From one chicken to another

I was in One Utama recently and noticed a new eatery opposite Hong Kong Sheng Kee Dessert shop.

This Ayam Penyet (Smashed Fried Chicken) eatery has replaced the BBQ Chicken below.

This BBQ Chicken is no longer at One Utama but there are still many outlets around the country.

Last 3 days

Two monkeys with gold ingots at Jaya Mall, PJ.

Moh Teng Pheow Nyonya Koay

On CNY Day 3, we went to try out the Moh Teng Pheow nyonya kuih as it was not opened the previous time we were there. We bought one of each available kuih to eat onsite and ordered some back to eat at home. As they are freshly made without any preservatives, we are advised to eat them as soon as we can.

They also sell other food such as assam laksa and nyonya nasi lemak. I will definitely return to try their nasi ulam nyonya.

Bingka ubi, sri muka, kuih talam - MYR0.50 each for a small piece. Taste really rich with coconut milk (santan) and the green came from pandan leaves for the sri muka and kuih talam.

Abok abok sago (top) and rempah udang (bottom) wrapped in banana leaves - each costs MYR1.60 nett.

Rempah Udang - Sweet and Savoury

Rempah Udang - Glutinous Rice with Nonya Spicy Dried Shrimps (Hae Bee Hiam). It has a big shrimp in it.

Abok Abok Sago - made from palm sugar (gula Melaka), sago (tapioca pearls) and grated coconut.

Many people ordered in bulk from them for weddings and other occasions. For those who love to eat nyonya kuih must try this at least once.

Location

Good changes

A few days before CNY, I went to visit Penang Hill. My last trip here was in 1998. We arrived at about 7.30 am to take advantage of the MYR3 tram fees (both ways) from 7 am to 9 am during weekdays (not applicable during public holidays and school holidays) for locals.

Approaching Penang Hill. Multistorey carpark on the left.

Entrance to the tram station.

Tracks

Tram arriving at the Penang Hill station.

New Sky Walk

Penang Hill Sky Walk - 8 Februari 2015

View of the Town from the Sky walk

Development in progress

Mosque

Temple

What is this? This is the roof top of the owl museum.

Love?

Locks with love messages? I think I have seen something like this in China.

The owl museum - this was not here in 1998

Penang Hill has changed a lot since 1998 and the changes are for the better. It was a nice visit as the weather is cool here.

Veloo Villas at D'Piazza

After our walk in Penang's National Park, we were very hungry and we tried to stop in town to have a meal but traffic was bad and many car parks that we passed by were full so we went back to the Bayan Baru area and had our lunch at Veloo Villas restaurant.

We ordered 3 banana leaf meals at MYR5 each and one small plate of mutton curry (MYR 5) as can be seen in the photo above.

2 Idli at MYR1 each

Veloo Villas at D'Piazza serves authentic banana leaf meals. My friend recommended this restaurant to us.

Total price for 3 pax: MYR32.20 that includes 3 sets of banana leaf meals at MYR5 each, one plate of mutton curry at MYR5, 2 glasses of plain lassi (one sweet, one without sugar and without salt) at MYR3.5 each, two Idli at MYR1 each, and one plain thosai at MYR1.40 plus 6% GST.

Don't just eat

Penang National Park, Teluk Bahang. We reached here at 9.15am on CNY Day 4 and submitted our names at the registration counter before we were allowed to enter the National Park (foc).

The entrance to the National Park (tropical/equatorial rainforest) is on the right of the photo above.

Please click on the above for a larger photo. From the entrance, there are hiking trails leading to a few places.

We walked to the Meromiktik Lake and Kerachut Beach which according to the guide above is about 3.4km away (1 way) and takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes one way but we took longer than that.

The beginning of the trail has paved walkway so it is a piece of cake.

It became harder for me when it came to the above - a climb uphill on steps cut out from the soil because I seldom exercise at home.

There are also many portions of the trail where the path is on flat grounds, lucky for me.

Stone steps like the one above help us ascend uphill or descend downhill nearer to the beach. When it comes to ascending and descending I walk really slowly to ensure that I do not use up all my energy and let about 30 other hikers pass me. They are walking so fast that they quickly disappear out of my sight.

The sign above says "please do not leave anything behind" but we saw quite a number of empty drink bottles lying on the ground along the trail.

Although it was a hot and sunny day, some parts were quite dark due to the trees providing us with shelter from the sun.

We crossed a few cement bridges like the one shown in the photo above.

After walking for 2 hours and 15 minutes we reached the hanging bridge leading to the Meromiktik Lake (left of the photo) and Kerachut Beach (right of the photo) at about 11.45 am.

There are only a few Meromiktik Lakes in the world. A Meromiktik Lake is a lake with two layers of water that do not mix - sea water and fresh water. As can be seen, the lake is dry in many parts.

Kerachut Beach - no swimming is allowed here. There are no food or drinks sold here either so we brought our own drinking water and bread. We overheard a couple taking a boat back for MYR40 per person and they were the only ones on board. As I still have some energy left, I decided to walk back instead of taking a boat back to our starting point because to me the return journey always take a shorter time.

We sat around enjoying the lovely scenery for about an hour while eating our bread and resting before retracing our steps to our starting point at 12.55 pm. True enough, the return journey is faster although we need to climb long flights of stone steps and we reached the registration office at about 2.25 pm taking only about 1 hour 30 minutes.

For someone who do not exercise at all, my legs ache the next day but I expected that. It is a nice change to walk a forest trail instead of just hanging around in shopping malls during CNY. Would I do it again? Probably not on the same trail. Perhaps I would walk the other trail to the lighthouse instead. This is a good activity for those who are keen to exercise and learn about nature because there are many signboards along the trail explaining about the forests.

No meat on day 1

My family members do not eat meat on CNY Day 1. This year, we had the following simple dishes with rice.

Green peas, corns (both from frozen packs) with carrots (fresh)

Stirfry various mushrooms, chinese cabbage, tong hoon, beancurd puffs. Fu yu (fermented soybean curds) is added on your own to your liking. 

Home made acar by my mother

Home made kimchi by my mother

Beancurd sheets, daikon, peanuts soup