Nostalgie Cafe, Stewart Lane

There is a new place in town and it is called Nostalgie Cafe. It is situated along Steward Lane just nearby to Coffee Atelier. The place caught my eyes as I was passing by it one day. It had a lovely heritage door and lovely lanterns hanging in front. So today I made my way there to cari makan.

As I walked in the place, the thing that caught my eye was the design of the carvings of the room divider that had divided the long walkway. With the courtyard in the middle of the place, the sunlight had given the place a nice cosy contemporary feeling and gave that heritage look of how life was back then in this house. As I chatted to the owners, I got to know that there will soon be rooms upstairs to rent (hotel). The style of the rooms would be contemporary heritage style.

So what does Nostalgie Cafe serve? Well I shall begin now with what I tried.

First up, Rocket and Tomato Salad

This salad had rocket salad, lettuce and cherry tomatoes tossed with vinaigrette and topped with a generous helping of feta cheese. Loved how the sourness and saltiness from the cheese combined.

Second up, Teriyaki Chicken Burger

This was more of a sandwich than a burger actually. It had chunks of marinated teriyaki chicken meat, sliced tomato, lettuce, onions and some mayonnaise like sauce in it. The combination of its ingredients gave a very nice taste that one bite of it makes you want more. Not for those who are on a diet though as you will be craving for more!!! The potato wedges on the other hand was nice and crispy and just about the right amount of salt.

Third up, Beef Bacon Cheese Sandwich

If you are a bacon-cheese person, you will love this. Sandwich comes with slices of beef bacon stuffed rocket salad, tomato and a slice of melted cheese. Simple and nice.

Fourth up and still going strong, Prawns and Rocket Pizza

This pizza was something new for me as it had fresh rocket salad served in the middle of the pizza. Pizza had a tomato base to it. Something like the Margarita pizza, but it had also slices of red chilly in it. There were 7 juicy and succulent prawns placed nicely on each pizza slice. Pizza dough which was homemade was thin and crispy. Loved it.

Fifth, Chicken and Basil Pesto Linguine

I am a pasta fan when it comes to Pesto. So I had to try this dish out. How did it taste??

Well I must say it was indeed good to the last lick. It had a nice strong basil pesto taste and olive oil. But what is nice here is that you also get that nutty feeling and taste in the sauce. When I asked the chef, he mentioned that he had blended in walnuts in the sauce. Not forgetting that it also had fresh olives and cherry tomatoes in the pasta. I must say this Basil Pesto Linguine out beats the other restaurants that I have tried in Penang. Now about the chicken served here, at first I was "oh no chicken breast meat" when I saw it on the plate....but everything changed as I took a bite of it. The chicken breast was cooked just right. It was juicy and well marinated. What more it went well with the pasta.

Last up, Carrot Cake

Now this is a MUST try for all you carrot cake lovers out there. This cake served here was so moist, nutty, cinnamon-ish and cheesy on the top. Words cannot say how good it tasted, so go there yourself and try it out and let me know. This is one of their signature specialty. A MUST try I repeat! It would be a sin if you never tried this.

So this is what I drank

Pineapple Juice which was fresh chilled juice.

Kopi 'O'

Ice Coffee

My lunch here was satifying. Walked out here so full and satisfied. So would I come back here again? My answer would be, certainly YES.

Amelie Cafe Part II

Here is part II of Amelie Cafe.

If you have read my previous post on Amelie, this is the continuation of it after I visited the place again. Actually thinking back, I am pratically coming back here every weekend. If not, it is at least once in 2 weeks.

In my other visits, tried out a few of their pasta dishes. My most favourite one would be the Laksa Pasta. Laksa and pasta??? That was exactly the reaction of my friends that came with me that day when Laksa Pasta was on the today's special. Being the adventourous one, I ordered it and till today I am still craving for it. It is a two thumbs up for me. The dish is dry and not soupy. The pasta (Fettuncini pasta) is served with a thick lemak laksa gravy topped with a lot of fish meat. The smell...ahhh it was so frangrant and appetising. Loved it so much.

Laksa Pasta (Two thumbs up)- A must try

Tuna and Pineapple Pasta

If you are a tuna person, you would like this pasta dish. It is a creamy base pasta where you have the tuna, pineapple and cream mixed together with some herbs and cheese. It is alright for me with room for improvement as it is missing the "kick" or "Ommphness" in it. Maybe perhaps more cream and herbs to intensify the taste. Something was just missing in this.

Aglio Olio Pasta

It had bits of dried chilly and pork luncheon meat in it with olive oil taste to it. Not forgetting it had a very strong peppery taste to it. Something interesting to try out if you are not a creamy pasta person.

Bolognaise Pasta

A friend of mine had this, she was not satisfied with it...so I took a bit to try out. Taste wise, it was rather bland. The intensity of that tomato herby flavour taste was not there. Needs room for improvement.

Big Breakfast

This was ordered by my dad one morning when we went there for breakfast. It had two eggs (your choice of having it scrambled, half boiled or sunny side up), bacon slice, jam and two slices of wholemeal bread. Not forgetting some fruits on the side. Dad finished this up with a big smile on his face.

Yogurt fruit granola

This is a very healthy breakfast meal to take. It had granola (somekind of oat) mixed with fruits (watermelon, banana and starfruit), dried fig, almond, walnut and raisins topped with fresh plain yogurt. Really a healthy way to start your day.

Passion Fruit and Banana Yogurt Smoothie

This is my favourite. Another two thumbs up. It is very refreshing and good. Has that sourness yet sweet taste to it. Loved it.

Jackfruit Yogurt Smoothie

Jackfruit is my biggest enemy so I stayed away from trying this drink out. But my friend who ordered it said it was alright. It had that jackfruit smell and taste in it. Good for those jackfruit lovers...something interesting, who would have thought a "jackfruit yogurt smoothie" to drink.

So this is all I have to write about. Hope to try out more wonderfull dishes yet to be served from Amelie. Till then, do visit this lovely place. It is so cute and cozy. Come in the morning where it is not so hot.

Amelie Cafe (Armenian Street)
Tel: 012-4967838
Open from 10 am to 7pm (close on Monday)

GEM Restaurant

Tried out this place a month ago. It is an Indian Restaurant along Bishop Street (corner or King Street). They serve Northern and Southern Indian Cuisine. Came here only once and found that the food here is pretty pricey. Taste wise, I much prefer Karaikudi restaurant.

The interior

But anyways I shall just briefly explain the dishes I had at Gem. It may be a bit simple as I kinda lost my bill receipt which had the name of the dishes.

Dragon Chicken
It is boneless chicken cooked with a mixture of spices and topped with cashewnuts. It sort of had a spicy-sweet-tomato flavour to it.


Garlic Naan
This is always my favourite to have when at an Indian Restaurant. The nann here, had pieces of garlic but it was not strong in its garlic flavour. I would have liked it better if it had that greesy garlic buttery flavour on the naan.


Mutton Briyani
About 2 people can share the briyani rice here. Taste was good and so was the mutton.


Mutton Vindaloo
This was a bit spicy for me. It is mutton cooked with a variety of spices and served with a fiery hot vindaloo curry.


Kashmiri Pulao Rice
The rice (Basmati rice) was flavoured and had fruits in it...apple, sweet cheeries and raisins. It also had nuts, long beans and fried onions. It did not quite suit me as I found the apples and sweet cheeries were totally not a match for this rice dish.


Palaak Paneer
This has always been a favourite for me. Perhaps because I'm a cheese lover. Palak Paneer is a dish which has Goat's Cheese (Cottage Cheese) cooked in a rich creamy sauce which is actually creamy spinach puree. But as I first mentioned, this dish at Karaikudi taste better.


Yogurt
I've forgot what the name of this sauce is called. It's yogurt mixed with chopped onions and cucumber. Great to have it with meats and briyani rice.

Drinks we had Mango Lassi and Pineapple lassi. Lassi drink was nice and thick.

From left: Pineapple Lassi, Mango Lassi and plain water

The dishes on the table

So come try this place out if you want to.

Gem Restaurant
66 Bishop Street
10200 Georgetown Penang
Tel: 04-262 4070
Business Hours: 11am till midnight

Coffee Lane

A new coffee place which I tried out last weekend. Place is called Coffee Lane. It is along King Street in town.What caught my attention here was the different tools used to make the coffee drink. One of it would be the Syphon Brewing Coffee. Just imagine your in a science class now.
What looks like to be is a bunsen burner, a round glass flask, and a standing thong thing. It is all about heat and pressure.

Syphon Coffee

1. In the round glass flask, water is filled and placed under a bunsen fire. Before it starts boiling, another long glass flask, with a long glass stem, containing the ground coffee beans is being placed into the round glass flask.2. The fire starts and slowly you see the water boiling, then suddenly (some sort of pressure) the water is being pushed up through the glass stem of the long glass.

3. The water is then mixed together with the ground coffee beans when the person gives a stir. Then the fire is switched off.

4. Next thing you know you have your brewed coffee coming down back to the round glass flask. Pretty cool actually.

But if you have no idea what I am trying to say here, you can read another blog about this Syphon Coffee which illustrates more clearly.

Link: What2See online- Coffee Lane

The Syphon Coffee, is served black and it is up to you if you want sugar and milk in it.

Ice Cream Coffee

Now this is my favourite. In a glass filled with vanilla ice-cream, a drip coffee method using paper filter is placed on top of the cup. Of course there is ground coffee beans inside already. Hot water is then poured and slowly the water and ground coffee mixture drips down to the cup containing the ice cream. It takes less than 3 minutes to have the cup all filled up with the coffee mixture. Then you give it a stir, get the coffee and ice cream mixed up. It is sooooooo good. It is not so sweet (just nice) and has a nice slight bitter taste to it. Lovely. Two thumbs up for this.

Besides coffee, this place also serves food such as sandwiches, salad, noodles, cakes, cookies and some other light snacks. The day I came, they ran out of cakes. Owner said that they had no time to make their cakes (homemade), so since I just came from lunch, we ordered 2 cookies and Ti Nya Kuih.

Cookie flavour was Almond and Chocolate chip with nuts.

The Ti Nya Kuih having a pandan flavour was good. It was smooth and had a spongy texture to it. This was also homemade by the owners mother-in-law.

While chilling out here, I gave a peek at the other tables who had ordered food. The triple decker sandwich which two tables had ordered looked really good. The same goes to the salad they had. Guess in my next visit here I shall order it together with my fav coffee ice cream.

Coffee Lane
10-B King Street
Georgetown
10200 Penang

Tel : 04 2610625

Business Hours : 11 am - 8 pm (Closed on Thursday)