Mom's nasi lemak spread

Two weekends back we went home for a wedding up north. Mom (in law) greeted us with a nasi lemak treat for lunch! Nothing makes us happier than tucking into mom's delicious home cooking.

Her really fragrant nasi lemak, with a hint of kaffir lime leaves.

Fried sambal-stuffed cencaru fish.......makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
Homemade vegetable acar, thick, luscious, sour and sweet.......I love this!

Kiam chai boey, made with roast pork, giving it a very meaty, smoky hint.

The star dish, ayam masak merah aka tomato chicken. The sauce was made with lots of blended fresh tomatoes, it had a rather tangy flavour to it, compared to the version that we usually make, which is more curry-ish. Thumbs up from us!

Mom also made pistachio biscotti with all her leftover egg whites from Chinese New Year baking. Being hand sliced, it's a wonder how she managed to slice it so thin, without the help of a slicing machine. Mom's got her ways! Crunchy, munchy, lovely!

Prontip Thai Restaurant, Lebuhraya Peel, Penang

Dad treated the clan to lunch at Prontip Thai Restaurant in Penang for Chinese New Year. He ordered from the Chinese New Year set menu which cost RM288.00 for incredibly large portions of 8 dishes, enough for a table of 10. The set menu included steamed rice, chinese tea, tidbits and napkins, so it was a pretty good deal!

It was gastronomic madness, the amount of food that we had! What a sight!

We started with the Prontip 4 Precious Season.....

.....which consisted of Thai style satay,......

............crab meat ball,...............

............mango salad..........

...........and fish cakes. These starters were fragrant with a lingering taste of finely sliced kaffir lime leaves.

Dad brought yee sang from outside and we did the compulsory yee sang toss. That's 2 sets worth!

Thai style "Choo Chi" deep-fried chicken in sweet and sour sauce, again this too had a very fragrant kaffir lime leaves taste.

Claypot glass noodles prawn. This came with a sourish soup, rich with lemongrass taste. The prawns were big and springy!

Thai style deep fried pork leg (RM40.00). This was an add on, not part of the set menu. It was a big, crispy, meaty chunk, we tapau-ed the leftovers and made kiam chai boey with it.

Thai style steamed fish with lemon and garlic. The fish was fresh and succulent, and we loved the sour spicy gravy teeming with birds eye chillies.

Stir fried sea cucumber with broccoli, the obligatory vegetable dish.

Tom yam fried yellow noodles, which tasted kinda plain. This dish could have benefitted from more spice, with more tom yam taste to it, for the added ooomph.

The house specialty, chilli sauce.

We had tab tim krob for dessert (water chestnut in coconut milk), my favourite! I could have finished a few bowls of this, but I was absolutely stuffed by the end of the meal!

Prontip Thai Restaurant

2 Lebuhraya Peel (Yesterday Club),

10350 Penang, Malaysia.

Tel: 04-2282234

Mobile: 012-4788376

Fax: 04-2282235

Email: prontipthai@yahoo.com

Our rating system for overall satisfaction with what we eat and where we eat....

1-bam = don't even bother

2-bam = good enough to fill the tummy

3-bam = a very good restaurant in its category

4-bam = excellent cooking, worth a detour

5-bam = exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

We would give this restaurant a 3-bam rating.

What we ate in Penang during Chinese New Year

So we went for a short visit to Penang during CNY to lookup our relatives. Most Chinese-owned restaurants/hawker stalls were closed, so we had a quick lunch at Kapitan Restaurant at Gurney Hotel, which is a mamak outlet.

Mee goreng (RM3.00).

Special chicken tikka (RM6.00) and plain naan (RM1.30). The chicken was very good, coated with thick delicious spices and grilled, giving it a smoky flavour.

Cool Cha vegetable Indian pizza (RM4.00), which is basically a naan embedded with vegetables.

Shish Kebab, this version is grilled marinated spicy minced lamb rolls (RM10.00). I don't take lamb, but those who do should try this out as bro-in-law's reviews were good.

To avoid the traffic jam, we had buffet dinner at the Penang Hydro Majestic Hotel (formerly known as Ferringhi Beach Hotel) where we stayed. Food was ok, nothing to shout about. Cost us a cool RM40.00++/person.

They served salmon yee sang, eat all you can.

Baked potato with sourcream and bacon bits.

Hodge podge of food from the buffet spread.

Hodge podge of food from the BBQ spread.

Satay fresh from the grill.

Dessert.......fruit cocktail jelly.

What we cooked/ate in Taiping during Chinese New Year

It was celebration time, and we had family over for lunch.

Mom (in law) taught me how to make roti jala.

Ok la, not so pretty but still edible!

Mom cooked chicken curry to go with the roti jala.

I made the vegetable and sourcream filling for the paiti, following Aunt PO's secret recipe.....tastes sweet and sour and crunchy.

Paiti shells, these were store-bought.

We also had a mini steamboat spread.

The steamboat, done.

Uncle CT brought his homemade Kiam Chai Boey........really great tasting stuff!

Assorted waxed meat.

Roast pork stir fried with black soy sauce......simple yet scrumptious!

Petai stir fried with pork and cincalok.......awesome!

In the evening, we put the BBQ pit to use. BBQ meat re-BBQ-ed! Prawns on a stick.

BBQ meat in a bun.

We experimented with teriyaki unagi (eel).

BBQ catfish......the banana leaf burned up, hence the black stuff sticking to the fish. We ended up feeding this to the alley cats.

BBQ stingray.....the alley cats loved it too. :D