A day at Singapore Zoo
When: 29th Aug 2009
Where: Singapore Zoo
How: Take bus 138 from Ang Mo Kio bus interchange
Admission Rates: Adult – $18, Child (3 to 12 years old) – $9
My first visit to Singapore Zoo was about 7-8 years ago when my brother was working there. I remembered that time I was still using a film camera, it [...]
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Toh Yuen Chinese Restaurant Dining Experience @ Hilton PJ
Two weeks ago, Hilton Petaling Jaya and theQGuides.com organized a dinner at the various restaurants within the hotel for food bloggers. I was lucky enough to be one of the invited bloggers to attend such an event.
Besides being treated to good food, the bloggers were also introduced to ZestPJ, the blog for Hilton PJ’s restaurants [...]
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Penang Food | Nibong Tebal Seafood Porridge
Fei Fei and Tam Ciak always have the impression that Nibong Tebal is like a sleepy town located at the southern part of Seberang Perai, probably because of the less activities on going unlike Georgetown, Bayan Lepas or Seberang Jaya.
Huat Koay has always been trying to prove us wrong or at least shed our believe that this “sleepy” town is not sleepy after all. There will always be lots of activities and when it comes to food, Nibong Tebal can equally offer as much as well. So, during one weekend when we had to discuss abour our events for , we decided to have a meeting at Huat Koay’s hometown to get him show us what Nibong Tebal can offer.
Being a proud local boy, Huat Koay immediately took us to this chu char place upon our arrival at Nibong Tebal. But this is not a chu char place, in fact, this shop serves seafood porridge, tom yam soup and boiled octopus as its hot selling dishes.
Starting from a business in year 2000 that served only 6 tables, this shop has expanded to two shops with table seatings put up extended to neighbouring shoplots. The fruitful results after running the business for 9 years definitely an achievement for this shop. The person handling the cooking, in blue shirt, is the boss himself.
Being a hot spot eating outlet at Nibong Tebal, this seafood porridge restaurant is always filled up with customers, not just locals but also outstation, judging by the different car plates that we observed then.
According to the lady boss, they learnt the skills after working with some chefs for a while before starting their own business here. The initial business model was serving seafood but eventually focussed more on seafood porridge, boiled octopus and tomyam noodle as their specialties.
The decision to focus on few specialty dishes finally pays off with this restaurant keeps attracting endless steam of customers even during weekdays. Both the husband and wife team employs quite a number of helpers as well to help them cope with the constantly high demand. Throughout our dining session there, we could see people keep going in and out, non stop. Amazing!
Boiled octopus is the cheapest we can get so far. At RM6.00 per plate, this is definitely a real bargain compared to or . Of course, fresh octopus is easily available here which makes it cheaper compared to the other two. By the way, on of the tourism activities at Nibong Tebal itself,is you can actually hire a boat and catch your own octopus if you like… Yes, we are not kidding 
The boiled octopus is served with the garlic sprinkled on top which makes the dish looks rather plain. The chilli is served plain as well but you can add peanuts on your own which is available at every table. Besides, chilli, sweet sauce is available as well.
The octopus taste quite chewy with boiling time just right. It is not that hard either.
The seafood porridge (RM30.00) is the dish we have been waiting for. After all, this is a specialty here and of course we do have certain expectations for it too.
For three persons, this bowl looks rather big but in fact the portion is just sufficiently enough for TuaPui. There are quite a lot of ingredients inside this bowl including crabs, prawns, squid, fish etc. It is also added with vegetables and lots of garlic oil which makes this seafood porridge quite fragrant.
If the shells are taken out from the bowl, you can actually see the porridge portion is not that plenty which is why the portion is just right for Huat Koay, Fei Fei and Tam Ciak.
This is the Teochew type porridge where you can see the rice cooked in soup but not too thick like the Cantonese style porridge. Yes, majority of the people in Nibong Tebal are Teochew people or Teochew speaking people, which could have partly influenced this cooking style.
Tam Ciak commented that this place looks pretty much traditional because the porcelain bowls used are quite like those used during younger days. Notice the rooster on the bowl itself, is that not something nostalgic?
With so much seafood ingredients inside the porridge, it feels like eating seafood with porridge rather than porridge with seafood. In hokkien, the literal translation sounds “ciak hai sien pui moi“. Instead of the porridge being the main ingredient, the seafood seems to be the main ingredients in this case.
The seafood ingredients are quite fresh while the porridge is towards salty taste, probably because the seafood being cooked together with the porridge until the taste blends well.
Despite the price tag of RM30.00 per bowl that serves 3 TuaPui(s), this is quite a worthy bowl of seafood porridge that we have at Nibong Tebal. The bowl looks big so that it can hold lots of the seafood ingrediens and if we remove all the ingredients, the porridge itself is not that much. Like what we said earlier, ciak hai sien pui moi….
This place is opened daily except Wednesdays and available from evening onwards. Even though the name card states the business hours starts from 6.30pm till 12.30 am, the lady boss clarifies that you can enjoy the seafood porridge as early as 6pm.
Nibong Tebal Seafood Porridge
967, Jalan Baru,
14300, Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan,
Tel: 012-457 2973, 012-531 2265
Closed on Wednesdays
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Penang Dessert | Penang’s Coconut Jelly
The weather has been quite hot lately with the temperature soaring high and one can easily feel thirsty for being exposed to the sun under such weather condition. Normally, we will be looking for cold drinks or something cooling like herbal tea or coconut drinks. Most of us know that to get the fresh coconut water, we will normally head to at Abu Siti Lane to get a quick cooling solution for re-hydration.
All this while, we have been drinking coconut water and our mind has been pretty much fixed with that perception until someone actually think of out of the box and started to great innovative with coconut. Yes, we kid you not and the results of this is another dessert that is really amazing.
Located along Jalan Dato Keramat, at the traffic light cross road right after Penang Times Square is a row of shophouses that we seldom pay attention of (We bet you that!). Even if you notice this row of shop houses, you will likely think that this shop is just a regular shoplot that sells coconuts or its byproducts.
The first instantaneous glance will look typically normal with lots of coconuts inside this shoplot and some workers busy at the corner of the table preparings customers’ orders. Even from the look at the picture above, there is nothing interesting at all that you will capture your attention, right?
However, if you look to the right of the shoplot, you will find a fridge with lots of readily packed coconuts stored inside. Hey, what the heck are these coconuts being stored here for?
So what is so special about these coconuts? Are they not just like any regular coconuts with the husks removed and chilled, ready to eat?
Penang’s Coconut Jelly (in case you did not see at the fridge above) is the specialty that we are talking here. Yes, we are talking about coconut jelly. It is basically jelly made of coconut water but the uniqueness is the ability to use the coconut itself as containers with the coconut meat still remains intact. The innovative idea to package the coconut jelly in its original form deserves to be praised and to use the coconut water into jelly is something simple yet truly stands out from the rest, like the the .
Once the cover is opened, it reveals the coconut jelly that has been stored inside and looks just like coconut water. The jelly is slightly opaque with reflective surface and it is very soft, much like pudding or gel texture. The nice coconut scent can be easily smelled from the jelly itself.
The sweetness of the coconut water is sufficient enough that this coconut jelly does not need sugar as an ingredient. Putting each spponful into the mouth is just cooling as well as refreshing. The soft texture of the coconut jelly, coupled with the cooling sensation in the mouth made us keep scooping more more from the coconut itself.
The best part is even after you have finished the coconut jelly, you can still scrape the inner wall of the coconut to consume the coconut meat. Depending on the type of coconut you get, some are easy to scrape of while others are not. For us, we finished everything clean and we actually packed some home too
It will be easier to use spoons to scoop the jelly but you can always opt for sucking the jelly like water if you can. Of course, with its gel like textures, it is not that hard to suck it up.
Oh well, this is not something new apparently but for this kind of product innovation, it definitely deserves to be mentioned at PenangTuaPui.com! The uniqueness of this product ought to be promoted and shared with our readers that now we have another byproduct made of coconut…
Sekali rasa, nak rasa lagi. Yes, the tagline is definitely true at least for us. Each coconut jelly costs RM3.70 and you can bargain for discounts if you happen to purchase in larger quantity. Also, PenangTuaPui will have something sweet for our readers as well. Stay tuned! (Yes, we have been repeating that and we mean it!!!) 
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Dessert | Mat Toh Yau Dessert & Food’s Milky MTY
It is as if a revisit towards the past as we walk back the memory lane for this place. Nearly a year ago, we published a review about this which happened to be one of our earliest postings then. Fast forward to the present time, we came back again to this leng lui tong sui stall to introduce their latest offering, dubbed “Milky MTY“, which MTY stands for Mat Toh Yau.
Most of us who have patroned this stall will remember this place as leng looi tong sui even though the actual name of the stall is Mat Toh Yau. After all, it was the pretty sisters that used to operate the stall here at Jelutong and at Taman Free Schools (near Caunter Hall) then and the sight of beauties whipping up sweet delicacies seem to be perfect match, right? 
If you ever pass by this area, be it day or night, this building will be very attractive and attentive given the colour scheme used on this building which is mostly pink with shades of bright yellow. Even the signboard and mascot of this Mat Toh Yau tong sui is quite cute and adorable. Every passer by can tell you this place is definitely easy to locate, after all this place emits its own radiance while the surroundings are normally placed with normal white lights.
Even the lighting at the stall is pretty bright and eye catching which can be great crowd puller. This stall is a pioneer in selling cheng poh leong for nearly 20 years but the name Mat Toh Yau was coined in 1996 when a Hong Kong show artiste Hor Sau Sun came to review this stall. Yes, this stall is not just a crowd puller but also a celebrity puller stall.
Mat Toh Yau earned its nick name leng lui tong sui thanks to its pretty daugthers who used to operate the stalls. The name was given by a group of USM students who used to frequent that area. After all, with pretty girls in sight and sweet desserts in the hand and mouth, who can possibly resist the temptation?
The owner, Mrs Ng, has been fortunate to have her children to help out with the stalls that they gradually expand to another branch in Taman Free Schools and also all the way to Klang Valley. The demand for tong sui has been strong and successful that her eldest daughter is running a business of 10 vans in that areas. That is a signifance worth to mention and salute! The Jelutong stall is run by Mrs Ng herself with the help from her daughter-in-law.
The sight of the ingredients showcased on this minivan can easily leave you amazed and at the same time swallowing your salive. Looking at these ingredients, comprised of different colours, shapes and varieties seem like a good blend of “rojak” dessert. Yes, these are all the ingredients you will get in your order of tong sui and we are not kidding either…hehe
Take a guess of what do you think this ingredient is? Well, it looks like leong fun but it is not. Mrs Ng explained that this black jelly is actually Gui Ling Gao (herbal turtle jelly). Unlike other tong sui stalls that uses cheaper ingredients like leong fun, you will get to taste gui ling gao at Mat Toh Yau tong sui.
The other ingredients used include sago, gingko, longan, red beans, potato, lychee, winter melon and few others. We were told in a bowl of tong sui, it contains a total of 12 ingredients. Yes, that is quite a lot of ingredient types for a bowl of tong sui.
The sight of the ingredients is just too appetizing especially for sweet tooth persons.
Besides gui ling gao , the other specialty ingredient is winter melon which is home made. It uses fresh tang kua (winter melon) which we believe have been soaked with syrup juice from the longan.
This is the latest offering from Mat Toh Yau, named “Milky MTY“. Judging from the name itself as well as the colour, you can tell the latest offering actually contains milk. Instead of the regular tong sui that filled with longan syrup, Milky MTY uses milk.
The use of fresh milk actually make this bowl of tong sui highly desirable especially for the ladies. It is quite fragrant and taste nice especially for those who like milk. Also, with the use of fresh milk instead of the syrup that we normally do, we find that this bowl of Milky MTY can be a rather healthy bowl of tong sui with minimal use of sugar.
This is definitely a good news of health conscious people or those who prefer less sweet desserts. The milk version can be considered quite nutritional as well. The ingredients given were pretty generous as well as it covers the whole bowl till the top. Even with the ice that adding up to the bowl, it is still a good bowl of Milky MTY tong sui.
The Milky MTY is a new addition for Mat Toh Yau tong sui and recommended for those who prefer an alternative to sugar based tong sui. Each bowl of Milky MTY cost RM4.00.
The winter melon added into the tong sui is a thumbs up.
Guo Ling Gao, which is the other specialty ingredient can be quite cooling and healthy which just make this tong sui edging towards healthy dish scale.
For those who prefer the conventional tong sui minus the milk, you can still order it.
The ingredients are the same as Milky MTY and comes with generous amounts of ingredients as well. Because of the syrup based, some ingredients like potato tends to be a sweeter here than the milk version. Huat Koay feels the potato cannot be blended well due to its extreme sweetness but for Fei Fei being a sweet tooth person, finds the ingredients well blended especially for the milk version.
Oh, did we mention as well, that if you prefer extra sweetness, you can always add honey is which freely available too. The normal version of tong sui costs RM2.50 each while large size one costs RM3.70 per bowl.
Another dessert, the fu chok yee mai (beancurd skin with barley) is also worth trying especially with the beancurd skin being very smooth and soft just like tau fu fah. It also contains pieces of water chestnuts (mah tai) which makes this dessert chewy. A caution though, the fu chok yee mai is slightly sweeter than the tong sui so its good to let them know if you prefer less sweet version.
The latest inclusion of Milky MTY into the Mat Toh Yau’s offering is really something refreshing and unique although the idea is just simple and easy to make. We like the fresh milk used as the syrup based instead of the typical longan syrup and this is indeed much healthier alternative too. Even our female companion finds this version much appealing and fragrant. With this new release to the market, we believe the others will be following closely as well to provide such offering when the demand for milk version gets its popularity.
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Penang Food – Roti Bakar at Campbell Street
Toh Soon is a small side street cafe situated in the folds of Campbell street. This cafe which is run by Mr and Mrs Ooi has always been a hit with the locals all this while, especially their varieties served for breakfast and tea time. One of our pit stops for breakfast during the Canon [...]
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