How to cook a good Instant Noodle

The one thing I enjoy cooking at home is Instant Noodles. No, not the kind with egg and that's it. I like mine with lots of ingredients like this.

Clockwise : Home made luncheon meat, mustard leaves (sawi), minced pork, thin slices of lean pork, red onion, chili and prawn.



Add some oil to the wok and stir fry the red onion and chili till golden brown. Be very careful because red onion tends to burnt very quickly.



When the red onion and chili is done, pour in the water and the seasonings. ( Any kind of instant noodles will do.)



Once the water starts boiling, put in the luncheon meat, minced pork and slices of lean pork. Wait till it's cooked.



Then, put in the mustard leaves, home made luncheon meat and prawn together with the noodles. These four ingredients goes in last because they take shorter time to cook.



Garnish with spring onion. And here you go, a good big bowl of instant noodles!



Bon Apetit.

TuneHotels.com Downtown Penang Review

TuneHotels.com is a brainchild of the Air Asia Group. They recently opened one in Penang, 1st of April to be precise. It works very much like Air Asia. The price fluctuates over time and if lady luck is on your side, you get the room as cheap as RM 20 inclusive of air conditioned, service tax and what not.



I booked mine prior a month to my stay and got what I deemed as reasonable price. It was only RM 56.23 inclusive of a 12 hour air conditioned credit. That's bloody cheap for a clean hotel room.



The reception area is on the second floor of the building and is very spacious. Receptionist had great customer service albeit a little lack in professionalism. I had a quick chat with one of the receptionist and she told me that the hotel is full occupied every day. Now, that's impressive considering the fact that when I was there, the hotel was only 10-day old.



Instead of the usual classy lounge you get in a 5 star hotel, they have a simple set of regular quadraliteral green and red colored couch in their lobby.



There are also four desktop computers equipped with Internet for you to use for free. Wi-fi in the room is accesible upon purchase of RM 12. In TuneHotels.com, nothing is free ;p



Unlike the usual private coffee house that most hotels have, they vendored out the space to a private proprietor. I didn't have the time to try but I did walk over to have a look at the price. It ranges from RM 5- RM 8. Very reasonable, I would say.



Having my mind set that this is a budget hotel, I foolishly asked the receptionist if there is a elevator in the building. She was quite puzzled with my question because the elevator is right behind me. Hehe.



There are no toiletries provided in the hotel but there is a convienient store that sells all the basics including wide array of magazines (international mostly), and second hand novels. It is not open 24 hours but you need not worry since 7-eleven is just below the hotel. I don't know if they had an agreement with TuneHotels.com but the 7-eleven seems to be selling things cheaper than any other 7-eleven. Funny thing was, this 7-eleven sells no condom but had pregnancy test on sale. Hehe.



They seem to have a hawaiian theme going on in every of their hotels. I thought it was a nice change from the usual dull-uno colored walls in other hotels.



I was quite amazed at how advance the technology is - considering again, it's a budget hotel. You place your room card in the small slot about a step from the door, and there's a small screen that indicates how much time left for the things you had add on.



Advertisement starts the moment you enter the room right to the toilet. A brilliant idea i thought. In case you're wondering the location, it is located in a prime spot in Georgetown. Next to New World Park, that is.



Spacious is the last word I would use to describe the room. However, since I was in a company of a friend, the room was just nice for us.



Credits go to the bed though. They weren't kidding when they promised a comfortable bed. I really had a good sleep. Sheets were really clean too. No stains spotted. ;p



However, if you're a feng shui afficionado, then this is not a hotel for you. Out of the two single beds in the room, one were located in front of the toilet and the other facing the door. And if you notice, they have level 4-also the level I was staying, which is a rare sight in Malaysia.



One of the things they raved about is the power shower. The shower heads were really huge and powerful and that makes your bath really refreshing. They also had glass door as opposed to the normal wooden door. It can be an eye candy if you're staying with the opposite sex but since i'm staying with a girl and I'm only interested in men, no eye candy for me.



The safe box in the room was the most user-friendly safe box I ever come accrossed. It was really easy to use.



My trip was for pure leisure. I thought i deserve a break before the finals. I have made my trip a no-shopping trip and spend most of my time in the hotel watching movie while munching on snacks and some food we brought.



They had a huge mirror on the wall that could be a paradise for cam whorers. I believe it is a way of making the room looks more spacious if we were to speak on architectural term.



A lot of things amused me during my short stay. For instance, these stainless steel waste bins. One question though, who actually throw metal in a hotel? Unless of course, some couple in the hotel is having their SM moments. ;p



I only stayed for a night and had to dread myself up from the bed the next morning to check out. After i finish a speedy (it only took me 3 minutes!) check out , they asked me to fill in the questionaire. The last question was, "Will you come again for another stay?"

My answer was, " Yes, definitely. Very soon."

New World Park, Penang

This is a place that has remained closed for decades (used to be an amusement park) and was just recently reopened as a place mainly for food and some shopping. The front is dominated by upper scale restaurants and some shops while behind it, is a huge and clean food court that serves a wide varieties of hawker food.



I like how I don't find myself shoulder brushing anyone while walking and all tables are at a distance with another. The music played in the background are good, and the ventilation of the place is great. No smoke from the kitchen and there's fan all around the place. In other words, it's a revolutionary way of eating hawker food. ;p



When I knew that the hotel I was going to stay in was just beside New World Park, I surf around the Internet to see what the place is famous for. Almost every blog wrote about the Ais Kacang and I found out later from a book I bought, this is the stall that invented the Penang version of Ais Kacang and they are currently in their third generation of business.

Ais Kacang (with banana) RM 2.50


Looks tempting eh? Truth is , it really does taste as good as it looks. I suspect the grass jelly is home made because it tasted really different from what the market has. There was generous slices of banana (there's other choices of fruits or you can opt to have it without any fruits) and somehow they manage to make the sweetness of the ais kacang maintained even after the ice has melted. This is no doubt the best ais kacang i've ever tasted.

Curry Mee RM 4


The Penang Curry Mee is basically a bowl of yellow noodles with spicy coconut-milk based broth garnished with cockles, bean sprout, bean curd puffs, cuttlefish and top with mint leaves. What differs the Penang version of curry mee from the rest of the states is that they usually include coagulated pig's blood. This is my first time trying curry mee and I liked it. It's quite filling tho' so if you intend to try lots of food, try to have this shared.

Loh Bak RM 7


The name Loh Bak is derived from the starchy brown sauce (on the left), Loh while Bak is literally meat in hokkien Almost everywhere in Penang sells loh bak but I have to say this one takes the cream. The chilli sauce goes well with the fried bak and to top that up, it is reasonably priced for the portion.

Oyster Omelette RM 5


My visit to Penang is never complete without eating or chien. The one I had it here is good and crispy- something not many stalls can do but I thought they could work out more on the chilli sauce. Plus, there was too little oysters.

Popiah RM 3


I was quite surprised to see it coming in a pool of gravy (from the yambean) as I've never seen popiah served this way. The popiah was delicious and the chilli sauce spread on the crepe was the bomb. Highly recommended and this is coming from someone who doesn't fancy popiah.

This is certainly going to be the place for me to fix my temptation for good local Penang food.

I walked back to my hotel, happy and satisfied. When i reach the hotel , i took a good three hours nap. This, i call is , A life of a foodchoholic. ;p

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Penang Famous Chendol

Pink Color Rice

Organized a block gathering and had the food catered from the hostel's cafe. Ordered a few dishes and they were alright. Except for this particular PINK RICE! and NO, i didn't order it! I asked for fried rice, and they came in striking Pink Color! Apparently my friend told me they mixed with rose syrup and hence the color. Taste ? It was edible but i thought it was a tad weird with the rose fragrant.

Nando's

During one of my brief visit to KL, i've had the chance of eating Nando's. I haven't had it for a long time and it was rather nostalgic for me because i used to like it a lot when I was young. Back then not much people have heard of Nando's yet.

The franchise owner is actually a lady. She brought her father to Nando's when her dad was visiting her when she was still in university. Her dad liked Nando's a lot and asked her if she wants to open in Malaysia.



The interior hasn't change a bit. I'm referring to the one in Mid Valley. It was exactly the same as it was many years back.



I was there alone and they led me inside to a two seater table.( I was in KL for just seven hours. I wanted to get some imported groceries- the ones that might not be available in my hometown so I just stopped by Mid Valley).



The signature sauce. I finished at least half a bottle of the extra spicy one. It takes a while for the spicyness to kick in and as much as I don't want to sound ego here, the extra spicy isn't that spicy. ;p



I ordered the quarter set and it comes with two sides of my choice. I chose to have fresco salad and traditional cut fries. The portion looked small but it was quite filling. I couldn't even finish the fries!



For my drink, I went for the house specialty. It was a concotion of apple juice, sprite, 100 plus and lemon. A refreshing combination.

** Sorry for the lack of updates. Too tied up with deadlines the whole week. I just finish my last assignment in the evening, so look forward for more updates!