Pages

January 31, 2016

[ Penang ] Eataliano Cafe @ Burmah Road

Out of sudden, BenDan suggested that we should dine at Eataliano Cafe after he saw some nice photos being shared in the Facebook page. Without further hesitation, we decided to pay a visit by this week! It's located at the corner unit of Burmah Road or Cantonment Road which is quite easy to overlook, and parking surely a problem for all the diners. This is why the previous restaurants that opened in the same unit were ended up shut down.
Nothing much on the interior, quite clean and neat. Since we need to order our food at the counter, so we got our seats on downstairs and we didn't went to upstairs for a look either. The menu selection is quite limited but we already google-ed what dishes are recommended before we reach. Diners were not much during our visit so the serving is rather fast that night. Didn't manage to get the exterior image as I don't feel to risk my life standing in the middle of the traffic just to get a picture of it. Laugh
Things on the table. Plain water will be provided upon request. A block of number will be given once you made your payment at the counter, the cafe staff will collect it once they served all your food to you.
Green Apple Soda | RM10
We ordered a drink to share. It came in 3 layers: the bottom one is the green apply syrup, middle one is the soda drink and topped with a layer of cream. You can drink it like this or stirred all 3 layers into one, both give you different kind of taste and we prefer the latter one. The beverages selection are limited as well but from their Facebook page, the barista has been working on some new flavours to be served soon.
Cajun Smoked Duck Spaghetti | RM17
The presentation is way out from the one show in their Facebook page, and we thought they got us the wrong dish. The staff were then told us that they had made some changes in presentation and adjustment after getting feedback from their customers. We accepted this although this dish become not so photogenic anymore but it didn't affect the taste! It tasted so creamy and you can get the smoked duck scent in it, worth to try. 
Seafood Risotto | RM19
My first thought after they served this to us: the portion is rather small! The presentation is quite good with numerous of prawns and slices of squid being topped on the risotto, that's the only two type of seafood in this dish, I expected some clams in it by the way. The risotto is well cooked and not so watery as they sprinkle some cheese in the mid to make it cheesy and creamy; the seafood are fresh as well. Well definitely come back again for the quality food.


Location
381, Jalan Burmah, 10250 Georgetown, Penang.

Business Hours
11am - 10pm (Daily); closed on Wednesday

Contact Number
04-218 9558

Facebook Page


January 22, 2016

Unboxed YI Action Camera


Was thinking to get a GoPro previously due to the trend as we feel it's quite hard for us to take selfie together with the background whenever we off to trip. We didn't get the selfie stick like others as our smartphone are quite outdated now (camera resolution is not so good) and we are so lazy to bring along our tripod. After some discussion with BenDan, we decided to drop the idea of getting GoPro due to our RM devaluation, we switched it to YI Action Camera after comparing it with SJCAM. We bought it through 11street where YI Action Camera was still newly launch and hardly accessible through other website.
We bought the YI Action Camera Deluxe Package from Dasher and this package include YI Action Camera, waterproof case, monopod and Kingston 16GB memory card. Placed my order in 11street and I got the parcel in 2 days time, all the items I got are in good shape.
I got the parcel on weekday and I only managed to check the item condition on the day itself, photos were taken on the weekend. This explain why the memory card is opened in this photo.
You can choose white or green for your YI Action Camera, obviously we got it in green; we prefer the sharp color. The action camera is come along with cable, battery and user manual. All action camera should come with screen protector sheet attached on the body and lens. 
There are 2 lids available at the back of the action camera, the big one is to place the battery. The battery is just nicely fit into the compartment provided, if you see clearly, there is a tail on the battery body. Do not tear the tail as you will need it to take out the battery from action camera. Accordingly to the user manual, you need not charge the battery overnight or at least 8 hours, the battery is fully charge once the LED light around the on-off button is turn off. 
On the left side, there are ports for memory card, USB and HDMI. The USB port is used to charge the battery or transfer photos to computer; you may use the HDMI port if you want to view your photos through television. Since there is no string or part holding the lid to the action camera body, it is advisable that you keep the lid safely whenever you open it. 
YI Action Camera can support up to Full HD 1080p video and 16MP photos with its 155° ultra-wide angle lens. The button next to the lens is the on-off button, press it and hold for around 3-4 seconds to on or off the action camera; press once if you wish to switch your action camera to video mode. The LED light around the on-off button is to indicate the percentage of battery left: blue - 100% to 50%, purple - 49% to 15% and red - 15% - 0%. If not mistaken, the battery can last for 3-4 hours for continuous video shooting.
There is capture button on the top of action camera, Wi-fi button on the left is to connect it to your smartphone or monopod, the hole on the bottom of action camera is for you to attach it to the monopod.
The waterproof case that came together in the package is under Kingma's brand instead of YI brand. The original one will cost more but the quality will be the same. You may first test the waterproof case under water before you place the YI action camera in it. Thick rubber is placed surrounding the opening of the case, so you must press hard in order to close the case. 
The brand for the monopod also under Kingma's brand and it can attached nicely with the action camera. I like the roller ball at the joint where we can adjust the angle as we like, it is very useful when we want to take group photo with others. Something that I don't like about the Kingma monopod is they do not have remote control on it, 
BenDan purchased the YI monopod on the same day as he feel it will be easier for us with the remote control. It's almost the same like the Kingma monopod but YI monopod is double the weight which I can even put my Sony camera on it, a good deal I would say. You will only need to set the bluetooth between action camera and YI monopod once, it'll be auto connect on the next use. Without the remote control, you can still capture images with the app (iPhone and Android) download to your smartphone.
These are some of the photos taken by YI action camera, I haven't try on the video yet even we bought it for months. We even brought it together for our Bangkok trip, but we just used it once, most of our photos were taken using our cameras. The quality of the photos are quite good with the price that offer, but it can't really perform well in dim environment. In overall, we will still recommend YI Action Camera to you!



January 17, 2016

[ Penang ] Jeeves @ Love Lane



I'm now trying to share cafes that I went last year, the progress of updating is quite slow as my day-job has occupy most of my times, and of course the rest seem to take up by outing / gathering with my family and loves one or some errands to run with. I'll still try to dig out some time during weekend to share one or two post(s). Went to Jeeves that located at Love Lane with friends few months back for a short gathering, glad that all of us can made it despite of the hazy weather.
The interior. The diners were not much during the time we went, we managed to find ourselves a good seat. Nothing much about the interior but they have two doggy murals which I don't have a good photo to show here. You need to take your own dinning set and seasoning on the rack that provided, plain water is provided as well. Even though diners were not much, but we still waited quite awhile for our food to reach us.
Didn't manage to find a good drink for us on the menu, so we opt for the plain water but they charged us RM1 per bottle of plain water since we didn't order their drinks. I never thought cafe will have this kopitiam-style of charges on this.
Mushroom Aglio-Olio | RM15.90
Read through some food blogs before we hit the cafe, most of them recommended this pasta so Sharon ordered this to share with us. Different from normal Aglio-Olio that only cook in olive oil and sprinkle of chili flakes, they cook this in homemade pesto sauce, generous portion of button Shitake, oyster mushrooms and then topped with Parmesan cheese and some roasted garlic. The roasted garlic enhance the taste of this pasta which we find it quite refreshing on the first few bites. The pasta taste good but somehow we didn't finished it as it turned out quite greasy at the end, too much of olive oil I guess.
Carbonara | RM19.90
Both BenDan and Florence ordered Carbonara, it makes us slobber just by looking at it. It's a classic pasta with streaky bacon, fresh mushroom and topped with running egg yolk. Quite creamy after you mixed the egg yolk, but if you don't like the raw egg taste, you might not like this dish, the taste has cover the savory cheese taste. 
Salmon Benedict | RM19.90
Jon's. Didn't really try on it, but he said the portion is too small for him. Overall, it's quite good but he mentioned that the Hollandaise sauce provided is too little, but the salmon is fresh and they also provide quite a lot of greens. 
Schnitzel | RM14.90
I opt for something heavy to share with them and I feel that this is worth the penny as the portion is so big that I cannot finish it by myself. It's breaded pork loin with Bechamel sauce on greens that sandwich between six-cereal toast, it also served with crispy wedges. I always prefer wedges than fries. The pork loin was so crispy and not so greasy, it will be better if they provide more Bechamel sauce.
Group photo taken using XiaoYi action camera, will definitely blog about it soon once I'm free. We will be meeting up quite often now as something big is coming soon on March!


Location
71, Love Lane, 10200 Georgetown, Penang.

Business Hours
Mon - Fri: 8am - 4pm (Closed on Wednesday)
Sat - Sun: 10am - 6pm

Contact Number
04-2519120

Facebook


January 10, 2016

[ Penang ] Crab & Lobster Seafood Oyster Bar @ Straits Quay



The time when I was in Straits Quay, Crab & Lobster is yet to open its door to public (under renovation); didn't bother to know their opening until we come across Ken's blog while searching for restaurant to dine for Christmas. Was planning to dine there during the Boxing Day but they were having the special menu for Christmas and New Year celebration which will cost more penny, so we drop it. We went there the day after they resume their affordable menu; since it's only few weeks from their opening, reservation is needed if you couldn't bear the disappointment of knowing it's full house during the time you visit. 
Same like most of the restaurants in Straits Quay, they have indoor and al-fresco seating. I prefer having warm food indoor.
Don't expect numerous choices on their menu, the main highlight here is crab, lobster and oyster, so that's their 2 pages menu. You can either pick their recommended combos or pick your own seafood; there are 5 choices of sauce provided but you can only pick the spiciness level for Crab & Lobster Signature Sauce and Chili Crab Sauce. If you aim for the Alaskan King Crab Leg combo, it's highly recommended that you make reservation earlier; it is running out of stock fast than others. 
Oyster selection is not available in the menu, but you need to pick your own oyster at the Oyster Bar which located at the corner of the restaurant. There are 4 varieties of oysters that air-flown from different countries being displayed at the Oyster Bar on the night we went. We didn't have oysters that night as we don't really know how to enjoy raw oysters. 
Crab & Lobster served cooked seafood on the table and diners will need to have these heavenly food by using the gloved hand. This concept has been around for awhile but definitely the first one in Penang. Of course, if you want, you can also request them to serve your seafood in the pot. To prevent you from spewing on your cloth, apron is also provided. 
Selection of beverages are also not available in the menu. Once you placed your order, you will need to take the name card (with your table number on it) on your table and walk to the huge display fridge to choose your favorable drinks. Most of their drinks and alcohols are imported, the imported alcohols are at the higher price range, so we opt for normal beverages. Once you picked your drinks, pass the drinks together with the name card to cashier so that they can charge them in your bill. They will then serve your drinks to your table with glass of ice. Ice or warm water will be served upon request, free of charge I guess.
Us in apron before the dining start.
Orange & Jasmine | RM10 . Iced Green Tea latte | RM13
Crab Feast | RM98 . add-on King Mushroom | RM5
We ordered one of their combo - Crab Feast which comes with one mud crab, 300 grams of prawns, 250 grams of clams, corn, potatoes and sausages that cooked in mild spicy of Crab & Lobster Signature sauce. Complimentary mantou (steamed or fried) and fries will be served whenever you order one of their combo set. The portion is more than enough for two of us (hardly tell from the photo tho), all the seafood served is not overcooked and the sauce is so finger-licking-good. I wish we can have more mantou to finish off the sauce but we were too full for that. What surprise me was the fresh prawn, it tasted way better than the crab, the prawns were so fresh that every bite on it was bursting with the fresh seafood juice in it. It was a good and fun dining experience for us. 


Location
Lot 3A-G-7, Ground Floor of Straits Quay, Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang, 10470 Tanjung Tokong, Penang.

Business Hours
12pm - 12am (Daily)

Contact Number
604-8992828

Facebook


. . . . . . . . . . 


It will be a fruitful year for me!