The month of September is indeed special. My youngest son celebrated his 21st birthday on Monday, my food blog; What2see was featured in the Guang Ming Daily newspaper on Sunday and our successful bloggers gathering at Edelweiss was held on Saturday! What touching moments back to back.

My youngest son, TMZ has reached his 21st birthday. He is now a young adult. My husband with our eldest son, TMY and myself would like to wish him 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' and the very best in his future undertakings. Looking back at the past, all this years has been rewarding to see both of my sons grown up to be fine young men.

Chinese New Year 2008

My two young boys back then in 1991

We will be celebrating his birthday tonight and he has chosen to have it at Tao Japanese Restaurant at E-gate. This would be our fourth visit this time around.

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The second joyous moment was seeing my blog being featured in the Sunday Guang Ming newspaper on 28/9/2008. Thanks to Cariso for sending me a message early in the morning informing me that my blog was featured else I would have missed it. It came as a surprise as I was told that the publishing of the article would be delay due to time constraint.

For those who missed out on the paper version, the on-line article is found ...
http://www.guangming.com.my/node/34484?tid=5

The ironic thing is, I can't understand a word of the article except for the HUGE number 46 which I know is my age! Why, why must they mentioned it in such a large font! :P However, I would like to express my utmost appreciation to the reporter CC Lim, photographer Mike Chan, Guang Ming Daily and all the readers & bloggers who has been supportive of What2See. For without all of you, this blog would not have come this far.

The newspaper article and my feature photo; a joyful day for me!


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The third moment was being able to meet everyone of the bloggers including all the new faces in the 2nd Penang Bloggers Gathering held at Edelweiss Café. These are some snippets of the night which was fun filled with activities.

Everyone had a great time getting to know each other and exchanging their experiences. I'm very glad to have entered the world of blogging and getting to know these wonderful people.

There were plenty of food, drinks and gifts for everyone. For the dinner, we had the set menu prepared specially by the owner, Theresa. This is my plate of Roast Leg of Lamb served with mashed potatoes and salad. It was moderately tantalizing but slightly tough. Besides the dessert of Apple Flan, we also get to enjoy chocolate brownies from Ah Shui.

Thank you everyone for making this gathering a success! Hope to see you all of you real soon!

Tucked away in the tourist belt of Batu Ferringhi, Penang stands Mario Ristorante. It is known for its Italian cuisine with a wine list to suit many palates and dining comfort. Although it has been established a number of years, not many Penangites have yet to discover this lovely place.

Located on the same row as Bella Italia and The Eclectic while standing directly opposite Rasa Sayang Hotel, Mario's naturally draws in the tourists crowd.

This was our first visit to Mario's and we had Michael joining us for the dinner. There are indoor and sidewalk sittings. We sat indoor as the weather was a bit warm. The interior design is extremely cozy with warm colors, giving this place a very Italian-nish flair.

A glance at the menu shows the usual array of pasta and pizzas. We picked our orders and in no time our very first dish arrived. The Bruschetta - topped with a mixture of chopped tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic and sprinkle with black pepper. An order comes in two pieces and we had a twin order to share among us.

This restaurant has an open kitchen that gives us the opportunity to watch the food being made and cooked in the woodfire brick oven.

Appetizer made up of the Veggie Wonder. It is an array of sauteed mushrooms, green and red pepper chili, eggplant, carrots and zucchini. Topped with olive oil and cubes of fetta cheese, it tasted superb with a zest of lemon.

For starters, we had the Clam Chowder soup served in a homemade sour dough bread bowl. This creamy soup comes with the right thickness. The bread bowl can even be eaten too! There are not many places where you can have a dig of the bowl after you are done with the soup. This soup is a must try!

On the menu was the sizzling Fajitas with a choice of beef or chicken. We opt for the succulent beef which is marinated and cooked in their own special sauce with strips of green and red pepper and onions. It is serve sizzling hot. The order came with three pieces of warmed fresh tortillas.

We had an additional order for the tortilla. This freshly made tortillas are much different in texture and taste from those available in other franchise restaurant. Beef pieces and tomatoes are laid on the tortilla spread with the sour cream and guacamole. Shredded cheese are sprinkled on top before it is roll up. This is indeed a very flavorful dish.

Nice snippets of the surroundings...

Hubby stood beside the open kitchen and watched the chef prepare the pizzas. There are many varieties of hand tossed pizzas to choose from and we had the classic Margherita. It is soft on the inside and slightly crunchy on the sides. Simply delightful!

After the meal, we lingered on over a cup of hot tea from Twinning's. We had the Darjeeling tea and the Camomile Tea - pure flowers of Camomile Herbal Infusion, both with delicate flavours.

We really enjoyed the delicious dinner and will definitely be visiting again. This is one place that I would recommend to you if you are looking for a nice place to unwind with great Italian food. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Address : Mario Ristorante
152B, Batu Ferringhi
Penang

Tel : 04 8813775

A SPECIAL DRAGON-i PROMO FOR What2See READERS

After our family dining experience at Dragon-i Queensbay Mall with our friends, I received an email from the management of Dragon-i. They are offering the following incentive to all What2See readers and is valid from September 23 till October 31, 2008.

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One complimentary Xiao Long Bao (with every purchase of RM50 & above) upon producing the print-out coupon on this page. This steaming hot juicy dumplings Xioa Long Bao will be exclusively available for diners at the Dragon-i Queensbay Mall outlet only.

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All you have to do to redeem this wonderful offer is simply click on the coupon below, and print it out. So get printing and you are on the way for a yummylicious makan session. I like to say thank you to the management of Dragon-i for the offer given to my readers.

On a separate matter, click here for more of my review of this restaurant.

The long awaited Big Apple Donuts and Black Canyon Coffee have finally set foot in Aeon Seberang Prai, Penang. People in others states had been enjoying themselves in these two outlets for quite some time whereas Penangites were only able to do so lately.

We visited these two outlets during one of our jalan-jalan cari makan weekend.  After hours of window shopping and wandering around the new complex, we found ourselves hunting for the 'much hype about' donut and coffee outlet. There was a long queue with around fifty people patiently waiting in line at Big Apple. My son and myself also join in the queue for this snack. After an hour and twenty minutes of waiting, we manage to get our hands on the donuts. Most of the varieties are relatively common except for the spikey durian. We bought a big box with twelve assorted donuts.

With the precious donuts in hand, we cross over to Black Canyon Coffee to have some beverages. Fortunately for us, the waiting time for a table at this outlet is only fifteen minutes. Browsing through the menu, it shows that this restaurant also offers varieties of food. As we just needed a drink, we only went for the coffee. I had the Mexican Coffee which comes in a beautifully designed boot glass.

Hubby and son had their cold Coffee Frost and Iced Coffee. The icy coffee was just refreshing. Hubby was a bit disappointed to say that there was an absence of the fresh coffee aroma in the surroundings as commonly found in Starbuck and Coffeebean. He wants to try out their black coffee the next time around.

We stole a quick bite of the spikey durian donut as food from other outlets are not allow! The freshly made donut is quite fluffy and the creamy durian filling is very fresh.

 

At the moment, these two outlets can only be found in the mainland. Hopefully we get to see more of these two outlets in Penang island itself soon. All in all, it was a lovely day out for the family. Till date, our most enjoyable food in this new complex is the bbq lunch at Che Go.