Fishmonger, Kohimarama

Happy New Year to all! Fast forward a few weeks, Weird Dude and I have become firm friends with our shared love of food. Last week, we went to the Fishmonger at St Helier's Bay, where Weird Dude insists, the Best Fish and Chips can be found. We ordered and took a very short walk down to the beach to eat our meal.

Here is my Shrimp and Corn Fritter with Rangitoto Island in the background: this was a sign of things to come - tasting a little on the floury side, not as crisply pan-fried as it could have been; it just didnt feel properly warmed up.

Battered Fish & Chips. Whilst we were ordering in the shop, another couple had asked if the fish was "fresh" - seeing we were in the middle of the Christmas/New Year break, "freshness" was a rather tall order - and were told honestly that the fish were pre-frozen for this period. That wasn't what let this meal down, it just tasted as though our order had sat uncollected for 15 minutes, it looked right but it just wasn't crisp or warm enough - the chips had soggy-ied by the time we sat down on the beach. This is too soon, a matter of minutes, for a takeaway meal to decline so seriously in quality.

Weird Dude with Fish Burger. I tried this and thought it was the best thing that we ordered - it tasted fresh, good balance of ingredients. Weird Dude was less convinced.

We hypothesized that the disappointing meal might have had to do with the fact that they were understaffed (common issue for this period), possibly stressed out with longer cooking times required for frozen stock, or quite likely, that they had missed our order and it had been ready to go for a while before we were called to collect it. I am definitely not dismissing Weird Dude's claim that this is where the best Fish & Chips is to be had, the time period sandwiched in between two stretches of statutory holidays is not the best to judge a place by. It was not their best - we were pretty disappointed and proceeded to have a sulk at the beach.

Burger et al in the Tanjung Bungah' hood

For some inexplicable reason, Tanjung Bungah has always been my favourite area in Penang. Perhaps it's the proximity to the beach stretch, or the fact that some of my good friends live there, or that it's away from the traffic squeeze on Georgetown's narrow streets. Well, I can now add cheap, yummy burgers to that list.

I'd heard from various trusted sources that this particular burger stall was a solid dining experience but I'd simply not gotten around to trying it until this past weekend. Full-ish from lunch but fully realising I needed to line the stomach for the beery session afterwards, we stopped by the stall located at Hillside, near the food court and about 100 footsteps from Torch where we were due for a chilled out drinking session.

The nonchalant uncle in action, whipping up a healthy queue of orders.


The secret? Simple, sweet ingredients - shredded cabbage and sliced onions on the grill
Our orders, eaten on plastic chairs by the roadside next to the stall, straight off the plastic and wrappers -plain chicken burger and hot dog with the works (cheese & egg).

The chicken patty in the burger, purportedly homemade, hit the spot, flanked by lovely cabbage, onions and other garnishing. I've been put off before by roadside burger stalls before, having found them drowned completely in sauce and moisture, but this particular experience was just right!

The hotdog was a humbler serving but still packed a whole lotta punch! We licked our fingers clean in five minutes flat! The menu's simple - beef or chicken burgers or hot dogs. Prices have gone up from before but they're still a total steal.

After that, we walked over to meet MS at Torch who ordered the surprisingly rather tasty fish and chips (RM15.50). We kept stealing her chips but the entire plate looked like a winner. MS devoured it with great relish. Tanjung Bungah rocks!