On the other hand, I busy marketing off half of my mantis prawns as we not going to finish all 7 mantis prawns. It just took me open my mouth and in less than 5 mins, they are sold to a person behind the queue.

Finally, V grabs us a table. Despite the restaurant is really really dirty, we had the freshest mantis prawns I ever had. Without any sauce or spice, only cooked by steaming the mantis prawns, you taste its sweetness and freshness (while V actually felt it 'jilak').

We also ordered the Mee Kuah Udang and fried rice, which are really nothing worth mentioning. Wonder how it became so famous. One of the blogger who mentioned the fried rice is better than the mee udang, I really couldn't agree at all. The prawns in mee udang and fried rice are very fresh though. You don’t need to get prawns from the dock unless you need extras. Mee udang and fried rice cost RM5-RM6 respectively.

The meal was completed by a lime juice (malay: limau ais). Totally refreshing on a too much seafood meal in hot afternoon (better ask them to lesser the sugar though).

We have a short walk on the trail and village after mail, check out my another post.

Just a short afternoon, but a long day for me. Looking at too much killing with my bare eyes. 

Check out my other posts:

How To Go Pulau Aman?
Boat Fees & Schedule
Pulau Aman Village

Pulau Aman - How to Get There

Pulau Aman is one of the nearest tourist island in Penang other than Pulau Jerejak.

I finally get the chance to visit Pulau Aman after almost 4 years in North when my old friend from Batu Pahat visit me during the school holiday.

We started off from Bukit Mertajam, using the north-south highway from Juru Toll, drive for about 15 minutes and exit at Bukit Tambun toll. After exit the toll, turn right following the brown colour signboard pointing Pulau Aman Jetty. Drive for another  500 metres, you will need to make a left turn, stay with the signboard. The left turn will lead you to the Batu Kawan stadium, the biggest stadium in Penang state, in the middle of nowhere, resides on the left-hand-side of the road. Keep driving straight and you will notice the signboard started showing Jetty Cassia.

Before I came, I did some homework and people mentioned there are 2 jetties, Jetty Bukit Tambun and Jetty Batu Musang, where the Jetty Batu Musang is the correct jetty to Pulau Aman now. It make me worry if I was on the right track. But end up, hell the Jetty Batu Musang, none of the signboard mentioned its name. Just follow the Jetty Cassia guys (well at least for these few months until they change again), the Jetty Batu Musang name will only be seen right at the jetty.

It’s nothing complicated because you don’t have much choices on the route, just stay on the road, despite you will see deserted place with bushes and swam, you will reach the jetty eventually. It took us about 40 minutes or less from Bukit Mertajam to the jetty, smooth traffic.

Sorry that I don’t have information on the public transport to jetty.

The ferry/boat fees and schedule can be found HERE. 

GPS Coordinate:
N 5 15.914 E 100 24.44


Check out my other posts:
Boat Fees & Schedule
Pulau Aman Fishing Village
Pulau Aman Famous Seafood: Floating Restaurant (Restaurant Terapung)

The Mugshot Cafe, Georgetown Chulia

It's been awhile since my last post, busy looking for my second property but after a 3 months struggling, I still got nothing. On the other hand, my daily full-time job didn't give me a break either. What a hard time...

I have been spending much of my time in island after work for dinner to avoid the jam at penang bridge. On a nothing-special-day, after searching nothing on mudah.my,  I was thinking what should we eat tonight. I have a secret loving feel towards Chulia Street area, most probably because it gives me a feeling that as I am traveling myself.

I came across The Mugshot Cafe in one of the blog I surfed. It is located right besides Rainforest Bakery on Lebuh Chulia. The interior design of the cafe have a same feel as Rainforest Bakery, and they have a open entrance in the shop which link two shops together, obviously belong to a same owner.

What's so special about this cafe? They sell bagel! Something I never had and never seen in Penang.
What's bagel? Check it out yourselves. :p

I was afraid they will run out of bagel at night as out of the blogs I read, they all came here in day time. However, we reached there around 7pm and were lucky enough that day.

The bagel is crunchy at the outside, chewy in the inside. It's really satisfying. I will consider that as a very good experience having my first bagel.

Beef & Rocket Bagel

Bacon & Egg Bagel

We had a kiwi & honey yogurt and wild berries tea as dessert & beverage. The yogurt portion is generous and the tea giving a refreshing fragrant, totally complete our meal that night.

One thing that need emphasize is they are partially self-service. You need to place order and collect your beverage from the counter. Bagel will be delivered. It doesn't bother me much as the attitude of the staff is pretty good, but perhaps some sign showing "self-service" will be much better.

The price is reasonable ranging between RM5-12 for beverage and RM10 for both bagel and muffin.
p/s: photo taken by phone, poor resolution.... :s

The Mugshot Cafe
Address: 302, Chulia Street, Georgetown, Penang

Contact Number: 012-405 6276

GPS Coordinate: N 5 25.099    E 100 20.193

The Mugshot Cafe Facebook


In case you like to know what is bagel~
"A bagel (also spelled beigel) is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Bagels are often topped with seeds baked on the outer crust, with the traditional ones being poppy or sesame seeds. Some also may have salt sprinkled on their surface, and there are also a number of different dough types such as whole-grain or rye." - Wikipedia

Sweet Heaven 螞蟻窝 Bukit Mertajam

We talked about the new hang out place at Pusat Perniagaan Gemilang before. There are many restaurants and yum cha shops in this area. Dessert shop itself we already have Tong Bak Fu, Simply Autumn, Bubble Gurt, Yes Yogurt, Berry House and Sweet Heaven, the one we going to talk about in this post..

Sweet Heaven is not so crowded compare to most of them. However, it doesn't mean that the quality of food is lower than the rest.

Maybe the staff should have smile more

They have quite big number of dessert selection, bean curd, snow flakes ice cream, red and black bean, fruits dessert and etc, more to Taiwanese style. The dessert tasted ok, we only tried on their snow flakes, it is pretty good although not the best. The price average from RM5-RM8, topping is not stingy.

V and I always investigating why people business is not so good (like we are very successful business man :p). The only thing that V point out is the less attractive lighting. It doesn't create a comfortable/warm feeling that people feel like keep going back.  While I just couldn't figure out why...

Photos credited to V - Life's Simple Pleasures



Sweet Heaven 蚂蚁窝
Address:
35, Jalan Perniagaan 1 (Pusat Perniagaan Gemilang),
Bukit Mertajam, Penang.
GPS Location: N 5 21.057   E 100 26.470
Telephone Number: 05-3063036

Business Hour：
Sun - Thu:    1:00 pm    -    11:00 pm Fri - Sat   :    1:00 pm    -    12:00 am

Hiking Cherok Tokun, Tea Spa Bukit Mertajam

Started to work out since last month for our coming KK Trip. It is always not too late although it scares me everytime thinking of it.

Tokun is one of the hiking place nearest to my house, been there few times but only manage to get to the 2nd Rest Station once. There are 2 trails in Tokun, one is in tar road, another will be walking in the woods.

I always take the soil trail for way up and come down using tar road. It took about 45mins to reach an exit staircase to tar road from soil track. Walk 15mins on the tar road to reach the first shelter, where they call the "Rest Station". If you did not exit from the staircase, continue your way up in the jungle, it took another half an hour to reach the 2nd Rest Station, this is easier than the first part of the trail as it getting higher and have less ground vegetation which means you have more open air and oxygen.
Descend down with tar road takes less than 1 hour, it was easier but my knee and hip was quite hurt. Lots of uncles & aunties walk faster than us... @_@

The whole journey took 2 hours ++ on our very slow speed. :)

Next, comes the whole point of hiking at Tokun, the Tea Spa (森林茶坊). :D

All of the food there are extremely delicious~ Probably too exhausted or they are just simply too nice! Sipping tea while listening to the birds singing, simply what we looking for on a Sunday morning~

Most Delicious Herbal Tea Egg

Feel refreshing having Chinese tea after work out

Extremely love this Mee Tiao! Don't have any ingredient but simply just tasted so nice on its own with garlic! You must try their Chicken &Mushroom Noodles too!

Teochew Mee Tiao 潮州面条

Tea Spa Corner
Opening Hours: Morning after 9am or 10am - evening . Sunday - 10am onwards
Location: Right at the foot of Tokun Hill

Cherok Tokun
Direction: Drive along Jalan Kulim from Bukit Mertajam (BM) towards Kulim direction. Passed through St. Anne Church on your left, go straight for another 300m (agak-agak) and notice a small road on left with a Mee Ketam shop at the junction corner, turn into it and drive till the end. Opposite the junction(right-hand side of Jalan Kulim) is a mosque (Masjid Jamek Cherok Tok Kun). If you passed the mosque, you are overshot.

GPS Coordinate: N 5 22.147  E 100 29.068
Tips: Do bring mosquito repellent.

Shinjuku Cafe, Japanese Restaurant at Raja Uda

I think in the mind of most people, we got to eat western food during Valentine's Day, the candle light's charm...

Therefore, those places are packed with lots of people. To avoid traffic, we, mainlandant have to stay at mainland for the day.
This indeed make people a really big head, where not much nice western food in mainland as far as I know. Moreover, I need something new, not Nando's, not Manhattan Fish Market... @_@

After Googled bunch of things, decided to go Richard's Top Taste Cafe in Inderawasih. It's very near to my house, it's cheaper, and vkeong's blog mentioned about it.
I purposely drive passed the shop on my way back home. I got scared away by it's outlook. Ok, I'm not gonna go there during Valentine's Day. Quickly called another restaurant on my list, fully booked. Call another one... Fortunately~
And here we are, Shinjuku Japanese Restaurant near Raja Uda at Pusat Perniagaan Teras Jaya.

And yes, we going to have Japanese food on Valentine's, not western.

The shop is on the same street with Who's Bryan and Apex, and on the 1st floor (upstairs, not so easy to spot), opposite of Chung Ling Secondary School (北海钟灵中学对面). The interior is ok, not a high-class one but with dim light, room temperature, not hot and not cold either, and not noisy, the thing that I felt most grateful.

My kids just tooooo cute

In fact, I was quite worry about the food.

The first dish comes up was salmon sashimi. The salmon given was quite thick, but still small in portion with a price of RM13.80. It's fresh and taste good, which make us happy for awhile.

 Next is the cheese-baked scallops (hotate), RM12.80. It was disappointed. I need to scratch the shell to take out the scallop meat, obviously overcooked. And I could not understand the taste of the sauce. Taste like there is ginger inside... never had a scallop with ginger before. Kinda weird, probably because I really don't like ginger.

Teppanyaki chicken set came later. The chicken tasted quite nice, a satisfied one. It costs RM16.80 with miso soup, salad, fruits and green tea. The miso soup is terrible by the way. I cooked a better miso soup with the miso paste bought from organic shop. @_@

Another main course we ordered is Gekikara Ramen (Spicy Seafood Ramen). The appearance looks convincing, but the first mouth make my eyes really big, what is this...?
It taste really weird, I can't tell what is wrong with it. After few more mouth, I felt it was scorch. I didn't ask waiter/waitress about it. Still wondering is it how it supposed to taste or it is really burnt. I couldn't finish the noodles.

Well, it wasn't a good experience. I just so glad it was my main course that tasted terrible. But still, we hardly get a pure Japanese Restaurant in mainland here (Sushi King & Sakae not count la), it does have a chance that their sushi could be nice. If anyone happened to taste their sushi, do update us on it. :)
 



Shinjuku Japanese Restaurant
Address：28,Lorong Teras Jaya 8, Kawasan Perniagaan Teras Jaya, 12300 Butterworth, Malaysia
Business Hour： Mon - Sun:   11:30am - 03:00pm / 05:30pm - 10:00pm

Tel: 04-3246588

GPS Coordinate：N 5 26.022   E 100 23.436

Stone Age Cafe & Restaurant in Bukit Mertajam

There is an area in Bukit Mertajam that has recently became a fabulous hang out place, Pusat Perniagaan Gemilang. Cafe, restaurant, dessert house, boutique, saloon, pub and club established like growing mushrooms. Soon it will be like another Auto-City! Glad for fellows staying in BM.

Not too far from the auto-city, the place located on the famous off Jalan Song Ban Keng, Opposite Taman Limau Manis and behind Taman Gemilang. It's like my second home and I came here almost everyday. Due to laziness, now only I started blog about this place. This post, we going to talk about Stone Age Cafe & Restaurant. I will write about others later. :)

To our surprise, all the while we thought it is a pub, and I dressed really well that day, hah! At the end, it's actually a restaurant.

The interior and exterior using plenty of wood as their theme. Wood-like table, chairs and the significant big tree at the center of the restaurant which you can see it even if you just drive passed the restaurant.

Looking up on the menu, the price is surprisingly reasonable given on the very nice look and feel of the restaurant. Drinks are consider reasonable for a hang out place.

 

Once you step into the restaurant, you could simply sense that the whole place is covered with attempting BBQ smells.

The food on a 400 Celsius hot stone, their signature dish.

Grilled Chicken on Hot Stone, Rm16.80

You can choose from the various main dish on the stone. There are chicken, fish, steak, tiger prawns, scallop and etc. And complimentary 4 sidelines you can choose out of 6 selection, among them are wedges, mashed potato, rice, corn and etc.

The chicken that we had, marinated well and on the hot stone is definitely an interesting point. However, the sidelines are not hot, like fries and wedges are pre-fried. So we ended up putting all of the sidelines on the stone to heat them up (if that was the intention... lol).

We also ordered the seafood carbonara fettuccine. It was not hot either, just warm and the scallops are small and over-cooked. I understand that it is not so easy to cook scallops to its perfection, let's just don't take risk. This one failed.

Seafood Carbonara, <RM15

Another thing that deserve compliment is the services. The staff they recruit always with positive attitude and really responsive as far as I seen. Just got to know that every Tuesday is their hot stone BBQ buffet night, RM50+ per pax, RM25+ for children below 12 years old.

The hot stone meal is satisfying and have a generous portion. This make me definitely want to revisit again.

* Photo credited to V - Life Simple Pleasures

* Revisit Stone Age today and tried on their Hot Stone Tilapia, still prefer chicken because unlike chicken, fish doesn't have much oil to burn on the stone, which make it a little bit dry.
The sidelines do have improvement, getting hotter nowadays, but still don't feel like they make it upon order.

Stone Age Cafe
Business Hour:
Mon - Thu: 11:00 am - 1:00 am
Fri - Sat    : 11:00 am - 2:00 am
Sun           : 11:00 am - 1:00 am

Contact Number: +604-537 7228
Address: 11, Jalan Gemilang 2, Pusat Perniagaan Gemilang, 14000 Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia
GPS Coordinate： N 5 21.044   E 100 26.555

Direction: If drive from Penang Island, drive toward north-south highway (Kuala Lumpur direction). Exit at Juru/Bukit Mertajam, turn left without waiting for the traffic light. Drive all the way straight until you reach a T-junction with small weird round about with traffic light. Turn right on the traffic light you will find yourself driving on Jalan Song Ban Keng. Drive straight until you see Honda Center on your left, then ready to turn into left. After turn into left, turn right immediately and you will see Stone Age on your left.

Micke's Place, Love Lane Penang

Passed by Micke's Place when we visit Behind 50 the other day. Haven't been heard its name so far, not a famous one maybe but the exterior does catch our attention.

One day after work, we decided to check out this Micke's Place.

The shop is small but homey, with about 6 tables inside, some at the outside, comfortable lighting and temperature. There are few foreigners in the shop, looks like it's favor by tourists but not discovered by the locals yet.

Two sides of the walls are full of remarkable messages left by the visitors. Especially love this one - "It's always good at the end. If it's not good, it's not the end." :)

The price is really cheap for a restaurant run on the famous Love Lane. The food are not some high-class cuisine but definitely a delicious one with a strong taste of local home cooking. I never know I could actually taste localness in a spaghetti! Hah!

The Grilled Lamb with Napolitana Linguine I ordered come with quite a big portion of lamb chop but really small portion of linguine. Kinda weird but I love the lamb so much~ It cooked just nice, tender and juicy~ So much better than many local western cafe.

RM15

The Aglio olio Spaghetti tasted relatively good as well but a bit too spicy, even for locals like us. Tips: try request for less spicy. Besides that, they also serve various Asian food.

RM10/RM12, can't remember d...

The lady who serve us came by to "sembang" (chit-chating) with us. Get to know Micke's Place is just open since August 2011, many of the decoration in the shop are from her grandma, how this restaurant startup, stories on the wall and many more about Micke's Place.

I must say, aunty cooked really well. :)

We say goodbye to the aunty and left with my bag full of stories. I had a really wonderful night here.

*Photo credited to V - Life's Simple Pleasures
Micke's Place Information
Forgot to ask for their opening hours, and can't find much information on the internet about them. But can check out Micke's Place Review on TripAdvisor. Just drop by there to try your luck!
Direction: Turn in to Lorong Love (Love Lane) from Lebuh Chulia (Chulia Street), Micke's Place is the first shop on left after you turn in, right behind the 7-eleven.
GPS Coordinate: N 5 25.115  E 100 20.181

Behind 50, Love Lane Penang

Sometimes just want to hang out at a place, quiet and comfortable.

Noticed this Behind 50 on Love Lane during our stay at Ryokan Chic Hostel. It's kinda late and tired that day so I promised Viv to bring her here next time.

So here we are, after our prayer at Tze Chi, no alcohol. Well, I'm fine with simple drinks. :)

 A drink, a snack. Read my book while Viv was drawing.

 Nowadays, people all like to dig out all their old stuff for deco, really a trend.

I love Pinocchio

The music came from the old record player, simply special. Enjoy every minute spent at the cafe.

Photo credited to V's - Life's Simple Pleasures

Behind 50
Address: Corner shoplot at the junction of Lorong Love (Love Lane) and Jalan Muntri (Muntri Street).
Tel: +6012-5565509 / +6012-4939230
GPS Location: N 5 25.178   E 100 20.214
Price Range: RM5-RM20