Penang Laksa at Taman Emas, opposite Penang Chinese Girls' High School

Laksa, one of the most famous and tastiest food in Malaysia is often associated with Penang. The reason is simple, Penang has the best laksa in Malaysia. The iconic food in Penang is famous for its special combination of sweet, sour and a little spicy taste of soup with noodles in it. The taste is simply delicious and food lovers will definitely like it. It is a must have food for everyone who visits Penang.

One of the most famous laksa is located at Taman Emas coffee shop, opposite Penang Chinese Girls' High School. The shop is often crowded with customers.

The soup is normally sour in taste and the black paste on the spoon is actually prawn paste which is sweet in taste. Other than that, there are some other stuffs in the soup such as flaked fish, onions, pineapples, mints and etc. If you are more to a sour taste type of person, you should request for less prawn paste and vice versa.

Laksa - RM4.50 small, RM5 big

Pricing wise, it is slightly more expensive than outside. A small bowl costs RM4.50 while a big bowl costs RM5.00. Nevertheless, it is still worth the money for the great taste that everyone is raving about in this shop.

The shop is located at a corner lot, directly opposite Penang Chinese Girls' High School. A hidden little gem indeed.

The Cruises Steak House, Penang

The Cruises Steak House, a western cuisine restaurant, is a great and a must go place for western food lovers. It has two branches in Penang, namely at Bishop Street and Bayan Lepas. The price is reasonable and the food is great with nice environment and live band performance which adds attraction to the place.

We personally went to the two branches before and the photos below were captured from the Bishop Street branch.

Lucky Leave - RM 11.90

The drink in green above is called "Lucky Leave". Recommended by the waitress, we decided to give it a try and to our pleasant surprise, this drink really tastes nice. It is a mixture of four fruits with one of them being Kiwi fruit. Four leaves clover = lucky leave = four fruits drink.

D' Cruises Chicken Chop - RM 19.90

Chicken chop, one of the food that we had, came in a good portion for medium eater. Not too much and not too little.

Lemon Butter Fish Fillet - RM 21.90

Lemon butter fish fillet with the creamy sauce. Good enough portion for most of us.

Banana Split - RM 10.90

Banana split as dessert. One banana is split into half, with three scopes of ice cream in the middle with cream and chocolate chips as toppings. One chocolate stick and a small little paper umbrella are used as the decoration.

Live band performance by a pair of duet. Customers can request for the songs that they would like the band to play or to dedicate a song to someone. Not sure if this is a everyday event. We went on a Saturday night. It is entertaining to listen to the band and a nice place to hangout while relaxing ourselves.

On a side note, we had seen Cruises Steak House having promotion on Groupon for a few times. So for those of you who are interested, can have a look at Groupon deals and try this place out at a really good price. :)

Chinese New Year 2016 at 1st Avenue Mall, Penang

1st Avenue Mall, located in Georgetown, the capital of Penang, is one of the most popular mall in the island. Next to the mall we have the iconic Komtar building and also Prangin Mall. The three are all linked together, giving shoppers the choice to cross over to the other easily through the interlink bridge internally. We managed to capture some Chinese New Year decorations from 1st Avenue mall and would like to share with everyone here. 

As Valentine's day is also in February, there is this huge love shape decoration filled with roses at the most upper floor, the level where TGV cinema is. This should be some contest from 1st Avenue with collaboration with TGV cinema from the looks of it.

Back to Chinese New Year decoration, as this year is the year of Monkey, many of the decorations here are monkey themed.

Coincidentally, the day when we visited 1st Avenue, we got the chance to watch the lion dance performance brought to the public by 1st Avenue. How lucky!

The lion dance was actually accompanied by drumming and also the Monkey God that led the Monkey to the stage. Unfortunately, we did not manage to capture the picture of the Monkey God but he looks similar to the Monkey God statue above.The lion and Monkey God also distributed some mandarin oranges to the public, mostly to children.

Lastly, the picture below is not related to 1st avenue but decided to share it here. This is actually captured during one of the Chinese New Year open house celebration in Penang. A giant monkey or is it a King Kong?

Chinese New Year 2016 at Gurney Plaza Mall, Penang

Gurney Plaza Mall, located at the state capital Georgetown at Gurney Drive, is one of the most crowded shopping mall in Penang island. Locals and tourists normally throng the mall during weekends or on holidays. This year 2016, we managed to capture some of the decorations during Chinese New Year from Gurney Plaza to share with everyone here.

Lion dance, one of the iconic traditional dance closely related to the Chinese culture, would be often seen to be performing during Chinese New Year. We may also able to catch this performance from certain celebrations such as opening of a new business or certain celebrations. Lion dance is believed to bring good luck and thus very popular among the Chinese businessmen/businesswomen.

All the lions are in standing postures and this makes them look so real that as if they are performing the lion dance.

Accompanying the lions are the drums. Normally, lion dance performance are accompanied by drumming. Sometimes, firecrackers as well to add the merry. Drumming are usually very loud and the lion would dance according to the rhythm of the drum. 

Bamboo sticks are among the decoration spotted at mall together with the drums and lions.

For Chinese New Year, the popular red lanterns shall not be forgotten and can be seen hanging all around the center of the mall.

Chinese New Year 2016 at Esplanade Penang

You'll never be alone to celebrate Chinese New Year in Penang as there is a great event to bring you the joyous moment in conjunction with Chinese New Year. Let's take a look at Esplanade and join the crowd to capture the best moment with the beautiful lanterns and decorations.

There is no entrance fee needed for the place. Parking may be a little bit hard to find with the big crowd. As you may miss out on this event in Esplanade this year, here are some nice photos captured from Esplanade Penang during Chinese New Year 2016.

Lantern decoration at the main entrance

In conjunction with Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2016 which was held in Padang Polo, the display of mini paper craft hot air balloons set up like lanterns for public to view and take photos are available in Esplanade.

Handmade paper lantern hanging on top

Year of monkey

The Chinese word '春' in the photo below symbolizes 'Spring'.

At the main stage

As this is the 'Year of the Monkey', it is surely a must for the crowd to capture their best moment with this Monkey God lighting statue. Also, there are some other zodiac lanterns around the place for the public to enjoy.

Monkey God statue

Rat zodiac

Cow zodiac

Tiger zodiac

Rabbit zodiac

Dragon zodiac

Snake zodiac

Pig zodiac