Penang Bellisa Row Ristorante Bella Italia

Another Italian Restaurant that had been running its business years ago. I had it for just once when I was studying in high school until last week. This Italian cuisine runs its business 7 days a week, opens for both lunch until 2:30pm and dinner until 10:30pm. We were very lucky to be Bella Italia's last customers that Saturday afternoon. The decorations of Ristorante Bella Itallia are very Italian themed where most of the tables are covered by the clothes with their colors almost similar to the Italian flag psychologically. The dishes served there were as nice as Via.Pre Italian Restaurant which I would personally comment that both of them serve the unique tastes of Italian dishes from thousands of miles away here in Malaysia. This time, I remembered my camera but not the names of the dishes we ordered that day.

The bible of Italian tastes - Ristorante Bella Italia's menu.

Pasta, that has huge prawns, scallops, and so on as its ingredients.

Pizza, served with four different kinds of tastes includes slices of mushrooms, salmons, turkey hams, and tunas.

Getting myself a slice of my favorite turkey ham pizza.

The Italian dishes we had back in Ristorante Bella Italia were very satisfying which together with Via.Pre Italian Restaurant, they had successfully brought the tastes of the unique Italian dishes from thousands and thousands of miles away to Malaysia where you might need not to travel that far away for the awesome dishes as your cause. In detail of the location of Ristorante Bella Italia, it is located in Belissa Row, Pulau Tikus opposite New Cathay Coffee Shop.

Penang Food Paradise #26 : Weld Quay Fish Head Mee Hun & Tom Yam Maggie

Have you heard of this coffee shop named Village Coffee Shop with its Fish Head Mee Hun and Tom Yam Maggie as its fame? Are you craving for Tom Yam Maggie or maybe something light like Fish Head Mee Hun? Well, this coffee shop that operates from 11:30AM until 11:30PM selling its famous dishes as mentioned in the title along the road of Pengkalan Weld at which it is located alongside with Chew Jetty there. Upon ordering, you will get to choose among kinds of noodles, ingredients, and soups.

A bowl of Fish Head Mee Hun.

A bowl Tom Yam Maggie.

Normally, I order my bowls of Fish Head Mee Hun and Tom Yam Maggie each time I visit there for my dinner with deep fried fish. Choosing in between the deep fried fish or without is a dilemma as each of them give different tastes of delectable. Besides, you would also love to add more ingredients into your bowl of meal such as meatballs, fishballs, prawns, cuttlefishes, and so on. Focusing on the normal soup instead of the tom yam's, it tastes sweet and lovely and the soup will tastes even more heavenly if you add more ingredients depending on your choices.

Detailed Information:
Village Coffee Shop

Pengkalan Weld ( Alongside With Chew Jetty )

11:30AM - 11:30PM

View Weld Quay Fish Head Mee Hoon & Tom Yam Maggie in a larger map

 

Penang Food Paradise #25 : Penang Famous Hainanese Chicken Rice

Been posting Penang Food Paradise for quite some time since 30th of August back in 2011. I had the Hainanese Chicken Rice for numerous times and most of the time, I forgotten to take photos of it until recently. Today, I am going to introduce you the famous Hainanese Chicken Rice in Penang! The Hainanese Chicken Rice Stall has started since 1980's and being continued by the daughter of the old couple who operated the stall back then. This Hainanese Chicken Rice Stall is situated in Kheng Pin Coffee Shop that opens 6 days in a week which it closes on Mondays located in Penang Road as a corner lot coffee shop. This stall starts its business from 11:30AM until 2:30PM, it is recommended that you should come earlier to avoid any disappointments.

Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Each servings comes with a plate of sliced and deboned chicken meats, a small bowl of soup, and chilli sauce. Why even chilli sauce being listed? Personally or maybe generally, the chilli tastes great together with the delicious Hainanese Chicken Rice where and when you will probably notice some people gradually ask for more chili sauce or even pour by themselves! I love the smooth chicken skin and the juicy chicken meat as you munch them bit by bit in your mouth.

Detailed Information:
Hainanese Chicken Rice Stall ( Kheng Pin Coffee Shop )

Jalan Penang ( Corner Coffee Shop )

11:30AM - 2:30PM ( Closes on Mondays )

View Kheng Pin Coffee Shop in a larger map

Trip to Penang Pulau Jerejak

Being a pure Penangite for almost 20 years, I have to admit that that was the first time I stepped onto an island opposite Queensbay Mall named Pulau Jerejak which the history of the Jerejak Island can be found here. So, it happened on last Saturday when my friends and I had our adventurous outing in Jerejak Island. The adventurous outing was started at around eleven something in the morning as I woke up late as an organizer unintentionally for 8:30AM ferry then all of us missed the 9:45AM ferry again because we went out for our breakfast nearby. We signed up for a package that includes to-and-fro ferry ride, buffet lunch, and 5 exciting activities that costed each of us for RM65. The 5 activities are wall climbing, rappelling, jungle trekking, flying fox, and lastly, crossing over a suspension bridge which they would probably implanting unforgettable memories into your mind like all of us had.

The all-in-one receipt that counted 13 of us on package that day.

Regardless of the precious time being wasted while waiting for the ferry to arrive, we had our great interactions in within the group. Everyone was wondering what would it look like on the other side especially me. "There is a spa resort? Like how?" are the thoughts that kept me wondering and imagining while walking on the seashore.

Penang Bridge, early in the morning.

The 13 awesome spirits who made the day!

Nearly an hour of waiting, the wait was finally over at around 10 something in the morning. All of us finally got on board on the ferry after a distance of walk from the station towards the jetty where we waited for quite some time over there. Upon departure towards our adventure, we were getting closer and closer to our destination. Of coarse, the view from the ferry or maybe from the Jerejak Island to Queensbay was such a rare scenery and they are only be angled through the lens of your camera or your eyeballs while the ferry gets in its track slowly to your destination, Pulau Jerejak.

The interior of the ferry that carries tourists to the Jerejak Island.

The views are fantabulous aren't they? After we arrived at Jerejak Island's jetty, we walked our way to the hotel lobby where we were expecting the instructors of our day. The Jerejak Rainforest Resort is clean yet simply beautiful. Immediately, we started our first two activities with wall climbing and rappelling after meeting up one of the instructors. The wall climbing was really fun and I managed to conquer the maximum height of the activity on my second attempt while rappelling was great too where you are to descend towards the end of a rope from a certain height which was the height of the wall climbing.

We had our buffet lunch in the resort hotel and waited for our next activities in the resort hotel's compound that will start at 2 o'clock. Some of us went playing poker in the lobby while I went for swimming with the rest in the resort hotel's pool. Upon continuing our third activity, we were asked to stretch ourselves first before we headed into the rainforest for jungle trekking. The jungle trekking was quite a challenging activity as compared to others as it was because of the slippery slopes and muddy tracks we encountered in this rainy season.

Group photo before we started our jungle trekking.

The entire jungle trekking came to its end when we reached the suspension bridge. We were only allowed to cross the suspension bridge five persons at one time. The experience of crossing over this suspension bridge was an awesome one because it is not a usual thing we can experience in our daily lives. The feeling of crossing this suspension bridge was like you-are-about-to-fall-but-you-are-not especially when someone tries to shake the bridge, it must be a heart pounding moment for those who are afraid of heights.

The suspension bridge!

Right after crossing the suspension bridge, it was the last activity we were having there back in Jerejak Island called flying fox. Again, the flying fox was really great were you are flying over from an end to the other end that is lower. As everyone of us had finished the flying fox, we headed back to the hotel lobby and took our rest there.

A screenshot taken out from a video footage of mine on flying fox.

There was a tree snake resting on a steel bar while we were on our way back to hotel lobby.

Despite being injured while getting down from flying fox, I would say this trip to Jerejak Island was a memorable yet adventurous hangout I ever had with my friends! The RM65 per person for the entire activities was worth it after all that include the buffet lunch which personally I think it is acceptable to fulfill your hungry stomach with no expectations of being a luxurious buffet. The trip to Jerejak Island of ours had ended at about 6 in the evening when we called it a day on that Saturday but the visit has yet to be ended for me as there are still some sites to be explored.

Our last group photo at the jetty back in Penang's.

Penang Food Paradise #24 : Bangkok Lane Mee Goreng

Have you ever heard of the famous Mee Goreng situated in Seng Lee Coffee Shop located in Bangkok Lane? The stall itself has been published in quite numerous local newspapers when its fame has already started about eight decades. This Mee Goreng Stall starts its business from 8:00AM to 6:30PM daily excluding Mondays. No matter you are either having it in Seng Lee Coffee Shop or taking away from this Mee Goreng Stall, you will be able to see the live actions of frying the noodles ( Mee Goreng ) by the Indian hawker.

A plate of Famous Bangkok Lane Mee Goreng.

Looking over the plates of plates of hot Mee Goreng served on the table. Do you ever wonder what are the ingredients in these plates of Mee Goreng? Perhaps, you feed yourself with a mouthful spoons of Mee Goreng? Each of these plates of Mee Goreng are served with squids, toufu, bean sprouts, potatoes, and some vegetables with a slice of lime on top of the dish.

Detailed Information:
Mee Goreng Stall ( Seng Lee Coffee Shop )

Lorong Bangkok ( Corner Coffee Shop )

8:00AM - 6:30PM ( Closes on Mondays )

View Bangkok Lane Mee Goreng in a larger map

Penang Food Paradise #23 : Lam Ah Coffee Shop Beef Koay Teow Th'ng

I have heard numerous times about this Beef Koay Teow Th'ng somewhere around in the Beach Street area from my parents and friends but I had yet to give it a try until yesterday. This stall is situated in a coffee shop named Lam Ah Coffee Shop where this shop is located directly opposite a fire station on Beach Street. This Beef Koay Teow Thn'g stall starts its business from 10:30AM until 4:30PM but closes on Sundays and public holidays.

Lam Ah Coffee Shop Beef Koay Teow Th'ng.

The beefs are well prepared and they taste very good. Together with the soup, the whole bowl of the Beef Koay Teow Th'ng tastes awesome! Although on the first few slurps of the Beef Koay Teow Th'ng soup might taste a little bit weird to some of you, you might soon find it great as you continue for a few more slurps with some chili sauce and the beefs. Afterall, this bowl of Beef Koay Teow Th'ng has its unique taste compared to other Koay Teow Th'ng available in local today because of the beefs cooked together with the soup.

Detailed Information:
Beef Koay Teow Th'ng Stall ( Lam Ah Coffee Shop )

Lebuh Chulia/Lebuh Pantai ( Directly opposite a fire station)

10:30AM - 4:30PM ( Closes on Sundays & Public Holidays )

View Lam Ah Coffee Shop Beef Koay Teow Th'ng in a larger map

What I think I am

This is intended for a break from studying too hard to keep myself from becoming antisocial.

This is "What I think I am" but I am just a college student. What about yours?

Penang Food Paradise #22 : New Cathay Coffee Shop Curry Mee

Another Penang famous Curry Mee located in Pulau Tikus where it starts its business six days a week excluding Sundays from 7.30 in the morning until 1.30 in the afternoon. The stall is inside a coffee shop named New Cathay which is known as Sin Kok Tai in Hokkien dialect. Well, this bowl of New Cathay Curry Mee served with the usual ingredients of a bowl of Curry Mee should have together with beans but this bowl of Curry Mee in New Cathay's comes with more cuttlefish and sea hams that makes it different from other stalls selling the same dish.

New Cathay Curry Mee.

If you are to compare the taste of both New Cathay's and Lorong Seratus Tahun's Curry Mee, I would say each of them has their own unique tastes and if you prefer the sweet taste of the soup rather than the spiciness, this bowl would probably suites you best.

Detailed Information:
New Cathay Coffee Shop Curry Mee Stall (Corner)

Jalan Burma Opposite Bellisa Row Pulau Tikus

7:30AM Until 1:30PM ( Closes on Sundays )

View New Cathay Curry Mee in a larger map

Desired Mobile Phones Across The Time And Forward

When we were just small little kids a decade or less ago during the "N" branded mobile phone era, I suppose the majority of the populations preferred the exact same model under the category of cellphones whereas there were indeed quite numerous people who had got themselves the "M" branded flippable handsets with extendable antennas before the introductions of cellphones with color screens capabilities and wider range of brands. That, had happened when I was in the primary school and I were given a Nokia 8860 cellphone by my brother who had changed to a new phone at that time.

Continuing on when I was studying in the high school, brand names of "SE" and "M" has gotten popular together with the "N". Influenced by a classmate of mine in Form 3 during the high school who owned a "SE" walkman phone and eventually wanted to change for a new color screen mobile phone. We together were discussing yet comparing about phones for a few days literally in the school. It was one of my dilemma in my life for choosing one out of the two popular mobile phones. At the end, I bugged my father to get me the Motorola V3i. V3i at that moment has the key feature of being able to synchronize your music playlists from your iTunes in your computer despite its coolness when you flip-to-answer your phone calls.

The Apple Original iPhone which is also known as the iPhone 2G was announced in January and launched back in 2007 the same year when I got my V3i, my brother who was furthering his studies in the United States of America had got me this awesome device and finally I had my hands on that iPhone 2G after months of waiting, patiently and impatiently. The iPhone 2G has to be jailbroken and unlocked for use in other countries outside America, so I was once a mini developer in the jailbreaking community. I could not imagine how much time I had spent with the iPhone 2G identifying and modifying the system files and eventually created my own themes and whatsoever that had caused the downturn in my academic performance. FYI, the jailbroken iOS device ran with Installer instead of Cydia on the early firmwares of 1.1.1 until 1.1.4 if I am not mistaken. That is when the growth of an Apple geek of inner me began.

Proceeding to the working days of mine in my local authorized Apple premium reseller after graduated from the high school, I got myself the iPhone 3GS with the subsidization I got from my father. Getting the iPhone 3GS at that moment was like cutting over a slow-moving object in front of me because the iPhone 2G was getting slower and slower with the firmware updates available from Apple that got me frustrated over the speed of overall performance of the phone especially when launching a simple application of messages that took about 8-10 seconds to load. The iPhone 3GS had served me really well until I switched to Samsung Galaxy S2 running on Android platform.

The Nokia N95, iPhone 4, and Galaxy S2.

Today, there are thousands of thousands of ranges of smartphones (mobile phones) available in the market today. But what is the ideal phone that will definitely suit your usage of all time? Personally, I need a phone with the fastest speed and even longer battery life that keeps me connected to the social networks, emails, web surfing, and any other usages without having the feel of sluggish. In order words, I am hoping that there will be a phone that would probably works as perfect as a personal computer where the websites are accessible in desktop version without any boundaries we are having now and any other limitations. PS even the interface of Blogger blogpost composer is not satisfying in the iPad. For now, does the rumors of quad core processors really matter in the upcoming phones or is it the mobile OSes and user interfaces really really matter and need to be seriously improved? What do you think and what were your desired mobile phones from the past?

Chinese Lunar New Year 2012

Chinese New Year of 2012 has been great to me although I do not really have the chance of meeting my cousins from my mother's side as they left earlier for their personal reasons but at least we had the chance of watching the lion dances in my uncle's new homestay partnering with his friend in Ipoh, Malaysia. Before that, let's start with the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year I had together with my entire family. First, we had our entire family's annual reunion dinner in E&O Hotel Penang where the buffet dinner in the Sarkies Corner had spoiled most of our appetite that night with the not fresh yet soggy dishes especially the prawns together with the slow or not-refill-at-all buffet dishes. Despite the disappointment we had, we did had our great conversations among ourselves as in sharing experiences, opinions, and so on before we headed back home for the next day.

My adorable nephew. I, had became an uncle.

On the second day, we all had our lunch or brunch in Traders Hotel where the buffet dishes served in the hotel were even better than E&O Hotel with the consistent refill of the buffet dishes. I love the mashed potatoes served in Traders Hotel. Great conversations again? Yes, we all did while taking our meals on our tables. So, we headed off to pay our visits to our long relatives locally in our family after we had filled up our stomachs. It was also when we got to accumulate more "Lucks" from receiving ang pows given by our long relatives.

One happy family.

After our whole day visits to our long relatives' houses, here came the last station in one of our eldest's. There, we played some firecrackers outside her house that were bought just a walking distance away while our parents were once again having their great conversations with each other while in the same time, eating. Of course, not only them who had their mouth kept on exercising so do us. That is the reason why majority of the people agree that Chinese New Year is a fattening moment. Thus, I have to unbutton my jeans and pants whenever I sit until today.

One group shot all together in our last visit.

Celebrating Chinese New Year on my father's side was great when and where most of my cousins returned for this annual occasion from overseas. In the night of our second day of Chinese New Year, we traveled down to Ipoh to meet my relatives from my mother's side where Ipoh is our meeting point for this year. Despite the tiredness we had from traveling, we were welcomed by the lion dances early in the morning in our uncle's new homestay houses.

The two lions performing the lion dances in both of the homestay houses.

The homestay houses were really awesome where the interiors were neatly decorated and the homestay houses were so spacious. More importantly, the houses were actually feng shui themed which will also bringing you some luck staying in there even for a night! It has been wonderful staying in the homestay houses of my uncle's, we really appreciate that. After spending a few nights in my uncle's, we ended our outstation Chinese New Year visit.

Group photo after the lion dances.

Lastly, we had our cousins' gathering from my father's side for steamboat before koraoke in town. I missed out the fun of having steamboat all together as I was busy with something else but the real fun for me actually begun in the karaoke where we all get to sing. It was a great night that we all spent our time together having the maximum joy. PS I never know my cousins are such a great singers!

Polaroid photos taken with my cousin's polaroid camera.

What I wish for next year's Chinese New Year? Well, if I am still around, I wish to celebrate my Chinese New Year with all of my cousins when they should stay a little bit longer than this year. It would be fun to have them around. These is how I celebrated my Chinese New Year, how about yours?