My Written Characters: Penang

Who don't like SEAFOOD?

I truly adore seafood of all kinds. Hmm, I know not everyone feels the same. Having a seafood feast is always a hearty moment for me!

Tambun itself is a seafood paradise. Yet the tiny island, Pulau Aman, has even fresher goodies to offer! Located just off-coast Bukit Tambun, Pulau Aman is a rustic Malay fishing village. Despite the hustle and bustle in the state's capital, it remains an ideal getaway for residents to pay a day trip. Travellers of modern world also tend to stay overnight to have a quiet respite in this serene and peaceful island.

GETTING THERE

The journey to Pulau Aman takes approximately 45 minutes from Penang Island. From the Bukit Tambun jetty, it is accessible by a five-minutes boat transfer.

Get your two-ways boat transfer from ticketing corner

The wooden jetty

On the boat

WHAT TO EAT

I was thrilled when I saw a stall selling snacks along the road in the village. Malay style snacks are always right to my taste buds! Highly recommended to grab a quick bite on their lekor. They offer ordinary lekor (fried fish crackers) and a special version topped with mayonese and cheese. The lekor was so gooood~

We were ~~unlucky~~. It rained heavily last night and thus fishermen did not go to the sea. Therefore, we don't see freshly caught sea creatures. There were only clams, flower crabs, some fishes, and mantis shrimps to be chosen.

Things did not turned to be that bad. We still managed to have some vigorous mantis prawns from the seller. Later, we would need to carry our bucket of sea produces to the floating restaurant next to the stall. The restaurant would help you to clean and steam your seafood, without charging you a single cent.

But BEWARE! Their service was extremely poor. Expect a long wait before your food arrives.

The steamed seafood was sweet and addictive. Forget about tiny, little mantis shrimps we usually see, the large mantis shrimps here are fleshy, naturally sweet and firm! Once again, it is an undeniable truth that there is no better way to enjoy fresh seafood than having them steamed.

You may want to get some accompaniments to your dishes. Try out their signature Mee Udang. It is plain yellow noodles in a thick tomato gravy, topped with three large shrimps. Not too bad, but perhaps it is just too much if we want to say it is legendary.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Having a pleasant walk by the beach, siput-finding, fishing are some other activities you can do for your spare time. A kind reminder, bring along your mosquito repellents!

Pulau Aman

29.05.2016

Photo credit Mei Jie & Jin Yee

Yea yea yea. It's our annual gathering again! Uhm, time flies and it was a really special occasion for this year - our 10th anniversary! 10 years of friendship? It's not easy huh! Big big love my dear friends~♥

Uh well, we'd been discussing and planning for this special day since then. It came to a decision for a more luxurious decorated restaurant. The reason behind was, to PHOTO-BOOM of course! :P

You could have heard about QEII in Penang. What about Chin's restaurant? Honored as one of the top fine-dining chinese restaurant in Malaysia, it is strategically located in the heart of Georgetown. It prides itself to offer an affordable luxury combining delightful cuisines and fashionable decors.

So here we are. We reached before evening and managed to have a fascinating view of QEII. It was a sunny day though.

The main gateway primes the magnificence and stands on the calm water of the harbor.

Yoohoo~ our next door is the ferry!

Our director of photography struggled to arrange our positions.

Cheesseeee~

Behind the scene. Oops!

Uh what?

Candid?

Yeah~ First, let us take a SELFIE!

Okay enough enough~ Here we go!

The signboard of the restaurant. Grandiose!

Simply love the design of the entrance! It's the time when east meets west!

We were leaded to our dining table attentively.

The first thing that strikes my eyes was the uniquely hand-painted plate on the dining table!

What's more was, each of us got a different design!

Compilation of my favorite plate-arts. To my knowledge, they are for sale exclusively here.

Oh ya, a friendly reminder - make sure you selfie with the plate first before they are collected by the dining attendants. Too bad, the plates are not meant to be used.

Let's take a look on the stylish, contemporary decor of the restaurant.

The glass-enclosed dining hall allows diners to have a sweeping view of the sea comfortably.

The table setting is enriched with traditional chinese culture. Behind us are the tall shelves displaying wide selection of wines for diners to choose from.

Even the ceiling is decorated creatively.

Here comes the tantalizing menu of the restaurant. There are a choice of set meals with prices ranging from RM78++ to RM218++ per pax. You can have a pork-free dining experience featuring Hunan and SzeChuan cuisine. Each dish is enhanced with aromatic spices for an awesome goodness of flavor.

We kicked off our meal with a variety of cold and hot starters. Oh ya, I'd love to mention this. The lighting in the dining hall is dear and near to my heart! There is a spotlight on each dining table. Thanks to that!

Century eggs in grilled pepper - topped with luscious sauce

Behind are garlic cucumber and Hunan shredded seaweed, giving an appetizing bite.

Sesame prawns on toast - crispy and delightful

Heavenly blessed joysticks - Skewer presented with baby abalone, seashell meat and sea fungus. The immersing oil is spicy and pungent. Not a taste of mine though.

**Blessed joysticks ("Shang Shang Qian") denotes an easy draw in chinese lots.

Fried golden needle mushrooms - I love the way the taste enhanced with red chilies

The next is the specialties of Chin's - Aromatic Crispy duck.

Personally I dislike duck meat except this one.

The duck is shredded at the table end and you have to assemble the meat yourselves.

Tadaa! My very own piece of crispy duck roll on a thin sheet of pancake, accompanied with scallions, cucumber and hoisin sauce.

Make sure you add some chili padi and the taste would become much more pleasing!

The main course includes double flavored wild fresh water fish, cumin mutton skewers, hot wok mixed seafood, "Gele mountain" hot chicken, sauteed hot & sour chinese cabbage and fragrant plain rice. I missed the photos because I went to the washroom and then, only managed to capture on the mutton skewers. Yes, you can see how tasty the dishes are as awfully, my friends didn't even wait for me and ate them all. Ouch! >.<

The dishes came in a generous portion and prepared in a twist of dedicating savory. Remarkably, the poultry was tender and perfectly matched with the unique sauce and fragrance.

The steamed fish is behind the mutton skewers, if you could see it.