Invited Review | Karaikudi Restaurant @ Market St – Part 2
We had the opportunity to attend a at Karaikudi Restaurant at Market Street last week and the experience of dining at this Indian Restaurant is something different compared to other reviews we have done. Despite having quite a lot of Indian Restaurants or eating outlets in Penang, we have to admit that we have less exposure about Indian Cuisine and there are still a lot of interesting facts about Indian food that we have not found out.
In the second part of the Invited Review, we will showcase the rest of the dishes that we have that time and save the best for last, a home made recipe (although not from Karaikudi) that gives us a lasting, “sizzling” impression. 
The three dishes that we had that time, clockwise from bottom left; Mutton Chukka Varuval, Chettinad Potato Masala and Ladies Finger Pepper Fry. Notice that all the dishes were put on the same type of container, called “kadai“.
Kadai in this case, refers to the cooking pot which the dishes are prepared and normally bigger in size. The smaller ones as shown here are used for serving instead. The loop shaped handles make the kadai easy to carry.
This dish is a favourite among the food bloggers during the review until we actually requested the second portion Ladies Finger Pepper Fry (RM7.00). It is quite chewy and some say it is “quite Q (the Cantonese version)”. The pepper taste for this dish is not as strong as the mutton dish.
The dish in slight yellowish is a simple dish that every other cuisine will have as well. The indian version of “telur goreng” or scrambled egg is Egg Podimass (RM4.00). Huat Koay said this is the first time he had noticed the Indian scrambled eggs dish. Taste wise, you have guessed it, just like scrambled eggs.
Kadai Vegetable (RM9.00) contains assorted vegetable cooked in rich gravy. Some dishes uses Kadai to indicate the dish is prepared using this type of cooking pot.
Chettinad Potato Masala (RM6.00) is a good dish to have with either the naan or dosai. The masala sauce and potato taste good with the potato being soft and easy to chew with the bread.
Squid Fry (RM8.00) is definitely different from the that we have been tasting at the Malay outlets. The Malay version is just squids fried with flour but for the squid fry here is dipped in spicy batter before being fried and the red colour is just part of the spices used.
The squid has some spicy taste which makes it interesting than the conventional ones and we also squeeze some lime juice on top which taste very nice and totally different. Just like any other fried squids, it must be consumed as soon as it is served or it will harden the longer it is exposed to air.
The lamb dish is always Tam Ciak’s favourite but Fei Fei will always keeps a distance because of its pungent smell. Yet with Mutton Chukka Varuval (RM18.00), we feel surprised when we noticed Fei Fei keeps taking pieces of the mutton for himself.
The Mutton Chukka Varuval has the pepper spiciness that can be quite strong which is the reason the lamb smell is not that dominant anymore. The meat is quite tender and easy to chew and comes in the dry curry type which is just excellent.
If you have eaten banana leave meals before, this is probably something you have experienced. Each of us was given a large stainless steel plate to put our dishes. All the dishes mentioned above were served to us one at a time and every when the waiter scoop the dishes onto our plate, they will mention the name of the dish to us, to tell us what we were having at that time.
Sometimes it may be hard to understand or to catch the name of the dish because of their heavy Indian accent, we have to ask them repeat a few times, even to the extend of spelling the dish. Yet, they are more than willing to educate us especially on the Indian terms used to make sure we understand them. Yes, the service and hospitality offered by staffs of Karaikudi Restaurant are quite welcoming.
Nickname “the Indian Pizza” is Chettinad Special Dosai (RM4.00). How special can it be? Well, this is actually a “thosai” that all of us commonly know of (besides the chapati and puri).
Chettinad Special Dosai comes in a very colourful topping that we feel it looks more suitable for culinary contest. With topping ingredients like chopped coriander (yes, they use a lot here), onions, potato, chili flakes etc, it combines the usual slight sour “thosai” taste with these ingredients and taste just wonderful.
Before being served with the final dessert, we were served with Chettinad Filter Coffee (RM2.80) to neutralize our tongue and to wash away all the remaining flavours that still exist in the mouth. Unlike other types of coffee, the fragrance of Chettinad coffee can be smelled in close proximity. Also, there is heavy use of milk in this coffee that it taste more like latte than kopi O.
The “eruption” feeling of the night was the Karaikudi’s signature dessert, Sizzling Brownie (RM10.00). The sizzling brownie is in fact a creation from the wife of the owner of Karaikudi Restaurant. All of us were excited seeing the ice cream brownie being served and all the bloggers were quickly, happily snapping the pictures because the ice cream melts fast.
The sizzling brownie looks like molten lava erupted from volcano with the chocolate sauce on top of the melting ice cream flowing down while the base where the brownie and cashew nuts are at the hot plate look hot and boiling, creating a sizzling effect which spills all over towards the surrounding. Notice the smoke effects going upwards on top of the ice cream…
Once the sizzling effect settles down, it is time to savour this delicious brownie with every spoon ends with “MMmmmmm“, “Aaaahhhhhhh“, giggling and laughing, re-enacting our childhood behaviours seeing those sweet delicacies. The sizzling brownie is just the right dish to leave a lasting impression of dining at Karaikudi Restaurant.
The GPS coordinate as shown (N 05° 24.992? E100° 20.442?) or map at below
Related Posts
Read the original:
By Invitation: Karaikudi Restaurant at Market Street, Little India
My family and I eat regularly at , but we’ve never gone to the original outlet at Market Street. I’ve always enjoyed the food there which serves Chettinad cuisine and immediately said yes when the invitation came in from PenangTuaPui. I was excited to see what the original outlet had to offer! The menu for the night mainly focused on South Indian cuisine and we were told that the food is cooked fresh everyday!
First up to whet our appetite was a Chettinad style Vegetable Soup (RM3). It was a light clear soup with cauliflower, carrots and french bean. The soup was a great start to the meal! We were told that the soup had a yellow tinge due to the use of dhall.
Next up was Bitter Gourd Chips (RM6). This was a surprise as it was sliced really thin and crispy to the taste! I’m not a big fan of bitter gourd though cos I don’t like the bitterness and this was plenty bitter!
The Squid Fry (RM8) was dish I really enjoyed. Squids are very easy to overcook. But there was no sign of hard rubbery squids here. Even after it cooled down substantially from all the photography, the squids were still nice and tender.
Meanwhile, the chicken cutlet (RM6 for 2 pieces larger than the photo above) is easily my favourite appetizer of the lot. The cutlets were very flavorful thanks to the generous use of spices with a slight tinge of heat to it. And there were also very soft with a slight crisp edge. I would definitely order this again!
The luciously thick Mango Lassi (RM4 – comes in a bigger glass than the photo)
The Ladies Finger Pepper Fry (RM7) was an instant hit! The ladies fingers were finely chopped and had a surprising chewy texture. The generous but not overboard use of black pepper gives the dish its zing. I’ve never had ladies fingers cooked in such a delicious manner!
The Kadai Vegetable (RM9) was an assorted vegetable dish cooked in a rich slightly spicy gravy. I tasted beancurds, tomatoes and lots of button mushrooms in the dish. We were told that Kadai is the big vessel that is being used to cook the dish, hence the name.
The Mutton Chukka Varuval (RM18) is another one of Karaikudi’s specialities. This turned out to be the spiciest dish of the night. But I loved it! The mutton pieces were scrumptiously tender and very well marinated with spices. I wouldn’t hesitate to order this again as I found it paired very well with naan bread.
Next was the Chettinad Potato Masala (RM6) which was a mild dish. It would go well with the spicy mutton dish too! I liked the fact that the potatoes here were not too mushy so there was still a bite to it.
Continued here:
Invited Review | Karaikudi Restaurant @ Market St – Part 1
We had an opportunity recently to attend a food review that is out of what we have covered till now. Up to now, PenangTuaPui has limited posting on Indian food which we are beginning to cover for more. We are lucky to be in touch with Karaikudi Restaurant to do a food review about their Indian Cuisine as well as to understand more about indian culture and indian food.
There are two Karaikudi outlets in Penang with this one at Market Street, which is inside Penang’s Little India itself while the second outlet is at Tanjung Bungah. The chefs for these two restaurants are different although it is handled by the same management.
We have the upper floor for the food review purpose so that our presence will not disrupt the present business operations below. In fact, we were there during the dinner so the tables below were pretty much packed anyway.
Most of the decorations inside Karaikudi are imported from India to imitate the environment of the original Karaikudi city, the capital of Chettinad. The painting above is also an import from the homeland of Chettiyars.
Meet the fellow bloggers , , , , , and . Where is PenangTuaPui? As usual, the 4 of us are at the lower right of the picture
We are lucky to have Hafiz (Marketing Manager) and Lakshmanan (Restaurant Manager) to be our hosts for the food review. Both of them provided lots of explanation and background about Karaikudi and the dishes we had to enable us understand more about Indian Cuisine.
For a start, we decided to do something different on the food review with the use of an evaluation form. This form actually helps us to jot down our taste and perception at the moment we taste it when things are still clear in the mind. It will also let the restaurant know of the so called customers’ feedback.
Mango Lassi (RM4.00) was the drink of the day which came in medium height glass. Any Indian restaurant you go to will tell you that their Mango Lassi is good and this one is no exception either. The mango lassi is thick and full of flavour but less creamy (less butter taste) compared to Passions of Kerala.
Chettinad Style Vegetable Soup (RM3.00) is a home made vegetable soup with spices and the yellowish colour on the soup is because of the use of dahl. The soup is watery type and not as thick as the western style while the taste is not that strong either. Perhaps, this is not just our style.
Bittergourd chips (RM6.00) is an addictive appetizer served with fried chilies and curry leaves. The bittergourd used is smaller type which is much bitter compared to its bigger brother.
Taking the first bite of this bittergourd, one can feel the spiciness surrounding the bittergourd snacks but gradually the bitterness taste becomes more evident and the effect seems to linger for some time. The spices used have encapsulated well the bitter taste at the begining but tingling your taste buds with spiciness before letting the bitterness sets in.
The crispy bittergourd can be quite addictive too despite the bitter taste. Each time after we finish one chip, there was a mix feeling for spiciness and bitterness that somehow tempting us to take the next bites. The Kashmir Chili used was quite crispy as well but not too hot in taste. Still the spiciness flows down the throat as we swallow it.
Chicken cutlet (RNM6.00) comes in a lovely shape that bring smiles among some of the bloggers. Want to take a guess why? Because it is made into the heart shape specially for us…hehe
The boneless pieces of chicken is marinated with eggs and bread crumbs before being fried. It contains chopped green chili and coriander as well.
The chicken cutlet is quite tender without sign of being overfried and taste a little bit, (yes, just a little bit) spicy because of the chili. Tam Ciak said it feels like eating the spicy KFC chicken nugget….
We thought this is supposed to be a dessert but Chettinad Special Dosai (RM4.00) can just be a sweet dish to have with main dish.
The dosai (thosai) is actually a favourite among the kids because of its colourful and sweet taste. It has cut dried cherry on top as well as sesame seeds. Once you open the inner part, it reveals the dessicated coconut in different colours red, green, yellow and original colour.
We initially thought nutmeg was included as well but we got it wrong. The dosai can be eaten on its own or it goes well with the dishes we have too.
Chicken Briyani (RM9.50) comes in a typical Indian container that we normally see in the movie except this is much smaller. The briyani uses basmathi rice which is longer and more fragrant compared to normal rice. One piece of chicken drumstick is included in the briyani rice with an egg served on top of the rice.
Sometimes we just cannot help ourselves laughing when we see the names although we know this is how each dish is called. Yes, our bad for being such mischievious… Chicken Kothu Paratha (RM9.00) is essentially Prata (bread) that has been chopped and served together with cooked chicken. This dish looks simple enough with nothing to be amazed yet perhaps it is the simplicity of this dish that makes it special at Karaikudi.
Some of the dishes we have, clockwise from bottom left; Mutton Chukka Varuval, Chicken Briyani, Chettinad Potato Masala, Kadai Vegetable and Ladies Finger Pepper Fry. To know more about each of this dish, stay tuned for next post~!
Random Posts
More:
Penang Food | Restoran Hock Chuan Heong Oyster Noodles
Long lunch break on Fridays is certainly a time that we look forward to since we can drive further from our usual place to go for makan. Of course, with the Jelutong Expressway built that connects all the way to Weld Quay, the driving time can be much shorter and we get to spend more time at the food outlet rather than inside the car.
We were heading towards Weld Quay, thinking to have the instant chu char at the when suddenly Tam Ciak suddenly thinks of having having oyster noodles. Immediately, we made a right swerve at the the first traffic light to make a turn into Lebuh McCallum (5th Road or Gor Tiau Lor).
Restoran Hock Chuan Heong is a name that does not need much introduction yet many people might still be wondering where this place is. However, the moment the specialty of this shop is mentioned; oyster noodles or “oh mee“, you will probably can associate this place with the expression, Ahhhhh….
This is one of the few places in Penang that almost everything you order has oysters in it. Yes, it sounds like this restaurant is an oyster house. Just like the , this place has only few specialty dishes and most patrons are here for their specialties.
Needless to say, this is a must when you are coming here to eat. What is the better way to introduce this restaurant if it is not for the fried oyster or the oh chien. The oyster fried in omelet is simply delicious with lots of oyster in it. And the plate of fried oyster itself has less sticky tapioca flour compared to the typical fried oyster elsewhere. You get to taste more of the oyster than the flour which sometimes tastes like glue. Huat Koay declares this is the best fried oyster that he has ever tasted. Well, the others quite agree as well.
This is one of the many specialties in Restoran Hock Chuan Heong, the oyster noodles or the oh mee. The oyster noodles has similar looks like “cheh mee” except this one comes with oysters and lots of it. But then the size of the oysters is not consistent as you can get mixture of small and medium ones on the same plate. Besides oysters, the plate of oh mee also included ingredients like prawns, pig liver, vegetables etc.
Tau Kua Chien or Fried Bean Curd is another simple yet delicious dish that one must order while eating here. Although the tau kua chien consist of three main ingredients of bean curd fried together with leeks (suan nah or sing kia) and prawns, the taste is exceptionally good. The tau kua or bean curd is slightly special as we tasted some 5 spices flavour on the bean curd that makes it slightly different from the regular bean curd.
The fried tang hoon (glass noodles) is slightly wet type and dark in colour. The slight wetness in this fried tang hoon makes it easier to chew and swallow down the throat. It is quite appetizing yet not too salty. With ingredients like prawns, oysters, pig liver and vegetables, this plate of tang hoon is just a nice substitutes to rice for our meal.
The Bak Kee soup is a unique soup so to speak as the bak kee is actually mixture of meat inside tapioca flour which has been fried before being cooked together with the soup. The bak kee or the meat dough can be quite smooth and slippery because of the tapioca flour used. Cabbage is also added to the soup. Tau Hua felt too much starch inside this soup that she prefers to help herself with other dishes instead.
Tam Ciak feels the oyster noodles are much better here but Fei Fei keeps arguing the one at F is much better. But we do agree the fried oyster and tau kua chien are two dishes ought to order when dining here. The tang hoon (glass noodles) deserve to mention as well as it does satisfy our tastebuds where bak kee would be an interesting soup to try on.
344-G-5, Pengkalan Weld,
10300 Penang
Phone: 04-2611004
Business Hours:
12.00pm till 6:30pm
Map to be updated later…
Related Posts
See the rest here:
Penang Food | Ong Cheng Huat Seafood
Most of the time, good food are typically located at the front of busy road or can be clearly visible from the main road. But sometimes, you need to manuever slightly further in before you can see the restaurant. The same goes to this seafood restaurant that we dined just last week. Although not that far into the kampung, you will still need to know where to look at the sign before making the right turn. Else you can simply miss it.
Mention the dishes like fish head, small chicks, curry crabs and tuak (fermented rice wine), most people will be able to instantly think of this place. Yes, finally PenangTuaPui steps foot to Ong Cheng Huat Seafood Restaurant. If you are coming from the oats factory (Federal Oats Mills), keep moving until you pass a traffic light. Then look at a “BGM” sign overhead before slowing down. There is a signboard to indicate Ong Cheng Huat Seafood which you need to turn left. Follow the road for about 150m and you will see a large compound with many cars. You have reached the destination…
There are plenty of cars there by the time we reach this place yet the compound is quite large that it can easily accommodate 20-30 cars at the same time. Ong Cheng Huat Seafood has expanded its dining area to cater larger crowds as well. You can see the one with white signboards are the dining area while the green one in the middle is actually the kitchen area.
This is the crowd at lunch time with all the tables fully occupied and some of the guests are seen waiting. We too had to wait a while before getting a table. This is the larger dining area among the two. The other side has probally 5-6 tables only.
This open air dining area is well ventilated and not stuffy. Also, the roofs have been fixed with heat reflectors that keep the dining hall as cool as possible despite the low ceiling, thus making the lunch session here comfortable. One thing that we feel good is the floor has been covered with cement, which makes the place easy to clean and does not look messy or shabby.
This is the kitchen area with each persons already dedicated to perform certain tasks, in a way. The fish steaming and chicks frying are done outside the cage, while those inside the cage were seen preparing fried bee hoon. Notice the fan on the left of the picture. Even if you have no place to sit, never ever, choose the table behind the fan or you will end up regretting it. The hot air blows directly to that table.
If you notice carefully, all the staffs here wear the Phua Chu Kang boots one. Well, the floor can be quite wet and slippery which using the rubber boots to move around helps to maintain the grip that prevent them from falling. This is a good safety measure to implement.
We ordered two bottles of leng teh (herbal tea) with each costs RM5.50. The herbal tea is stored using recycled mineral water or soft drinks bottle. Each bottle can fill up 6 glasses almost full. The leng teh is slightly sweet with moderate herbal taste, nice to quench our thirst while waiting for the food.
These are the dishes that we ordered for the lunch; fried chicks, octopus, popiah, steamed fish head and fried bee hoon. The whole meal for six persons costs RM121.00. Before we conclude if the money is worth paying for this meal, let us take a look at each of dishes we ate in details…
Another shots of the dishes ordered but focus more on the fried chicks… (yes, we are referring to small chicken, keh kia)
First to arrive is the fried bee hoon. The fried bee hoon looks and tastes quite like economy bee hoon except this one is slightly wetter. There is also limited ingredients that come together with this bee hoon, some beansprouts, vegetables and prawns. At RM7.00 per plate, this is really expensive and we do not really see the worth to pay RM7 for this plate. Unlike the one at with salted fish (kiam hu), this fried bee hoon is just plain. Oh, they do not serve rice here, by the way.
The “eight legged fish” came next in the familiar metal plate. The portion is kind of limited with some garlic sprinkled on top of the octopus. It tasted normal and slightly chewy but our stomachs could actually have more.
The boiled octopus that we have contained lots of the legs and the “body” portion and less of the “head” partion. We like that but this dish is RM10 which considered slightly above average for that portion we had.
Steamed fish head was served is a large pan, almost the same size as the at Juru. There are two processes involved before the fish is served to customers. The boss will take the fish out from oven and steam it like the picture above before serving to customers. In fact, he was quite friendly that the moment he saw us holding the camera, he signalled us to take the shot above. Very friendly and approachably person indeed.
The fish used is Ang Sai (Red Snapper) and the size of this fish can be quite astonishing considering a part of the fish can fit such a large pan, how long and how big do you think this fish is going to be? The boss said they can sell this fish in terms of tens per day and the supply of this fish is constant because of the volume. The fish is delivered daily from the wholeseller instead of being kept here.
The steamed red snapper looks just like normal steamed fish but the uniqueness is in the gravy itself. It has sour and salty gravy, sprinkled with lots of garlic which can be very addictive. On top of that, the fish is fresh as well and tasted a bit sweet. With each scoop that we took that time, you could see a big chunk of fish meat and when you eat it, the feeling is just great! Definitely a sense of satisfaction. Too bad we only had one side of the fish head which we hope to have more. The price of this fish? RM56.00
While in the kitchen, we managed to capture this photo that looks like either curry chicken fillet or chicken in sweet and sour sauce… what is it actually? Too bad we did not ask.
This is one of the specialty of Ong Cheng Huat Seafood, fried popiah skins that looks like heh chee (prawn crackers). The fried popiah aka heh chee is made of 3 layers for popiah skin that put together before being fried. In between those layers are prawns, garlic, 5 spices and chopped celery.
We managed to capture partial process of how they fried the popiah skins. Prior to frying, the popiah looked quite like chapati. When the oil is hot enough, the staff will put two sets into the frying pan.
The hot oil is being continuously poured on top of the popiah skins and at the same time the staff uses the ladle to turn it around.
Once the fried popiah turns golden brown, it is time to remove it from the frying pan. Over here the two pieces are being taken out from the pan and hovered above the pan to let the oil drip back.
Then the fried popiah is left onto a container to cool it down before cutting them and serving them to the customers.
This is the staff frying another set of fried popiahs. Notice the earlier one being left at the container to cool down.
Each plate consists of two sets of fried popiah cut into six pieces. One thing that you must take note is the fried popiah is very, very oily and those health conscious folks may give a second thougth about having this fried popiah. But then, why the heck come to this place then? Hehe…
Putting this health conscious thing aside, the fried popiah is indeed crispy and crunchy and not enough! We ordered a second helping to feed our appetite. For the fried popiah that we ordered, each plate costs RM11.00 and that makes RM22.00 for our lunch.
Another signature dish is the fried chicks (keh khia). This one is just out from the frying pan.
The fried chicks cost RM2.50 per part with the size quite like pigeon. Tam Ciak said this is slightly pricey given the portion he could put into his mouth. The fried chicks tasted salty and sweet just like the fried dark soya chicken.
The fried chicks tasted as if it has been marinated with soya sauce and oyster sauce, fried to perfection.
There are a few ads displayed all over the restaurant with the Axian’s banner hanging on the other side. The other ads like the one above is located just next to our table.
There are only few types of dishes available here and consider quite limited in terms of varieties. But this is what this seafood restaurant is offering which is why the waiting time is quite short even with the full house crowd in the restaurant. You can call it high volume if you prefer, something like Look Yuen Restaurant near the Bukit Tengah roundabout.
The environment here is quite condusive and comfortable as well to dine especially with the heat reflector installed. We actually saw some customers in donned in office wear and ties yet they were not sweating at all.
On the other hand, the price is rather high especially for simple dishes like fried bee hoon, fried popiah or even the octopus. The fried popiah is definitely something unique but rather steep in price. The steamed fish head though high in price, is worth the money paid because of the size and the freshness of the fish. The fried chicks are not something everyone will try but it is entirely up to individuals. The choice is yours
The GPS coordinates for Ong Cheng Huat Seafood (N 05° 26.602? E100° 23.779?) and map as shown below.
Ong Cheng Huat Seafood
2004, Bagan Lallang,
13400 Butterworth
Tel: 04-331 4782, 012-453 5188
Business Hours: 11.00 am till 5.30 pm
Closed on Mondays
Related Posts
Read more here:
Truly Hong Kong at Canton-i, Queensbay Mall
After much delay and location change, Canton-i finally opened their doors at the ground floor of Queensbay Mall, Penang. This brand; which is associated with the Dragon-i line of restaurants, offers varieties of authentic Hong Kong cuisines. Upon stepping into this restaurant, the ambiance and atmosphere radiating from its surrounding was completely different of Dragon-i. [...]
Read the original here:
