Hawker stalls outside Gama (Trang Road)

Last weekend, we made a trip to Gama to try out the hawker stalls just outside of Gama along Trang Road. The place is quite small and all the hawker food stalls were all in a row neatly lined up. There are quite a number of stalls here, however we were unlucky as only a few stalls were selling.

While walking deciding what to order, I saw this stall selling bubur kacang hijau, gandum and pulut hitam (bee kor moi) which caught my attention as I saw that they served each bowl with a spoonful of glutinous rice (pulut). Very hard to find this type of stall these days. So I ordered a bowl of Gandum and packed a bowl of bubur kacang hijau. It was very cheap, each bowl only cost RM 1. The Gandum was good. Very creamy and lemak and it was not so sweet. Loved it with the glutinous rice in it. As for the bubur kacang hijau, it was ok for me. Not much of a kacang hijau fan, but I guess it was good for others as there were a lot of people ordering this. Next trip I shall try their pulut hitam.

Gandum

Bubur Kacang Hijau

Then I ordered a bowl of Mee Jawa which was disappointing. It was not good. Ed ordered Fried Bee Tai Bak which looked good. Taste wise it was pretty alright.

Jawa Mee

Fried Bee Tai Bak

Then since we were sitting next to the Lor Bak stall we decided to order some. To our surprise, the prawn fritters were absolutely good. Very tasty and crunchy. We loved it so much that we could not resist not ordering another plate of just prawn fritters. A must try for everyone.

Lor Bak

So this is pretty much what we ate here. We hope to come back here again one day, hopefully with more stalls selling.

Ulu Legong Hot Water Spring

Last weekend, we made a trip up to a hot spring called Ulu Legong Hot Springs. Ulu Legong is about 30km drive from the North-East of Baling. Baling town lies to the south east of Kedah State. The journey took us around 1 1/2 hours from Penang. We left at around 11.30pm and reached there just before 1 am. At first I was abit worried why we were going so late. But the friends which we followed had been here before and they said that everyone comes late at night. So fine then, since there were a number of guys around, I followed along.

When we reached, the place was actually a recreation park. We had to pay for the entrance fee which was RM 3 for adults. The place is actually opened 24 hours. Now, have you ever heard of a recreation park most visited after midnight??? Well this is just the place. There were tons and tons of people here hanging around the pool, swimming, camping and just lepaking around. No wonder the friends kept telling us both not to worry as there's alot of people late at night.

There were 5 pools here. 3 main pools where everyone hanged around, 1 baby pool and 1 private pool for those ladies who want to have privacy. The 3 pools where everyone hanged around, the water temperature was different. The 1st pool right at the bottom was the coolest-meaning water was warm like, followed by the 2nd pool which got hotter and the 3rd pool which no one could actually swim in. Water there was damn hot. I tried dipping my hand in and it was freaking hot. I think you would probably burn your skin if you swam in here for like half a minute.

The amount of people here

This is the 1st pool

The 2nd pool

The 3rd pool

The 3rd pool

I tried to take nice shots of the place but because of the steam everywhere the pictures all came out 'steamy'. We found a place next to the second pool and slowly made our way in the water. Since the water was hot, we couldn't exactly jump in, so everyone dipped their toes in slowly till the water reached thigh length. It took us about 10 minutes to achieve this!!!!

Everyone sitting down dipping their legs in

Ed in the water covered by the steam

Since it was that time of the month for me, I couldn't go in further. Ed manage to get his whole body in the water slowly, and he lepaked at one corner for a while sweating away from his neck up. But he couldn't stay in for long as his head started to pound and came up with a slight headache. I guess the hot water gave his blood vessels a rush. But the cool thing is that when the guys came out of the water, there was actually steam coming out from their skin. Looked as if they all had their chi coming out from their body...hahahhaha.

So anyways, it was a new experience for us both. Was our first time in a hot spring place. Perhaps we may be back one night again, not during the school holidays time as there were a bit too many people around.

Oh before I forget, a lot of bugs were killed throughout our journey here. It was pretty bad, at some areas the amount of bugs crashing to the windscreen sounded like as if it was drizzling outside. Perhaps in the bugs life, they had some sacrificing rituals going on...hahahaha

A video of the pool area

Restaurant Zim Sum

This Dim Sum place is super huge. Place is called Zim Sum Restaurant located along Anson Road just opposite KDU college. If I am not mistaken, this Dim Sum place used to be along Macalister Road. It was my first time here and I got a shock with the amount of people here...madness!!! But was lucky that day to get a nice table just at the end where it was much cooling and quite.

It's no wonder why there were so many people here. The variety of Dim Sum this place had was unbelievable. There was so much to choose from that I got so excited and sort of over ordered ~typical me~

This is the fried goodies cart

Since there were so many people, and it took sometime for the aunties to come with the carts, a lot of customers just walked up to the counters and helped themselves pick what they want to eat. Sort of self service I would say. So I followed the crowd and carried my tray around. One thing I found out about this place, they trust their customers when it comes to paying the bill. Before leaving your table, you call the aunty and she'll do her magic count of the plates on the table. So I was thinking, the place is so crowded, they wouldn't even realize if a customer slowly sneaks out without paying or if a customer hides some plates on another table. Hmmm so anyways this is what I tried out. Was rather hard to communicate with the aunties though.

This siew mai looking had prawns, crab stick and onion leaves in it. Nice and juicy.

This is the prawn dumpling. It was good. Very tasty and juicy inside and had a lot of prawns.

Lor ma kai which looked so-so. Don't know how it tasted as it was someone's order. But no complains from them so I guess it's passable.

Left; is a plate of sweet sour pork. Not too bad. Then right; is the siew mai. Soft and juicy with a strong pork taste. Others said it was realy good, but for me, that strong pork taste kinda got to me.

This is another dumpling with prawns, crab meat and coriander leaves in it. I didn't quite like it as I hate the coriander leaves taste. But I guess if you like coriander leave, this is something good to try.

The this is a green siew mai which I do not know what meat it was. Probably prawns or pork. Quite good and again, soft and juicy.

This is the Hong Kong style chee cheong fun. It was ok for me. You can choose to have it plain, with pork or prawns.

This is the siew pau. I hope I got the name right. Well anyways looking at the picture, you should know what I mean. Well this siew pau was gorgeous. The pastry was so good that it melted in your mouth (pastry probably has pork oil in it) . It is really good. A must try, missing it already.

On the left, a bowl of char koay kak or also known as fried carrot cake. It was so-so for me. Then on the right is a picture of the egg tart. Another good thing to try here. Pastry is soft, yet crunchy and it melts in your mouth. But I feel the egg custard is abit on the sweet side. ...but who's to complain, it's still good for me.

The egg tarts hot from the oven!

Top plate; is a plate of fried fish. Something like fish and chips. If you are wondering why of all dishes I took that, well I was in a fishy mood that day. Been craving for my fish and chips in Green Lane for sometime, so thought this would have helped with the crave. Bottom plate; is the fried prawn thingy. It was rather oily.

Then I tried a bowl of Sharks Fin soup (minus the sharks fin of course). Well it looked good but taste wise it sucked. Please don't ever order this. It was so weird tasting, so not what a sharks fin soup suppose to taste like.

Oh did I mention they had alot of huge buns. I know one was the char siew bun, the other with the lotus paste and another just like the butter bun at Wong Kok. Didn't try any but I think in my next visit I shall try it out.

So lastly, a lot of people have mentioned that the wan tan mee here is good. So made my try with it. How it turned out for me........I didn't quite like it. It tasted totally different than the ones I normally have. I guess here it's cooked a different style, Hong Kong maybe??? But Ed liked it.

And since Ed did the Wan Tan Mee ordering, knowing he can never run away from his chicken and pork, he ordered a plate of chicken and siew bak to go with the wan tan mee. Both were so so for me.

So with all that I tried, I would say not a bad dim sum place to go for breakfast. Well let me re-phrase that....not a bad place to go for a HEAVY breakfast.

Indian Food, Karaikudi Restaurant

This place sells really good Indian food. The Restaurant is called Karaikudi. It is actually a name of a town found deep in the South of Indian's Southernmost state, Tamil Nadu, the Land of the Tamil's is Chettinad, the Land of the Nattukottai Chettinad, Karaikudi is its chief town. Well all that has been said, the Karaikudi Restaurant I am talking about is located along Market Street (Little India area). They serve North and South Indian Cuisine.

What I love most here is their Mutton Briyanni. Serving is huge for a person. Best to share with someone. Each bowl of Briyanni has two slices of Mutton. Mutton is well marinated and it is soft and tender.

Mutton Briyanni

Mutton slices

The variety of dishes served here is plenty. I always find it hard to choose what to eat. What more, the name of the dishes on the menu is not well explained. But nevertheless the waiters here are pretty friendly and they are willing to explain the ingredients of the dishes you pick.

I have been here many times, but just last week, decided to take some pictures to blog about this place. Didn't order much dishes though, so there is not much to write about.

To eat together with the Briyanni, we ordered a chicken dish called Chicken Tikka (really good and tasty). It looked like Tandoori chicken, with chunks of breast meat well marinated and then barbecued. It was served with a mint sauce which I think mixed with yogurt.

Chicken Tikka

Chicken Tikka close up

Then another favorite dish is this Cottage Cheese dish called Palaak Paneer (Spelling??). Basically its chunks of cottage cheese mixed in a wonderful curry gravy.

A chunk of the cottage cheese

Then for vegetable we ordered a dish that had green peas and carrots cooked in yet another curry gravy. It was good also.

Vegetable dish

What a waste that I do not have more pictures on the dishes however I remember trying one really good chicken dish. It was practically all green. Something like the Chicken Tikka, but this time the chicken was marinated with a special mint sauce, which is why it made it look so green. Then their mutton curry is good also but a bit on the spicy side for me. Well basically everything here is good.

If your not into having rice, they also have a variety of Tosai, Roti and Idli to choose from. Then for drinks they have Lassi drinks which I love the Mango Lassi the most. Really thick and strong mango taste. So if your in the mood to indulge yourself with some good tasting Indian food, I highly recommend this place.

Mango Lassi