Ku Cheng Tse Temple 北海苦僧寺@ Butterworth

Two charging elephants greet us as we enter the Ku Chen Tse temple, they  looked like a pair of friendly ( and rather cute, I must say)  elephants with their tucks raised and all that. Of the many Thai temples that I have been in Kelantan, elephants were not featured so predominantly ( I only remember one temple in Bunohan which had a sitting one) but in Penang, of the 2 Thai temples that I have visited, both had elephants. Why harr ?

 

If you look closely at the picture above, you can see offerings of sugar canes placed on the tusks  and bunch of bananas at their feet . I saw some people rubbing the elephants’ belly, touched it’s feet and tusks.

I asked the caretakers’ permission before taking photos in the shrine hall,  and smilingly he said ‘ go ahead, take as many as you like, just don’t take a picture of me’, I replied ‘aiya,Uncle, you also rather photogenic mahh’. I think he was rather happy with that reply

The  main shrine hall is  a rather large area where devotees can pay their respects

 

 The main altar with statue of the Buddha , flank by his two disciples ( Mongalana and Sariputta ? I am just guessing) and also statue of a monk.

 

And there are 2 rows of Lorhan ( 9 in each row) at the side of the hall

 

Are you one of those who sometimes get confused on where to put the big bunch incense after you untie the rubberband that held them ?  or wonder if there are any correct sequences in placing the incense into the urns, well, have no fear, at Ku Chen Tse, there are clear instruction on the hows and whens .

 

There was a big water container close to the main altar, where it is a DIY collecting point for holy water to take home, there were also packets of pre packed uncooked rice for the devotees to take home, which after consumption will provide peace, harmony and safety.

Next door to  Ku Chen Tse is an Hindu temple, you can catch a glimpse ( and the souns) of the  going ons at the Hindu temple. And interestingly you can see some of the devotees praying and making offerings to both temples. Double protection horr, why not ? It was starting to drizzle, so I didn’t get a chance to kaypor at the Hindu temple.

 

Lotsa  pixs here http://zoompg.com.my/viewthread.php?tid=29

Temple hours :

 

Location :

Head on towards Sunway Hotel, Butterworth

No. 1350, Jalan Bagan Jermal,
12300 Butterworth,
Pulau Pinang Darul Mutiara,
Malaysia.

Hainan 48 海南 48 @ Jalan Raja Uda, Butterworth, Penang

‘Have you ever tried mee sua ala sharkfin ‘ was the question, and ehh..how could a kaypor like me not be curious ?

So off we went to Jalan Raja Uda and came to a zinc-roofed and zinc cladded hawker area. Which was not too far from a petrol station, Caltex, it was, I think .

PW ordered the necessary

Mee Sua Ko面线糊, the mee sua  ala sharkfin. The few strands of  mee sua came in not too starchy/goeey soup, the mee sua came with prawns , mince meat and egg flower. They will also provide a bottle of vinegar with the mee sua, just like sharkfin soup horr ? this was interesting and taste pretty  good too.

 

Fried Sarng Mien – deep fried crispy noodles soften by thick starchy gravy. The noodles came with prawns, vege, char siu, slices of meat. The sambal..oohh..the sambal enhanced the  taste of the already so tasty noodles  .Yummm…I liked this  very much

 

Char Hor Fun炒河粉–mee hoon and koay teow, fried and then thick gooey gravy were poured  over the noodles. the noodles were kinda clumpy and the taste of the gravy were quite similar to that of the fried sarng mien.

 

Overall, an enjoyable meal.

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 ?)