Organized by Food Digest, Celebrity Chef Chen Hong had a conference to meet up with the media and food bloggers. The location was at G Hotel.

The organizer had proudly invited several VIPs to the conference, which were Penang State EXCO for Tourism Development and Culture, YB Danny Law and Food Digest Managing Editor, Tracy Lau.

YB Danny Law had proudly mentioned that Yahoo has listed Penang as one of the Top 10 Islands to Explore Before You Die. One of the main reasons Penang has been chosen is due to its unique fusion of cultures and flavors.

As for Celebrity Chef Chen Hong himself, he mentioned that he has always wanted to visit Penang as there are many good food around. As he mentioned he used to try out the good food at Gurney Drive only and most of the time, waiting for good food is the most difficult time. Therefore, this time he is looking somewhere further where quality of food is the priority and popularity is secondary.

As for Food Digest Managing Editor Tracy Lau, it is their honor to workout with Chen Hong and hope this would be a great success.

The MC of the day were English-speaking Sarah Jamil of Food Digest and Mandarin-speaking Jacgy Chan of Foodtok.

YB Danny Law handed over the token of appreciation to Chen Hong.

The group photo by all the celebrities. From left, Chef Billy Ng Yih Lee (runner-up of 8TV’s Hot Chef Season One) and Chef Park Tae Yeong (from Korea).

Of course, this one is me. Not any famous celebrity, instead just an ordinary food lover.

Very interesting and impressive food illustration shown to me  by Chef Park Tae Yeong. If for me I would rather snap photos than draw by hand. :)

This event is organized by Penang food portal, FoodTok and GG, the Food Digest and Sky Publisher. The organizers will be bringing Chef Chen Hong to some of the recommended food spots in Penang, while playing judge to some of the most famous hawkers and restaurants in Penang. For those who would like to catch Chen Hong’s whereabouts on his journey to find great food between 10 June 2011 and 12 June 2011, you may try your luck from as far as Batu Ferringhi, Gurney Drive, Pulau Tikus until the heart of George Town. For more information you can visit Food Digest official site at www.twitter.com/myfooddigest.

This time we headed to Langkawi island in Kedah. The trip departed from Penang Swettenham Pier port. The ride took almost 3 hours. It is always a good idea to prepare yourself with some arcade games or smart phone during the journey.

The first destination upon arriving was lunch at Charlie’s place just beside the yacht club.

There are many yachts surrounding this port. As you can see from the picture below the feeling is like the yacht club in a foreign country.

There are both indoor and outdoor dining areas. For those that prefer privacy, you can request for the seats above the restaurant for a better seaview and it is also air-conditioned.

The open dining area by the seaside allows diners to get a feel of the sea breeze and listen to the smooth water wave sound.

Fish & Chips – RM28, battered tempura fish fillet served with tartar sauce, coleslaw and french fries. The taste of the fish with crunchy tempura was very delicious. However the taste of the tartar sauce which was mixed with olive slices made the the seasoning bitter and sour, which is not my cup of tea.

Yacht Club Fried Rice – RM20, prawn paste and chili fried rice with seafood and egg, served with satay and salad. The taste of this dish was averagely good and all of the ingredients were standard and acceptable.

Beef Burger – RM25, grilled beef patty with cheddar cheese, fried egg and caramalized onion served with coleslaw and french fries. For those who love beef, this is a must try.

Cappuccino - RM7, both the outlook and taste were impressive. It is a great drink for coffee lovers.

Fruit Juice – RM8, the usual fruit juices are available here.

Overall, the food here is acceptable. The drawback of this place is the price of the food here is at the high side.

Our second destination was supposed to be a cable car trip but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance. If it is closed, the package provides another option which will be the Underwater World of Langkawi.

Upon arriving at the main gate of the underwater world, I was greeted by the gecko couple which were having fun inside their display glass.

Besides the lovely geckos, there were some elegant flamingoes bathing along the side walk.

The penguin was also looking at to the “sky” for some relief.

The happy sting ray swimming along with other fish.

The fierce-looking sharks swimming in swamps waiting to attack.

The below is the largest fish in the huge tank. The size is much bigger than human.

The beautiful and vibrant jelly fish.

After the trip to underwater world, the next destination was to the Langkawi Geopark.

To access to the geopark, we needed to take a boat ride. These are the boats available to visit the destination.

The boat will bring us to the bats cave. The through route to this place will be a very narrow tunnel.

The bats were all at sleep at the visitation moment. Caution, do not touch the stairs handle while walking. The reason being is that there will be a lot of bat droppings that will cause disease once touched.

After the bat cave, the next location was to the fish farm. The ride is also by boat. Throughout the journey, there were a lot of yachts by the sea side. Most of them were ferrying foreigners.

At the fish farm platform, we were shown a few amazing fish. One of them knows how to split water on the food when they see one.

Near to the fish farm there is also a place to watch eagle feeding. The food will be given to the eagles when they fly down for their feed.

There are many eagles surrounding this place for food. It very depends on luck, sometime there are bunch of eagles while sometime only a few are around.

If your luck is even better, sometimes you will spot the “Mermaids and Neptunes” instead of the eagles.

The last stop will be the Eagle Square.

At this place, you will see the impressive legendary eagle statue placed by the sea side.

After that, the jetty point will be the place to bring us home.

Overall, the trip is very fruitful. It is very suitable for people who love nature and only manage to get a day off from their busy schedule. However, the trip is a little too tiring as the arrangement is too packed. The pricing and itinerary of the tour is as below:

Coincidently, I found myself to have taken only 7 pictures for this post. This is an exact match to the restaurant’s theme “Seven”. In fact, all the side-dishes in the menu are priced at RM7 per dish for all day long.

The restaurant has a very modern and innovative look. Just like many of its neighbours, the restaurant/bistro has indoor and outdoor dining areas. For smokers you have to be seated outside whereas indoor is for non-smokers and is air-conditioned. The indoor dining area can cater for approximately 30 people whereas outdoor can cater for about 20 people.

The price for set lunch is RM11 (set dinner is RM13), inclusive of a fixed choice of main course and soft drink. At such an environment and on a Saturday afternoon, the set lunch is considered cheap. But it all depends on which set that you order.

Grilled Lamb Chop with romesco and mint sauce. This is the most valuable set of all. For those who enjoy lamb, this is a must-order. The portion was quite big as they gave 2 slices of lamb chop. The texture of the lamb is just nice not too over-cooked. Combined with the mint sauce it is a delicious combination.

Pasta with ham in Cream Sauce. The pasta was cooked in cream sauce. All the pasta dishes on the menu are in cream sauce type only and they don’t have any in Napolitan or Bolognese sauce. The taste of this pasta was very standard, with a touch of chives sprinkled on top and some herb powder on the side of the plate.

Chargrilled Chicken Breast with Hand-cut Potatoes, this is the set that is not so valuable. The portion of the breast meat was surprisingly very small, in fact it was much much smaller than the lamb chop. It just needed my 2 mouthful to finish eating the set. However, the taste of this main course was acceptable with some fried potatoes and salad served as side dishes.

Spanish Grilled Chicken. Taste-wise and portion-wise, this set is still reasonable. The Spanish-style sauce went well with the grilled chicken, alongwith some cut potatoes and salad.

The Iced Lemon Tea which was served together with the set lunch.

Overall, the taste of the food here is acceptable. However, some of the main course portion is too little. The place is very cozy and with free WIFI. There are also plentiful of parking space inside Gurney Plaza.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Quick Facts:

Family Friendly
Parking
Pork Free
Alcohol
Credit Card
Smoking
Reservation
Private Room
WIFI Available

Operation hours: 10:00am – 12:00m (Sunday – Thursday); 10:00am – 2:00am (Friday and Saturday)
Contact: 012 476 6653
Address:170-G, Ground Floor Gurney Plaza, 10250 Penang.
GPS: 5° 26′ 14.45″ N, 100° 18′ 37.04″ E

(Stefanie Chuah, Miss Malaysia/World 2009, Runner Up)

However, there is a break away which can fulfill all the requirements above.  Packing up a few dresses which include your swimwears, prepare RM180 for the ticket and heading to Pulau Payar.

There are only 2 places that able to depart to Pulau Payar, one is Langkawi and the other one is Swettenham Pier, near Penang port.

It is indeed quite a long journey to depart from Penang port to Pulau Payar. The duration of travel takes approximately 2 1/2 hours. My advice, prepare some snacks and breakfast for your journey would be a wise choice.

Instead of sleeping during the whole journey, you can always walk to the deck of the boat to have a wonderful view back to Penang. What a beautiful island, from far.

If you are feeling tried after watching scenery, you can always take a short nap during the journey. Remember to beware of your outlook, someone is dripping saliva when sleeping.

The boat will drop you at the Pulau Payar platform upon arriving. The platform is quite big and stable.

At the side of the platform, you are allowed to snorkelling within the safety range to enjoy underwater coral and fish.

Fishes gathering around you once you step into the water. This underwater pictures are contributed by Waco Chan.

We were told by the safety guards that they always see naked ladies swimming at the island nearby, which I am very doubtful of.

There is also an underwater observation on the platform that allows you to enjoy the underwater world if you are not used to snorkelling.

There are many fishes under the sea which I am not sure of the species too.

There was also a mermaid who followed us to Pulau Payar for the modeling photo shooting session. Her name is Stefanie Chua, the winner of Miss Malaysia/World 2009 Runner Up.

Special thanks to Patrick Soon, the owner of Studio Moon Spell for the great arrangement so that I have the chance to brush up my shooting skill.

After first half, lunch was served at 12:30pm. There were 20 over varieties of food available to choose from. Anyway the taste of some of the dishes still have room for improvement.

After the lunch break, the second half session was to Pulau Payar Marine Park, to reach there we were taken a ride on a small motor boat.

The surrounding of the beach was very clean and picturesque.

You can see through the sea bed with its crystal clear sea water.

In fact, you can see dozens of fish swimming by.

The only drawback at this place is they have stopped the shark feeding session. As the life guard claimed there were too many casualties and also accidents happened. This program needs to be terminated. Therefore, not much sharks can be seen around nowadays.

Overall, this is a great place to relax and get away from the bustle city. There are many species of fish around and it was very comfortable to walk under the soft white sand beach. Other than the quality of the food that needs to be improved, the rest is up to standard.

• Melaka Chicken Rice Ball
• Melaka Style Cendol
• Satay Celup
• Portuguese Seafood

Hoe Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice Ball

One of the specialties in Melaka is the Hainanese Chicken Rice Ball. There are a lot of similar chicken rice ball stalls and shops in Melaka. To taste the chicken rice ball, of cause we need to find the most authentic one. One of famous shops is Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Shop.

It is located at the middle of Jonker Street. Usually you will need to queue up for your meal.

The kitchen cum office.

The chef was chopping the chicken.

When the crowd is too much to be coped, the shop will not serve soup.

This place is always packed with people even on weekdays.

The rice is boiled in chicken stock and added in with some chicken oil, salt and flavoured with ginger, garlic and shallot. The rice is then rolled into sphere shape and served with steamed chicken pieces, chicken liver pieces and garnished with cucumber and soya sauce. They also served with chili sauce for those that love spiciness.

The ultimate chicken rice ball. Some people love the the rice to be prepared in ball shape while some love the normal rice type. As for me I love the usual rice type, maybe due to I love the feeling of rice bites.

Steamed chicken which are chopped into pieces.

Fried mix vegetable is also available as side dish.

Overall, the taste of the chicken rice is delicious. The rice is packed with aroma of chicken and the meat of the chicken is fresh. So far, we waited for 15 minutes for the seat. For those who travel from outstation, it is worth the wait. The damage for us at here was RM68 for 6 pax, which was very reasonable.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Operation hours: 8:00am-5:00pm (Open Daily)
Contact: 06-283 4751
Address:4, 6, 8 Jalan Hang Jebat (Jonker Walk), Bandaraya 75200, Melaka

88 Dessert Cendol and Ais Kacang

After the delicious Melaka chicken rice ball, you can follow the path and walk down the street until you reach No. 88 Jonker Dessert. The place is actually a Museum Cafe where they display some antiques and also serves dessert.

The owner of the dessert stall was very busying slashing the ice  in every second. There is no time for him to slow down as the queue is always long.

There are plenty of dessert varieties, from Baba Durian Candol, EPC Cendol to Baba Ice Kacang and Baba Mango Ice Kacang. The price range is from RM1.70 to RM4 per bowl.

The cendol is served with green chendol jelly, ice, santan (coconut milk) and red beans like the usual Penang cendol. The only difference is they served it with thick gula melaka (pulm syrup).

Overall, I find this dessert quite unique and very different compared to Penang Style. I love the taste of Melaka-style Cendol. However, some may still prefer the Penang-style cendol as they couldn’t take the taste of gula melaka.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Operation hours: 8:00am – 5:00pm (Open Daily)
Contact: 06-286 8786
Address:88, Jalan Hang Jebat (Jonker Walk), Bandaraya Melaka, 75200, Melaka.

Capitol Satay Celup

Someone did tell me, if we go to Melaka without trying out the satay celup, he will not join us. Therefore I suggested that we try the most famous stall in town, which is Capitol Satay Celup. However after trying it out, he claimed that he will not try that again next time when visit Melaka.

The reason is due to its extraordinary long queue. Standing for one and a half hours just for the 20 minutes of tastebud-pleasure. It is actually not worth the long wait at all.

Satay celup or satay steamboat is similar to our ”lok lok” in Penang except that it is dunked in boiling satay sauce instead of water. When new customers are seated, an iron pot with satay sauce is then placed in the middle of the table and then bring to boil.

While the satay sauce is still boiling, the staff will keep adding in many ingredients into the sauce like gula melaka and crunched peanut.

The ingredients is then being stirred into the satay sauce.

The choices of sticks range from seafood, meat to vegetable. They come in raw to semi-cooked. Each of the satay stick costs 70sen.

Overall, the satay celop is very unique but it is not worth the wait. If you can’t stand for long and you don’t want to risk your life being knocked down by the cars or standing in the rain, I suggest you to give up and try the one next door. The owner needs to think of some solutions if he doesn’t want to lose his business to its competitors.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Operation hours: 5:00pm, till late night when the last customer leaves, (Monday Close)
Contact: 06-283 5508
Address: 41, Lorong Bukit Cina, 75200, Melaka

Portuguese Seafood

This place serves excellent Portuguese seafood. They offer home-style Portuguese fare. They serve small dishes such as otak-otak (fish cake) to larger dishes like Portuguese-style baked fish.

The location of this restaurant is inside the Portuguese settlement near the port.

One of the best dishes that I have tried in Melaka is the Portuguese style otak-otak. It is not the usual otak-otak that we had in Penang. The taste is more juicy with fish meat and the spices used are very different. It is a must-try dish in Melaka. The most important point is you don’t have to wait for one and half hour for the food.

The normal omelet with onions.

Fried Kailan in sambal style. Very delicious and the aroma of sambal was very strong. The veggie was also very fresh.

The Portuguese-style baked fish is their signature dish. The fish was very fresh and the marinated spices was hot and spicy. A very traditional way of serving the Portuguese-home-cooked-style dish.

Fried spicy chili clams. There were few big clams mixed with mussels. They were very juicy and tasty clams that mixed well with the chili sauce.

Fried Belacan Sotong in Assam sauce (Fried squid in assam sauce). It is a very uniquely prepared dish that I haven’t tasted in Penang or other places in Malaysia . The gravy was sour with some slightly sweet taste. The squids were cut into slices and it tasted fresh and crunchy.

Overall, it is a must-try restaurant when visiting Melaka. The price for 6 pax with all the dishes above is RM130. The taste was heavenly great with minimum waiting time. The only waiting time is on the  food preparation which took about 20 minutes.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
Food Presentation
Service
Overall

Operation hours: 12noon – 10:30pm (Open Daily)
Contact: 06-284 8067
Address: 18, Medan Portugese Settlement , Ujung Pasir, 75050 Melaka.

There are places that must be visited and food that must be tried out in Melaka. If not you are not considered to have visited to Melaka.

First place to be visited:

Jonker Street, Jonker Walk or Jalan Hang Jebat. Jonker Street is part of Melaka’s old Chinatown. This place covers from the oldest temple and mosque to the priceless antique shops and delicious famous restaurants. This can be considered the heart of Melaka.

The oldest Temple in Melaka which is located at Jonker Street.

The oldest mosque in Melaka which is also located near Jonker Street

The delicious local delight – grilled squids which can be found on the road side stalls.

The Famous Chicken Rice Ball Shop (Will be covered on the next food guide in Melaka)

The Famous Dessert Stall (Will be covered on the next food guide in Melaka post as well.)

Capitol Satay Restaurant (Again, will be covered on the next food guide in Melaka post.)

St. Paul’s Hill (A Famosa), St. Paul’s Hill also known as A Famosa. The Portuguese came to Melaka in 1511 and ruled the place till 1641.  When they arrived at the shores of Melaka, the first thing they did was to build a fort overlooking the river.  They named it A Famosa.  The A Famosa is one of the oldest European Architectures present in Southeast Asia.

St. Pauls Church was originally a small chapel built by a Portugese Captain called Duarto Coelho in 1521 A.D and was handed over to the “Society of Jesus” in 1548 and enlarged in 1556. When Dutch took over Melaka from Portuguese, they changed the name to St. Paul’s Church. Later, St. Paul’s Church lost its tower when the British took over and added a lighthouse in front.

Old tombstones found inside the ruins bear silent testimony to the final resting place of several Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

Statue of St. Francis Xavier was built in 1952 to commemorate his passing and internment at this place.

The Melaka River or Sungai Malacca can be seen as the beginning of Melaka history, when it was called ‘Venice of the East’ by the Europeans who traveled to it.  Its historical importance also lies in the fact that, during the 15th century, the Prince Parameswara of Sumatra created his Sultanate at the entrance to this river.

The river has a very beautiful and colorful lighting at night which you don’t want to miss out like me, I have forgotten to bring my camera that night.

Christ Church Melaka. Exhibiting the true Dutch architecture, this Church was built in 1753.  The main attraction is the jointless ceiling, a brass Bible, tombstones written in Armenian, and the ‘Last Supper’ in glazed tiles. This is one of the main attractions in Melaka where most trishaws are waiting to pickup tourists.

The trishaw is waiting in a row for business with hi-fi and speaker blasting out the latest music to attract customers.

Clock Tower in the Middle of the Dutch Square, It was donated by a millionaire in 1886 with a clock imported from England. After a while, the clock died out like colonialism and was replaced by a Seiko in 1982.

The Queen Victoria fountain which was located near to the clock tower. The fountain is funded by local Chineses to celebrate the Queen Victoria, England who was then crowned as Queen Anniversary

The Portuguese Square is a central to the Portuguese community of Melaka.  The residents there are mostly the modern descendants of past Melakan colonists who settled and blended with the locale community during the last 400 years.  This square is also known as ‘Mini Lisbon’ for its location within this Portuguese settlement.

The seaside which can be seen from Portuguese Square is very nice, peaceful and clean.

There is also a nice restaurant which serves traditional Portuguese food which I will be covering on my next post.

Overall, Melaka is a great place which is famous for its historical and legendary stories. However, my advice is it is best to visit during off-peak seasons like during weekdays or non-public holiday as it gets very crowded from food and accommodation to parking and toileting. You need to have the patience to queue up for basically everything.

Traveler: Where is the nearest ATM?
Guard: Cup?? (In Thai, “Cup” means Yes)
Traveler: Not cup, you know ATM?? The traveler then drew a box on his own stomach and pressed some button in the box and made some tut tut sound.
Guard: Cup??
Traveler: Still Cup???

After seeing this incident, I just couldn’t stop laughing at the foreginer’s act and went over to the foreigner to give him directions to the ATM.

I said: Walk forward to the main entrance of this shopping complex, and you will see a few ATMs on your left hand. Instantly you can see a grateful expression from his face and he said “Thank God, someone finally understands me.”

From the above scenario, we know that language barrier can make travelling very nasty. Therefore, either you find a translator that speak the local language or you do your homework and get all the information needed before visiting the place. For those that didn’t have budget to hire a local guide, you can always follow this post for great food and places to visit for FREE!

First of all choosing a good hotel isn’t easy. There are many varieties, usually the cheap one will have lousy service and bad room condition. However, the good service and well decorated rooms will cost higher price. As for me I will choose the one in between. The hotel that we stayed was Golden Crown Hotel, Hat Yai. There are 2 hotels with similar name, Golden Crown Plaza and Golden Crown Hotel. Both also with similar logo and also almost the same place, but the price are slightly different. Golden Crown Hotel – RM75 per night, Golden Crown Plaza – RM115 per night. As for budget traveller like me I will surely choose Golden Crown Hotel.

There are a lot of hawker stalls just around the corner of hotel. My advice, before you leave the hotel take one name card from the hotel so that if you are lost, you can show it to the taxi driver or tut tut driver.

If you walk just 2 streets away from the hotel you will come to a wet market and there are many nice food there. One of the stalls is selling miniature apong.

Instead of like our usual one piece that folded into 2, they were made into two pieces-in-one with sweet cornns inside. It was very delicious and hot. The price per box is 30 baht.

Another few streets away, there is a lady selling bee hun and fried rice on the road side. I though it was a usual bee hun until I see further, it is mixed with fresh veggie and some different ingredients and it made me wanted to try it out. One pack of bee hun or fried rice cost 12 baht.

The ingredients which were mixed with the bee hun or fried rice were fresh and raw mixed veggie. The veggie made up of bean sprouts, cucumber,  french beans and lemon grass. They also topped it with chili powder as seasoning.

The taste of this dish was like a starter. For those that don’t enjoy taking raw veggie, my advice is to skip this.

During night time, if you are walking out of the hotel, turn right and you will see this stall located just few steps away from the entrance of this hotel. This particular stall is selling wantan mee and koay teow soup.

The wantan mee was very chewy and the wan tan was very big in size. Although I was not sure how to order dried-noodle but the soup based was just as great. There should be a picture of koay teow soup, however someone already started eating it before I came back from washroom.

Wantan mee – 30 baht per bowl.

Turning to Prachathipat Road, which is a few stones’ throw away from the hotel, you will come across this stall which sells beef and pork koay teow soup. I have used to try out beef koay teow in Penang but hardly had any chance to try out pork koay teow. This is one of the best pork koay teow that I have tried before.

The koay teow consisted of meat balls, shredded pork, pork intestines, bean sprouts and spring onions.

Pork koay teow soup – 45 baht per bowl. The price is slightly higher, it’s kind of similar to the price of beef koay teown soup back in Penang.

If you know how to negotiate with tut tut, do ask them to bring you to “Pasar”, if you are traveling in a group of 6 the price is more affordable as the charges is per trip basis. The pricing to almost everywhere is 12 baht, you can always nego until 10 baht.

There is a shop just across the street of “Pasar” with the name of 发盛泰 (Huat Sheng Thai) which sells good thai pork leg rice and also chicken rice.

The chicken rice was kind of similar to the one that we had in Penang, nothing much special about it.

However, for the pork the taste was delicious where the gravy was not as thick and also the mixture of fat and lean meat was well-balanced.

You can always order a bottle of sugar cane water to quench your thirst after a hot day. The sugar cane water was very sweet and you need to order additional water to dilute the sweetness.

A few shops away from Huat Sheng Thai, there is a 7 eleven shop selling something special there. The grilled pork with glutinous rice burger at 22 baht.

It was very unique as we don’t see this back home. I don’t know when will we have this in our 7-11 outlets? It is like having grilled pork with pulut. Nice.

Other than the unusual glutinous rice burger, you can also try out the normal bread burger. For those that living in Malaysia, this is nearest place you can enjoy pork burger in McDonald’s. You should try out the Samurai Pork Burger Set at 115 baht for Large inclusive of tax. It is good that you don’t need to recalculate the additional 5% tax off the menu. Why can’t our country offer such convenience as well? The only downside is Thai McDonald’s does not have free-flow of soft drinks, not even for Large value meals.

The sauce for samurai burger was sweet and sour just like bbq sauce. There is nothing fancy about the sauce, however the pork meat of the burger was very juicy and soft unlike our McChicken.

Other than the pork burger, there is also Italiano burger set at 113 baht. The meat was prepared using deep fried chicken and the sauce was the usual spaghetti sauce with a slice of cheese. I believe this burger is coming to Malaysia very soon, I hope!

Broccoli pie 29 baht, instead of apple or strawberry pie, this is broccoli pie. Very special and unique.

Sawadie Cup with Ronald McDonald.

Lee Garden, one of the many places in Hat Yai which has indoor air-conditioned flea market where every one was sitting or squatting to trade.

Miniature pineapple, 20 baht for one. It was very sweet and refreshing, you will see that selling on any fruit stalls along the way.

Taking the tut tut again, this time you need to ask them to take you to the night market. The price was 12 baht as well. At that place you will see many stalls and also even more choices of food. If you come across a stall selling something like “kuih kapis” (love letter cookie), don’t try that if you have diabetes. This is because the cream and the coconut slices were very sweet. It was too sweet that I couldnt even swallow the entire piece.

Thai Style Love Letter Cookie – 25 baht per box.

After having the Thai style love letter cookie, you can try out their “leong fun” . Again you need to ask them to cut down their syurup as it was very sweet.

Leong Fun – 15baht per cup.

For those who are extreme food lovers like me, you can always try out the bugs selling on the stalls. There are maggot-like worms stacking up like a hill. The taste was powdery and nothing much very special about it.

As for the grasshoppers the taste was more crunchy compared to the worm. Remember to remove the back portion of the grasshopper leg before you eat them as there are tornn on it. I find that the grasshopers at this stall was not as fresh as the one I had in Bangkok. It was very oily and stale. Unfortunately this was the only stall selling bugs. I am going to look for more stalls like this when I visit Bangkok on my next trip.

Hatyai is a fun place to be especially for budget shopping and eating. If you don’t speak Thai or some Mandarin/Hokkien it is very hard for you to move around. However, with this post you will never get hungry at Hatyai

The ambience of this cafe is very cosy. However the restaurant is always full house and you need to wait to be seated.

Bintang Beer, small bottle at the price Rp. 27,000.  This is my drink for the night. Of course the taste of the beer is not as smooth as Heineken’s, however the price is much cheaper and is really suitable for budget traveller like me.

Loaf of bread that served as a starter. This is provided free of charge.

The bread is served with olive oil which is not my cup of tea. We are not used to not having butter so we specially requested butter to go with the bread. They gave us some french butter which is classical and yummy on the bread.

Every Tuesday till Sunday, from 7pm onwards, the sound of Live Acoustics starts playing for the whole night. You can enjoy your favourite meal while guitarist, violin, saxophone and talented singer escort you to the romantic moment.

The main attraction of the night is neither the ambience nor the live acoustics. Instead is the “Papa’s Volcano Pizza” (Rp. 115,000) that served in a semi-sphere shape and we were amazed by it. 

As soon as the volcano pizza was placed on our table, the waiteress immediately lighted the top of the pizza which burnt off the darkness and the romantic environment. This is what we called the “Flaming Volcano Pizza”.

The flame lasted for about 2 munites and which later the waitress removed the top “cover” of the pizza and presented the famed Papa’s Volcano Pizza.

The ingredients of this pizza include squids, prawn, tuna fish, anchovy & crabmeat. The pizza tasted like usual pizza and still has room for improvement. The bonus point goes to the flaming presentation of the pizza.

 The next is the Aussie Pizza (Rp.95,000) The ingredients are beef ham, onions, pineapples and mixed capsicums. Ironically, the pizza with impressive presentation and outlook does not taste as good as this one which looks just like a normal pizza but with a splendid taste.

Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):

Taste
Price
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Overall

Name: Papa’s Cafe
Address:  Jln Pantai Kuta, Legian Bali, Denpasar, 80361.
Contact: +62 361 755055/ 766376
Opening Hours: 10:00am – 11:00pm (Operate Daily)