Old Friends, Nagore Rd

For lunch today, we ended up at Old Friends, located on Nagore Road. I'd been here previously, a pleasant enough experience which was unfortunately not documented because camera battery decided to throw a tantrum then.

Old Friends' menu is a refreshing take on the regular contemporary kopitiam... almost like a non-halal version of Old Town. It offers a variety of rice and noodle dishes, served either as a set or just on its own. They've also got perennial kopitiam favourites, toast and eggs.

We went for the sets, which came with a choice of main meal, a drink, soup, side dish, fruit and dessert. All of us went for Lemon Tea, which came in generous glass tumblers.

Each set comes with the following - soup of the day (a hot & sour one today), finger slices (?) of banana cake, sliced green apple. Each of us also got served a runny omelette side dish halfway into our meal.
Our main meal came after a fairly short wait. I would dearly love it if restaurants took the initiative to serve everyone at the table at the same time. In this case, one meal arrived not long after we ordered, the second arrived about 5 minutes later and the third much, much later.

Stir Fried Udon with seafood. This arrived in a jiffy and it passed with flying colours. Good sized shrimps and a good sprinkling of nori to deliver it home. The truth is, it's a really hard dish to screw up.

Hot & Sour Shanghai noodles. My first go at this, and I liked it, lumpy, vinegarish broth and all. Really liked the handmade noodles. It came with plenty of preserved vegetables, mushrooms, carrots, shrimps and slices of fish. A very hearty and spicy meal.

Nasi Lemak. I didn't have a taste of this but the reaction from the diner was Ohhhkay-lah. To be fair to Old Friends, we have far too many splendid versions of nasi lemak available on every corner of the island that it's near impossible to elicit much shock value from this dish.

Second time around, no major bad points and I'm still sitting on the fence on this one. The set meal averaged about RM12.90 each, a pretty good deal. The menu's varied enough and the staff attentive, though the minimal table occupancy probably explains it. Something's missing somehow... can't put my finger on it but I'll be more than happy to return to find out exactly what.

Sin Kheng Aun, Lorong Chulia

We visited yet another of Papa Chow's oldie-but-goodies, Sin Kheng Aun off Chulia Street a few nights ago. Papa refers to it as the "70-year old" restaurant although a quick search on the Internet reveals that Sin Kheng Aun was established in 1941, which makes it 67 years old. Close enough, I suppose.

We had the usual staples. I was still reeling from a (horrid) heavy lunch with Mei Shean so I was really dragging my feet here. Luckily Fat Tulip was in the house and he's very good at polishing up remnants.

Stir fried tofu and leek. My position on leek remains, i.e. do not understand it, did not touch it.

Hainanese chicken chop. Grease, chicken and spuds... what's to complain?

Curry pomfret. To be honest, we've been over-doing the curry fish of late. I am divided on this -I'm not a fan of the use of pomfret in curry but I can' fault the classic-ness of this dish.

Assam Prawns. Lovely, juicy, flawless. Still, if I had to pick, I would go for Hot Wok's.

Cabbage soup with fishballs and meatballs. Really nondescript. It tastes of nothing but boiled cabbages. Which is not a good thing in my books.

Nice enough meal, and yes we'll be back but in the mean time, a break from visiting the old, old haunts would be nice, eh?

Home Cooking #2, Dryden Street, Auckland

Chocolate Cake Casey at Work Under Strict Supervision From Bridget

All Eyes on Cake!

Chocolate Cake + Chocolate Sauce + Boysenberry Ice-cream Dream. Thanks Team!

Home Cooking, Dryden Street

From the folks at Dryden Estate, Pasta Bake - Cheesy is My Friend in Winter. Cheesy is Perfection. Cheesy is Good Tasting. Cheesy is Expensive.


This make me hungry and Sad this is not what I am having dinner tonight. All I want is Cheesy Goodeness.

Lady Leah introduces us to Pizza - Kate made these with bases and all, supremely yum.

Chilli Corner, Nagore Road

I was in the mood for some weekend tomyam. The thing about tomyam is when you want it, you really gotta have it, nothing else will do. So Fat Tulip obligingly took me to Chilli Corner on Nagore Road, this Thai place he'd visited before and had obviously approved.

As soon as we sat down, a plate of ulam and spicy sambal appeared in front of us. Love raw vegetables, love sambal and love this as an appetizer, especially when they do not scrimp on the serving, even if there were only two of us.

As we scanned the menu, I worried that my tomyam craving may have gotten the better of me. The items were pricier than the average Thai haunts, like Maa Roy Thai or Sri Sawadee on Sri Bahari Road. And we have been feeling poor for a while, and cheap cheap eats are all we're comfortable paying for. We decided we'd go easy and keep to two dishes, since we did down a moreish breakfast just a couple of hours ago.
Green chicken curry. Tender pieces of chicken thigh meat in a thick, nutty gravy. Total awesomeness. I have always been a breast person but there is so much goodness I cannot deny in the use of thigh meat in curries.

Seafood Tomyam. This serving for two came with a price tag of RM22 but it was filled to the brim with FOUR huge ass prawns, fish and baby octopus. We were paying for quality and I declared, after slurping a few spoonfuls of the fiery liquid, that I would happily foot the bill! Fat Tulip's sweat glands went apeshit as we worked our way to the bottom of the pot. It was intense!

We were stuffed and sated but when we saw they were serving small bowls of Tab Thim Grob for only RM1, our cheap receptors went to work and we each had one bowl. Plenty of water chestnut and chunky jackfruit strips, no complaints whatsoever.

I was still a little taken aback when the bill came up to RM43 and found that they charged heftily for rice and the lovely ulam appetizer. Quality does come with a price so I would probably come back only when my wallet's fatter.

Hot Wok Nyonya Restaurant, Burmah Road

Hot Wok isn't new by any means in Penang. It's been around for years in two different locations within Tanjung Tokong. I don't remember for sure how the visits to Hot Wok stopped but I think it had something to do with hiked up prices in line with the tourist crowds they were drawing in by the bus loads.

Hot Wok's latest incarnation stands along Burmah Road, in two shoplots, one of which being where the fabulous Laksania was abruptly booted out from a couple of months ago. We understand that it was due to a sudden hike in rent which forced them out and we are still waiting to hear where they've relocated.

While we think the landlord has been rather unfair on Laksania, we didn't hold it against new tenant Hot Wok. Especially when we were hankering for some Nyonya food this one fine afternoon.

Hot Wok has also set up its Hokkien Mee stall outside, so we ordered one to share among the four of us.

Everyone made a grab for it before I could whip out the camera so this was all I managed to snap. In all fairness, it was a tasty bowl of Hokkien mee, with plenty of kangkung, meatballs, pork strips and shrimps swimming in a fragrant broth, so the scramble was totally called for.

While we waited for the main dishes, we were served crispy poppadums with a sambal dip. Yummy! Everyone should adopt this as an appetiser. It totally gets your tastebuds going.

While we waited, we went poking around the restaurant and checked out the tasteful Peranakan touches, such as old framed posters and photographs, ornate lamps and paraphernalia.

On the left, Jiu Hoo Char served with lettuce leaves and sambal (top) and on the right, stir fried kangkung with sambal. I found that on its own, the jiu hoo char a tad on the dry side, though the sambal and the moisture from the leaves helped get it right.

Otak Otak wrapped in banana leaves. Nice and moist but I've had better.

Assam Prawns. Best I've had in a long time. These were huge fresh prawns, bursting with flavour.

And what's a Nyonya lunch without Curry Fish? Not many bones to pick here, except that we could have used a wee bit more gravy. I know it isn't exactly the same thing but I did prefer the curry fish from Goh Teo Kee though.

And to wash it all down, we had either fresh sugar cane juice or sour plum juice.

As we walked out, we spied yam cake also being sold at the Hokkien Mee stall. We were too stuffed for it then but made a mental note to come back for that, as well as the other choices on the menu.

Goh Teo Kee, Gurney Drive

Another of Papa Chow's firm favourites from yonks ago is Goh Hun Kee, now renamed Goh Teoh Kee on Gurney Drive. I am enjoying these revisits to old haunts, much more than I actually remember enjoying them when he dragged us sulky-faced brats there for meals instead of KFC or Eden. We had to exercise some restraint, seeing that there were only three of us this particular visit. First up was this braised cabbage dish with chicken and Chinese mushrooms. Simplicity at its best. I go through periods where braised cabbage smell and taste like stinky socks to me. This was fortunately not one of them.

Now this Assam Curry Fish is hardly authentic Teochew but it was still full of kicks! This was the first time I've tasted this here, I believe it's a recent introduction to the menu. Papa Chow, whom I had branded unfairly as a bigoted Teochew cuisine loyalist, shows that he has developed strong Malaysian inclinations, after arriving here from Guangdong nearly 60 years. Teochew with a twist, just like the revived Goh Teo Kee!

And of course lovely greens, kailan done very nicely here with preserved pork meat.
And to finish it all off, complimentary dessert of red bean soup.

Can't believe it took me this long to realise this is better food than KFC and Eden put together!