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Queensbay Mall is the current talk of town since it’s opening early December this year. It’s the most happening place right now apart from Gurney Plaza which was located at Gurney Drive. Queensbay Mall is located around the Bayan Lepas’ Free Commercial Zone(FCZ). Said to be the largest and longest shopping mall in Penang. It also brings Penang it’s first Jusco shopping outlet.

Since it’s grand opening in early December, Queensbay Mall is heavily frequented with shoppers every night particularly during the weekends as well as public holidays. You can see that by looking at the number of cars parked inside as well as outside the mall.

As you enter the main entrance which is situated at the middle of the mall, you’ll be greeted by 3 Christmas trees placed on the exhibition stage right in the middle of the building. 2 of which are about 1 1/2 storeys high and another is about 2 1/2 storeys high. It’s obviously due to it’s opening was during the Christmas month and therefore, Christmas theme was used. Well, go there and look at the trees if you are interested before they give way to the next celebration.

Generally, the walkways/corridors are spacious and should be comfortable to all shoppers. At this point, not all the shops are fully operating yet. At the lower ground floor, you’ll find a wide range of eating places ranges from local to Thai as well as western delicacies. There are shops like The Old Town Cafe, The Manhattan Fish Market, Siam Express, Nando’s and etc just to name a few. You can explore yourself when you are there.

On the ground floor and above, most of the shops are selling designers’ wear and also branded items. There are also a few shops on the ground floor selling gourmet coffee in case you need to take a break to have your usual cuppa coffee or tea.

There’s a shop that caught my attention. The shop sells traditional Chinese tea. It’s call Lao Pa Cha Tea House. The first thing that came into my mind was the name would be ‘Lau Pek Teh’ in the local Hokkien dialect. For those who do not read Chinese or do not understand Hokkien, that is literally translated as “Father’s Tea” in English.

Well, on the overall, this is a nice place for everyone, whether is for shopping, relaxing, hanging out and so on. If you have not been there, go. This place is definitely a crowd puller with its list of designers’ tag to be opened in the mall and also being nearby to the FCZ and the Penang Bridge. Folks from the mainland will find this place nearer compared to other shopping places on the island.

It’s that day of the year where sleigh bells ring … snow is glistening … Ooopps!! Forgotten there is no snow in Malaysia. Well, it’s Christmas Day today and I would like to wish all our Christian brothers, sisters and friends a Merry Christmas.

We went to church last night for the midnight mass. It was indeed a gracious celebration. The church was beautifully decorated. Everyone was full spirited during the mass. It’s the day where all Christians in the world come together to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Prior to the mass, we had a caroling session by the church’s choir which made up of the adults as well as the children. The congregation was also requested to participate to sing together with the choir. The full spirited caroling ended with a high note to give way for the mass to start.

The grand stage of the church was also beautifully decorated. The mass started and it is indeed a more special mass because it’s to celebrate Christmas Day. The church was really packed with people. Some of which had to stand throughout the caroling session till the end of the mass but it’s a norm for midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Everyone was in a full Christmas spirit to even be bothered of that.

Mass ended at 12 something after which everyone was wishing one another Merry Christmas. And so … again, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and may God bless us everyone.

Merry Christmas,

Mike

I read about this post from my friend’s blog - TGI Fried Date.

 

Have been hearing a lot from friends who dine in, said that lousy service and slowwwww…

Could have expect that since it is our “standard” for new opening. Staff not well trained and don’t have a proper queue management system. If you want to get your things served faster, just expedite and put a lot of pressure. Their staff will screw it up by themselves.

So, until today, I did not go to TGI Friday.

 

One of the popular shopping haven in Penang is Gurney Plaza. Situated along Gurney Drive, it is popular with tourist and also locals. Most hotels provide shuttle service to Gurney Plaza as it has a wide variety of stalls and shops with something for everyone.

There are shops selling local products, boutiques selling the more upmarket branded items and it also houses many eatouts which caters for a varities of taste. Here, you can get almost any meal you fancy from Western to Japanese, from Korean to a hearty Peranakan meal.

On the groundfloor along the walkway are cafes serving gourmet coffee like Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Dome. There are those shops selling fruit juices, fast food outlets and shops selling cakes and sandwiches for shoppers who want to take a break.

On the topmost floor, there’s a multiple screens cinema showing the latest local movies and also international movies. A place that is packed on weekends where you can see people from all walks of life mingling under one roof…

Fort Cornwallis is one of the most important historical landmarks in Penang. Fort Cornwallis was named after the Governor-General in Bengal, Charles Cornwallis.

It’s located close to the Esplanade, next to the Victoria Memorial Clock. It’s the exact spot where Francis Light first landed from his ship in the year 1768. The fort’s wall is about 10 feet high. It was built as a defense against the French, Kedah and also the pirates.

Inside the fort, you still can see some of the original structures like a chapel, prison cells which were once used as barracks, ammunition storage area, harbour light to signal incoming ships, some bronze canons and also a Dutch canon named Seri Rambai.

It’s said by locals that this canon bring positive effects on a woman’s fertility. Some women are said to have came here and touched the canon while praying for an offspring. If you are thinking of having a kids, probably you can drop by and give the proud canon a try.

Lor Mee or loosely translated from the Chinese Hokkien dialect to English as ‘noodles with gravy’.

This is a popular dish among Penangites particularly among Chinese. It’s commonly available at most of the hawker stalls around Penang. ‘Lor’ in the Hokkien dialect means gravy. Therefore, the most important ingredient in this dish is the ‘lor’ itself.

Lor Mee is normally consist of yellow noodles, some white vermicelli, some slices of chicken meat, eggs and mushrooms. Most of the stalls around Penang also offer to put roasted chicken legs as well as finely chopped & seasoned garlics to the ‘lor mee’ as additional ingredients. Personally, I would recommend to order lor mee served with roasted chicken legs if those are available at the stall.

Somehow, the taste of the roasted chicken legs goes very well with the ‘lor’ and it really taste great. The garlics, at the same time will further enhance the taste of the lor mee.

Satay consists mainly of meat sticks. The choices of meat available are of chicken, pork, beef and mutton.

The meat sticks are usually barbecued on charcoal flame. The satay are usually barbecued until the meat are fully cooked. Once the satay are ready, it will normally be served together with some specially cooked compressed rice or better known as ‘ketupat’ and also a special peanut sauce. Raw slices of onion and cucumber are also served alongside with the dish.

Satay are widely available in most places and hawker stalls. You can have it either as part of your meal or just as snacks. Nice for adults and fun for kids.

Murtabak is one of the Indian Muslim’s delicacy in Penang. It’s widely available in Indian Muslims’ restaurants around Penang. It’s mainly come in 3 major varieties which consist of chicken murtabak, lamb murtabak and beef murtabak.

It’s made of flour which was ‘massaged’ through a technic called ‘canai’. It will help to soften the texture of the flour. The piece of flour will then be pan-fried. After that, a mixture of onions, eggs and meat (normally, it will either of beef, mutton or chicken) will be poured onto the pan-fried flour and then the whole thing will be wrapped in a fresh piece of flour like the previous. And the piece will then be pan-fried until it’s cooked.

The murtabak is normally served together with some seasoned onions to which the onion will bring out a contrasting taste to compliment the taste of the murtabak itself.

Last night I decided to bring my family out for a dinner. Well, we usually cook at home. We were deciding on what to eat and at last, we decided to have Japanese food.

I saw there are a couple of new Japanese restaurants opened at the i-Avenue building near Bukit Jambul. So we decided to go there since it’s nearby. We dined at the Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant. When we’re there, we were greeted by the waitress outside the restaurant. We requested to be seated at a non-smoking area. Yup, this place has a smoking & non-smoking area.

The ambience was nice. You get to dine on a Japanese-like table (minus sitting on the floor) which is pretty comfortable.

I ordered a Chirashi set. It’s a mixture of raw fishes. Yup, I love raw fishes and a lots of wasabi (I’m a big fan of wasabi) .

We waited for a while and the dishes arrive. My Chirashi set was nicely served in a bowl having the vinegar rice covered by a combination of salmon, tuna and octopus. I requested extra wasabi from the waitress as usual … hehehe.

I enjoyed the dish like I always do with nice raw fishes. One thing, the Chirashi set only has 3 combinations of fishes in this place. I used to go to another place at Pulau Tikus which they offer 4-5 combinations of fishes which I enjoyed more.

Well, overall it was a nice dinner with a nice dining ambience. The items are reasonably priced. On average, a typical set of meal will cost you around RM25 - RM40 which is a norm for Japanese food. The price differ on locations but shouldn’t be a lot. After we’re done with our dinner, the owner of the restaurant hopped over to our table and asked our comments on the food which I commented that the Chirashi would be great if they have a little more varieties on the dish like 4-5 combinations. Overall was cool.

So, till the next time around.
Michael.

The Esplanade, the strecth of beach where Fort Cornwallis is located is essentially a food haven too serving sumptuos local delicacies like pasembor, laksa, cucur udang, mee rebus, fried kuey teow and prawn noodles to name a few. This is a favourite hangout of locals especially during the weekends.

Parents with their children in tow can be seen flying kites or fishing or simply just strolling along the side walk in the evening. In the late evening, the place is predominantly a place for love birds to profess their love under moon and stars…