1881 Chong Tian Cultural Hotel 中天樓

                 

人生有幾多個十年, 最重要活得痛快!

The above statement is something that ponder me always. How many of us could stay at the same work place for 30 long years? Well, I guess without your persistent, patient and courage, I believe no one could.

After 30 years of working, my manager will be retired from this hectic, stressful and “fun” work place and will be enjoying his retirement journey with his loved one. Due to his retirement, our boss gave him a luxury dinner which we never have the opportunity to try it, I guess when you work for the same company for 30 years. Thanks to him, we managed to enjoy the meal and it was a wonderful gathering among the staff.

We chose 1881 Chong Tian Cultural Hotel as the venue. First of all, it’s a heritage hotel, secondly, it’s newly open after a massive renovation to its original heritage design and it’s a place worth of visiting. The hotel has 11 suites, and the 11 suites designed or rather represent the 11 Chinese surnames that first landed in Penang, if am not mistaken as it consists of Khoo, Lee, Tan, Lim, Ooi, Ong, Chuah, Yeoh, Koay, Loh and of course the owner’s surname Seah which represent the largest suite in this Hotel. The owner of the hotel even bought those antique furniture and artifacts from many countries; the one that is more significant is the Emperor’s China brush (毛筆) which cost millions. The whole building is painted with heritage colour to make it look more authentic of olden days building.  Again… anyone knows what colour is that?

Before I proceed with the intro on those dishes… how many of us know about this building’s history. I was told, this building was once a brothel. The women were all kept in a special room before they were called to provide the service. All the ladies are kept in this special dedicated room with a rope tied to a bell. Whenever there’s customer visits, the owner will ring the bell, and the woman will come forward parading in line to the presence of the customer to pick their choice of lady.

After many years passed by, less and less people patronized the brothel, and it was converted to a residential building then. Before the building was sold to current owner, it was being left vacant for a long time. And after Penang was awarded the UNESCO title in year 2008, it has brought the entire Pearl of Orient a new life. Thus, 1881 Chong Tian was borne and established.

A man with strength, patient and persistent in his beliefs has contributed much to his service, his knowledge and passion into his job. To celebrate his retirement journey, we celebrated with these luxury food to indulge ourselves within the few hours!

 

First dish is the appetizer… which is highly recommended by the staff. That is fresh scallops with mushrooms, macadamia nuts and beans that was served in a nice champagne glass. That made the appetizer more delicacy, the chef added a prawn that is covered with almond slices, and a bacon that nicely wrapped with asparagus.

Next come the second dish which is Conch Meat Fish Maw Double Boiled Soup (花膠響螺燉老雞). The soup is tasty and it’s definitely good for health especially for us that is working under such intends stress environment. Why would I said so, well basically next year economy isn’t that promising especially many investors have predicted it would be a tough year ahead next year.

   

Typical Cantonese delicacy dish is Braised Goose Web and Abalone (鵝掌燜鮑魚).  Isn’t it indulging ourselves? I could taste the gravy was braised with specific ingredients like clove (丁香), and abalone sauce. If you’re not a fan of any creatures’ feet, you can opt for Lamb instead. A pan fried lamb also goes well with the abalone, it doesn’t have the smell that overcome the abalone.

Cantonese Steamed Pomfret (斗底魚), another indulging dish. An expensive pomfret that go as high up to RM90 per fish. In order to know the fish freshness, best is to go for steaming, especially Cantonese Style.

Last, Sambal Fried Four Heavenly King was the last dish served on the round table. The sambal was sourish and it was honestly appetizing, especially after a heavy meal. It does help in terms of digestion.

  

Nothing could end without a dessert. Peanut Paste Soup (花生糊), Honeydew Sago and a plate of Chinese Pancake (鍋餅) was the last dish of the dinner with a perfect mark and a respect to our dear manager that has been working for the past 30 years.

Other Reviews

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Chow

食在好味★Eatlicious

Address & Contact

No. 38, 40 & 42

Jalan Pintal Tali

Georgetown Penang

Tel: +604-263 1881

Fax: +604-264 1881

URL: http://www.1881chongtian.com

Contact hotel for any enquiries
Lawrence Seng
Mobile: +6019-409 1881

Email: lawrence.seng@1881chongtian.com

Opening Hours

11am to 2pm

6pm to 10pm

Chinese New Year: Steam Boat Dinner

Every year New Year eve we will normally go out for food, eventhough we don’t, we will do pot luck, each one of us, as in the daughters-in-law will prepare something and bring it to one of the in-law’s house for dinner. About 5 years ago, some how the elderly finally accepted my proposal for eating out, and since then we have been eating out, and we’ll start making reservation a month ago things like that. We even have taken dinner in Vistana Hotel, Cititel Chinese Restaurant, Red Rock Hotel, etc.

Today, I truly understand and comprehend how our mother prepares food for reunion each year. When comes to this point of time, my mother will be stressed out, though many times we’ll tell her take it easy. You know what? It’s always say easy than done!! And truly is!!

From marketing till today preparing… I was so stress!!! Especially marketing, people are bargaining with the food stall, vegetable sellers for better price. Some old aunties are even bargaining on chicken, what type of chicken is best of steaming, and some couple are busy looking at what type of fish balls to buy for steamboat. Some even brought their kids to market, it’s like contributing to the market traffic! Because of each of everyone have the ‘Kia Su’ attitude and many will want to ‘Balik Kampong’ or ‘Siu Kang’ (收工), when comes to this period of time, basically these stalls will increase their price and make a ‘fortune’.

Chinese beliefs or even we called it the customs, any elderly passed away within a year, family members as in their sons, daughters-in-law are not allow to celebrate any festival like Chinese New Year or even Pray Heaven God. Some clan like Hokkien is practicing 3 years, Cantonese practiced for 1 year. Due to this customs and beliefs, we did not celebrate and a simple dinner was held at my place.

A peaceful, quiet dinner surrounded by these food and with the company of the elderly old man, my brother-in-law and family. Something that I had prepared for it, guess I’ve enough of saying…. Oh ya, added to this year New Year… is the weather is also contributing to the stress, the sudden change that causes many of us sick. When I see doctor, doctor will normally ask, did you eat a lot of Chinese New Year cookies, and the fact is am completely ignorant, and for that matter, I am restricting myself of eating too much also.

Anyway, here are the list of food that I’ve grabbed from the market, and some are mommy helped me to buy. [wink] I know I know… am lucky in that sense!

Boar Stomach

Enoki Mushrooms

Meat Balls, Squid Balls, Hock Chew Fish Balls, Boar Nerve Balls (豬筋丸)

Lettuce Vegetable

Chicken Thigh & Meat Loin

Prawns & Pomfret Fish

How to make your soup base? I thought that’s difficult, but honestly, it’s kind of simple. Just get yourself a whole chicken bone, and 1 or 2 chicken meat. First of all boil a pot of water and put your chicken bone into the pot of water to cleanse it thoroughly. Once done, remove it and put that into a 2 litre pot of water and boil that for 2 to 3 hours. Add salt to taste. Once done, you can add the deep fried fish head into the soup, that will make the soup even more delicious. Oh yes, remember to add in garlic oil and fried garlic to make the soup more fragrant.

Well… to everyone…. Would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Prosperous New Year!!

Hai Boey Seafood 海 尾海鲜

Happy New Year!!! Happy 2012!!
May 2012 brings us joy, health, peace…!!

Four adults and 2 heroes hopped into a 4x4, driving from North to South heading for seafood for dinner on a Boxing Day. The journey for KL folks is just merely a journey, but for us, we may think that it’s a bit too far. Nevertheless, great companion is something hard to find. It’s been awhile we did not meet up since 2009 Homedec in KL. And this gathering honestly, bring us back to the days that we had spent together.

Am not talking about anyone but my cousin brother. Many have said that, 2^nd generation of cousins are normally not that close, but you would be surprised to know we are very close to each other. Sometimes you would just have to think through that it’s an honored to be cousins, relatives, friends, husband and wife and even parents and children.   

My sister-in-law is a seafood lover, and my cousin brother doesn’t really fancy about cuisine, as long as someone look after his 2 heroes and he could have a peaceful meal, I guess anything for him would be fined. In fact, I’ve heard so much about Hai Boey Seafood, but never have a chance to visit. This is only my second visit. But hubby is like he knows what best down here.

 

Japanese Style Fried Brinjal (日式茄子), it’s tasty appetizer.

 

Big Prawns Noodle (大蝦炒河粉)

 

Fried Spinach (上汤菠菜)

 

Claypot Steamed Fish (生煲紅曹)

 

Pumpkin Crabs (南瓜炒蟹)

 

Salad Chicken (沙拉炸雞)

 

Last…. The cooling dessert… something refreshing and something that my cousins love it! 

Address & Contact 

Hai Boey Seafood 海 尾海鲜

No. 29, MK 9, Pasir Belanda

Teluk Kumbar

Gertak Sanggul

11900 Bayan Lepas

Tel: +6013-488 1114 / +6012-498 1114/ +6019-479 1114

Business Hour:

Daily

5.30pm to 11.00pm

Home Cooked Mushroom Bolognese

I always admired people that can cut vegetables in tiny cubes. For example, The Italian Dish … look at the size of those carrots and celeries. Because of her favourite, I did try to make this on one of the evening. And that’s when I was home late and I really need to eat something to fill up the hunger, pasta is always the simplest and the easiest food to prepare.

After all, what we basically need is mushroom, carrots, celeries, onions and garlics…. And I find it absolutely healthy. Oh yes, having a bottle of Prego at home is also necessary as well, at least for me.

I remembered I cooked this once for my family, and they loved it very much. And with their compliments it boosts up my confident in cooking pasta dishes. Don’t you agree? Well, every cook is happy to see their dish is happily eaten, and happily commented. I always love to see hubby tells me, ‘Dear, this is nice!’ or ‘Dear, next time cook more of this.’ Or… comments from my family like…

‘Hey sis, think you should make this more… it’s nice.’

‘Aunt, can I have some more…??’

‘How do you do it? Is it easy to make?’

Though those are simple comments and questions, but it really makes your day.  I have never have the confident in cooking during my single days, but the encouragements that I’ve got from hubby was honestly a good push. Of course, for a start, I kept calling my mom for help, for advice, and even bought a lot recipes books for reference. But hey, no one is a perfect cook since day 1, it’s all try and error many times to get something good.

So whoever out there whom has no confident in cooking anything, just try something simple. Give yourself some confident, am sure, you will proud of yourself one day!!

 

Mushroom Bolognese

Ingredients

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

2 medium sized celery ribs, diced

1 medium onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

¾ cup red wine (optional)

About 1 pound of mushrooms (I used button mushrooms), chopped

1 bottle of Prego Mushroom Sauce

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons sugar

Instructions

1. Heat the pot with olive oil
2. Fry the onions till translucent
3. Add in garlic, fry till fragrant
4. Add in carrots and celeries, fry till its soft
5. Add in the chopped mushrooms
6. While cooking, boil the spaghetti per the instructions
7. Cook thru the mushrooms and add in the Prego sauce
8. Stir it and add in dried thyme, oregano and the sugar to taste
9. Once done, dish out and serve with your spaghetti

Home Cooked Cheesy Potato Chicken

2011 wasn’t really a productive year for me… in fact it was a mixture of loss, gain and surprises. Beginning of the year was full of enthusiastic to decorate the house for Chinese New Year, cuz, that’s the new house decoration. Followed by a family gathering during Chinese New Year on the day 10^th, after that, things changed.  From a happy mode to a sorrow mode… my Mother-in-law was leaving us in early April, she was died of lung cancer. Each of everyone was in moaning mode… and some of us are on vegetarian for 49 days. Then we have little one came to our family, my sister’s son is born. Each of everyone was happy to see him, cuddle him, hug him. To our surprises, he’s really good in laughing though he’s only a small little infant, which is barely a month old that time. I remembered I took a day off to baby sit him while my sister could dial in for a teleconference meeting, and even clean him after his poo-poo. I also spending quality time with my brother’s son for couple of days, playing with him, feed him, read with him, etc. With all these activities, time flies… and now it’s the month of December.

On the work side… things changed greatly. Our superior decided to pursue his interests, thus he left us few months ago. And we have new superior to lead us in the department. Working style is so much different, some says better, some says no different. But to me personally, I could see some people are more happy, and so do I. At least it makes you more involve in certain manner and makes you grow in certain ways.

Well, it’s December month now, and this month reminds me of my best buddy whom always enjoying the Christmas atmosphere with me while she was in the office. Honestly, I miss her dearly.

Another deary friend whom is living far apart from Penang has always has a sweet thought on me. She gave me a surprise which can make hubby hands down. When I posted a message that I have a nose block, not sure was it sick or what… I got a small little thing from her, and it’s all the way from Singapore. With that little surprise, honestly it made up my day!

Year 2011 not only I lost my Mother-in-Law, hubby and I also have lost someone deary.

Few days more to Christmas… and am sure everyone is busy buying Christmas presents for their loved ones, not only that, some are even busy in baking cookies, decorating their Christmas tree and so on. Since this year am not going anywhere, a simple and quiet Christmas at home isn’t any bad idea… some time for me to rest, to distress, to think thru what should I do for 2012. Have you gotten any resolution list?

Well… doesn’t matter, take your time, sit down and write it down. Perhaps it gives you a better idea what to do for the next whole year.

Would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

Cheesy Potato Chicken, not so cheesy

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs

3 medium potatoes

1 small red onion

1 egg

1. Using meat mallet, gently pound fillets between sheets of plastic wrap until about 1cm thick. 
2. Boil whole potatoes until almost tender, cool 20 minutes; grate coarsely. In large bowl combine potato, onion, and egg.  
3. Coat large frying pan with cooking oil, cook chicken until browned and tender. Top with potato mixture; cook under hot grill until potato is browned.

Serving suggestions:

Serve with steamed green vegetables or a salad.

Tip:

Instead of grating potato, try slicing partially cooked potato into thin rounds; place on top of cooked chicken, sprinkle with cheese and chives, and grill until browned and cheese has melted.

Source: The great chicken cookbook (Australia’s Women’s Weekly Cookbooks)

Hot Bowl Nyonya Delights

I’ve heard so much about this place and this is my first time here. This is like my previous experience in Sushi Kappo Miyasaka, where I could miss and kept thinking how good is their curry mee.

Recently I brought my sister and my brother-in-law for breakfast… and it took for about 20 to 30 minutes for them to serve us the bowl of noodles. Apart from that, you gotta be early to grab a seat too, otherwise, just like us the 1^st attempt we came and leave without second thought as there were a few of their customers were standing and waiting for a seat.

So, you can imagine how delicious, spiciness, tasty, mouth watering, droolicious about this bowl of Curry Mee!

Of course apart from Yellow Noodle and Vermicelli and the cockles … you have other side dishes like porch chicken, ordinary koay teow soup, chicken rice and other condiments.

What’s good about this curry mee is their home made chili paste. It’s something that you shouldn’t miss it! It’s hot and it’s like numb your tongue without realizing it. So, you can imagine how spicy it is…

Address & Contact Number

Hot Bowl Nyonya Delight Restaurant

16-A Lorong Abu Siti

10400 Penang

Tel: +604-227 3168

Business Hour: 8am to 3pm

Closed on Monday

Sukhothai Restaurant

Once upon a time, there were three sisters, 1 sister had a bunch of boys and the other sister had a lot of daughters, and each of these sisters gave 1 boy and 1 girl to this sister whom is not married. And this sister raised this boy and girl as brother and sister…. This is the story that my cousin from the states shared it in her blog.

The boy is now 73 years old and living in Oklahoma, recently he came back to Malaysia to visit his family and the rest of his cousins. Brought along with him were his son and daughter, whom visited Malaysia in 1974, that time both of them were only 6 years old and 3 years old. It was a wonderful gathering that we cousins have had and also the 24 hours compressed tour of the Pearl of Orient.

Though uncle is aging and it’s advisable not to travel in such tight schedule, but we took him for his favourite spicy food. driving to down town is always a hassle if the traffic is heavy, thus we chose some where near. Have you heard of Sukhothai Restaurant that’s located in Bukit Jambul Country Club? It’s a Thai Restaurant that is open for public… and the food there is absolutely delicious. In fact, many factories over in Free Industrial Zone organized many lunches and dinner over here before.

When comes to Thai food, most important thing is their Tom Yam (RM18), be it clear Tom Yam or others. You just can’t miss it out. Of course, we opted for Seafood Tom Yam and extra spicy too. It was absolutely help you on your appetite desire.

My uncle loves beef, further more beef is cheaper compared to the other choices. A curry beef with long beans was definitely tempting to have extra bowl of rice, its named Beef Spicy Curry (RM18).

Due to religion, we can’t have beef, so we have Black Pepper Chicken (RM15) for the rest of us.

XO Vegetables (RM14), where you can Petai, Lotus Root, Winged Bean, in the red hot chili paste. That plate of vegetable is appetizing.

Steam Fish Spicy Lime (RM38), is something that you wouldn’t want to miss, it is steamed with lemon sauce, lemon grass, chili padi, and Kaffir lime leaves. That makes that plate of fish so fragrant, and tempting to wallop the soup too.

Squid Spicy Curry (RM20) is something that we ordered extra, it comes with Basil Leaf and Long Beans. The squid is definitely tender and fresh.

Since my aunt brought her grandson along, he definitely can’t have what we’re having. A plate of prawn and egg fried rice (RM10) for him was just nice.

Address & Contact Number

Sukhothai Restaurant

No. 2, Jalan Bukit Jambul

11900 Bayan Lepas

Penang

Tel: +604-6436 754

Home Cooked Ginger Spring Onion Pork Tenderloin 薑蔥豬肉

How I wish I can cook like her, the successful blogger Eating Pleasure? She inspired me with all her beautiful pictures and posts on what she’s been cooking for her loved ones. And before that I honestly I have the urge to own a kitchen where I could experiment everything in the pot, or be it in the wok. Sometimes, you just need someone to give you a lift on your arm, a pad on your shoulder and tell you that, ‘hey, you could do it.’

Because of those posts that she’s posted up, that helped me to learn to cook something that I’ve not any confident in it. Ginger Spring Onion Pork Meat is something that my mom has been cooking it, and she said it’s easy to make too. Ingredients are easy to get from the market and it’s simply easy to cook.

Ingredients

200gm of pork tenderloin, slice into thin slices

10 stalks of spring onions, cut into stripe approximately 2 inches

Ginger cut into thin slices, about 10 to 15 pieces

1 medium red onion, cut into wedges

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Marinate

3 teaspoon of light soya sauce

1 teaspoon of dark soya sauce

2 teaspoon of oyster sauce

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of corn flour

½ teaspoon of salt

Method

1. Marinate the meat for about 20 minutes
2. While marinating, cut those ingredients per what mentioned above
3. Heat the wok with 2 to 3 tablespoon of oil
4.  Fragrant the garlic, and add in the marinated meat and stir fry
5. Stir fry for few minutes, and add in the rest of the ingredients
6. Continue to stir fry and also add in about 3 to 4 tablespoon of water
7. Simmer the meat with high flame for about 2 minutes
8. What says more… dish out and serve with a bowl of steam rice

Home Cooked Capsicum Chicken

After a long quiet break… honestly that didn’t help me to recharge back my energy but to drain out more of it. Was it due to the environment or basically the lazy worm that’s biting my bones?

Since I moved out and got to prepare food everyday, I can fully comprehend how a housewife, a working mother, or a cook face everyday! They have to think what to cook, what ingredients in hand to prepare, what to prepare for the family or their guests. And I am having this everyday… truly salute those that prepare food for those people.

And if you’re creative enough and time permit, you can actually cook something different or refer to a fancy recipe book as reference. But again, that’s always time consuming… for us, I guess we just wanna have a fast one, eat, and clean that’s all.

This is something that I cook and without referring to my ‘cook’ aka my mom. Though it takes a lot of cutting time, but these ingredients that made the dish fragrant, well, at least it makes my loved one add another bowl of rice. :)

Ingredients

2 deboned chicken thighs

1 medium brown onion

1 medium capsicum

3 cloves of chopped garlic

5 chili padi, optional. If you like more spicy, can add more

Marinate

½ tablespoon soya sauce

1 teaspoon dark soya sauce

2-3 teaspoon light soya sauce

½ teaspoon of sugar

Dash a bit of white pepper

Salt to taste

Method

1.      Cut the deboned chicken thighs into 1cm cube size
2.       Marinate with those sauces for about 20 minutes
3.       While marinating, cut the remaining ingredients into cube form, ie. Capsicum, onion, chili padi
4.       Heat on the wok with 2 to 3 table of oil
5.       Fragrant the garlic till the aroma fills up your kitchen
6.       Add in the marinated chicken into the wok… do not stir not flip it over
7.       Once its half cooked, flip it over and cover with wok lid
8.       The steps of covering the wok it has to take on a few times, and also stir fry the chicken
9.       Stir fry till the chicken are thoroughly cooked thru, add in the rest of the ingredients, eg capsicum, onions and chili padi
10.   Stir fry it till it coated with the sauces and dish out

Home Cooked Teriyaki Chicken

My mom loves Teriyaki Chicken whenever she dines in Japanese Restaurant. But at times, come to think of it, it’s kind of costly cuz, this is easily cooked. Don’t you agree?

In fact, these teriyaki marinade sauce is easily obtain in any supermarkets, of course, there’s always the price to pay. However, you could buy many chicken thighs and cook many teriyaki chickens for many people. That could have save some penny in your pocket.

It was something that am running out of idea what to cook for a week day dinner… a week day dinner is always rushing for time, especially you know you have a special program to catch at 8pm. Gosh, that was the time you were like super woman, chopping, cutting your food in extreme mode, aka FAST mode. Of course, without kiddos around, you could actually get your other half to wash all the mess. In fact, such tips better omit from the post, not that I wanna brain wash the readers, but at times sharing such tips it’s something feeling good too.

Ingredients
2 chicken thighs
Teriyaki Marinade sauce

Steps –
• Marinade the chicken for about 20 to 30 minutes
• Heat on your non-stick frying pan with a tablespoon of oil
• Pan fry both side of the chicken for about 10 to 15 minutes
• Once cooked, dish out, best to serve with steam rice