Ah Lim Birthday Mee @ Jalan Macalister Penang

When we walked along Jalan Macalister during the recent Penang trip, we were attracted by a banner hanging outside a shop written big and clear "Ah Lim Birthday Noodles" (written in Chinese). The curiosity had brought us into the shop to try out what is this birthday mee is all about!

The phrase appeared to be very fresh to us because as far as Penang delicacies are concern, people will normally think of those signature stuff like Penang Char Kway Teow, Hokkien Mee, Penang Laksa and etc etc. "Birthday mee" is something never came across our mind and never heard as well.

As the day still early, there were not many customers in the shop. We ordered 3 plates of Birthday Mee. While waiting for the noodles to be served, my curiosity exploded! As so, I walked around the stall where the noodle was prepare, taking photos and read some newspaper cutting displayed on the stall introduce about the stall, then tried to "interview" the owner.

"Boss, why it is called Birthday Mee har?", I asked in Mandarin. The owner's reply was very simple, "because people did eat this noodle during birthday lo...". Direct enough? But he replied me in a very humble, soft and shy way. He didn't have the ego like some of the widely well-known eateries around the country. Maybe his stall still not achieve that level yet? ;)

To satisfied our curiosity, the owner was kind enough to share some books introducing his stall and his foods to us so that we could be more informative about his product. You just can't underestimate his popularity when his stall as well as the food had been properly documented inside an well-established book, can you?

The noodles we ordered were served to us just in a couple of minutes. That's the moment our curiosity finally get fulfilled when the real thing was placed in front of our eyes. The Birthday Mee was actually the noodles what people from Peninsular used to call as "Lam Mee" which refers to noodles served with gravy.

From the information I get, what make this Ah Lim's Lam Mee so special is that there is no Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) a.k.a Ajinomoto or artificial flavor was added when preparing the gravy. It was cooked using the pork spare ribs for hours to get its natural sweetness. The noodles used are also specially selected from a specific supplier which didn't have bitter taste to preserve the deliciousness of the mee.

The dish also garnished with some bean sprouts, shallots, pinkish slivers of eggs, prawns and also some brownish ingredient which I couldn't figure out what they were. The taste didn't leave me with too much of impression, but for those who prefer to eat a lighter flavor's food, this is the one you should never miss!! The sambal provided is to add extra kick to the dish if you wish.

A plate of Birthday Mee is RM 3.00. Pretty affordable! We also had tried the nutmeg drink, which is a very popular beverage in Penang! Sorry... I forgot about the price..

The Legendary Sisters Char Kway Teow @ Jalan Macalister Penang

Talking about Penang Char Kway Teow which is one of the signature hawker food in Penang, there are too many stalls or coffee shops around Penang you can actually get the food. I believe its status quo is almost equivalent to Kampua Mee in Sibu (Sarawak) where it's just too hard not to find it at nearly every coffee shop existed in the region!

I had Google around the net on the most authentic and famous Char Kway Teow in Penang before I went there months ago, but most of the write up I found is about a stall near Lorong Selamat. I'll leave the Lorong Selamat one for my coming post. For the time being, I'll reveal about another Char Kway Teow which had existed in Penang about half a century ago! I never heard or read about this stall before until our "tour guide" introduce it to us. He told us that it is one of the best Char Kway Teow in Penang.

To try it out, we had a 15-20 minutes' walk all the way from Garden Inn to an isolated coffee shop located at Jalan Macalister (somewhere near the junction of Perak Road and Macalister Road). Lam Heng Cafe is its name and here is where the Penang famous "Sisters Char Kway Teow" stall is located.

It's named so because the Char Kway Teow stall is operated by a pair of sisters. The Lam's sisters had fried the flat rice noodles a.k.a. Kway Teow for around 50 years exactly at this venue! Can you imagine that? Our country Malaysia is just about 52 years in age but they had involved in Char Kway Teow for around 50 years and until now the stall still standing tall! No wonder our tour guide told us both sisters had "produced" few bungalows just by doing this business!!

At the moment I stepped into the cafe and saw an old ladies frying Kway Teow at the entrance, I was a bit shocked. I believed that she must be one of the "legendary" sister who built up the "Sisters Char Kway Teow" branding, but she was far much older than I expected. Perhaps my imagination was affected by a classical photo I saw on a magazine about the sisters.

We took a seat near the rear part of the shop as the front part was filled and ordered 3 plates of fried Kway Teow. The service was really slow, we had waited for more than 30 minutes if not mistaken before the famous Sisters Char Kway Teow was placed on our table. A bit lost patient, but when you think of the 70++ years old lady handle the wok, you just have to forgive and salute her.

The Char Kway Teow was nice from the look, with prawns, eggs, bean sprouts topped with some shredded crab meat and placed on top of a banana leaf. But when I put it in the mouth, it's a way too oily and it just couldn't give me the "Ummmph!" feel. It was far from my expectation. I believed such a well-known Char Kway Teow deserved to be much tastier than this!

Anyway, I didn't feel the Char Kway Teow was that bad, perhaps it's just because of the inconsistent cooking standard and luck problem (bear in mind the cooking was done by a 70++ years old lady). Maybe just our luck not good on that day that's why we didn't get the best! Some people even commented that the fried Kway Teow is "not as before" but some claimed it is still the best!

No matter how, I will definitely try out this Char Kway Teow again at another time (if have chance) hope for a tastier serving. I believe that it worth a try even just for its legendary!  A plate of Char Kway Teow is RM4.00 (by-default order) and the price may vary if you request for less or more ingredients add-on.

For those who wish to visit the Sisters Char Kway Teow, here are some info about the cafe:

Address: Lam Heng Cafe, 185, Macalister Road.
Open: 8.30am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-4.30pm
Close: Mondays

The Authentic Penang Asam Laksa @ Pasar Air Itam Penang

I am not a big fan of Penang asam laksa. Been tried once many years ago, what left in my impression is that I don't like "some" of its taste.

But during my Penang trip recently, I never forgot to try on this local delicacy again which is so synonym to the town as far as its hawker food is concern! Talking about Penang Asam Laksa, I would just look for a stall which serves the most authentic asam laksa in Penang! This stall is located at Pasar Ait Air Itam, just near the foot of Kek Lok Si temple.

The laksa stall existed 3-4 decades ago and it's another generation-to-generation business. I get to know that in the morning this place is actually a wet market and the laksa stall will only open for business at around 11.30am until night.

The stall is always pack with patrons for a reason. Obviously is not because of its environment. Tables were place beside a small drain, flies can be seen everywhere and the place should be hot especially during afternoon time. Definitely not an ideal ambience for enjoying foods.

So, it's either the asam laksa here is so legendary or the laksa here poses a certain quality of deliciousness which make people craving for it. I believe it is both! Lengendary for tourists and local coming back for its deliciousness. Actually I believe these 2 factors are co-exist. The lengendary won't go too far without the deliciousness of the food, agree?

The key to the deliciousness of a bowl of Penang Asam Laksa at Pasar Air Itam is lies on its soured broth which is cooked with mashed fish, tamarind or asam (the source of the sourness), lemongrass and galangal.

Before serving a bowl of the laksa to customer, a big scoop of boiling hot broth will be poured into the bowl consists of rice vermecilli topping with ginger flower buds (bunga kantan), slices of onion, cucumber, lettuce, chilli and mint leaves. The soup will then be poured back to the pot and this steps would be repeated for 3-4 times before a final scoop of hot soup been placed onto the mixture and a spoon of prawn paste been added to the laksa and served to the customers.

It is believed that this is to make sure all the ingredients in the bowl will be served hot and there will be sufficient mashed fish topping the laksa. The taste is fantastic and so distinctive actually especially for those who love sour and spicy food.

I personally don't like the smell and taste of bunga kantan although I like the sourness of the soup. That's why I said I am not a big fan of Penang Asam Laksa. No matter how, I'll revisit the stall if have chance. With RM3 a bowl, it's definitely worth the money!

A Rushed Visit to Kek Lok Si Temple @ Air Itam Penang

Our last but not least destination on the Penang trip on 6th Oct was the place that is so synonym with Penang's tourism, the Kek Lok Si temple near Air Itam. Supposed it was the 1st or if not the 1st it would be the first few venue to visit in our plan but somehow we changed it just because of the asam laksa at Air Itam which according to our tour guide will only open in the afternoon.

We reached the place at past 4pm, a little bit late actually. Tourists are advised to leave the temple compound latest at 6.30pm and some places such as the Bronze Kuan Yin statue area will be closed at 5.30pm.

We knew we were seriously out of time. Kek Lok Si isn't small and it is among the biggest Buddhism temple in South East Asia! With just less than 2 hours to go, we got to be hurry!

Therefore, we stopped at each station for a short while just enough to snap some photos before we continue to the next. We were looking for the entrance to the bronze Kuan Yin statue along the way which required a short ride of incline lift.

By following some signboard and after walking through a series of souvenir shops, we finally found the incline lift station which is "hidden" at a corner of a souvenir shop. Using the incline lift required a person to pay RM2.00 for one way. The staff told us the last lift to come down from the hill is at 5.30pm. There is an alternative road lead down, but it requires you to walk down the hill.

The unique thing about the incline lift is it moved diagonally instead of vertically for a typical lift. The interior is about the same, but the upper part of the incline lift was made from glass to allow tourists to view the beautiful scenery along the way.

It only took about 10 minutes to reach the higher hill where the bronze Kuan Yin statue is located. This is amazing! The 30.2 meters tall gigantic Goddess of Mercy statue was in front of my eyes and it was truly impressive!! A 20-story tall octagonal pavilion was still in construction to serve as the canopy shelter to the Kuan Yin statue with 16 granite pillars supporting the structure! It's truly an amazing construction to me!

 [The impressive gigantic Bronze Kuan Yin statue and the pavilion which served as its shelter]

We couldn't spend too much time here as the workers were chasing us for the last inclined lift downhill 15 minutes earlier than the actual time. After reaching the lower hill, we then continued our visiting to the most iconic Kek Lok Si building structure - "Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas" by paying RM2.00.

[Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas]

We spent some time here snapping photos before ended up our trip by visiting the most famous Penang asam laksa near the foot of Kek Lok Si temple.

Penang Butterfly Farm @ Teluk Bahang Penang

After lunch, we continued our Penang trip to the next destination - Penang Butterfly Farm at Teluk Bahang. We gone through a series of head spinning and curving mountain roads along Batu Ferringhi before reaching the destination. Our driver cum tour guide was kind enough to inform us that Malaysian will have discount for its admission fee.

Once reached the place, our tour guide lead us to the entrance where the ticket counter was located. He then quickly told the staff on duty "3 people" and he helped the on-duty staff to place some kinda sticker on our sleeve as a prove of payment I believe. He then told us "one person RM20". Without much thought and hesitation, we paid the amount, took the tickets and leaflets given to us and went into the butterfly farm.

For your acknowledgment, this butterfly farm is the world 1st tropical live butterfly and insect sanctuary! Can you believe this? Maybe it's not the world first but it is the world first in tropical region! It was opened to the public in March 1986, which is about 14 years of history by now!

Once entered to the farm compound, awaiting in front of your eyes was the beauty of tropical floras. The more impressive thing is that plenty of butterflies were flying around! These butterflies were so used to the human, so they will fly so close to you touching your skin as well as hair. If you are lucky enough, they may just stop on your arm or on your camera!

I never felt so easy to take photos of an insect before until I was here! It was the first time I took some close up on butterflies. However, it was not as easy as I thought. Bringing camera too close to the butterflies will scare them and they may just fly away! So, preferably bring a higher performance camera and I believe getting quality photos of a butterfly is something you could achieve in this farm!

If you think that it is all about butterflies only in a butterfly farm then perhaps you are wrong! Besides this beautiful insect, there are a lot more to see! At one corner inside the farm, the disgusting giant millipedes are shown to the public. Yes! We are talking about GIANT millipedes and not the normal one! The size is about maybe 20x of the normal millipedes which sometimes you could found at your house compound? Can you imagine that?

At another tunnel is where the live black scorpions were placed. These scorpions tend to stay in a group and didn't move around! Perhaps they were having an afternoon nap at the time of our visit? I am not sure though... but don't try to put your finger in to disturb them unless you really wanna find yourself some big trouble!

We also saw 2 green iguanas lazying around at a corner and what caught our attention more were a series of insects which were camouflage experts and blend so well with the surroundings. Moving Leaf insect, stick insects and so on are the only some I could name of. We spent quite some time spotting them and that was really fun!

[2 green Iguana]

[Can you spot where the Moving Leaf insect is??]

[A type of stick insects]

Insectarium or the mini zoo which located inside the butterfly farm compound is where all the unique creatures (not just insects actually) which we hardly see in our daily life were showcased. Among them were horned frogs/dried-leaf frogs (Megophrys nasuta) which look exactly like the dried leaves on the floor, some weird lizards which make me stood 3-feet away, flourecent scorpions, human-face bugs, tarantula, whipe scorpions and so on. There were so much of surprises in this section!

[One type of lizard]

[The lizards which have camouflage appearance]

[Dried leaves or horned frogs?]

[Whip scorpion]

That's not all! There were also theater room, A/V room and insect museum inside the farm to give education or organize some educational programs for the students and public to build up awareness towards the beauty of the insect world as well as the mother nature.

[Part of the insect museum]

[The landscape inside the farm is very pretty too!]

We wish to stay longer at the farm yet the time was chasing on us. I believe that there were more thing to explore if we could spend more time there. Before leaving the farm compound, we walked through a series of gift and souvenir shop where the only exit was located. We truly enjoy the visiting!

 [Spotted a giant rhino beetle sculpture near the exit]

=====================================================================p/s: Still remember I mentioned earlier about the special rate for the admission fee for MyKad holders? Suppose it is 50% off for MyKad holders which means it should be RM10 per entry for each of us. However, we somehow didn't get any discount from that and we paid full like any other Japanese/Korean/China fellas! I had a long thought about it after this Penang trip yet until now I still cannot find an exact answer. I considered 2 situations:
1) Our driver cum tour guide was the one rushing to the counter and told the staff on-duty there were 3 visitors. He's the one placed a sticker on us as a prove of payment. Was there some tricks to confuse us in between?
2) Our driver cum tour guide was a very nice person and he served his customers very carefully. He just tried to be helpful by order the entry tickets ahead of us so that we could save more time for visiting. In hurry, he somehow forgot to tell the staff we are Malaysian who entitled for the special discount as he has plenty of customers come all the way from Japan (Yes! He can even speak Japanese!!).

I always tried to think positively, so I tried to convince myself that it is the 2nd case as I couldn't deny that throughout the trip, he really served us very well and he presented to me as a friendly, polite and professional person. No matter how, the RM20 we paid still worth the money!