Penang Dim Sum - Red Tea House (红茶馆)

Earlier on I did share about House of Dim Sum (点心之家) which located in Anson Road, Georgetown that offering various type of dim sum and noodles. This round I would like to bring your attention to another dim sum restaurant, named as Red Tea House (红茶馆) that located at Lengkok Nipah, Bayan Lepas. 

The Red Tea House is within the Pan Palace Plaza, but you could easily notice it due to the tables are arranged at the corridor and the restaurant is always full house especially during weekends. If you stay at Vistana Hotel, you could take a 8 minutes walk to reach here.

Pan Palace Plaza

Red Tea House at Pan Palace Plaza

If you are driving here, don't worry as here have a free parking space. But please try to be early or the car park might getting full especially around 8.30am to 9.30am. In case the parking space is full, then you might want to consider the road side.

Parking Space

From far, you could see the small banner with big red Mandarin word '红茶馆' which means Red Tea House.

Banner with '红茶馆'

Due to this housing area is commonly known as Lip Sin Garden, so the actual name for this dim sum restaurant is 'Restaurant Lip Sin Red Tea House'.

Restaurant Lip Sin Red Tea House

As usual, after we got our table, we requested for a pot of 'Kuk Po' tea, meaning the tea was mixed between Chrysanthemum & Pu Er. The unique part for this restaurant is they still practise to arrange the staff to bring along the dim sum and asking around the customers who interested on that particular item. So as customer, we could just sit on the chair and waiting for the favourite dim sum to come. Of course we could directly go to the self service counter to collect the dim sum if we are in the rush.

The dim sum offered in this restaurant is also in lot of varieties. It could be as common as 'Har Gao' and 'Siu Mai', or as special as dumpling with fish meat. Let's screen the items that we taken within recent two visits.

Red Tea House_Har Gau

Red Tea House_Siu Mai

Red Tea House_ Fishball

Red Tea House_Dumpling with Chives

Red Tea House_Dumpling with Filament Stick 

Red Tea House_Fresh Prawn Dumpling

Red Tea House_Chicken with Cabbage

Red Tea House_Dumpling with Fish Meat

I could not describe the taste of the dim sum one by one. But for various dumplings, beside the special topping, it is filled with fresh pork meat and prawn. For those unique item, you could even get whole fresh prawn, but please be ready to pay for bit higher price.

Red Tea House_Bacon Dumpling

Another special dim sum is the bacon dumpling. The bacon's smell was quite attractive. When I had my first bite, the taste of bacon together with the pork meat make me feel so satisfy. Could you notice from the picture above, 2 pcs of the dumplings were gone before I took out my camera? Perhaps you could imagine how attractive of this item.

Red Tea House_Pork Ribs

Pork ribs is always a dim sum that I would never miss. Over here, the taste of Pork ribs was quite delicious but I would say that the similar item offered by House of Dim Sum is even better.

We had also got ourselves with an item called Xiao Long Bao '小笼包'. This special dumpling is one of the famous item by Restaurant Dragon-I. Since the day we tested this Xiao Long Bao in Dragon-I, we really love it very much. So when the staff in Red Tea House offered us with this item, by instinct we just took it.

Red Tea House_Xiao Long Bao

However, after we took it then we feel bit disappointed. The Xiao Long Bao by Dragon-I is having some soup inside the dumpling whereas  the one in Red Tea House had no soup at all.

Besides the steamed items, we were also tried out the deep fried dumpling call Deep Fried Wan Tan. This dim sum was quite tasty but nothing special.

Red Tea House_Deep Fried Wan Tan

In order to ensure our stomach was fully filled, we did place order for Chicken Sticky Rice and Red Bean Bun.

Red Tea House_Chicken Sticky Rice

Nowadays the chicken sticky rice become more expensive yet the ingredients allocated had being reduced. However, the chicken sticky rice sell by Red Tea House was still served with many ingredients, although it was cost us at RM3 per unit.

Red Tea House_Red Bean Bun

As for the red bean bun, don't expect too much as it is still a common red bean bun! haha...Besides those items listed above, Red Tea House also selling various noodles that we yet to try. When our stomach was fully filled then only we noticed that they do sell the roasted pork. We shall try it out during our next visit.

Red Tea House

In overall, the dim sum offered in Red Tea House is meet to our expectation. In terms of the price, I would consider it as standard price. We had spent almost RM65 for those items above within 2 visits.

Restaurant Lip Sin Red Tea House
Pan Palace Plaza
Lengkok Nipah, Gelugor, Penang
Business Hour: Early morning to afternoon, daily

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Dining & Shopping in Bangkok Don Mueang Airport

Due to our return trip from Bangkok was fall on lunch hour, we planned to have our early lunch in airport. However Don Mueang Airport was strange to us, so we made our preparation by surveyed the restaurants in airport. After reading some blogs, we found out there are several restaurants serving various kind of foods. Hence, we made up our mind to take the lunch there.

On that day, by taking the A1 bus from Mo Chit BTS station, we arrived the Don Mueang Airport slightly early than expected. Initially we tried to look for the restaurants in the public areas but only 2 or 3 restaurants includes The Noodle, Meefann and Silom Village which offers the rice and noodles in Thai or Chinese style. Since we had did our homework and knew that there were few more restaurants in the airport, hence we decided to check in and expected the other restaurants are in the awaiting area. We were making right decision.

Upon entering the restricted area which linked to the international flight departure hall, we were seeing two rows of shop and restaurant nicely arrange in our left and right side.

Shops on my left

Shops on my right

Since our stomach had started to make noise, so we were looking around to hunt for good food. Among the restaurant or fast food or coffee house that we observed include Piri-Piri Flaming Chicken, Subway, McDonald, S& P, etc.

Restaurants in Don Mueang Airprot

After trying various local foods for few days, we were missing our favourite Japanese food, hence we finally chosen Fuji Restaurant as our lunch venue.

Fuji Restaurant Don Mueang Airport

Among the Japanese food, sashimi is always my favourite. When I noticed that there was a sashimi set with reasonable price, I had made my order instantly without screen through the whole menu. Would like to know what are the items in the sashimi set?? Let's check it out in photo below.

Sashimi Set

Beside the sashimi and rice, there was also a small piece of chicken, vegetable, miso soup, and also jelly as dessert. My stomach is totally full after finished off this whole set of meal.

Beside this sashimi set, we also ordered a bowl of salmon porridge. It was very delicious because we could taste the freshness of the salmon. Furthermore, there was also salmon egg being added to enhance the taste.

Salmon Porridge

However, I'm not sure whether this item is still available because I could not find it in the recent Fuji on line menu. If we have chance to revisit Fuji restaurant, we will definitely place an order on this salmon porridge, provided it is still available.

In terms of the drinks, we got ourselves a bottle of green tea and a glass of coconut frost. The green tea is slightly sweet in taste but nothing special. However, the coconut frost is very tasty, especially for those who love the coconut milk.

Coconut Frost

Fuji Restaurant

If I remember correctly, the lunch only cost me not more than RM60. Just imagine we were taking lunch in airport, some more in Japanese Restaurant. The price was definitely reasonable than my expectation.

After treated our stomach, we went for window shopping. For those duty free shops, nothing surprising where the items offered include tobacco, wine & liqueur, perfumes and chocolate. But there was a shop that making us so excited, which is the NaRaYa.

NaRaYa in Don Mueang Airport 

For those who love the NaRaYa products, I believe shopping had almost being done in Bangkok city. We never aware that inside the Don Mueang Airport we could find this shop again. Initially we just went for window shopping, but later we found that the products offered at this shop had not being seen in other branches while the item price was also similar. As you could imagine, another round of shopping was done in this NaRaYa shop before we board into the plane.

Initially I thought that Don Mueang Airport is just an old airport with limited facility. But this round of experience making me putting different view on this airport. I believe I'll be landing on this airport again soon!

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Food Not To Miss In Bangkok 2013

Before my trip to Bangkok, I had surveyed the website and travel guide to look for some local foods that supposed not to miss out. By looking at my travelling plan, there were three foods that I able to taste it out, which include the Coconut Ice Cream, Chicken Rice and Mango Sticky Rice.

According to the travel website, Coconut Ice Cream is an item that you should not miss during your trip to Chatuchak. But please take note that there are more than one stall selling this special ice cream. When we pass the first stall, luckily we did not buy it because we noticed that there was not many customer. But after we walked around to find some other foods, then we met another ice cream stall that full with customers.

Coconut Ice Cream Stall

I'm not sure whether it is the best in Chatuchak, but looking at the crowd, I believe the ice cream should be in good taste. By following the queue, finally came to our turn. Besides the coconut and ice cream, we were entitle for another 2 toppings. We preferred the corn and attap seed.

Various Choice of Toppings

By paying 40 Baht for the ice cream, surprisingly we were giving a cup of fresh coconut water too.

Coconut Ice Cream

For those who could read the Thai writing, perhaps you could recognize the Thai words in the small flag to ease you in looking for the stall, if you would like to try the ice cream too.

The second food we tried was the Pratunam Chicken Rice where we found the information from the travel guide booklet.  Since we planned our shopping in The Platinum Fashion Mall, hence we decided to try this famous chicken rice that located near by to the mall. Due to the direction in the travel guide was bit confusing, we then referred to the locals to get the right direction. When we almost reached the shop, we noticed from far where there were queue in front of the stall. The staffs in pink t-shirt were busy in serving the customer.

Pratunam Chicken Rice

Pratunam Chicken Rice

In Mandarin, the shop is named as ‘水门老子号’.

Pratunam Chicken Rice

Due to there were so many people would like to try this chicken rice, it was full house when we reached there. We almost waited for 20 minutes before we grabbed our seat.

Pratunam Chicken Rice

The chicken offered in this shop is a boiled chicken, not roasted chicken that commonly find in Malaysia. Due to we had our lunch in Platinum Fashion Mall earlier, hence we only ordered a plate of chicken rice plus some chicken gizzard and liver to test the taste.

Chicken Rice

Chicken Gizzard & Liver

I would said that the chicken rice was cook in Hainan style. Although it was tasty, but the similar chicken rice could also be found in Penang. However, there was something special, which is the sauce.

Sauce

As you could see from the photo above, the soya sauce was added with the chilli. Although it was very spicy but it make the chicken to be even tasty. A plate of chicken rice only cost us at 40 Baht.

The third food that we tested was the Mango Sticky Rice. Due to mango sticky rice is very common in Bangkok, initially we thought to get it from the shopping mall. However, when I watch Youtube in the hotel, eventually the programme was introducing the mango sticky rice from Mae Varee. Hence, without second thought we decided to test it out.

By taking BTS to Thong Lo station and follow Exit 3, we finally found the Mae Varee shop. My first impression on this shop was they had a lot of mango...

Mae Varee

Mae Varee

According to the TV programme published in Youtube, Mae Varee is selling fresh fruits include mango, so the sticky rice served by this shop could be accompanied with fresh mango fruit. When we were there, we met two Chinese ladies. After chitchatting, we found out they were also being here after followed the travel guide booklet.

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice

The mango sticky rice pack consisted of fresh mango, green and white sticky rice, peanut, and coconut milk. Before you eat, mix the sticky rice with peanut and then pour coconut milk on top of it. Then with a scoop of rice plus a piece of mango, the taste is extremely good. If I'm not mistaken, a pack of mango sticky rice was cost us at 100 Baht.

The three foods listed above are among the tasty food I tried out in Bangkok, perhaps you could consider to give it a try, since they are so famous and being recommended by most of the tourists. Enjoy!

Pratunam Chicken Rice
Address: Petchburi Soi 30, Bangkok, Thailand
Business hour: Daily from 5.30am-3pm & 5pm-3am

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice 
Address: 1 Soi Thong Lor Road, Sukhumvit Soi 55, Klongtunnua Wattana, Bangkok
Business hour: 5am-11pm for Mango Sticky Rice but 24 hours for mango fruits

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Penang Island Car Parking Coupon System

Started from 1 January 2014, Penang Island Municipal Council had implemented Parking Coupon system to replace parking meter and parking attendants system as new payment method for public car parking lot that under their supervision.

As what I could recall, parking attendants system had been implemented in  Penang Island since I was a child, probably it is having more than twenty years history. The advantage for this system is the car owner only need to pay the car park fees based on the record by parking attendants. But the disadvantage is the car owner might be overcharged by the dishonest attendants or sometimes there was no receipt being issued by them. Besides, it is also very hard to find some of the attendants and the car owner force to make another visit to the same area in another day, just to pay for the fees.

Sample of Official Car Parking Receipt

Beside the attendant system, Penang Island do have parking meters installed at some areas include Beach Street.

Parking Meter

Frankly speaking, I personally dislike this system due to the meters were not well maintained. I did experienced before where I insert the coins into the meter but there was no response at all. I could not withdraw the coins out yet could not stay at that parking lot, wondering that the enforcer would issue penalty notice due to the meter had no sign where payment being made.

Anyway, with implementation of coupon system, the parking meters and attendants are officially become history. Hence, in case you are getting around in Penang Island using the car, then perhaps you shall look for the banner below where indicated car parking coupon is sold over there.

Banner of Car Parking Coupon is Sold

Currently there are 3 types of parking coupon being sold in the market. The first and common coupon booklet is sold at RM6 where inside contains 5 pcs of half an hour coupon (RM0.40/half hour) and 5 pcs of one hour coupon (RM0.80/hour).

Half An Hour Coupon (RM0.40/pc)

An Hour Coupon (RM0.80/pc)

If your eyesight is sharp, then you would notice that there are printing error on the coupon. The RM0.40 or RM0.80 shall be printed as 40 cent or 80 cent, but NOT 0.40 sen or 0.80 sen.

Besides, the another 2 types of coupon include RM4/booklet where there are 10 pcs of RM0.40/pc half an hour coupon inside; and RM60/booklet where there are 10 pcs of RM6/pc one day coupon within it. But these 2 types coupon are still not common and only available in limited locations.

Unlike Seberang Perai, the chargeable parking period for public parking lots by Penang Island Municipal Council is designed according to the traffic of that areas. If the area is having low traffic, then the chargeable period in Green Signboard is from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, and Saturday from 9am to 1pm. Sunday and public holiday is free of charge.

Green Signboard

When the traffic is at medium level, then the Blue Signboard is installed to indicate the chargeable period.

Blue Signboard

No standardization on the chargeable period for blue signboard and drivers are required to check it out by themselves. Similar to Blue Signboard, the Red Signboard is installed at area with high traffic. Area with Red Signboard require driver to pay the car park fees everyday includes public holiday. However the chargeable period could be different from area to area.

Red Signboard

In overall, get ready a coupon booklet with you is the safer step if you prefer to drive and park the car in Penang Island. The enforcer is very hard working and efficient, penalty notice could be issued to you shortly if they found out there is no parking coupon display in your car. Don't try to test the efficiency of the enforcer  if you do not plan to pay more ya!

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