CRIZ BON APPETITE

Before I start my post on the Sanrio Hello Kitty House in Bangkok, Thailand, let’s welcome the latest addition to the Hello Kitty family right in Malaysia. I’m sure those who had frequent Sunway Pyramid in Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, would have noticed a huge pink signage on the construction site next to Caffe Benne. Yup! Malaysia will be having its first Hello Kitty Gourmet Café right in the heart of Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall real soon. I’m sure due the limited space within the complex, the layout might not be the same as the rest of the cafes throughout the world. However, I would be sure that it would be pink everywhere with whatever corner filled with your beloved Hello Kitty decors. Don’t you love PINK now? LOL~ 😛

Recently, I paid a visit to the Sanrio Hello Kitty House at Siam Square One in Bangkok, Thailand. It was a unique multi-storey shop unit filled with lots of pink, love and cuteness at every possible corner within the premises. Why is it called Sanrio Hello Kitty House? It actually housed two levels of Hello Kitty Café and a basement level of Hello Kitty Shop and Hello Kitty Spa.

Let’s have a look at the respective floor of the Hello Kitty Cafe. The first floor comprised of the ordering counter where you can have glimpses all the cute desserts on display. There was also a take-away counter on the far right for your beverages and light snacks. The system here was somewhat like how you would order your items at Starbucks, eg. Order-Pay-Collect. For orders that would require some period of preparation time, you would be given a number and the staff would deliver to your table.

Though there were some dining areas at the first floor, the second floor itself was more spacious and basically just for dine-in with more selfie corners, pinkish chairs and lounge sofas for you to slumber in.

When you are so far away from home and at such a themed café, you would want to try the best items that they would offer. All price quoted is inclusive of 7% VAT. The Lemon Tart (THB280nett) display at the chiller caught my attention. Well, looks can be real deceiving. Sometimes, when we deemed an item to be photo-worthy, it might not appear to be tasty at all. That was what happened. The lemon tart set was horrendous! The lemon filling tasted rather fake and extremely sour. As for the crust, I would recommend you to request for a hammer and chisel. It was so rock hard that I might break the given pair of fork and knife. Those “chick pea” like pebbles were nothing more than some bland biscuits. If not for the chocolate sauce, I would just leave them aside. For that lovely looking mini mug with red mousse, it was just some tasteless cream with red coloring. As one of the most expensive desserts on the menu, it was one order that was barely consumable.

Thanks goodness the kitchen ad hoc prepared Ham & Cheese Sandwich (THB200nett) was at least edible. It was just two slices of “Hello Kitty” face shaped toasted bread with rolled ham and cheese, accompanied with some cheap greens with salad dressing. It was normal and nothing to shout about.

As for drinks, I ordered their recommended Kitty Smoothie (THB150nett) and Hello Kitty Mineral Water (THB30nett). Except for the bottled water, I really can’t figure out what I was drinking. It was like drinking a glass of syrup with some light hints of milk and strawberries. It was so sweet that I had to leave it after a few sips as it might juggle up my glucose level. I’m still wondering why the Thais like their drinks to be so artificially sweetened up.

Let’s leave the food and beverage woes away and check out the basement of the unit. The Hello Kitty Shop will be a merchandise heaven for those Hello Kitty enthusiasts as they have practically everything you ever dreamed of having here from little memorabilia to items such as T-shirt, bags, umbrellas, etc. I’ve to forewarn you that prices of the items are not cheap. They are original franchised items after all.

On the other hand, you would find the Hello Kitty Spa at the other further end of the basement level. This might not be the type of spa you would be expecting as it would basically cater to the feminine parties, kid inclusive.

The facilities would include nail services, lash extensions, waxing, face and body treatments plus massages. You can check out the prices below (click to enlarge for a better view).

Overall, Sanrio Hello Kitty House is quite a nice place to bring your family or dates for the first time experience but most people won’t be able to stay there for too long. The reason is that the never ending replaying of the theme song can drive anyone up the wall with madness. Can you imagine having the same few seconds theme song playing over and over again at the moment you step into the place until you leave? OMG! As for the food and beverage wise, I was expecting something more edible rather than loads of food and drinks with high level of sugar and coloring contents. I hope we don’t get these experiences at other franchised outlets in the near future.

Name: SANRIO HELLO KITTY HOUSE BANGKOK
Address: 388 Siam Square One Building, LG, 1st & 2nd Floor, Siam Square Soi (Alley) 7, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Contact: +662 115 1335
Business Hours: 10.00am-10.00pm
GPS: 13.744526, 100.533489

DIRECTIONS:

Take the BTS Sukhumvit Line and stop at BTS Siam Station. Use the Skywalk towards Exit 2 and walk downstairs all the way until you reach a junction. Turn into Siam Square Soi 4 and walk straight until the cross junction of Siam Square Soi 4/Siam Square Soi 7. The Sanrio Hello Kitty House is just at the corner unit.

RATING:
Ambience: 9/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 6/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 5/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 8/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 6/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Recently, I had a short trip out of Penang to visit a wall mural site at Pekan Semeling (錫米嶺/新文英 – GPS: 5.700010, 100.472375), a small town within Bedong (off Sungai Petani) in Kedah, Malaysia. It housed many mural arts by various artists at the back alley of some old and abandoned houses along Jalan Raya Semeling, 08100 Kedah, Malaysia. You can check out the wall murals at my FB Site. To fill up my stomach prior to visiting the wall mural site, I’ve decided to pay a visit to a restaurant 10 minutes or 7.5km away named Restoran Chuan Heang (全香茶餐室), along the old trunk road of Jalan Utama Alor Setar-Sungai Petani. The restaurant has its regulars swarming in continuously for its specially crafted mantou, none that you could find anywhere in Malaysia. Other than the mantou, you could expect to order some home-style Chinese dishes.

Let’s start by introducing the much acclaimed Steamed Mantou with Fritter (RM1.40nett/pc with minimum order of 4 pieces or according to the number of diners with more than 4 pax). Each of the delicacy would come with a somewhat square steamed mantou filled with a crispy homemade fritter plus a light touch of sweet BBQ sauce. As the crispiness of the fritter overwhelmed the taste from what were within, many diners had the wrong idea that it was filled with prawn, pork, etc. It was actually filled up with mashed fish, dried shrimps, shitake mushroom slices, chopped spring onions with a light touch of seasoning and wrapped in bean curd skin, prior to being coated with batter and deep fried to golden brown. It was indeed a rather unique way to serve mantou. However, as a seasoned food creator with a higher expectation on quality, I do find the item lacked of bites other than the crispiness from the thickly coated batter. The filling was barely 3mm in thickness, whereas the batter had expanded to ±25mm. Moreover, the BBQ sauce was not adequate to give the whole bite a juicy sensation. Well, I can’t complain much as it was indeed a rare creation and at a cheap price of RM1.40nett each.

Since it was lunch time and their Roasted Pork Trotter won’t be ready until 5.00pm, I tried their Braised Pork Trotter (RM24nett) instead. It was juicy and meaty with just some lightly spiced up gravy, accompanied with some vegetables and mushrooms. Though the flavors were quite adequate to go with a plate of hot steaming rice (RM0.80nett/bowl), it would be great if the kitchen had extended the time to marinate the trotter more to enable more flavors to seep into the meat. Alternatively, if you love this type of braised dish, I would recommend you to try out the more flavorful Braised Ham Hock at Zi Zai Restaurant in Paya Terubong, Penang.

Next on the list was the Steamed Prawns with Egg (RM14nett). This dish could be a love-hate dish for some diners as it used lots of julienned young ginger and Shao Xing wine. The dish practically had 4 butterfly-cut large prawns laid on top of beaten eggs with a generous amount of julienned ginger prior to steaming. When cooked, the dish would be garnished with some deep fried garlic in oil, a light touch of soy sauce and sesame oil plus some sprinkles of Shao Xing wine. Though it could be a bit strong for many, I quite like the dish due to the freshness of the prawns as well as the nice combination of flavors.

Lastly, I just ordered a simple Stir Fry Bean Sprouts & Pea Sprouts with Salted Fish (RM6nett). I loved this type of combination as bean sprouts could be rather soft if overcooked while pea sprouts could be rather fibrous if cooked alone. The kitchen got the heat right while maintaining the crunchiness of the vegetables. The added salted fish was also nice as they used a better graded one which was not too salty. It would be great if the kitchen would add in a light touch of julienned ginger and red chilies to pep up the flavors more.

Overall, it was still a satisfying and homely meal, considered that everything served on that day were fresh and cheap. It might be that Penangites tend to have stronger taste buds on flavors and it would take a bit of effort to get use to the taste of food in the neighboring states.

It’s not really hard to locate Restoran Chuan Heang (全香茶餐室) as it’s just along the old trunk road of Jalan Utama Alor Setar-Sungai Petani. Some may just label the road as Jalan Raya or Batu Satu but if you have a GPS gadget or even mobile application such as WAZE, just key in the GPS coordinates provided below and you won’t get lost. I’m sorry that you can’t key in the restaurant name as it’s not detectable on Google Maps or WAZE. To reach the trunk road, the nearest PLUS highway toll station would be at Sungai Petani (U – Utara). Upon exiting the toll plaza, keep to your right until you reach the traffic lights. Turn right and drive about 7.6km or 10 minutes away until you see a Caltex and Shell petrol kiosk next to each other on your right. The restaurant is just directly opposite the Shell petrol kiosk on your left.

Name: RESTORAN CHUAN HEANG (全香茶餐室)
Address: 374-375, Jalan Raya, (Batu Satu/Jalan Utama Alor Setar- Sungai Petani), 08100 Bedong, Kedah, Malaysia.
Contact: +604-458 3007
Business Hours: 11.30am-10.00pm (Closed Tuesday)
GPS: 5.733286, 100.511183

RATING:
Ambience: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

“Every day is Earth Day in the Shangri-La’s Kitchen” as Shangri-La Group of Hotels and Resorts worldwide launched their “Rooted in Nature” campaign on 22 April 2015 last month. It’s a part of the group’s initiative to maintain culinary sustainability, thus raising the awareness on consuming freshly farmed food which had gone through strict international standard requirements without harming the environment. Today, Shangri-La’s Golden Sands Resort, Penang had invited a special guest to join them in the journey of “Rooted in Nature”. He’s none other than the Iconic American Chinese Chef, Chef Martin Yan.

Most of us have grown up with Chef Martin Yan’s award winning cooking show, “Yan Can Cook” with his catchy phrase line of “If Yan can cook, so can you!” Chef Martin Yan simply made cooking looks so easy, especially on how he uses his customized knife to prepare ingredients with barely any effort. I’ve tried using his knife and it indeed had that balance, lightness and sharpness as claimed by the chef himself. Chef Martin Yan sure knows his kitchen utensils’ precisions well.

Chef Martin Yan who is currently in Malaysia for the filming of the upcoming TV Program, “Taste of Malaysia”, to be aired somewhere in late third quarter of this year, paid a visit to GST Group Fish Farm, one of the sustainable food partners of the resort offshore of Pulau Jerejak, Penang, to discover the source of sustainable seafood. According to him, we are lucky to have such fresh fishes of such huge sizes easily available for our consumptions unlike in USA. He later teamed up with Golden Sands Resort’s Executive Chef, Chef Adrian Lim, to pep up a delicious Nyonya Curry Kapitan Fish dish with their morning’s fresh catches. The recipe used fresh sustainable seafood, combined with some organic and locally produced herbs and spices.

We also had a try-out on some of the “Rooted in Nature” dishes at the resort’s Sigi’s Bar & Grill (the other Rooted in Nature participating eatery is their Garden Café). Diners can identify the Rooted in Nature dishes by spotting a “pea shoot” logo printed alongside the dish description. We started off with their Grilled Free Range Chicken & Organic Tofu Salad. It was truly a well balanced diet with lots of fresh romaine lettuce and onion rings dressed with balsamic vinegar, topped with some perfectly grilled yet juicy free range chicken breast meat and accompanied with some organic tofu cubes. It was indeed a great salad before your main meal.

As for main, we tried out the Rosemary Scented Broiled Chicken served with vegetables of the day, mashed potatoes and brown jus. The half free range broiled chicken was just the right size to give that flavorful yet juicy impact.

Lastly, we were served with their Double Scoops of Yam & Coconut Ice Cream topped with whipped cream. I must say this was the heaven of the day as it was not just any ordinary ice cream but one with real yam bites. Combined with the creamy texture of the coconut ice cream, it was a hit amongst us.

Overall, it was a fun outing having to catch up with Chef Martin Yan once again on his Malaysian tour. At 66+ years old, he’s still as comical and humorous as he was on the TV shows. As for the Shangri-La Group of Hotels and Resorts worldwide, I would want to wish them all the best in achieving their goal of serving 75% more sustainable sourced food on the menus within the next 5 years.

The restaurant is just located within the premises of Golden Sands Resort. Drive all the way up towards Batu Ferringhi. When you see the Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa on your right, slow down and watch out for the Golden Sands Resort entrance which is right after the Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa. Park your car at the ample car park there and walk into the main lobby of the resort. Head towards the beach area and you would see Sigi’s Bar & Grill on your right.

Name: GOLDEN SANDS RESORT
Address: Batu Feringgi Beach, 11100 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 604-886 1911
GPS: 5.476330, 100.251440

RATING:
Ambience: 8/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 8/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 8/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Penang, the food paradise of Malaysia, has long being known for its diversity in many choices of cuisine due to its heritage as well as the different ethnic populations living within. From every nooks and corners of Penang, you would surely find something that would suit your taste bud well. However, to savor all the few hundreds of delicious items in Penang could be quite an impossible feat, even for the locals. Swez Brasserie @ Eastin Hotel, Penang has now made your life easier by pepping up great Penang dishes, all under one roof, with its current Chiak Penang Buffet Lunch Promotion from now until June 2015. You would get to savor Penang own local delicacies plus a slight mix of international cuisine. The Chiak Penang promotion is priced at RM66nett (adult) and RM33nett (child) with different menus rotation daily. You can also get more discounts with credit cards as mentioned below.

Let’s start with a typical menu you might get for lunch during weekdays. At the Salad Bar, Appetizer & Cold Dishes Section, you would expect to get a selection of fresh greens, condiments and dressings, accompanied by some ready-made salads and cold cuts such as Kerabu Telur, Kerabu Mango, Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Salad, Gado Gado, Fajita-Marinated Beef with Avocado Cream, Penang Famous Fruit Rojak, Cold Cuts, Prawn Crackers, Fish Crackers and Papadum.

As for the Soup Section, you would get items such as Chinese Style Bitter Gourd Chicken Soup, Chicken and Smoked Sausage Soup and Assorted Bread Roll & Butter.

At the Main Dishes Section, you would have a selection of local cum international dishes such as Ikan Panggang dengan Air Assam, Wok Fried Mussels with Black Bean Sauce, Fried Okra with Belacan, Nyonya Chicken Pong Tei, Ayam Masak Madu, Kambing Masak Merah, Dhall Masak Sayur, Kari Ikan Kepala dengan Bendi, Mee Mamak, Steamed Rice, Nasi Minyak Hujan Panas (also known as Nasi Dhalca), Minced Lamb Kofta on Onion Compote, Chicken Scaloppini with Beef Bacon and Sage, Oven Baked Red Snapper Fillet Lemon Infused Cream Sauce, Baked Fennel with Pepper and Tomato, Homemade Mushroom Cannelloni Filled with Cheese and Spinach and more.

There will also be the Action Counter where you can get other deep fried items for your Nasi Kandar, such as Udang Goreng, Ayam Goreng, Ketam Goreng and Ikan Goreng. Do also take note that there might also be a special dish of the day such as the Telur Ikan Masak Lemak Seri Kayangan being served here. Other than that, you might find dishes such as Yong Tau Foo, Mamak Popiah, Murtabak Ayam, Teppanyaki Chicken, Ais Kacang and Cendol available here.

At the Desserts Section, other than your fresh fruit cuts, you would get an assortment of cakes, pastries, jellies and Nyonya kuih here. Free flow of ice creams, coffee and tea are also available.

Overall, the food served here can be quite interesting as you would get to try out multi-national Malaysian cuisine as well as different Penang street food on different days during this promotion.

Here’s the summary of all the promotions throughout the year.

SWEZ BRASSERIE PROMOTION 2015 (JANUARY-DECEMBER 2015)
Monthly Themed Buffet Lunch (12.00 noon – 2.30pm): Monday – Friday
RM66nett (adult), RM33nett (child)
Seafood Extravaganza 6.30pm – 10.00pm) : Friday & Saturday
RM106nett (adult), RM53nett (child)
Hi-Tea (12.00 noon – 3.00pm): Saturday & Sunday
RM77nett (adult), RM38.50nett (child)

For Citibank card members, you can enjoy a “Buy 1 Free 1” offer for Buffet Lunch until September 2015. Other than that, Maybank and Citibank car members get to enjoy a 15% discount for the Full Buffet Dinners from 6.30pm – 10.00pm until end of 2015. Terms and conditions apply.

The Swez Brasserie is located at the ring wing of Eastin Hotel, Penang (next to Queensbay Mall). If you are coming from Georgetown towards Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone via Bayan Lepas Expressway, do watch out for the Pulau Jerejak signboard (leading to Pulau Jerejak jetty). Ignore the turning and drive on to the next left junction. Turn left into Jalan Aziz Ibrahim and drive on until you a roundabout. Turn 3 o’ clock and drive on until you see a big Eastin Hotel signboard at the first right junction. Turn right and drive on. Park your car at the basement car park. Take a lift to the first floor lobby and you would see the restaurant there.

Name: SWEZ BRASSERIE @ EASTIN HOTEL
Address: 1 Solok Bayan Indah, Queens Bay, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 604-612 1128, 604-612 1138
Business Hours: 12.00pm-2.30pm (Lunch), 6.30pm-10.00pm (Dinner)
GPS: 5.33643, 100.306345

RATING:
Ambience: 8/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7.5/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7.5/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Many people are not aware of the small town of Terong, located between Changkat Jering and Pantai Remis in Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. The quaint township used to be quite active in tin mining until the late 1970s but has now been replaced by rubber and palm estates as well as charcoal factories. Thanks to the snail development pace for decades, Terong is still left untarnished with the pollution of mankind. It still has the old architectural buildings intact, lively mangrove swamps, forest reserves, clean rivers, scenic waterfall such as the Air Terjun Terong and more. Located about 10km away from the Changkat Jering toll plaza and 1.5km into Terong, lies a nice getaway for families and friends. It’s the first duck themed resort in Malaysia with a total area of 70 acres called Trong Leisure Farm & Resort (自農休閒農莊). The place would consist of a resort with recreational activities, a fishing pond, a duck farm (formerly called Soon Hock Duck Farm), a pork-free seafood restaurant and a Halal Malay restaurant.

Since not much information is available online regarding this place, let me brief you part by part on the whole establishment.

RESORT:

There are 12 units of rooms available for booking (2.00pm check-in and 12.00pm check-out) – 2-pax Standard (5 units), 2-pax Superior (4 units), 2-pax Deluxe (2 units) and 4-pax Family (1 unit). Prices can range as LOW SEASON (Sunday – Thursday): RM128-RM358, SHOULDER SEASON (Friday, Saturday & School Holidays): RM158-RM388, PEAK SEASON (Eve of Public Holidays & Public Holidays): RM188-RM438 and SUPER PEAK SEASON (EID, Chinese New Year & Deepavali): RM228-RM488. For more information, please contact +6010-464 0918/+6012-549 8978 or email: tronglesisurefarm@gmail.com

INDOOR & OUTDOOR RECREATIONS:

There will be a small amusement corner next to the restaurant for children such as the Duck Ride Machine and Toy Grabbing Machine. You can change some coins at the cashier counter. Other than that, you can try out the Duck Pedal Boat at RM6 per 15 minutes or feed the duck with duck feeds at RM2.00/100g. You can buy the ticket at a shop lot next to the pond. There’s a passion fruit arch nearby. If you were lucky enough, you might find some fruits intact but I only managed to see some blooms. Do not go about plucking anything in the farm as you will be fined heavily for vandalism.

FISHING POND:

There will be a few species of freshwater fishes in the pond for your angling experiences such as tilapia, lampang, rohu, patin, sultan fish and more. Any fish above 3kg has to be released back into the pond. Other than the tilapia and lampang which you can bring home for free, rohu and patin will be charged at RM5/kg whereas sultan fish will be charged at RM20/kg. There will be a small fee per rod for the number of hours you spent fishing by the pond (9.00am-9.00pm). Price: Full Day (RM50nett), Half Day (6 hours – RM40nett), 1st hour (RM15nett) and subsequent hour at RM10/hour. Baits and hooks will be calculated separately. For more information, please contact +6010-464 0918/+6012-549 8978 or email: tronglesisurefarm@gmail.com

DUCK FARM VISIT:

There will be 6 duck houses with each house able to accommodate around 1200 ducks. In total, there will be around 7000 ducks at one time. You will be able to get upclose and personal with those ducklings, drakes and ducks. You can identify the gender of the drakes by their low and deep sound whereas the ducks with their louder and high pitched sound. Ticket is available at the restaurant count at RM5.00/adult and RM3.00/child. Visiting hours will be from 9.30am until 7.00pm. Resort guests will be at half price. A tractor with passenger seats, will chauffer you to and fro from the duck farm. At the moment, there’s no limitation on how long you can spend at the duck farm. Be warned that there might be strong stench emitting from the duck shit along the way. Please make sure that you close all the gates when you enter each fenced farm to prevent the ducks from running out. If you are lucky, you might find some egrets mingling with the ducks.

RESTAURANTS:

There will be a HALAL Malay restaurant named Naz Tomyam at the dining area. The vendor will operate from 6.00am until 12.00am. They have a combination of dishes from roti canai in the early morning to Thai style dishes throughout the day. For more information, you can contact Encik Khairol at +6017-299 9883/+6016-809 6648 for your special bookings.

There will also be the Trong Seafood Restaurant serving PORK-FREE dishes from 11.00am until 10.30pm. You can make your reservation by contacting +6010-464 0918 or +6012-549 8978 during business hours.

Since this was my first time here, I only managed to try out some of their signature dishes. The first dish was their Signature Pei Pa Duck (Pipa Duck/琵琶鴨 – RM20nett/half duck). The name derived from the shape of the duck being opened up prior to roasting which resembles the Chinese musical instrument, Pipa. The sauce had all the necessary flavors which may include hoisin sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger juice, sesame oil, sugar and finely chopped garlic. However, the skin was not as crispy as it should be and the meat was rather tough. From my experience having this dish many times, I would think that the kitchen did not spend time truly understand the method of tenderizing the meat. Moreover, the skin won’t be so soft if they had the proper time to sun-dry the duck properly. On top of that, some famous vendors would normally deep fry the roasted duck prior to serving to give it that extra crispiness. Something might have gone wrong in their process or else it would be a perfect dish to my preference.

The next dish was the Chili Salt Deep Fried Squids (椒鹽蘇東 – RM15nett). I was actually expecting this dish to be Pepper Salt Deep Fried Squids since “椒” can mean pepper too but it ended up as diced capsicum salt version. The taste was not bad but it would be better if some coarsely pounded black pepper be added in for that extra earthly flavor.

We also tried out their Signature Deep Fried Homemade Tofu (招牌豆腐 – RM10nett). There are many versions of homemade tofu being served in different restaurants, from silky smooth texture to reprocessed mashed ones with sandy texture aka the Yunnan style tofu. The ones served here was the latter. However, the tofu only had mashed bean curds with only Thai dried shrimps, some chopped scallions and added egg to steam again to make the block. The end product would then be cut into bite sizes, coated with some corn starch and deep fried to golden brown prior to serving. The tofu fell flat to my liking without much flavor and they were rather chewy too. They did not have that bite as some of those I had tasted before. With some added thinly sliced wood ear fungus or finely chopped up shitake mushrooms would have given the dish better justice. I hope the kitchen would improve further on this dish.

The last dish I ordered was their Signature Eggplant with Dried Shrimps (蝦米茄子 – RM10nett). The dish was just some deep fried batter coated eggplant slices stir fried with some onions, curry leaves and dried shrimps. The whole dish practically depended on the flavor from the dried shrimps, nothing else. The chef should at least add in some pounded bird eye chilies or sliced red chilies or even some chopped fermented black beans to pep up more flavors. The dish was rather amateurish and rather one track style of cooking to my liking.

As for beverage, we just ordered a jug of Prunella Herbal Tea (夏穀草涼茶 – RM9.00nett). This was a real thirst quencher with the use of brown sugar to clear the internal body heat from the scorching sun.

If you are in for freshly salted duck eggs, you can always purchase a bag of 12 salted eggs at RM9.00nett at the counter.

Overall, the restaurant could just be a convenient place for visitors to dine in but not one that could provide the right balance of yin and yang in flavors. In short, it’s a place to fill up the stomach but not the place to go for skillfully prepared meals. Maybe as a Penangite, we have been pampered with too many choices to end up with this type of verdict. However, I hope that the kitchen will improve their food quality too. Wouldn’t it be great if the restaurant could attract more outsiders rather than relying just on the visiting crowd?

It’s not really hard to locate Trong Leisure Farm & Resort as it’s just along the main road towards Terong. No matter where you are coming from such as Taiping, Lumut, Pantai Remis or even via Changkat Jering toll using the old trunk road, just look out for the “Terong” signboard. As you turn into the main road via Jalan Kuala Terong, just drive further in for about 1.5km and you can see the venue on your left. No worries as there’s a big signage in front of the property.

Name: TRONG SEAFOOD RESTAURANT @ TRONG LEISURE FARM & RESORT
Address: PT293, Jalan Kuala Trong, 34800 Terong, Perak, Malaysia.
Contact: +6010-464 0918, +6012-549 8978
Business Hours: 11.00am-10.30pm
GPS: 4.711202, 100.708172

RATING:
Ambience: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 6/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 6/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 6/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)