Chinese, Western, Malaysia best foods and recipes blog

Ribs Restaurant, Penang - Barbeque spare ribs

I had read about this restaurant from a few food blogs and they recommended the place. I love spare ribs. Many restaurants have closed down like Mr. Ho, Scarlet and even Hardwicke House and Mizi have reduced the quality of their foods due to the escalating prices of imported food items. Places like TGIF and Chilli’s have gigantic portion and sometimes, the ribs are too huge and grainy.

So, my family head over to Ribs, not very sure if the foods are as good as what we read. the newspapers advertised their set lunch costs RM9.90. I know those are definitely marketing gimmick.

True enough, there are no RM9.90 set except for one spaghetti chicken. So, we ordered the sets with ribs and chicken. I like their barbeque sauce and the baby spare ribs. It is very tender.

My second son ordered chicken cordon bleu. It is yet another barbeque sauce, grilled chicken with a layer of ham and cheese. Not bad, in my opinion. But it is certainly not the regular chicken cordon bleu that we are used to, i.e. deep fried with chicken with breadcrumbs and stuffed with cheese and ham.

The price for the set lunch is about RM22 + and above. It is inclusive of one soup, one main dish, a very tangy and fresh ice-lemon tea and ice cream. The ambience is great and service is friendly. So, it is a good place for a quick lunch.

Caesar salad. Not inclusive in the menu, order separately.

My other son ordered the mixed grill which comes with a piece of lamb chop, large prawn, baby ribs and chicken. Portion is not very big but all the above three set lunches were enough to feed the five of us. I have forgotten the price of this set but it is less than RM30.

Check out the other food bloggers review on Ribs :

Vkeong

tmytzt

and PenangTua Pui has the direction and even map to Ribs.

So, there you have it. A few of the most active food bloggers in Penang, giving the thumbs up for the place. We cannot be wrong, you know?

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Why Malaysian restaurants should know Nuffnang and One man’s meat is another man’s poison

I actually have a lot of recipes and a lot of photos. However, I am rather busy these few days and never have the time to sit down and draft the quantities of the ingredients. That’s my most hated part of writing a recipe blog - the chore of typing out the quantities and methods. With other kind of blogs, I just need to slam on the keyboard and I get a post.

With a recipe blog, I have to make sure that none of the ingredients are not left out and the photo and the descriptions are somewhat in sequence. Anyway…just to give a little life to this poor neglected blog, I have this opinion.

I notice someone linked to one of my post and she is wondering why some bloggers give great reviews while other bloggers find the foods taste not up to their standard.

Well, I personally do not like to diss any restaurants if their foods are lousy because the power of the internet is amazing. I do not want to break someone’s rice bowl. Secondly, I do not want to get recognised and who knows, they may poison me the next time I eat again. Well, not poison to kill but they may even spit before they serve to me. So, most of my posts here are about edible foods unless the place is absolutely horrible.

Taste is very subjective. And then, on different days and different times, the quality of the foods may vary. I notice that if I have a kick-ass Nikon camera with its bright yellow strap, I tend to get nicer looking foods. But of course, I am not manipulating the situation. Just that sometimes, when I was out with the camera, I have to bring it down along with me as it is foolish to leave cameras in cars, unattended.

The other thing about food blog is the quality of the foods photos. Some bloggers’ photos are so yummylicious, even a plate of fried cockroaches look yummy. Some bloggers’ photos are so horrible, they look like a pile of cow dung. You get what I mean? So, the best is to tread with care whenever we are eating out. Don’t trust food bloggers too much. Some may be writing a paid review so of course, they sing to the ninth heaven eventhough the food tastes like crap.

Talking about paid reviews, I am rather disappointed that our local restaurants and eating joints are not into promoting their eating places yet. With the downturn in economy, they better be promoting hard because people are eating out less and less each day. What they paid for internet advertising stays forever. Newspapers and magazines will become paper lama the next day, internet stays on. Right now, only TGIF, Foodloft and McDonalds catch on with this dynamic form of marketing and advertising. The rest of the restaurants in Malaysia better take heed. You certainly do not want some random blogger dissed your restaurant mercilessly and cause every single potential customers to run away.

Until my next post, eat well, cook at home, save money, ubah gaya hidup.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Must visit : Jemputree halal restaurant

I cannot remember who mentioned to me in some previous post about Jemputree. And I am so glad to visit Jemputree yesterday. In fact, my little boy loves the place so much, he was asking us to have dinner there as well. He wanted to bring brother #3 along as brother #3 was at the movie with his friends.

The attraction is not the foods but rather the uniqueness of dining in a tree house, on top of a huge tree. It is totally Malay style, whereby they have a small table on the floor and we sat cross-legged to eat. That’s why my little boy was so thrilled.

He insists we must go have lunch again today. *roll eyes* Well, for the foods, I am impressed that they have a really wide ranging menu. There are Western foods, Malay foods, some Chinese dishes and lots of cocktails and snacks.

We ordered the cucur ikan bilis which is only RM4.50. It is a huge basket of traditional Malay cucur served with Thai chilli sauce. It is really nice to munch on the cucur, while sipping mocktails on top of a tree.

It was drizzling when we were there so it was pretty cool and breezy. Being a Malay-owned restaurant, I opted for Malay dishes. I had this set meal for RM8.90 which comes with a bowl of chicken masak lemak. Nice, lemak and yet sourish curry. It includes a glass of iced lemon tea so the price is really reasonable.

My little boy enjoyed his fried rice very much. Overall, the food is not bad but not entirely out of this world. However, the place and service make this restaurant worth visiting. Eventhough it was lunch time and there is a big office crowd, foods were served promptly.

My other son had the beef stroganoff served with butter rice. I think it is about RM13.90 with generous amount of beef strips and lots of mushrooms.

Jemputree just changed their opening hours recently. It is opened on Tuesday to Saturday, from 11.30 am to midnight. Earlier, they are closed on some parts of the day. (sorry I didn’t note the time for Sunday)

Location : 64 Jalan Chow Thye which is off Burma Road. The place is diagonally across Hotel and Cafe 1926.

They have a website at www.jemputree.com and the telephone numbers I have on the card is :
Halim : 017-242 9177 and Mon : 012-474 4920

Go visit. I know you will like the place. It is like a little jungle in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city. I am sure the place will be even more romantic and surreal at night because they have fairy lights hanging from the trees and everywhere.

Popularity: 67% [?]

Kenribbean - Gurney Drive

On Mother’s Day, I didn’t wish to go anywhere for dinner because it seems so corny to join those bunches of people celebrating it. So, my sons said they want pizza from the only outlet they like - Pizza Hut Gurney. I hate pizza so I thought of eating something else first before I order and takeaway the pizza for them (who are at home).

When we got there, I remember reading the review of Kenribbean in the papers a few days ago. So, we decided to check out the place. It is Mother’s Day and you know what? There is not a single patron at dinner time. So, I was a bit apprehensive because it is a sign that something is wrong. But if the papers write about it, I guess it cannot be that bad.

We were greeted by a friendly waiting staff who speaks Bahasa Malaysia. (not sure if the place is halal or serves no-pork but it is bar). We checked out the menu and the foods look decently priced with pastas around RM12, steaks around RM30 and fish dishes around RM16. Moreover, it was dusk and breezy. So, we went upstairs to enjoy the view, the breeze and test out the place.

My son ordered the spaghetti carbonara and it is served with a raw egg. I like that already because that’s how carbonara is supposed to be prepared. The dish and the pasta is very hot so the egg will cooked with the heat. Taste wise, not bad. Knowing how horrible the dairy products prices increased, I shall overlook the lack of cream in the dish.

My hubby ordered the fish, not sure of the name but it does have some nice balance taste of sourish and spicy gravy together with creamy sauce.

The huge mug of fresh orange is only RM6.50 (if I remember correctly) and is enough for two person. Their drinks are all rather cheap, costing only RM2.50 for a can of coke. I hate food outlets with overpriced drinks. That’s why I do not mind featuring Kenribbean.

I ordered the spareribs and you know what? The taste is almost as good as TGIF. I like the barbeque sauce. I think it is RM29.90.

The name is KenRibBean and is right smack at where the Gurney Drive hawkers are. It is sparsely decorated so you can forget about any cosy, romantic dinner. But it is a nice place to chill out with beer, while you sit at the balcony, watching the world goes by. Then again, Penang people probably prefer the hustle and bustle of the hawker centres. It is a pity that their business is slow. Food wise, it is not bad. Price is very reasonable and service staff is good.

Oh did I tell you that I surfed with my Sony Ericsson P1i phone before I decided to eat there? I checked it on my handphone before I walked in. It is good how we can find unbiased food reviews online and make our decision. Of course, you need to have internet access from everywhere. I read the review from YummyBites.

With the drastic price increases, I think restaurants will find it hard to survive in the coming months. I wish KenRibBean success.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Paddington House of Pancake - then and now

The service of Paddington House of Pancake at Queensbay Mall outlet has improved a little bit.

But we notice something missing. My little boy likes to order their dollar pancake with sausages, ham and guacamole. This is the photo of the pancake we had in 2007. There are curled up ham, sausages and guacamole.

See? Ham, sausage, guacamole.

I know food prices have increased and especially imported ones. So, quantities are shrinking. Yesterday, we ordered the same thing and notice the ham is missing. We had ordered this dollar pancake many times so it is impossible that we make a mistake.

We asked and was told that the menu never said there is ham. Oookkkk…no ham.

Then, it was served without any mayo or guacamole or even any kind of sauce. We asked and were given brown sauce. *roll eyes*

This is dish we get yesterday. There are more lettuce than anything.

Still, I am terribly pissed because Paddington House of Pancake is still charging 50 cents for water. Let’s say I order a pancake and coffee, I need water to wash away the sweetness. And I have to order a small glass for that.

Popularity: 31% [?]