Invited to dinner by our family friend, Dr Alex Lim and his family at Salsa Restaurant located in Upper Penang Road. Salsa was famed for fine dining. A couple of years ago, we went to Salsa with his family as well, but was at its former location @ Kelawei Road.

For starters, we had a round of appetizers. The seafood platter with smoked salmon served on salad was a tickle to the taste buds. The soup was great.

Then came the following main course : I forgot what was it called, just vaguely remembering them - Beef Sirloin.

Roast Lamb.

Salmon.

Finally, its time for dessert. The dessert make up of three items.

• Freshly baked rich cake topped with delicious cream and biscuits
• Finely cut fruits mixed in syrup and topped with strawberry
• Creamy vanilla ice-cream that melts in your mouth

The restaurant was warm and cosy, ambience was great, it has to be said. Nice having dinner with our good friend. Hopefully many more dinners could be enjoyed with them in the coming years. We wish them and everyone else a very Happy New Year!

Swensen's is finally back in Penang, Queensbay Mall after a lapse of more than ten years. Previously it was located in Mount Pleasure, Tanjung Bungah. After shopping and dining in the mall with our parents, we had ice-cream in this outlet which is just located beside Sakae Sushi. Besides ice-cream, the outlet also have other food items on their menu.

We had the Strawberry Sundae, Banana Split, Sticky Chewy Chocolate and Coffee.

We went around window shopping after the ice-cream break. As it is Christmas season, Queensbay Mall had its main concourse decorated with this beautiful blue lightings - cone shaped.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year..... !

Prontip Thai Restaurant located in Yesterday Club on Lebuhraya Peel, Penang is an outlet that specialised in authentic Thai cuisines. We had dinner there several times but recently we went there for the buffet lunch.

Drinks (mango juice and chrysanthenum tea) and desserts are inclusive in the buffet. Dishes included the popular - tom yam soup, otak-otak, deep fried spring roll, satay, deep fried kangkong, pork leg vinegar and sour mango kerabu.

They do serve plain rice, fried rice and fried noodles to accompaniment the dishes. Another hot favourite is the Thai/Siam laksa.

At the end of the meal, there are desserts of cendol and fresh fruits. This delicious and reasonable priced Thai buffet spread cost RM10.90 on weekdays and RM12.90 on weekends.

Craving for some delicious and tasty Penang seafood?
On the mainland side of Penang lies a town known as Nibong Tebal. Here, you will find a restaurant that served one of the best crab porridge as well as other seafood.

Cheang Kee restaurant is well known to the locals as well as those from outstation. People that travel down south or those heading north bound usually stop at this outlet for the food. Recently we too patronised this place on our way home from Ipoh to Penang.

We had boiled baby octopuses (too bow sui). The texture is very chewy and tasted good dipping in chili sauce with toppings of grounded peanut.

Fried prawns.

Padi Frog stir fried with dried chilis, ginger and spring onions.

Steamed fish in soya sauce.

Fried la-la with brown beans, chilis and garlic.

Fried 'hae choe' - mince prawn and pork.

Fried pui ling with tanghoon.

To get to this place, turn left after you have exit the Nibong Tebal toll plaza and head for the town. Continue driving straight until you reach the new elevated bridge (flyover) - drive up the bridge. As you descend, you need to keep left in order to make a sharp left-hand turn so that you can go under the bridge which will lead you to town (just go straight and don't make any turning). Travel around 500m, you will see the restaurant on your right. Parking is by the road side. If you are lost, just give them a call at : 04-593-1728. Be prepare to wait especially during peak hours.

Min Jiang is a coffee shop in Ayer Itam Road which is located a few houses away from the Nissan showroom. There are quite a number of stalls there. Highly recommended is the Thai Tomyam stall which is run by a lady and operates only from 8.00 pm onwards. The taste of the tomyam soup is one of the better ones that we have tasted so far and one tends to finish it. A bowl costs RM6 with big size prawns, sotong and fish slices and garnished with lots of coriander leaves.

We used to eat Oh Chien (fried oyster omelette), how about Hier Chien (fried prawn omelette)? There is a stall selling this omelette that uses prawns and cooked with a flour mixture until brown and garnished with chopped spring onions. A bit of lime juice enhanced the flavour.

Grilled fish.

Evenly grilled chicken satay (sold by a Malay family) comes with the usual sliced cucumber and pieces of raw onions. This stall also starts selling from 8.00pm onwards.The food served here are worth trying out but don't go on a Sunday because the coffeeshop is closed on that day.

Fishball noodles also known as koay teow soup is basically a bowl of noodles in clear soup with fishballs, sliced fish cake and sliced meat. This Penang hawker food can be found all over town. The stall that we are mentioning in this post is in the Anson Road wet market - which operates in the morning.

Besides a bowl of noodles (have it either dry or with soup), their side dishes are worth trying out. We had a plate of chicken legs and pig intestines.

And another side dish that is rarely found nowadays is the duck intestines. It has a very crunchy texture and served with some light soya sauce and some garlic oil.

All these side dishes goes very well with the noodles.

When Penang was under the British rule, alot of buildings were erected and their designs were majestic and impressive. Over the years, some of these buildings were left abandoned and not being maintained. As a result, most of them is an eyesore.

Lately these few years, Penangites began to appreciate all this heritage buildings and slowly restoring them. Hubby and myself went around the town to capture images of some of these buildings. Most of them are found along Beach Street.

Beautiful artistic iron works.

The newly restored High Court.

We were glad that the owners and the Penang government have taken the initiative to bring back all these buildings to its majestic state again but there are still alot of them left run down or abandoned. Hopefully we get to see more of them being restore in the near future.

To savour tasty Taiwanese food in Penang, the place to be is Kocha Taiwanese Delight located in 229 Jalan Burma. This restaurant is walking distance from the famed biscuit shop, Him Heang. It is decorated with simple furniture, mainly rattan chairs and lots of knick knack plus several different sizes aquariums.

As for the food, there is a wide selection of noodles, rice and snacks in their menu to choose from. We ordered the sliced cold Drunken Chicken, Kimchi pork in hot plate, salted vegetables (kiam chye) and also the Dumplings in Beef Soup. There were five big dumplings in the bowl of slightly spicy soup. Being beef soup lovers, we give this dish a big thumbs-up.

The dishes that we had goes well with the rice but take note that their bowl of rice cost RM1.20..(bit pricey for plain white rice). Overall the food is very tasty and unique in its own way. Business starts from 12.00 noon right till 10.30pm. For reservations, do call 04 2275048.

Finding a car park space can be a bit difficult during peak hours as there are only a few parking lots right in front of the restaurant.

These are some of the images taken at night in Georgetown, Penang. The town looks so different at night - especially with the lights on.

The Queen Victoria Jubilee Clock Tower - located near to the famous Fort Cornwallis.

A classical fountain right in the heart of the business district center.

ABN-AMRO building nicely lighted up in the banking center, Beach Street.

A shot of a cruise liner taken from Esplanade.

These three shots were taken from my MIL apartment in Tanjung Bungah - view of the sea, hotels, the newly built four blocks of condominium known as The Cove and the Floating Mosque.

Hope all the relevant parties and the council will further beautify the town by lighting up more of the buildings and other prominent landmarks.