Recognition Dinner at the Farquhar Mansion, Penang

After weeks of hard work, my manager get the green light from the director to treat the team with good meal and the team decided to have fine dining experience at the Farquhar Mansion in Penang.

Farquhar Mansion is rated as the 2nd out of 1,112 restaurants in Penang island and also 2nd out of 1,214 places to eat in Penang island, so it's great to have fine dining experience at the Farquhar Mansion. For those who do not know where Farquhar Mansion is, the place is located directly opposite from the E&O Hotel, although my colleague told me besides E&O which cause me to round the same area three times. The exact address of Farquhar Mansion is at 33, Lebuh Farquhar, George Town, 10200 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. It is one of the two bungalow in the Mission Place.

The Farquhar Mansion Chef's Tasting Menu consists of multiple course meal ranging from appetizer to entree to dessert and if you are not a heavy on food, I think the portion served at the Farquhar Mansion will be sufficient.

We started off with some pre-appetizer which consist of pesto granita, followed by the air dry duck breast dipped in espuma asparagus mousse and finally the cod ball. I like the pesto granita and the air dry duck breast which I think taste a bit like bacon, but the deep fried cod ball maybe too dry for my liking. After that we are served with the bread and three flavored butter in which both I've forgotten the name (symptom of getting too hungry already).

Pesto Granita

Air dry duck breast dipped in espuma asparagus mousse

  

Deep fried cod ball

  

Then we are served with the oyster which has the capellini (the noodle) on top with caviar and cauliflower mousse blending in to complete the oyster. I really like the taste of this fresh oyster where the oyster just melt in the mouth. Unfortunately the oyster is not in the ala-carte menu.

Oyster

 

After that we are served with the main appetizer which is the the Foie Gras, which includes duck rillette tartlet, port wine emulsion, apple salad and apple chutney. For those who are wondering how the Foie Gras taste, I don't like it a bit - the duck's liver taste very plain and bland and slightly bitter. Some people might like it, but definitely Foie Gras is not my type of food; though it is a good experience tasting it.

Foie Gras

Juicy and Tender Sirloin Steak at the STG Tea House Cafe, Ipoh

Last weekends, we celebrated my brother's birthday in advance at the STG Tea House Cafe. My mum suggested the place as we have never been to the place but we have heard of the place many times. STG (I supposed short for Sabah Tea Garden) is located at 2, Jalan Taman Kinta, Chateau Garden, Ipoh 30250, Malaysia but I believe finding STG Tea House Cafe in most of the GPS will get the direction to the location. The cafe is actually an old bungalow with quiet and peaceful surrounding.

Although the place is famous for its tea, I did not order tea, but instead cafe latte and I found that the latte is quite up to standard. I should have ordered a red wine to match the sirloin steak that I ordered, but most wines are sold in bottle only. The sirloin steak that I ordered was medium, although there are parts from the sirloin steak that I have was slightly overcooked.

The steak is served only in the black pepper sauce, with some vegetables and potato which is cut into small cubes as the sides .While those overcooked parts are harder to chew and savor the tenderness of the meat, most of the meat are properly done. The fat layer of the sirloin is melted properly into the meat making the steak juicy, tender and delicious, just the way I like steak.

Overall STG Tea House Cafe serves exciting steaks like the sirloin steak and the rib eye steak as well as most western food (some of which I will blog about it next time) and finally some local delicacies. The pricing of the food is rather high for Ipoh standard, but I think it is normal for fine-dining-like cafe. I'm pretty sure the place is more suitable for high tea event, so maybe one of these days I will go back to try the high tea.

Famous Chicken Rice Ball at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah, Malacca

The famous Chicken Rice Ball at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah in Malacca

I went to Malacca last month for a short weekend getaway trip with my family members. We have been planning for a short trip to help clear our mind after a busy first half of the year. We have decided to try some of the famous hawker food in Malacca, like the famous chicken rice ball at the Kedai Kopi Chung Wah which is located at  18, Jalan Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka.

One must not help but notice that it's quite an old coffee shop and like most famous hawker food, we only come to enjoy the food rather than the ambient of the place, well definitely it's not the most comfortable place to dine in. My advice is, go there as early as possible; like around 10am since it starts operate at that time to avoid long queue under the hot sun and the disappointment of not having the taste of the chicken rice ball when it is sold out.

Since we are aware of this, this place was our second agenda during the short getaway and we still queue quite some time before we are seated. I like the process of queuing outside of the shop rather than you try grab your own seat because some who are more polite will end up leaving the shop after all the tables taken up by others and this way, the people who come first will be served first.

Cheap Steak From The Steak Hut at Suzi's Corner

My brother told me that there is a place to eat cheap steak in Kuala Lumpur and the place is around our condo in the capital. During my last visit to the capital, we actually plan to have dinner in one of the hawker which has nice Chinese food (my father suggested the place since he prefer Chinese food) but unfortunately it was close for business on that day, most probably due to Ching Ming.


So finally we decided to give this Steak Hut a try. Suzi's Corner is where the Steak Hut's stall is located and it's like within five to ten minutes drive from our condo. It was about to rain by the time we reach there and even just about dinner time, Suzi's Corner is practically full house, and guess what, not only the place is swarmed with not only the locals but with a lot of foreigners; either tourists or some expats working in the capital.

We've ordered three sets of the sizzling sirloin steak and since my mum has to control her food, she decided to order the grilled fish while my elder sister ordered the seafood platter. We also ordered some local favorite - satay from other stall while waiting for our main course, because we were told we have to wait like 45 minutes to about an hour for the food. The satay actually pretty nice, especially the sauce with the meat being tender and what I like most is that the satay use lean meat rather than fat ones.

Beef and chicken satay

Grilled fish

Seafood platter

Chilling out at iMiirage in Ipoh

Today, my family and I went to chill out at somewhere special where we have ambience dining environment - at iMiirage. IMiirage, which by now must be one of the the place where people in Ipoh or stopping by in Ipoh to have fine dining experience, after heavily promoted through the social media like the Facebook. For those who are looking for this restaurant, it is actually located at the 2nd floor in the same building as the Nam Heong Cafe.

iMiirage is located just above the Nam Heong Cafe

Well, we don't really come for fine dining experience but rather just to drop by to chill out while enjoying the aquarium like environment; and in fact we are lucky not to have dinner here. It seems that meals were fully booked throughout the Chinese New Year season, so, if we were to really have our dinner or lunch here, it will be months after this.


We took a while to find the entrance - and the entrance is just behind the Nam Heong entrance, where one can see the lift which will bring a group of seven to eight people to the main entrance of the iMiirage. The ground floor entrance looks like clubs while the main entrance is pretty simple with a receptionist counter greeting the prospective customer before seating them.

I must say, the restaurant is pretty small - and the aquarium really surrounds the place, although in C shape; while the ceiling is decorated with small LED lights which make them look like stars. The tables and chairs are humungous, so the place cannot really cater for a lot of customers at one time.

While the place seems nice, the same cannot be said unto the desserts. We've ordered some desserts and few drinks, as there is a minimum amount to spend per person (RM25). In order to fulfill the quota, we ordered Vanilla Pot Crème Brûlée, Dark Chocolate & Almond Flourless Torte and Baked Cheese Cake with Berry Coulis -  and we all agree that the dessert can be better for the price that we are paying.

The creme brulee doesn't really taste like custard and I think it lacks of sweet taste in it. Although the dark chocolate and almond torte looks nice, I found it a bit too dry and I believe some of the cake from Secret Recipe might taste way better; maybe again due to the lack of taste with the torte. I don't really tasted the cheese cake, so I cannot really say much about it. My cup of coffee and cappuccino come with the size of one or maybe twice the espresso only - I can only drink once and then I'm done with it and the taste is not superb and the coffee fragrant was not there; although I believe a more suitable drink in places like this would be red wine....so, I cannot complain much.

Overall, I won't be recommending people to chill out at iMiirage, mainly due to the minimum spending required, but then again one can actually visited the place just for the ambience of the restaurant, while not expecting much from the desserts. Of course, I might have my dinner there one of the day in near future, and my perception towards the place might have change after that.