Dinner & Breakfast @ Bukit Mertajam, Penang

Ok, lets talk about dinner first..

Friday p.m

We headed off to the Tua Pek Kong temple at Bukit Mertajam, ronda-ronda and finally managed to get a parking spot, ‘parking attendant’ immediately appeared and offered his hand umm…not as in marriage proposal.. so, we dropped a few shiny coins into his open palms ( kinda like paying protection money, I guess), walked a few steps to the temple area where the hawker stalls were  and ohh..food galore..PW wanted to try a fishhead dish that a friend had recommended so we hunted around and finally found it at a shoplot at the street beside  the temple

The fishhead dish is like the deep fried chunks of fish meat ( and other parts) that we get in fishhead noodles, and these are cooked in a gravy with celery, spring onions, cabbage and tomatoes. You have a choice of porridge or bee hoon to go with this dish. We chose porridge and this seemed to go rather well with the fish which was rather tasty, umm..not bad

 

We ordered mixed  vege from a tai-chow stall at the same coffee shop – this was average,nothing to shout about.

 

Also ordered deep fried Belacan chicken, I wish the belacan flavour was a bit stronger. This was average

 

aturday a.m.

After the usual ‘what u want to eat ah? “ questions, we headed off to Kampung Baru for breakfast

The coffee shop occupied a corner area and was packed ( I didn’t note the name of the shop though ( clever me, eh?))  but I recall  it was near to 2 dialysis centre ( not a good enough clue ?)

I had Koay Chiap , I hadn’t come across any stalls in KL selling this yet,  The soup and the duck ( and whatever parts that were served : gizzard, intestine, skin, meat , liver etc) was rather tasty albeit a bit salty.

 

PW ordered dry prawn mee, there were 2 stalls selling prawn mee and after many many minutes of pondering ( and after a bowl of Kueh Chiap) , looking around the other tables to see which stall had the majority of the customer the decision was made- the stall at the front. PW paid extra to have some chicken feet added to the bowl. Looks good hor ? according to PW, this was not bad.

 

i tried some apam from the Indian stall, which was rather ok. ( anyway, what could go wrong with apam ?)

Selera Seri Tambang Mee Udang ( Prawn Mee ) @Permatang Pasir, Bukit Mertajam

Back in the ancient days , from Permatang Pasir,  you would have to pass  a floating bridge to get across a river to get to Sungai Dua , it was kinda exciting to be on a motorbike and to get on the bridge, I have vague memory of this, but I seemed to remember that it’s one way traffic on the bridge and when you see a round green wooden sign,  it’s your turn to get on the bridge and when it’s red, you wait for your turn. Alas, maybe 12 – 15 years ago, this has been replaced by a ‘real’ concrete bridge/road which doesn’t rise or fall with the tide. And double alas ( if there is such a word), the river has dried up and there is no longer a river..well, that’s development for you.

Anyway, back to the main topic, mee udang/ prawn mee

There used to be 2 mee udang stall operating at the same location, and we would always crack our head trying to recall which one serves better food but now, there will no longer be any dilemma as there is only one stall here. After you arrive, before you take a seat and get comfortable, I would suggest you go towards the icebox (next to the counter) and get your hands wet ( and cold), and select the prawns that you want for your meal, well, you can of course ask the waitress to do the honors. 1 only wanted one prawn, my colleague will have two and we decide to get three for our visitor. So, we asked the Kak ( waitress ( sister)) to select 6 medium sized prawns for us.

 

There are two choice for the noodles, soupy ( mee soup)  or the dry ( mee goreng) version, we ordered both.

It was a nice warm day, just nice for a cold fresh coconut drink ( RM3.50 each) , although we asked not to add any sugar to the drink, this seemed too sweet to be natural.

 

While waiting for the noodles, saw this notice, declaring that they will be closing during the Puasa ( fasting)  period from 21^st  Aug – 12^th Sept. ( yes,Mr Polis is watching you, from the flat screen TV, that is )

 

The soupy noodles arrived first, cabbages, taugeh, fried onions, tomato, spring onions and  hard boiled egg slices  complimented  the dish. The soup was tasty and the prawns were very fresh. The yellow noodles seemed a bit undercooked though, we were the first customer, maybe the cook was in a hurry..

 

The Mee goreng- this is like mee mamak,  probably pretty much the same vege used as in the soupy noodles, and the cook did a perfect job, I give this a 10/10 rating ! this was yummy yummy and  yummy, the perfect blend and balance of taste. I prefer this to the soupy noodles.

 

Overall, an enjoyable meal, although it can be pricey – for this meal ( including drinks), it cost us RM65+

**updates 5/8, the mee were RM3 per serving, we asked for 2 servings/pax for the dry and wet noodles  so, it was RM6 / plate or bowl  for what u see in the pixs, and the prawns were charged at RM80/kg, the 6 prawns that we had came close to half a kg 

 

Business Hours 12pm – 12am

 

Location

Selera Sri Tambang

No.1 Pengkalan Tambang

13500 Permatang P{asir,

Bukit Mertajam

Tel 012 575 9662 / 017 4633944

 

From the pekan of Permatang Pauh, take the road leading to Penanti ( this place is halfway between P.pauh and Penanti) , you will pass beautiful green paddy fields and ~ 3 minutes drive, you will come to crossroad ( before crossroad, you see a rice mill on your right and directly at the juntion a kedai kopi) make a right turn, you will pass Sek. Keb Permatang Pasir on your right, go straight and when you come to a highway sorta structure and where  the road start to fork, take the left road, and you will come to  the restaurant ( which is at a dead end)

Of Yam Rice and Or Larng rojak @ Bukit Mertajam

Whenever I (get a chance to) visit Penang ( for work), my hospitable colleague will usually have taupar-ed a packet of char koay teow, which will be  waiting for me at the office and for lunch, we will usually drive to BM for Yam Rice at Kedai Makan Mutiara at Jalan Tembikai, Taman Mutiara, which is the kopitiam opposite  UOB bank

I do not often come across yam rice in KL, is it a Penang thing ? My first introduction to Yam rice was at this very shop at Kedai Makan Mutiara by my colleague. We sometimes share 3 bowls of rice amongst two of us. The soup is sourish- salted vegetable with lotsa pork parts , you can select what you want ./ do not want e.g if you do not want any spare parts or just want pork meatballs etc.

I thought the soup used to have a little bit more kick, i.e can wake u up kinda sour. The pork balls were crunchy, porky and tasty and can’t find any fault with the yam rice. It’s RM4.60 per serving ( rice +bowl of soup)

One other BM specialty is (fruit) rojak, go towards the train station / market place or ask around for ‘Or larng Rojak ‘ ( black/ dark  man rojak). The shop is exactly at the cross junction –Rojak Orang Hock’ .

 

And the interesting thing is, there are 2 other black and white theme rojak shop around this cross junction.  Micheal Jackson would be pleased. There is the black-white man rojak.

And the White Man rojak

 

I had another yam rice Meal at Sin Chow Koon Kopitiam, around Jalan Raja Uda ( the kopitiam near the Pasar Awam Sungai Uda). Yam rice seemed to be one of the attraction here ( apart from the Thai  food) . The soup has a lot of umppppp, the soup was packed with bits of pork slices, intestine, liver, stomach, meatballs, WAHHHHH…pork lover paradise . The rice was a bit soft ( not as packed and solid as  the one at Mutiara- which I  prefer) .

Business seemed pretty good, i timed and one ‘pot’ of rice, finished within 45 minutes, I wonder how many pots of yam rice they sell per day ?Apart from the eat-ins, plenty of people were waiting around the stall to tarpau the soup with /without the rice.

You can have white or yam rice. The pix below show the cooked ‘pot’ of rice , and in the other  pot ( the lower bottom of the pix), yam chucks are being boiled/ the next pot of rice is being cooked.