James Foo Western Food, All Seasons Place, Bandar Baru Air Itam, Penang

I realized that I seldom post about western cuisines but more on Japanese cuisines instead. Today, I am going to share with you one of the famous "local" western food in Penang. I went to James Foo for the first time last weekend during my Christmas Walk Around Penang. They have two outlets in Penang, one at Fettes Park and another one at All Seasons Place, the new "Strip Mall" in Bandar Baru Air Itam. I went to the one at All Seasons Place, which was newly-opened not long ago on 19 December 2012. I reached there at around 11PM at night and to my surprise, almost FULL HOUSE.

James Foo Western Food

Before I went there, my friend told me James Foo is quite famous and the food is quite nice. But, no one tells me it is cheap. How cheap? Let's read till the end. By the time I read the menu, I thought they gave me the wrong menu.

James Foo Western Food

Tissue paper

They even have their own printed tissue paper. When I mentioned "local" western food at the beginning of the post, I mean that James Foo is a local restaurant, serving western food, not those franchise from US or other western countries. Now, let's look at their menu.

Menu Page 1

Menu Page 2

Please click the pictures above for larger view. In today's world, where everything is so expensive, where can you find a restaurant serving mushroom soup at RM3!!! Fish & Chip at RM9!!! Not even road-side stalls or food courts offer this kind of price!

Grilled Chicken and Fish Combo

Grilled Garlic Chicken

That night I ordered the above two items. But I heard their Chicken Gordon Bleu is quite famous but sold out by the time I ordered. About the taste, I would say it is nice based on the price. I mean, with that price, we cannot expect something like those in TGIF or hotels. The taste is pretty much normal and average, but with that kind of prices, I guess it is good enough. Just to be fair :)

Receipt

Surprisingly, we still can eat western food for RM24.10 for 2 pax in Year 2012. No service charges and no government tax.

Venue

James Foo Western Food, All Seasons Place, Bandar Baru Air Itam, Penang

(At Lebuhraya Thean Teik)

Price

Grilled Chicken and Fish Combo RM11.00

Grilled Garlic Chicken RM8.50

NO Service Charges

NO Government Tax

Business Hours

5PM to 11:30PM

(as for now until further notice)

Facebook

James Foo Western Food Facebook

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Merry Christmas 2012

Ho! Ho! Ho! Christmas is here today! Suppose that this post should come up yesterday but I was too busy doing other things. So it got delayed. But no worries, post can be delayed but not Christmas! I went around Penang on last weekend to snap a few pictures of Christmas decoration around Penang. I went to Gurney Plaza,  G Hotel, Gurney Paragon, Straits Quay and All Seasons Place. I planned to go to 1st Avenue and Prangin Mall too but due to heavy traffic jam, I went to Gurney Plaza. Compared to last year decoration, this year, the decoration is much better. I saw someone posted on the Facebook that 1st Avenue decoration this year is using pink color as the theme and Prangin Mall decoration is not bad too. But, I did not manage to snap any. If anyone did took any pictures, please share with me at the comment box below.

Gurney Plaza

Gurney Plaza

Gurney Plaza is one of the shopping malls in Penang, situated along Gurney Drive. Every years, Gurney attracted a lot of youngsters and even elders to celebrate Christmas there. I saw a lot of people along Gurney Drive with a lot of police yesterday when I passed by. I heard from my friend that in the past, the youngsters will simply use the snow sprays to spray around including the passing cars, causing them hard to drive. But I guess, things got better recently because I guess more police are patrolling around the place.

Inside Gurney Plaza

Entrance of Gurney Plaza

G Hotel

G Hotel

Next, I walked to G Hotel as it located next to Gurney Plaza only. G Hotel is one of the most luxurious hotels in Penang. It is also known as Penang's Most Stylish Address. I guess G stands for Gurney. The "G" icon above is the hotel famous icon, located in front of the hotel. It will change according to festivals.

Inside G Hotel

Charity

This year, G Hotel held an annual Christmas charity under the "Christmas tree". The orphans will write their wishes and hanged on the Christmas tree. Anyone can pick the wish cards and fulfill the wishes for the orphans. For details, click the picture above.

Gurney Paragon

Gurney Paragon

Gurney Paragon is a new shopping mall in Penang. It is located next to G Hotel. The mall is still under construction, I mean partly. The F&B outlets are most operating now and it is a nice place to hangout. Definitely a good place for chit-chat or walk and shopping in future, I think Year 2013. It is a surprise in Penang, I think. Most of the F&B outlets here are first in Penang. Wait for more surprises from Gurney Paragon in Year 2013!

Gurney Paragon

St. Jo

Water fountain

Water fountain

Straits Quay

Straits Quay

Straits Quay is the Penang's First Seafront Retail Marina. I did posted a review about Straits Quay last year. Straits Quay is also another good place to hangout too because it has a lot of pubs and bars here as well as other F&B outlets serving different cuisines around the world. During weekends, it has Street Market where you can find a lot of the stuffs from clothes to food.

Books Christmas Tree

More pictures here.

All Seasons Place

All Seasons Place

All Seasons Place is the first and largest retail-commercial lifestyle 'Strip Mall' in Penang. It is newly-opened and is located at Thean Teik Highway at Bandar Baru Air Itam. This was my first time here too. I didn't explore much here because it was late and most of the shops are not operating yet. It is a place for you to be at all seasons throughout the years.

I managed to travel to these few places only this year. But yes, I didn't post out a lot pictures because I mainly wanted to share the Christmas "fever" in Penang in this post. Personally, I do not celebrate Christmas "officially" because I am a Buddhist. But, I enjoy and love to join in the fun of the celebration. In the past, I did enjoyed Christmas a lot because it is a public holiday here in Malaysia. In recent years, life changed and Christmas is no longer that great anymore. I don't know why but this year, I would consider it as a pretty good one for me. In the past, I hope I can receive a lot of presents during this day but I got none till now. But I think my wish for this year would be, I want to be a happy person again and I hope everyone around me can be health and happy with me. As long as I can laugh and smile every day, I think this is the best present for me! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013!

Details

Please the links below to go to respective websites or Facebook for latest updates.

Gurney Plaza, Penang

G Hotel, Penang

Gurney Paragon, Penang

Straits Quay, Penang

All Seasons Place, Penang

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Ong Cheng Huat Seafood, Bagan Lallang, Butterworth, Penang

Supposingly, I cannot write this post anymore and you cannot read it too because we are "supposed" to be dead by now, 21-12-2012. But somehow, there must be a mistake in Mayan calendar which I hope it will stay wrong forever and ever. Besides the Dooms Day, today is also Winter Solstice according to lunar calendar. But I am not going to talk about Winter Solstice as I am having a bad day today, leave it for my next post, hopefully. Ok, let's get back to business. Ong Cheng Huat, a seafood restaurant at Penang Mainland and I had my lunch there today. This restaurant is a seafood restaurant but it is not located near any seas or rivers or even ponds. It is situated near the jungle, and how I wonder it was called a seafood restaurant.

Ong Cheng Huat Seafood

Under the blazing sun, I took this picture because the sign board is far away from the restaurant and it is near the road entrance. Normally, people go to this restaurant for the spring chickens. Yes! spring chicken! Again, not-so-related to seafood. But one thing, the seafood here is very fresh, even not near the sea. They do sell a lot of seafood here but limited as compared to other seafood restaurants.

Fried noodle

I really like the fried noodle here. Although my friend from Penang claimed that this is just a normal fried noodle available elsewhere in Penang too but to me, NO! The other fried noodle is different from this one, maybe because my friend seldom eats outside.

Fried Kangkong with Sambal

Kangkong is also known as water glorybind, water spinach, water convolvulus or swamp cabbage! Sambal is a mixture of spices, shrimps, chili and some other stuffs and it is spicy. Weird thing, they only have 2 types of vegetables, either Kangkong or Emperor Vegetable (Basella Alba).

Spring chicken

Spring chicken

In case if you don't know what is spring chicken, it is a young chicken, aged from one or two to ten months old. It has a tender meat. My own definition, I called it "the son of the chicken" or "the baby chicken". The meat is different from the adult chicken.

Steamed fish

Juicy and fresh

Whity fresh

The fish above is called "ang sai" in Hokkien. Its scientific name is Lutjanus erythropterus. It is also known as Crimson seaperch, Saddle-tail perch or Rounded snapper. It is very fresh. They steamed the fish with garlic, ginger and some ingredients. You choose either fish head or fish tail. Must try!

Since only my friend and I were going, so we didn't order much to avoid food wastage. I went there a few times and I think their "Quality Check" is really good, always the fresh one only to be on the tables. Besides, food serving time is really fast, all the above dishes were served within 10 minutes. I guess it is because they have a big kitchen with lots of chefs. With their limited menu, each chef is specialized in one dish, so serving time is fast. Not to forget, it is quite cheap too! Do try out if you are in Penang Mainland.

Venue

Ong Cheng Huat Seafood, Bagan Lallang, Butterworth, Penang

Google Map

View Larger Map

Price

Fried noodle RM5.00 (2 pax)

Fried Kangkong with Sambal RM5.00 (2 pax)

Spring chicken RM12.00 (RM6 each)

Steamed Fish Head RM26 (one side of head)

Business Hours

11AM - 5:30PM

Closed on Mondays

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Hock Seng Rojak (Rojak King), Macallum Street, Penang

Last few weekends, I was hunting for this so-called Rojak King. I am very curious of this self-proclaimed Rojak King and I decided to drive all the way to GeorgeTown to hunt down the "king". But, to my disappointment, I went to the wrong side of the town. But, I got lucky last weekend because finally I managed to hunt down the so-called Rojak King. I will tell you how get there at the end of this post because it is kinda tricky. If you follow my post about GP Soon Rojak, you should have know what is rojak. If you have not, let me summarize it, rojak is some sort like fruit salad, just that the sauce is totally different. When it comes to food, most of the people like to self-claimed that they are the best, Number 1 or this, the King! How often do you really think this true? But this Rojak King, finally, you found one in a million, the real hidden "king" in the midst of self-proclaimed kings.

Rojak King

I don't know the reason they called themselves Rojak King but if you ask me, their rojak paste is really different from the one I had before in my life. Their rojak paste is so thick that it is hard to dip in the fruits. Besides that, normal rojak paste is just a paste but some people add in peanuts, chili power or chili paste and belacan powder to boost the taste. This Rojak King, they add in dried shrimp apart from the one aforementioned, directly making them the King of Rojak. Dried shrimp really really enhance or boost the taste to the max. When I put the paste in my car, the smell of the dried shrimp filled up my whole car in seconds. So, for those who allergic to shrimps or hate the smell of the dried shrimps, please be aware! But according to the owner, previously, this stall was operated by an old man but he has retired since he is old and weak now. I think the old man is her father.

Thicky rojak paste

Peanuts

Dried shrimp

Adding in the dried shrimp, fabulous!

Rojak paste

Do I need to write more? I guess the pictures above are more than enough to make you drool now. For our Muslim friends, I am not sure if this is "halal" or not because I do not see any "Ditanggung Halal" sign as in GP Soon Rojak. If you ask me to compare which one is better, I would tell you, Rojak King and GP Soon Rojak have different type of rojak paste. Rojak King's paste is like tasting chocolate, seriously, my friends said it was like eating chocolate fondue. GP Soon's paste is like normal rojak paste but the taste is better than the normal one. "King" is always different, no? So, no one is better because both of them still serves the best rojak in Penang.

She is very friendly

Left: Big
Middle: Medium
Right: Small

Small

After I mixed the paste

The current owner is very friendly. I managed to snap nice pictures are all because of her. Since they are quite famous, their rojak is a bit pricey. The price ranges from RM6 to RM12. The reason behind is because I think dried shrimp is not cheap and because of the fame. But, good food does not come cheap. The different between small, medium and big is shown in the picture above. But, for big one, they give 2 rojak pastes. The portion of the fruits and squid vary according to the size and price. For take-away, rojak paste is separated from the fruits and the paste is put in the small container. If you want to eat on the spot, you can request them to mix the paste and fruits together for you. I recommend not to mix together if you want to take away as the fruits will become watery and the whole rojak will be watery. Try it out and let me know how would you describe the rojak paste.

Price

Venue

Hock Seng Rojak (Rojak King), Macallum Street, Penang

Phone Number: +6016-4030724, +6016-4772472

Location Details

The location is a bit difficult to find because to be exact, it is at Gat Lebuh Cecil 1 (don't why they put Macallum Street). It is located in front of Sin Hong Leong coffee shop and it is trishaw stall. If you go from the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway from Bayan Lepas, keep right at the highway and turn right at the first traffic light to Gat Lebuh Cecil 1. The stall is on your left after you turn in. Do not turn to Gat Lebuh Cecil on the left. It is not at the left side (Town Side) but it is at the right side (Sea Side). See the picture below.

"B" is the location of Rojak King

Price

Small RM6.00 (include 1 rojak paste)

Medium RM8.00 (include 1 rojak paste)

Big RM12.00 (include 2 rojak pastes)

Rojak Paste RM7.00 (sold separately)

Business Hours

1:30PM - 5PM

Closed on Mondays

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