Bravo Italiana @ I-Avenue

Last week was another UL audit for this quarter. As usual, I host the audit and to bring the auditor for a good lunch. :) I was ran out of idea where should I bring him to dine in a nearby restaurant. So, eventually we stopped by at the Bravo Italina at I-Avenue.

If I remember correctly, after I read on the negative review from NKOTB, I put a comment that I will not visit this outlet. Now, I got to slap myself, haha......Too bad :(
Correction: Per NKOTB, her negative post was not on Bravo Italiana, ok, my fault. :)

Well, going to I-Avenue at lunch hours on weekdays isn't a good choice if you want to park your car along the road side. I drove few rounds before I managed to find parking lot. Damn sick! Furthermore, there are a lot of cars, vans and lorries which simple stop by that block the way!

I missed Italian food since the The Little Itally at Bukit Jambul Complex was closed on sometime ago. Bravo Italiana is now another place to hunt for Itallian food at the Southern region of Penang island. Through out our visiting period from 12.30pm to 1.15pm, the restaurant was totally empty except with me and the Mr. Auditor. We were like the super VIP guests. :) Good to us as we got the full attention from the waiter and waitress. Of course the service was good.

We were rush in time, so weren't really got time to enjoy the starter and dessert. Each of us just ordered a glass of fruit juice with a set of main course.

Here's what I ordered. The Chicken Ala Pausin. I was rather lazy to consume anything with bone, so this is a good choice. It consisted of grilled chicken breast (if not mistaken) in thick mushroom sauce, potato wedges, coleslaw, baby tomatoes, broccoli florets, carrot and cucumber slices. Overall, I was quite impressed with the food presentation. Taste wise, it's up to my requirement. The serving is big for a small eater. I was so fulled.

Mr. Auditor picked the roasted quarter chicken. He was so kind to allow me snapped a photo on his food. :) He knows I owned a food blog. From his expression, I know he was satisfied with what he had.

The meal cost us for RM63.60, of course this is paid by company, haha......

Bravo Italiana
Address: 01-01-11, Complex I-Avenue, Medan Kampung Relau 1, 11900, Bayan Lepas, Penang.
Tel/ Fax: 04-6410-499

English Gourd Soup With Soy Beans, Dried Cuttle Fish & Pork Ribs

Sometimes eating out in Chinese restaurant popped me an idea on new soup recipes. I pay attention on the ingredients used. I learn their creative way to "mix & match" the ingredients.

If English gourd alone is used to boil soup with pork ribs, the soup will not be so flavorful. It will taste quite bland. However, with added soy beans and dried cuttle fish, the soup turns into something delicious.

English Gourd Soup With Soy Beans, Dried Cuttle & Pork Ribs
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 medium size English gourd, about 300gm. Peel, remove seed and cut into bite size.
1 palm full of soy beans, soak for about 10 minutes
1/4 of small dried cuttle fish, soak and cut into bite size

300g of pork ribs

800ml of water

salt & pepper to taste

Methods:

1. Bring water to boil in a pot. Then pour it to the slow cooker.

2. Put in pork ribs, soy beans and dried cuttle fish. Cook under high heat for 3 hours .

3. Add English gourd and light soy sauce to taste. Let it simmer under high heat for another one hour and shift to auto mode for another 2 hours.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Tips:
The dried cuttle fish must be prepared just before the soup is boiled. It will need to be soaked, skinned and cut. Just a small piece will do, otherwise the soup is overwhelmed by the fishy smell. :)

Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant @ Queensbay Mall

I've been reading quite a lot of reviews on several of their outlets in Malaysia. Hubby went to their outlet in Gurney Plaza with his ex-colleagues previously before he started his home based job. He wanted to bring me there, but I was not in my mood to try it yet.

On a weekday evening, we passed by this restaurant in Queensbay Mall. Surprisingly, it's full house. This time, I pestered hubby to bring me there instead. :) We had no idea what to ordered cuz the menu is extremely long. I told hubby, why not to order those highly recommended in other reviews? So, here we go......

First, we had French Toast (RM4.50) as a warm-up. This is highly recommended by a lot of floggers. So, definitely we didn't want to miss it. :) To limit my calories intake, I just tested a mouthful. The creamy peanut butter melted in my mouth, wooolala......

This is my main meal, the rice with Roasted Honey Spare Ribs & Veggie (RM9.90). This is also a good choice. I like the combination. The spare ribs are delicious too.

Hubby ordered the rice with shreded pork, fried egg and mushroom (RM9.50). The taste is totally different than mine. It's flavourful with the aroma of mushroom.

Disappointingly, the drinks were the last to turn up. Both of us ordered hot milk. Hubby had egg in boiling milk (RM3.50) while I had my honey milk (RM3.90). I got the better choice, cuz my honey milk tasted much more yummy even though it's a bit sweet. :)

Kim Gary (Owned By Natural Habitat Sdn. Bhd.)
Tel: 604-6448208
Queensbay Mall's outlet: First Floor, South Zone.

Spiral Pasta In Carbonara White Sauce

It's been a while I stopped posting home-cooked meal. Now, I'm back to cooking again after the house renovation completed. :)

Today's recipe is on spiral pasta. Normally I use spiral pasta in either fruits & veggie pasta salad or pasta with meat balls in tomato sauce. This time, I make an attempt to cook in different way. So, I came out with an idea to cook spiral pasta in Carbonara white sauce. Ingredients wise, I just add whatever I have in my fridge. Although it is just an ordinary pasta, but the combination is just nice.

Spiral Pasta In Carbonara White Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients:

Spiral pasta, qty for 2
1 can of Prego Carbonara White Sauce
2 mushroom chicken sausages, coursely sliced
6 big button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 medium size onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
Some broccoli, cut into florets
Some cauliflower, cut into florets
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Some water
Salt to taste

Methods:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook spiral pasta as per packaging instruction. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

2. Boil broccoli and cauliflower in another pot of boiling water. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Stir fry onion till fragrant.

4. Add sausages, and saute till it turns golden brown.

5. Pour in the broccoli and cauliflower and mix well.

6. Add the pasta sauce and some water and let the sauce simmer for a while.

7. Pour in pasta and sprinkle some sea salt. Stir until heated through.

Goh Huat Seng Restaurant

Mum and dad used to bring me to dine in this Chinese Restaurant, Goh Huat Seng. It was our favorite place for dinner after shopping in the town. After so many years, it's my turn to bring my parents back to this old place for some savory dishes.

This time, I also brought along my nephew Jimmy for the makan trip. The following dishes are either his favorite or my parents favorite. Of course, hubby & I love it too. :) We are not picky eaters. :P

My dad and nephew chose to have "lor ark". The quarter duck together with intestines is very delicious. The sauce was not salty, just nice. This was served with their special home made spicy and sour sauce. Hmm... makes me think of my mum's home mode "lor ark". One of these days I must pester mum to cook one whole duck, haha...

Tofu is everybody's favorite. I ordered the crab meat Japanese tofu. A generous amount of crab meat and fish maw are included in the gravy besides the vegies. I could find a whole crab claw. The gravy really goes well with rice.


Plum sauce crispy chicken drumstick. I just took a piece, and my newphew ate up the majority of them. The plum sauce is tastier than others we had at other places.

My mum ordered this asparagus stir fried with sambal and prawns. The asparagus is absolutely fat and juicy and the medium size prawns are very springy.

The cost for all the above dishes was only RM44, but some other things made it expensive. For example rice (RM1 for each bowl), tissues, and 2 types of ground nuts (RM2 per per tiny plate). So the total we spent was RM61.70.

Many people visit this restaurant for charcoal steamboat. I was drooling when I saw a group of people enjoying their hot pot of steamboat. This place is still very popular and crowded during dinner time. Do call for reservation.

Address:

Goh Huat Seng Restaurant Sdn. Bhd.

No. 59-A, Kimberly Street, 10100 Penang.

Tel: 04-2615811 & 04-2615646

Kek Seng Coffee Shop @ Penang Road

Not long ago, we dropped by Kek Seng Coffee Shop for a simple lunch. Hubby has never been there before, so I brought him there to try their specialty ice-kacang.

Long ago, my eldest sister and his boy friend (my brother in law now) used to bring me along for their dating, hahaha...I was just a primary school kid that time. This coffee shop was the one that we used to go. :) What a sweet memory as an unwanted third guest.

We ordered an ice-kacang with 2 scoops of their home made ice-cream. We chose to have sweet corn and durian flavored ice-cream.

Also, we ordered 2 plates of chicken rice. We were extremely hungry, so the chicken rice tasted really yummy to us. :) Simple, but delicious!

We tried the lor bak, poh piah and prawn fritters too. I personally like the lor bak. Not like other lor bak, each roll of this lor bak is consist of a strip of lean pork. Also, the five spice smell is not too strong. Hmm......I just love it!

Address: 382-384 Jalan Penang, 10000 Penang.

Opens everyday from 8am to 5pm.

Dinner @ Four Seasons Tea Restaurant, Sunway Tunas

I know I'm really slow down in food blogging these days. With the current house renovation, I've taken a break from cooking for 2 weeks plus. My mood to blog is affected by the dust & mess in the house. Sigh…

The other day, again, we back to Four Seasons Tea Restaurant for a simple dinner. Hubby did not take his lunch on that day. So, we decided to have "Chu Char" instead of their noodle stuffs.

First, this free soup was served. It was the old cucumber soup with pork ribs and dried cuttle fish. It's a delicious soup, but no doubt, it contained Ajinomoto for sure.

My favorite dish, the Sweet & Sour Pork. The taste is just ordinary. In fact, the sauce is a bit too sweet.

For the greens, we opted for Four Season Vegie, which consists of French bean, lotus root, angled bean and celery. This is something simple but able to boost the body with Vitamins and fiber.

Oyster omelette. This is different from hawker stall's fried osyter, cuz it does not have tapioca flour.

Claypot tofu, this is a huge pot of tofu for both of us. It has a lots of ingredients. Besides tofu, you can find leek, carrot, Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, onion and generous amount of roasted pork slices.

Overall, the dinner was quite fulfilling. :)

Address:
Main: 80-U, Jalan Trengganu, 10460 Penang.
Tel:04-2818193 & 016-4118193

Branch: 49, Persiaran Mahsuri 1/1,
Sunway Tunas,11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.
Tel: 04-6466193 & 016-4118193