Shuang Mei Mai Dessert 双妹唛 at Sunway Carnival

Drinks and dessert shops have been blooming like mushrooms in Penang lately.

One of them are Shuang Mei Mai  双妹唛

located at LG Sunway Carnival mall, next to 600cc.

What makes it stands out is that Shuang Mei Mai offers the desserts in hot and cold options,

ingredients that are healthy and good for skin making it a good choice for the health conscious.

红枣雪耳炖木瓜

Apricot, red dates, white fungus stewed papaya RM 6.90

Made up of healthy ingredients with natural sweetness. Like!~

双妹黑芝麻糊 

Shuangmei black sesame paste RM 6.90

Strong sesame aroma to it with slightly bitter taste. 

Black sesame are said to be good for the hair, 

so my sis finished it anyway. 

黑糯米炖奶 

Black rice steamed milk RM 7.90

The dessert has a layer of black rice on top of the steamed milk.

You can have it hot or cold. 

The steamed milk is smooth and bouncy. Loved the texture.

I'd recommend the cold one so the milky taste is not overwhelming.

I think it's a good option if you feel like pampering yourself with dessert and still be healthy. :)

Where is Penang Countdown 2013

We penangites typically know where the countdowns are held.

Esplanade, Queensbay Mall, E&O Straits Quay, Penang Pesta Site; Auto-City

*WHICH ONE* to go to?? That's the question...

Here's a compilation of the locations & programs to help you decide. ;)

Padang Esplanade, Penang Island

Event : PG2013 Penang Golden New Year’s Eve Countdown Celebration
Date  : 31 December 2012
Time  : 11am - 12:30am
http://www.9-creativision.com/index.php?page=pg2013_new_year_eve_countdown_celebration


In an attempt to surpass the countdown celebration last year, the PG2013 has included a wide range of entertainment and programmes. Among them are the Penang Golden Futsal Tournament and Golden K-Pop Dance Challenge.
Music fans can rejoice as famous stars from the local music scene like Amy Search, Azlan and The Type Writer, and Tedd Chan will make their way to the island for the PG2013 Penang Golden Live Concert, which is part of the countdown celebrations.



Event Program
11am – 3pm PG2013 “Think Blue Convoy” and The Tree Planting Program
11am – 3pm PG2013 Penang Golden Futsal
4pm – 5pm The Preview of Japanese Yosokoi
5pm – 8pm PG2013 Penang Golden K-POP Dance Challenge
8:30pm – 12:30pm PG2013 Penang Golden New Year's Eve Live Concert and Firework Display

Auto-City, Juru,  Prai

Events : Auto-City Christmas & New Year Countdown Fesitval 2013
Date & Time :
21-24 December 2012, 6pm-12am
29-31 December 2012, 6pm-12am
http://autocity.com.my/index.php?posting=891

Christmas Eve Countdown (24 DEC 2012): 
~Little Idol and Voice Idol competition
~Eating competition
~Street Dance & K-POP Challenge 2012 featuring Famous Judges ~Melvin Jansen Ang all the way from Philippine
~Realm Church performance

New Year Eve Countdown (31 DEC 2012)
~Coloring Contest
~Mark Lee (Singapore entertainment artiste ),Lena (Akademi Fantasia season 9), Suanne ,Ruffmeckz, Melvin ,Chriz ,Mckishz ,Street dance and K-pop challenge will be performing for new year countdown.
~Countdown to 2013
~Grand firework display!!!

* The finals of Auto-City Voice Idol will be on 29 Dec 2012 and Auto-City Little Idol on 30 Dec 2012.

Straits Quay

https://www.facebook.com/StraitsQuay?fref=ts

Time : 11pm - 12.30am

Countdown with The JazzHats, BatteryHeadz Percussions & DJ Ryan. 

Fireworks display

Queensbay Mall Christmas:

15 - 25 Dec 2012 (Off on Tuesday)

Ground Floor, Central Atrium

Garfield & Friends Walkabout

1.00pm

Garfield & Friends

X’mas Musical Live Show

3.00pm & 7.00pm

Make A Wish with Santa & The Elf

5.00pm

Garfield & Friends Meet & Greet

3.25pm & 7.25pm

Christmas Pizza Party with Garfield & Friends

22 Dec 2012, 2.30pm

Exclusive for Q-Kids Club members

Queensbay Mall New Year:

Anticipate a fun New Year Countdown Party at Queensbay Mall with great music and spectacular fireworks display from the seafront as we usher into a great new year. Don’t miss the featured impersonators with hits from Carly Rae Jepsen, Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, Adele, Rihanna, Pitbull and David Guetta!

Time: Starts from 9.30p.m.

 http://www.queensbaymallmalaysia.com/happening_queen2.php

Gurney Paragon

https://www.facebook.com/gurneyparagon

Get ready to celebrate Glittering December with us!

Saturday Night Live Bands, 7.30 pm onwards

8 Dec Phenomenon

22 Dec The Rozells

29 Dec Ronald Vic C. De Leon

Christmas Eve Live Band, 9 pm onwards – Fine Arts Performance & Music Academy feat. V Voice

Christmas Night Live Band, 7.30 pm onwards – Princess & The Frog

New Year's Eve Celebration, 8 pm onwards - The Flaming Signature, School Band Performances and special appearance by Freda!

Penang Times Square Mall

Time:   Starts from 8.30pm

Venue: Chin Ho Plaza

http://www.penangtimessquare.com/events.htm

Gurney Plaza New Year Countdown Party

Time: Starts at 8pm

Free Entry

http://gurneyplaza.com.my/promotions/view/188/

*This post will be updated as more information is available.*

Source:

http://www.gotopenang.com/content/pg2013-penang-golden-new-year%E2%80%99s-eve-countdown-celebration-esplanade

http://www.funpenang.com/event/auto-city-christmas-new-year-countdown-festival-2013/

http://autocity.com.my/

http://www.9-creativision.com/
http://www.awesomepenang.com

Kampung Baru - Akinoya Japanese Restaurant 秋之屋

The choices of japanese food in Bukit Mertajam is pretty limited. 

So, I was very eager to give Akinoya (秋之屋) a try as soon as I noticed it at Kampung Baru.

Just turn left after Old Town into the row of shop lots.

Mini japanese landscape at the entrance

The interior. The blue colour thingy by the table is actually an aquarium. 

No fishes currently, but would be quite enjoyable to watch once there is.

The menu

It was a rainy night. We all wanted something with hot soup.

So, ramen it is!~

Ton katsu ramen RM14.90

Kaisen ramen RM16.90. 

Doesn't look too tempting, but seafood is fresh and soup is quite nice too 

(if you like sushi king's chawanmushi. It has a similar flavour)

Sakana katsu RM10. Try fish chop for a change...

Winner of the night - Shoyu ramen RM13.90

Everybody's favourite. Loved the flavour of the soup.

Chanpon ramen RM13. 

Has a strong bean sprouts flavor. Too bad we didn't like bean sprouts...>o<

All time favourite - Gyoza RM7.90. 

Haven't had a gyoza I didn't like yet...

The environment is cosy though slightly dark to my liking.

difficult to read the menu lah~

We were impressed by the ramen which actually has different soup base

instead of just using different ingredients for different ramen.

All in all we enjoyed our dinner here at Akinoya.

Hong Kong Day 5: Hillside escalator, Yung Kee, Trams(中环至半山扶手电梯, 镛记, 电车)

Having half day to spent on our last day we visited Hong Kong island.

First stop, the world's longest outdoor covered escalator:

Central - mid-levels hillside escalator(中环至半山扶手电梯).

It's a pleasant change, less walking! :D

Took the escalator uphill and just get off at random streets to take a quick look around.

Really is a fun and relaxing way to travel.

Arrived at Yung Kee Restaurant (镛记) slightly earlier than it's opening hours to avoid queues.
Budgeted traveller as we are, we ordered take away which is cheaper than dine in.

Entrance for take away is a smaller side door beside the main entrance.
Roasted goose rice 烧鹅饭 HKD38.

The skin is roasted to perfection, with it's aroma and crunchy texture...
However the meat is hard and rubbery.
Having high expectation since it's so famous for it's roast goose we were disappointed.
Not sure if it'll be better if we dined in. 

After lunch we walked along peel street 卑利街, 

which turn out to be a surprisingly long street,

in search for chocolate rain's shop.

Chocolate rain is a brand by Hong Kong artist (Prudence Mak), 

famous for it's cartoon and handicrafts made out of cloth patches.

Colourful market place along the street.

Chocolate rain's shop. 

So sweet and colourful, liked a candy.

Wanting to see more with less time, we took the tram (叮叮电车).

Sitting on the upper deck we just take in the view of Hong Kong island, 

the buildings and the crowd,

not caring where we're heading to or when we're getting off.

We had a great last day in Hong Kong~

Hong Kong Day 4: Lantau, Stanley(大屿山，赤柱)

Since it's Sunday we anticipated there'd be many people 

taking the Ngong Ping 360 昂平 cable car, 

still, the crowd was overwhelming.

Took 1 hour plus of waiting even though we arrived in Lantau island 大屿山 around 10am. 

And we thought we were early...-_-"

We stood there in queue while people who had booking online walked pass us to the ride.

How I wished we'd done that too. 

So, here's a tip, book online to avoid the queue. :)

Cable car return ticket HKD 187. 

The extra HKD 7 was for 2 short shows at Ngong Ping. 

We find it not worth it. Unless you have kids, then maybe..

View from cable car was awesome with a lot to take in.

It's a loooong ride, and we both enjoyed it.

Locals digging for clams at the shore

Going up higher and higher.....

More to be seen. People hiking on the many trails.

Taking a break. It is a long trail

Finally, the tian tan big buddha 天坛大佛 appear in sight 

Our original plan was to have vegetarian food at Po Lin Monastery.

But there were so many restaurants right after we got out of the cable car, 

and we surrendered to the temptation of food.

Pizza at Ebeneezer (HKD 85) and 

mango pancake (HKD 28) from Honeymoon Dessert 满记甜品.

The mango pancake was something special and we both enjoyed it.

The famous tian tan big buddha 天坛大佛

We didn't climb up the staircase, but regretted now 

I wonder how the view looks like from the top...

Utilising our time to the fullest we went straight to Stanley 赤柱 after Lantau island.

This time we got on top deck of the bus and were glad we made that choice.

We were able to take in the view of the sea and surroundings which were obscured by trees.

It reminded me of Batu Ferrenghi back in Penang.

Watching sunset from Stanley Promenade

There was a concert at the Stanley Plaza by HKFolk 香港友 that night.

Always loving good live music and it's contagious atmosphere, 

we took away pork burgers from a McDonalds nearby and had a great time!~ 

Took the star ferry 天星小轮 back to Tsim Sha Tsui.

It was a short ride. 

So short that I wished there's more time for another ride.

It was very relaxing, sitting by the window enjoying the night view and sea breeze.

Since it was our last night in Hong Kong we decided to have more dim sum 

and chose Sweet Dynasty for supper.

Prawn and pork dumplings and mango dessert. Total HKD 130.

I'm not a fan of dim sum but if they're all this good I don't mind having more! :)