It came no surprise when the boycott news spread like wildfire lately due to an incident between the famous Lorong Selamat’s Char Koay Teow Kafe Heng Huat and a customer. This was not their first case as I was told.

I came to know about this popular char koay teow stall a few years due to recommendations by friends and clients. I was there a few times for my crave’s for Penang’s char koay teow.
The stall is located at Kafe Heng Huat, at Lorong Selamat. A small coffee shop and a char koay teow stall in front. Beside the coffee shop, there is a small open air car park. It’s hard to miss it.

The sisters’ trademark is the goggles. Cooking using traditional method of charcoal, the food tends to be tastier as many believed. The price of a plate of char koay teow starts from RM6 to RM 8.50. The price is comparable to certain food courts of Kuala Lumpur, it is definitely costlier than most places in Malaysia.

If the price is not an issue, then the waiting time could be another issue. Usually the waiting time is around half an hour to an hour. It depends on your luck. Weekdays are less congested while weekends will be packed by tourists.

After a half an hour wait, I got my char koay teow. Served with huge prawns, the char koay teow did live up with their reputations. While many Penangites claimed others are better, I was satisfied with this.

I’ve heard about their attitude problems but so far I have no problems with them. For the price with the huge prawns, it is okay with me. If you ask me, will I back to eat there again? I will if the waiting time is less than 30 minutes. Anything more than that, I will just walk away.
Shall we boycott them? Well, this is all up to you.
Thank you for reading.

It is one of the cheapest I could find on the Internet. I’m talking about the Tune Hotel Penang. Conveniently located at Burmah Road, it is walking distance to Komtar, the popular Lorong Selamat and Macalister Road.

Everyone knows about this place, if you don’t have a map, just ask around, Penangites are very friendly.
Without a doubt my pure intention is to stay cheap / budget with the best accommodation. Booked a few weeks in advance, I managed to book it under RM 80 with pre-paid 24 hours air conditioning.

Luckily, they have a huge car park behind the building which I felt it is very important in Penang. The hotel looks new and the lobby got our registration right away.

The hallway to the rooms looks clean and bright.
PLEASE CLICK BELOW TO PROCEED TO THE NEXT PAGE.

Another post written by me, Rachel been busy taking care of the house, asking her to write will add up more work for her. She will love to write a few upcoming ones, but for now I’m to write this.

I blogged about flymas.mobi recently and we used it for our bloggers’ Penang “makan” trip.

It all happened on last Sunday. I fetched Bryan, Ivy Ai Wei and Wei Zhi of Kampungboycitygal to KLIA. Luckily, I managed to grab this picture out of no where.

Then, we met the rest. Camwhore session. After the rest of the bloggers came, it was time to rock!

While many would wonder only high tech new phones like iPhone and BlackBerry, that is so wrong. Well, I checked in using my old pariah Sony Ericsson K770i. This was the QR code that I received via sms. Well, the usage is as below:

Basically I need to put my screen to the mobile check-in scanner to get validated! That’s it! No need ticket, no need email, just like that.

In case you doubting, Rachel used her HTC to check in also! Of course her screen bigger but for the mobile check-in scanner, size doesn’t matter!

Me camwhoring with Yap Thomas behind.

The flight was full. I liked how they did the seats. So colorful.

Once we reached Penang International Airport, we spotted our tour guide. Her name is called Protein, no reason given. Anyways, we spotted her and our food fest begins!

MAS booked a tour bus of us and I just can’t seems to stop camwhoring. Me and wifey, Rachel.

We arrived at the first pit stop.  Nasi Kandar Line Clear at Penang Road. A very popular nasi kandar place in Penang.

Nice ladies fingers. Took this while we were queuing up.

The fresh curry, yum yum!

The curry and the menu.

The utensils that makes the sweet and tasty “teh tarik”.

The fish…

and the fried chickens…

Check out the food available at the counter, it was massive.

This was mine!

My nasi kandar! Fried chicken and fish, squid’s egg, fried egg and nasi kandar. RM 11 for all of this. The fried chicken and fish was ordinary to me, so do the fried egg. My first attempt of the squid’s was one to remember, not really a big fan of it. The nasi kandar was alright.

This was Rachel’s! Squid, big prawn and nasi kandar, cost RM 18. Cough cough.

The other bloggers, Dale, Thomas, Aaron, James, CK Lam (very popular Penang foodies), Ivy, Wei zhi, Bryan, Wingz, Ee win and Rachel.

Checked out the queue while our way out. No joke.

Queue until outside. This Nasi Kandar Line Clear is a really clearly very FAMOUS!

Then we walked to another famous “makan” place. The Penang Cendol!

The Penang Road Famous Teochew Cendul! This was good!

We ordered 18 bowls. Well, it was really nice! Sweet and tasty!

Ivy and Wei Zhin posing with their banana fritters (pisang goreng).

Well, if you do not believe me, see for yourself. Another long queue!

We didn’t stop there. No, no, no…

We continued our journey for this recommendation from CK Lam, the coconut jelly! Located in Dato Keramat Road, this coconut jelly place is must try place!

The coconuts…. “fresh, fresh”…

Their “panel of fame”. Their newspapers write-ups.

The amazing thing about this place was the jelly. Somehow they cooked the jelly within the coconut. The taste of the cold jelly was refreshing! This is highly recommended!

Rachel and me camwhoring again.

Ivy and Wei Zhi with their beloved coconut jelly.

The gang posed.

Then we proceeded to Padang Kota. Lovely area!

Well, we were there for our last pit stop, Pasembor of Padang Kota. Out of the many stalls we chose this Hussain Pasembor by random.

The fried stuffs for Pasembor.

Our order. I loved this but Rachel felt it was too ordinary. Well, it was quite dependent on our crispy and fresh of the pasembor and of course their paste as well.

Rachel and me camwhoring at Padang Kota.

That was our last stop and we proceeded to the airport. It was short and sad but we still had to go back to Kuala Lumpur, Penang we missed ya.

Oh did we forgot our air tickets? Hell no fear! We checked in again using Flymas.mobi using our mobile phone. Checking in was easy and simple, hassle and stress free.

Penang was really fun. It was all made happened by MAS and also their efficient Flymas.mobi system.

That was one of the best way to spend a Sunday. Fly to Penang for food and fly back to Kuala Lumpur. Flying made easier with Flymas.mobi

Thanks MAS for the trip and also the first hand experience on Flymas.mobi! Thanks! We loved it!

Yesterday, I posted a preview what’s I’m going to show you today.

Tomorrow its the official soft launch of the Hard Rock Hotel in Penang. Being a “kiasu” and also I was so happened in Penang, I decided to drop by for a visit.

I wasn’t lucky. Reached there around 8 pm, and it was still raining. It didn’t stop me, Victor and Yang for having a dinner though.

It’s hard for us to not noticed there’s a cool “Michael Jackson” guarding the entrance of the Hard Rock Cafe!

Worth the effort, lights… bling… bling..

The interior of the cafe…

More interior shots…

We started with a Jumbo Combo for RM 48++ A combination of spring rolls, chicken wings, potato skin, onion rings and chicken tenders. It came with 4 different types of sauces.

The Hickory BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger priced at RM 45++. The thick beef patty came with turkey bacon, was one of our favourites of the night!

Hickory BBQ Smoked Chicken (RM 28++) was next. It did surprise me as I thought it would be dry. I was so wrong. They did a fantastic job keeping the chicken tender and juicy and served with fries, coleslaw and beans. Recommended!

Unfortunately, we were late and they were closing. Yet, they were nice enough for us to sneak in for a while.

I didn’t go there on purpose… seriously. It was by chance. It was too early in the morning to look for foods. It was around 10 am and it happened a few weeks ago. Lorong Selamat’s famous stalls were still unopened at that time so we went around and found this food court.

We were told that the beef noodle is famous there. Yet, I found something interesting there as well.

The food court at the Beach Street…

The Nasi Lemak Daun Pisang stall at the food court…

Don’t tell me after looking this nasi lemak preparation (picture above), you are not tempted to try one. The malay owners paid no attention to me, even though I kept taking pictures of their stall.

They sell 3 types of nasi lemak, the nasi lemak sambal udang (prawn), nasi lemak ikan bilis (enchovies) and egg, nasi lemak ikan (fish). All at RM 1.50 each! That was bloody cheap.

I bought the prawn nasi lemak and slowly unwrapped the banana leaf. The size of the prawn caught the attention of my friends and they were surprised it’s only RM 1.50. The rice was very fragrant and not to mention the spicy prawn sambal. It was very good indeed. It was a no regrets affair having this, lovely!
Recommendable!

Address:
Beach Street, Penang

I checked in quarter to 12 midnight. Pre-booked the rooms yesterday and got ourselves (me and my crews) a very small but very clean and modern looking rooms. Its a one night stay, I’m leaving later.

I posted a few messages on my msn, twitter and plurk asking for supper from Penangites, only a few replied. Knowing my usual over friendly craziness attitude, I called it a day rather than seeking for a friend for supper.

Without me around, my wife went out with her friends till late. I had no say in her social life, she had her own privacy exclusively for her. Of course, I do know the friends she went out with.

I took a few pictures in this room that I’m having now, will upload it probably later.

Few things that I discover about Tune Hotel I want to share here:
1. No TV
2. Air Cond – Chargeable
3. Towels and Soaps – Chargeable
4. No Mineral Water.
5. No Breakie
6. No Phone /No Room Service
7. WIFI – Chargeable
8. Slow WIFI
9. Walls are thin
10. Very Reasonable Price – Below RM 80 per night
11. Checked out at 10 am
12. Rooms are tidy and clean
13. Very modern and comfortable rooms (bed is okay)
14. Go advertisements in the room
15. Glass bathroom doors

My room overlooks the busy night city view of Penang. Something that I would brag about, a view with such cheap price.

At this moment, smartly I left my bag in the car. I wouldn’t bother as I’m heading to sleep right now. Lots of amazing places coming soon, I promise. Thanks for reading and I really appreciate comments and clicking my ads. I will be heading to Kuantan soon as well as Malacca (again) and Johor Bahru. I have a pending destinations to Hadyai and Jakarta this month. Both are for leisure.

*Trust me, this is not a paid advertorial! Good Night!

The potato leaf came first. Stir fried lightly with garlic, the potato leaf taste rather average. The potato leaf was rather “old” and the taste was rather flat.

Next, the 1/2 bird roast chicken. The roast chicken came with crackers. the thin chicken skin was amazingly crispy and the meat was tender and juicy. This was recommended by them and I must say, it was pretty good.

Since we ordered only 2 dishes, here are my thoughts about the place.

The potato leaf was rather average while the roast chicken was good. Service was okay. The restaurant is the coffee shop style restaurant so it was NOT air conditioned. Pricing was rather reasonable.

Address & Receipt:

Well, I was running 6km for Malakoff 2009. I thought it was easy. Damn I was so wrong!

My run started at 6.30 am. The first few km was easy, later on I realized I was gasping for air. As we were running near the sea, the air contains salt and the air was drier. The result was lesser oxygen and hotter. I practically gave up on 3km and started to walk back. I almost finished last this time around. The other reason was fatique. On Saturday I drove around 4-5 hours from KL to Penang and that excludes the whole day trip we had in Penang. Anyways I finished the run lamely in 58 minutes. Damn paiseh.

So then, I waited there for Rachel as she participated the 26km run. She started at 5.30 am. I sat at the finishing area from 7.30 am to 9.00 am. I saw quite a number of people finishing the 26km run. In fact, there were a few people finished the 26km run before I did. Damn shy. Around 9.00 am, I saw an ambulance came in and I saw Rachel got out from the ambulance. I was worried, I ran over to the first aid area. Rachel was very pissed. She told me the run was more than 26km and she was totally exhausted. Rachel ran 23km. I’m proud of her as she can easily participate 1/2 marathon by now while I’m still struggling for 6km.

No matter how, it was a good run. I’m in need of time to practice for end month’s Standard Chartered Run. Time’s running out!

The little nice Lok Bak stall that was visible from far….

Famous Lorong Selamat Lok Bak…??

Well, the lok bak came in bulk! We were surprised! The food was overall good. Not to say impressive but it was good. Everything was fried to cripiness! Goes very well with the sauce and the chili sauce. Something to look forward while waiting for the char kuey teow?

Address:
Kedai Kopi Dan Ais Kacang,
Lorong Selamat,
Penang