On My Way To Carlsberg Where's The Party 2012

By the time this post is published, I'll be half way going up North to Penang for Carlsberg's Where's The Party? A little bird told me that we will be staying in one of Penang's most prestigious hotel, Hard Rock Hotel.

We will all be partying the whole day and night on the beach. That's why I went to 1 Utama to purchase goggles, sunglasses, and sun block. These three items cost me about RM150, tsk tsk. Inflation.

Okay. I'll be writing about this epic party after I've enjoyed it. Have a nice weekend!

Joez Coconut, KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur

Alright, Penang famous Joez Coconut Jelly is now avaiable in Kuala Lumpur. We KLians don't have to drive all the way up north to have a taste of it's silky smooth coconut jelly. Doing in in kiosk style, Joez Coconut Jelly first branch outside Penang is in KL Sentral, opposite CIMB Bank and in front of Chicken Rice Shop, near the departure side.

What's so special about coconut jelly, you asked? Well, first of all it's not you agar-agar type coconut jelly. It's all naturally created through the process of heating, freezing and chilling a whole coconut. Heating is to caramelized the natural sugar in the coconut to make it sweeter, freezing is turn the juice into solid form, and last but not least, chilling is to turn the solid into a semi-solid jelly like form. Nothing is added to the coconut during the process. Voila, there you have it, Joez Coconut Jelly. For more of the info, visit their website here.

Joez Coconut Jelly (RM 4.70)

I scooped out the coconut jelly and put in my mouth. Oh my, it's so silky smooth and melted in my mouth leaving the natural sweetness from the coconut juice and the very nice pandan like aroma. Joel the owner of Joez Coconut assured me that it's the natural aroma from the coconut, no pandan leaves were added.

This is the first time I ever tasted something like this. A jelly that is form entirely using a whole coconut itself. Remember to eat the coconut meat too after scooping out all the jelly. The meat is smooth and tasty.

I also tried their Coconut Shake (RM 3.50) which is currently only available in the kiosk in KL Sentral. Blending the coconut juice, coconut meat, and evaporated milk, then top it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. It's a very rich and flavourful taste in coconut. I found it to be a bit too sweet for my liking. Joel then told me that sugar syrup was added because of the milk. He told me, next time I can asked for less sugar. Maybe I'll try no sugar next time lol.

If you don't fancy jelly or shake, you can opt of the Pandan Coconut Juice. It's the coconut juice with pandan like aroma. I didn't try it though, I was already quite full.

Do drop by for heat killing coconut jelly/juice/shake here. One can stop by the departure side and walk in to tapao but be sure there's someone in the car because it's a no parking zone. KTM Commuter and LRT also can reach here.




Address:

Joez Coconut Kiosk
KL Sentral Level 1 (Departure side)
Opposite CIMB Bank and in front of The Chicken Rice Shop.

Main HQ:
201, Jalan Dato Kramat
10150, Penang, Malaysia
Website: http://www.joezcoconut.com.my


Other Ppl's View:

What2SeeOnline
FoodPOI
PenangTuaPui
Penang Stree Foods

Before the Penang Trip...

me and Huai Bin only have about a week's time to look for accommodation. What's better way to do it online. I found this website call HotelsCombined.com. From here, I can find hotels not only in Malaysia but also most city in the world like Bangkok and Singapore. Of course there's hotel in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Okay, so that's how we got our accomodation and booked a room in Cititel Penang. Internet made travelling so easy nowadays. We can book the flight online from MAS website, made hotel reservation and even book for tour bus if we wanted to.

Long Weekend Penang Trip - Day 3

Continued from the second day of me and Huai Bin in Penang, I wrote that my friend will be driving us around on Day 3 but she'll only be free after 4 p.m. and we have to check out from the hotel at 1p.m. Normally it's 12 p.m., we asked for an extension. So, we kept out luggage at the concierge first as we wanted to go for brunch.

We planned to go to Lorong Seratus Tahun for the curry mee that we missed the first day, char kuey teow by the lady in Lorong Selamat, and ice-kacang in New World Park. This time instead of taking the taxi, we took the thrisaw. We were tourist after all lol.

It's kind of cramp for me and Huai Bin to sit in one trishaw and both our weight added together is about 165 kg. So, you know that the uncle is very strong now to be able to pedal us.

It's quite fun to travel in the trishaw but I also felt it is quite a dangerous ride because every other vehicle around us is bigger and faster, and we're out in the open without any cover. Lucky it's not raining while we're on the ride. Want to take a feel of what it's look like riding a trishaw? You can play the video I took.

We reached safely at our destinaton or should I say the wrong destination. The uncle actually don't know where is Lorong Seratus Tahun, so he asked his friend and was told to go to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Center but he took us to Sun Yat-Sen Base instead. There's two Sun Yat-Sen attraction in Penang. Luckily we were able to stopped the uncle again and tell him that he took us to the wrong place.

Managed to snap a picture before we go.

So, there we go again on the trishaw. After passing the road and building that we passed by, we made it to Lorong Seratus Tahun. The fee for the ride is RM 10.

Luckily it's still open when we reached. So now I can try the curry mee that I ate in Lorong Seratus Tahun in SS2 from the original stall. The curry mee here is different from the normal curry mee we always see. The soup here uses very little santan (coconut milk). It's not spicy at all if you don't add in their specially made chili paste that is on every table there. You more of it if you like it spicy. I usually put in three full spoons.

We ordered a small bowl with extra prawn that cost RM 5.50 per bowl. Besides fresh prawn, there's also blood cockles, sotong and pig blood (black pudding). Satisfying bowl of curry mee. I found that the taste here is about the same as in SS2. So, next time I can go to SS2 if I'm craving for Lorong Seratus Tahun curry mee and don't have to come to Penang. The quality is almost the same, just the price is different of course.

Rating: 4/5

After eating the curry mee as appetizer, we walked across the road and into Jalan Dato Keramat. I remembered Cheryl told me that Ah Leng char kueh teow is along this road. I called Kah Wheng and got the direction but alas, Ah Leng already closed. So, we took a taxi and go to Lorong Selamat.

Me and Huai Bin shared a plate of char kueh teow that cost us RM 8.50. I think this is the price for extra prawn. I at first mistaken this stall for sister char kueh teow, they put crab meat and prawn in their char kueh teow. While waiting for our char kueh teow (even though there's not many customer, still we have to wait for 30 minutes), a lady in the restaurant let us sample some of her pork floss. I found it to be quite nice, so I bought one.

The char kueh teow here also use some very big prawn. The taste here is a bit saltier than the one that we ate on the first day and the prawn is not as fresh. Ah, such a disappointment.

Rating: 2.75/5

While we were enjoying our char kueh teow, it was raining quite heavily. Luckily, it was only drizzling when we finished, so that we can walk to New World Park which is just a stone throw a way from Lorong Selamat. By the way, Tune Hotel, Penang is just next to New World Park.

I knew about the ice-kacang here after watching Ho Chak! Season 8 Episode 12. We ordered the ice-kacang special, which have 4 fruits and ice-cream. The 4 fruits is mango, banana, papaya and honey dew. On top of that, there's also kidney beans and and very firm jelly like thingy. I can say that this is one of the best ice-kacang that I've ever eaten. A must try if you're here. I also ordered the Tee Nya Kueh that Ah Yoon ate in the show.

The Tye Nyah Kueh don't have taste on it's own, it only have a mild pandan taste. It gets it's taste from the gula melaka. It's quite cooling and the taste is balanced well with the brown sugar.

Tye Nyah Kueh

My lovely bowl of ice-kacang.

After our brunch, we made our way back to the hotel and waited for Valerie to come and pick us up. At about 4.15 p.m. she arrived. Since, there's still time, I ask her to drive us to the Snake Temple which is quite near the Penang International Airport. The snake temple closes at 5 p.m. and we made it before it closes.

Snake Temple

The snakes are not in the temple but a room next to the temple. Due to development, the snakes here are near extinction. Huai Bin paid RM 30 to take picture with the snakes on him. They will print out the picture on the spot and give it to you. I don't think Pinky will ever pay money for this lol.

There's actually a snake farm next to the room. We paid RM 3 each for entrance fee instead of RM 5 by showing my MYKAD. There's about 15 different species of snake in the farm. There's also tortoise and monkey. There's one big tortoise that is already 65 year old, which is still very young for a tortoise. We also able to watch the python feeds on the chicken.

That day must be our lucky day because the person in charge there decided to add an extra snake show for the crowd there. The show was supposed to have ended already. We were shown the handling of Mangrove Snake, Cobra, and King Cobra. The snake handler told us that, the Mangrove is not very poisonous, it's venom will only cause pain within 45 minutes. Huai Bin asked whether he can get bitten by it and take medical leave the next day. Lukily, he was stopped by the lady owner, if not, we might not make it in time for the flight because we have to go to the hospital lol.

Handling the Mangrove Snake.

The King Cobra can grow longer than the Cobra that can only grow until 1 meter long. Hence the name King Cobra. The King Cobra's venom can kill a human within 15 minutes if no anti-venom is injected. Even though there's a nurse with us that day, I don't dare to stay close an get bitten by it.

The King Cobra.

For RM 3 each, we got ourselves quite an entertaining visit to the Snake Temple. Valerie drove us to Queensbay Mall (currently the biggest shopping mall in Penang) to have dinner. There's nothing special to eat, so we chose to eat in Dragon-i.

Xiao Long Bao, Drunken Chicken, Fried Prawn in Bean curd roll, and Crab with egg white.

Me and the Nurse.

After dinner, it's time to go to the airport to check in.


Huai Bin and I at the Penang International Airport showing our MAS boarding pass.

Take one more picture with Valerie before going back to Kuala Lumpur.

It's been a very interesting 3 days 2 nights in Penang, Malaysia. Domestic traveling can actually be fun too if you know what to look for. A long weekend like this is also a good time to grab the Weekend Special package from Malaysia Airlines.

Adios Penang, Hello Kuala Lumpur.

Long Weekend Penang Trip - Day 2

After a day of walking on the first day. The second day is a luxury for our feet because we don't have to walk too much. As, I've wrote in the end of my previous post, Cheryl and Kah Wheng drove us around Penang. It's like a Penang historical tour for Huai Bin and I. Sorry again for waking up late and made you both waited for so long. Pai seh :p

Once we pop on to Kah Wheng's car, Huai Bin and I were given two choices for lunch, Ah Leng Char Kueh Teow or Chicken Rice. Since, we already had CKT on the first day, so we decided to go with chicken rice. Sigh, now I regret the decision I made because I didn't know at that time that Ah Leng CKT is the one that you can opt to add mantis prawn to it. We were too late on the 3rd day to go and try T_T

Kah Wheng drove us to Kedai Kopi Thew Chik near Cititel for Goh Thew Chik Hainan Chicken Rice. You'll see two stalls in front. Both are the same stalls.

Well, to me a KL people that tasted some of the best chicken rice in KL. This one seems quite normal. The way they put the soya sauce with oil on the roasted chicken is more Cantonese KL style rather than Hainanese style. Real Hainanese doesn't put any soya sauce or any kind of sauce on the chicken. Nevertheless, it's not too bad. I especially like the springy chicken intestine.

Rating: 3/5

After filling up our stomach. Cheryl asked us what place we wanted to go. I told her I wanted to visit the Peranakan Mansion, which she thought was Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. We reached there around 12.45 p.m. the tour of the mansion already started at 11 a.m. so we have to wait for the next and last tour of the day which is at 3 p.m. We then made a detour to Fort Cornwallis to meet with Sir Francis Light.

Aye, aye sir.

We paid RM 3 each to the entrance fee. If you studied Malaysian history before you'll know that Sir Francis Light is the Mat Salleh from England that got the piece of land called Penang from the then Sultan of Kedah at around 1786 A.D.




Fort Cornwallis was then built to strengthen the defence of Penang's port because this is a very important port for trading of herb and spices. Thus what left here today are the cannons and bunkers. There were also some interesting artifact that were recovered from the archaeology excavation on display in the mini museum there.

After getting to know how Penang end up to be one of the three states in Penisular Malaysia without a Sultan. We drove to Khoo Kongsi next because there's still time before the 3 p.m. tour starts at Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. On the way, we made a short stop at the now most happening clubbing and dining place in Penang Island. QEII. I first heard the name when I went to Hennessy Artistry in The Loft. Only when I come here that I found out that QEII means Queen Elizabeth II because it's at Queen Elizabeth II pier. -_-



Nice view of the pier.

There's a marina here. Yatches owned by super rich?

There's nothing much here by day but Cheryl told me it'll be pack like sardine by night. It's nice to have candlelight dinner here too. A good place for dating.

A twist and a turn (actually quite a lot of turn) and we're end up in Khoo Kongsi. This is one of the oldest building for the Khoo clan . Those with the surname Khoo. Before this, I always thought Khoo Kongsi is some kind of olden days organized triad or something. Kongsi Gelap rings any bell. Only after reading an article in the newspaper that I know that it is an association for the people with the surname Khoo. Just like there's a Seow Kongsi, not really sure it's call a kongsi though.

From what I heard, some businessmen from Taiwan donated money to restore the Khoo Kongsi to it's previous glory. This place even won the award for the restoration project. From the floor plan, I see that this is a very big area with a lot of houses surrounding a temple in the middle. The main attraction is of course the temple itself. I bet most of the people that lived in those houses has a surname Khoo :p

There's two rooms beside the temple that has all the plagues inscripted with the name of a Khoo that made some achievement acadamically. There's doctors, lawyer, accountant and newer one like computer science graduates.

Khoo Kongsi became popular after Anna and the King came here to shoot to if not mistaken. You can get more of the history facts and FAQ in the official website. At the back of the temple, there were a few Chinese drawings. One of the drawings is named The Nine Old Men.

Oh, before we go in, we have to pay RM 5 per adult. It's not free, so prepare some cash if you want to visit Khoo Kongsi.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

It's almost 3 p.m. when we arrived at Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion again. Lucky there's not many tourist yet. The fee for the guided tour is RM 11 per person. There's one rule here is that, one cannot take photo of the interior, you can take all you one of the exterior. After we paid the fee, we were asked to wait inside the living room for the tour guide. Do you think Huai Bin and I can hold back and not to take pictures while inside? Of course not.

Alas, while Huai Bin got away with the picture taking, I got caught by the person in charge there while doing the act. Luckily I was not asked to delete the photos I've taken. From the tour, the guide will tell you the story of Cheong Fatt Tze, the original owner of this mansion and why is the mansion built the way it was. Mostly has something to do with Feng Shui.

We were told by the guide that the trishaws outside the mansion are actually props from the movie Indochine. The current owners of the mansion bought it from the production company after the movie was shot here. Seems like a lot of movie has been shot in Penang. I'm too lazy to write the whole story that the guide told us. Come here and listen for yourselft :p Oh, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion opens for home staying too but you'll have to book a month in advance because they only have 38 rooms. You can book it online through their website.

After visiting so many historical places, it's time pay respect to another temple. We drove our way to Kek Lok Si in Air Itam but not for that temple, the temple we're visiting is our 五脏庙 (stomach). Pasar Air Itam is famous for it's laksa stall.


Look at the laksa broth boiling there. Slurp.

Due to the long weekend, there's so many customer patronizing here even though it's already 4.30 p.m. Which also means the laksa here must be real good. I ordered 五果汤 (five fruits soup) to crunch my thirst. While Kah Wheng went to ordered laksa, century eggs and fried popiah for us. Cheryl taught us to dip the fried popiah into the laksa. Not too bad. I can say that the laksa here is authentic from the sight of the bunga kantan and 虾膏 (prawn paste) alone. It also helps that the broth is full of tiny bits of sardine. A must try if you ever come to Penang. Stayed away from the one in Gurney Drive and save the money for this one. But they raised their price to RM 2.70, normally laksa in Penang cost around RM 2.20 to RM 2.50. Still cheaper than Gurney Drive which cost me RM 3.00. You can get the map from KY.

Rating: 4/5

What we ate at Air Itam.

After a wonderful local hawker meal. There's two options that we can take. One, go to Kek Lok Si. Two, go to Penang Hill (Bukit Bendera). We opted for number two for two reasons. One, there's a long traffic going to Kek Lok Si. Two, the new Guan Yin statue is still under construction. How wrong are we because when we got to Penang Hill there's also quite some traffic but not as many as Kek Lok Si. We went to buy the ticket for the tram and found out the next tram available is at 8.30 p.m. That's about 3 hours of waiting. Logically we forgo that option to wait. So, Huai Bin and I just took some pictures and suck it up. The tram come and go in a 15 minutes interval by the way.

The last time I went up the top is 20 plus years ago if I remember correctly. ":)

We sneaked to the exit and took the picture of the tramp tram.

Kah Wheng then drove as back to the hotel so that we can take a shower and a short rest before we go for dinner later at night.

At about 8.30 p.m. Kah Wheng pick us up from the hotel and drove us to a place the usually go for hokkien mee (prawn noodle) and oh chien (oyster ommelette). I forgot to ask the road and the area. So, you'll might have to do a search yourself based on the signage. Anyone knows where is 三条路 888 福建面 (3 roads 888 Hokkien Mee)? lol

Hokkien mee is another famous Penang local delicacy besides laksa. Which from my experience the best tasting one is still found in Penang. You can add extra ingredients like egg, fish ball, pork ribs and roast pork to your hokkien mee here. I ordered one with everything. After I saw Huai Bin's bowl of ice kacang, I ordered one too. Really different from the one we find in Kuala Lumpur. The fish ball here is square in shape and the secret is that one fishball is cut into half, according to Cheryl. She ordered a kind of longan drink called "geng geng" which comes not in a glass but a small glass bottle like what 100 Plus used to be in before it changes to plastic bottle. Hokkien mee here is not too bad but I think it still lack of something which I don't really know what lol.

Rating: 3.75/5

It's time to indulge in alcohol and loud music after dinner. So we're back near Cititel Hotel, just across is the SoHo. We chose a pub called SOI 11, which at first I thought is SOI II. The area here is something like the Jalan Pinang clubbing area or Heritage Row, Jalan Yap Ah Shak, where a few clubs and pubs are in the same area. One of the biggest club here is Slippery Senoritas I think.

We drank 4 buckets of beer with 6 bottles in each bucket. Mostly drank by me and Huai Bin because he kept daring me to bottoms up, which made me puke a few time.

When we're still sober.

At about the third bucket. Huai Bin spotted there's three ladies sitting in another table. He then dare me to go and get to know them. Which, I chicken out at first. Not enough alcohol maybe. After a while, I took the opportunity to take picture for Huai Bin and the girls and get to know them too. LOL. I only got one of their Facebook.


The three girls we met there.

At about 2 a.m. and me and Huai Bin are fully intoxicated, we decided to call it. Kah Wheng dropped us at the entrance of Cititel and went home. I was walking towards the entrance when Huai Bin dragged me to the opposite direction. Even in this kind of state, he still remember that we planned to follow the recommendation on the MAS in-flight magazine "Going Places" to try out Sup Hameed, which is just a stone throw away from our hotel. Just happen that the May issue is about food.

It was drizzling and Huai Bin cannot walk straight, so I have to help him a bit. We already know what to order before we came here. It's not from the recommendation in "Going Places". We passed by the stall before so we know what they serve. We're going to order...

Guess what?

Huai Bin helped took this picture.

Still no clue?? I'll show you the uncut version of it.

Yes. We ordered SUP TORPEDO. For those uninformed, Sup Torpedo is also known as Bull Penis Soup. ^-^

Huai Bin requested the torpedo not to be cut into small pieces, so the boss give us one big bowl to share. It cost us RM 15. The texture is a bit like beef tendon only softer and more chewy. The soup is where the taste is because the torpedo tasted bland. I especially like the bread that comes with the soup. Very old school. Contradicting to popular belief, we didn't feel any different after drinking the soup.

Rating: 3.5/5

The dissection. Sorry, I was drunk.

After trying out the special soup. We went back to our room and slept away. Funny thing is that Huai Bin didn't remember a thing from the moment after he took the pictures with the girls we met in SOI 11.

Guess where we went on the third day?

The third and final day. It's my friend's turn to drive us around and to the airport. Good to have friends in Penang. Stay tuned.