Chuan Yee Charcoal Steamboat, Penang

Date visited : 30 June 2018

For a very long time now, I have stopped eating commercial steamboats because I find it boring and pointless. The ingredients are the same and the soup base is always the same few choices, tom yam or clear herbal soup. 

I was watching a Korean variety show on YouTube one day and it was about a couple who went for a honeymoon in Penang and this is one of the food places highly recommended by the couple. So I took note of it and decided that I had to try it out myself to see if it was really as good as they claimed it to be.

Today was the day and it was not just good, it was on a OH MY GOD IT IS DELICIOUS kind of level!

What's different about the steamboat here is that they uses the old school kind of steamboat pot where it uses burning charcoal to keep the soup boiling. 

The charcoal is at the bottom of the round chimney looking thing in the middle of the pot. There are 3 sets of soup base. Set A is for Fish Head, you can choose either fried or fresh fish head. Set B is for Fish Fillet and Set C is without fish. For all 3 sets, you can choose to have milk added into the soup base or without.

I chose Set B with milk added to the soup base and the ingredients included are Fried Fish Fillet, Homemade Meat Ball, White Fish Ball, Cabbage, Abalone Mushroom, Tofu Pok, Enoki Mushrooms and Seaweed.

After you have placed your order, you can then help yourself with the variety of sauces available according to your own preferences.

They have their own made chilli sauce, ginger sauce, garlic sauce, cili padi in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, shallots in garlic and lime juice, spring onions and few others. You can mix them however you want.

Unlike most steamboat places, their soup is served with all the ingredients already in the pot. The only ingredient served separately is the Fried Fish Fillet.

This Fried Fish Fillet is not just any fried fish fillet. The Fried Fish Fillet here is delicious! It is very tasty and it can be eaten just like that or dipped into the soup.

Another item that you HAVE to order is their Fried Fish Skin. It is so light, crispy and tasty. It is so good that I wanted to order one pack of these to go and eaten as snacks.

I also ordered a serving of pork slices and all these are enough for 3 person. They also have other ingredients that you could top up such as prawns, bean curd skin and etc. We didn't even have to order noodles or rice and by the time we were finished, we had to carry our stomachs out of this place.

The soup base was nothing I have ever tasted before. It is well seasoned, light and sweet. Even with milk added into the soup, it does not feel thick or creamy. The seasoning is not overwhelming to the point that will make you feel thirsty after. My friend loved the soup so much that he wanted to pack the leftover soup home to cook his noodles with.

If you happen to be in Penang, you HAVE to give this a try. I would also recommend either you come here at 6pm or call to make a reservation before hand to avoid the long wait. I arrived at 6pm, so I managed to get a table easily but by 6.30pm, the place was already packed!

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : OH MY GOD/5

Price Range : $$

Status : Non-Halal

Other information:

Address : No 5 Jalan Kek Chuan, Georgetown, 10400 Penang.

Contact No. : 017-401 5447 / 04-227 3012

Business Hours : 6pm - 11pm (Closed on Wednesdays)

Vegan Life, Ipoh

Date visited : 28 May 2018

I first came to this place 3 years ago with my vegetarian friend and I immediately fell in love with the food here. The food here is so delicious that you'll forget that you're in a vegetarian restaurant.

Vegan Life is different from all the vegetarian restaurants I've been to. The dishes here are prepared uniquely and presented in a way that will make you salivate just at the sight of it. 

Since there were only 2 of us here, I could only order 4 dishes and even that the waitress was skeptical that we may not be able to finish all of them.

My husband ordered the Vegan Soy Taufu Delight Rice. The item you see in the bowl consists of soybean fiber, soy toufu meat, toufu, coriander and ginger sauce.

I ordered the Vegan Red Curry Rice as I wanted something spicy. The curry contains potato, toufu, dried bean curd, celery, cabbage, cauliflower and mushrooms. I liked it very much because the curry has a sourish taste to it and I like sourish food.

I saw this on their menu and I wanted to try it out because it seems to be their signature noodle dish. It is called the VeganLife Special Fried Noodle. Depending on your preference, you can order it spicy or non spicy. I'm not sure what type of noodle they use in this dish but it is definitely not the common type of noodle. It is not oily and it is not too dry as well.

Last but not least, the VeganLife French Bread Pumpkin Mushroom Soup. Since I love pumpkin based dishes, I had to try this as well. The pumpkin soup is thick and savoury. This soup is quite filling as it is filled with mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower. 

Other than these dishes, there are many other dishes that you could choose from. They have a variety of rice dishes, noodle dishes as well as Western dishes. You'll be spoiled for choice. 

I would highly recommend this place if you're a vegetarian or just want to eat something different or meatless.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5

Service : 4/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Halal

Other information:

Address : No 25 Jalan Medan Ipoh 7, Bandar Baru Medan Ipoh, 31400 Ipoh, Perak

Contact No. : 012-566 6044

Business Hours : 11.30am - 4.30pm / 6pm - 9.30pm Daily

Transaction : Cash

Links : https://www.facebook.com/ivanvikym/

Kedai Makanan Kum Kee, Ipoh

Date visited : 27 May 2018

This is one my favourite go to place for dinner or even supper when I'm in Ipoh. It is not located within the town area but hidden within the quiet village of Pasir Pinji in Ipoh and it only opens at 6pm till late.

This place is famous for their braised chicken feet and pork trotter which locals refer to them as "Big, Small Feet". Small feet being the chicken feet and big feet being the pork trotters. And these two are the signature dish of this place.

For me personally, I will only order their Chicken Feet a.k.a Small Feet as I'm not a big fan of pork trotters. But I heard the Big Feet are the more popular choice among the locals.

I normally don't eat chicken feet when I'm back home but the ones here are very soft and tasty. It's so soft that the skin and flesh are easily detached from the bones.

Though they are popular with their Big, Small Feet, people also come here to eat other dishes and generally people here prefers the Ipoh Hor Fun.

You can have it either tossed in just dark sauce.

Or you can it in clear soup.

And of course they don't just eat it plain, they will usually pick and choose ingredients like these to go along with their noodles.

Another popular choice is non other than their steam chicken.

The steam chicken skin is thin and smooth while the meat is very soft and tender. I somehow feel that the chicken texture here is much better than the ones people rave about in Lou Wong or Onn Kee.

The above are only some of the dishes I've ordered, the ones I've missed out, other than the braised pork trotter, is the braised tofu and also the Ipoh bean sprouts.

And if you come here during the weekdays, after 8pm, there will be a stall selling all sorts of kuih opened right in front of the restaurant. The kuih sold by this man is home made and is quite popular among the locals as well. Even before he finishes setting up his stall, you could see people starting to gather around him anxious to make their purchase.

I would also recommend you to come here during the non Public Holiday weekday to avoid the crowd.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 3/5

Food Quality : 4/5

Price Range : $

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : 798 – 799, Jalan Raja Muda, Taman Pasir Pinji, 31650 Ipoh, Perak

Contact No. : 012-512 5219

Business Hours : 6pm - 3am Daily

Transaction : Cash