Travel: Pinang Peranakan Mansion @ Penang

When my Twin and Bro-in-law from the US visited recently during Chinese New Year, we did a family trip to Penang. It has been 17 years since my sisters and I left home that my family undertook a family holiday during Chinese New Year. My Twin decided Penang because of the street food Penang has to offer for her husband who is a chef and all of us agreed, simply because of food again. Hehe.

We also had the opportunity to visit the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, a privately-owned museum that showcases the rich-in-tradition culture of the Peranakans or Baba and Nyonya. My mother was really excited to visit this museum because one of the favourite Singapore Chinese drama i.e. The Little Nyonya was filmed entirely here. Shall not say much and just let the pictures do the talking.

The main entrance to the mansion

The mansion follows the historical Chinese residence known as siheyuan or 

courtyard surrounded by four buildings in a quadrangle

Entrance to a hall located on the left of the courtyard

Entrance to another hall on the right of the courtyard, which is 

decorated with elaborately carved wooden doors

Inside of the hall.

View of courtyard from the first floor

A room dedicated to showcase all the decorative items and wares collected by the owner's family.

Collection of Peranakan dining wares

A tapestry of intricate golden design depicting a flying crane

A typical Peranakan bed and chamber

A decorated stand with enamel wash basin and chamber pot

A back corridor leading to kitchen and informal living quarters

An ancient piano

A collection of tiffin carriers, enamel pots, hot water flask, coffee pots, kettles and hot pots for steamboat

A typical olden day kitchen

Ancestral hall to remember the dead

A carving of deities that is normally found in Chinese ancestral halls

Serenity...

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Pinang Peranakan Mansion
29, Church Street,
10200 Penang, Malaysia

Eats: Ayam Goreng Ny. Suharti

A friend of ours who visited Yogyakarta last year told us so much about Ny. Suharti fried chicken, that got us curious and decided to try it out. This is a chain of restaurant that is popular for its ayam goreng kremes (i.e. Indonesian fried chicken with crispy flakes) and is usually served with rice and sambal on the side.

If I recalled correctly, we went to the outlet that's located in Mampang. Business was brisk and when we sat down, Hubs ordered one portion of chicken and one portion of duck. As I found out, to make this version of fried chicken, the bird is usually boiled in a spice broth until all flavours are absorbed and the chicken is cooked. The cooked chicken is then removed from the broth, drained and deep-fried to golden brown. To make the crispy bits, a batter is made out of rice flour, eggs, spices and leftover broth which is then deep-fried and served with deep-fried chicken.

While it was flavourful, both of us found it a bit too deep-fried and pretty unhealthy. We did not finish our meal as it was just too greasy after awhile and at the back of my mind, the words "heart attack" kept on flashing. Lol!

 

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Ayam Goreng Ny. Suharti

Jl Kapten Tendean No. 13 

Mampang Prapatan 

Jakarta Selatan

Eats: Cafe Batavia @ Kota Lama Jakarta

Cafe Batavia is really one of those "must dos" of Jakarta. Located in the Kota Lama (i.e. Old City) square of Jakarta,  stepping into Cafe Batavia instantly transport the visitor into the distant past. Food verdict is fair and probably the best bet if you are in the area. Personally, I have been there twice, just to soak in the colonial ambience. Oh! and I forgot to mention, the toilets are worth a visit! ;)

Cafe Batavia @ Kota Lama

The sun parlor before entering the cafe

 

 Ground floor drawing room - lovely for afternoon get-togethers!

Eclectic collection of pictures and unique decor that exude the distant past.

Grand salon dining area on first floor. Reminded me of old Hollywood glam

 

 On the left: dining menu that doubles up as picture frame. On the right: brunch menu

Sampler of food that we have tried so far. Left: scrambled eggs with asparagus. Middle: Eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Right: Nasi uduk, a type of traditional Indonesian breakfast.

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Cafe Batavia

Taman Fatahillah  Jakarta, Indonesia

Parking attendants in Jakarta malls

Back in KL, I dread going to the malls on weekends because of difficulty in finding parking bays. What is supposed to be a leisure time of meeting up with friends or window shopping can turn into a nerve-wrecking, hair-pulling experience of going round and round finding for empty parking bays.

Which is why I absolutely love the parking attendants found in Jakarta malls. They are absolute gem! Once you enter the car park, all you need to do is just wind down the window and ask anyone of them if there are any empty bays. And they would direct you to the exact spot. 

I still remember my first experience of them in Grand Indonesia Shopping Town couple of years ago. We drove there to have brunch at Social House and when Hubs asked them for empty bays, this young chap just ran ahead of our car for like a good 100 meters before we finally reach the spot. And just last weekend when we drove to Gandaria City, the very moment we entered, one of these attendants saw us and motioned us forward to where he was directing another car that was exiting the bay. Sweet! 

And most of these malls usually have signages which ask patron to refrain from tipping the attendants for the service. Sometimes we do, especially when they went the extra mile (like the chap in Grand Indo mall) to assist us. :)

 

A parking attendant in action - assisting the driver to maneuver into tight parking spots.

Now that's what I call a very happy name!

I always make it a habit to browse hotel information booklet that's provided in every hotel rooms that we checked into. And this particular booklet caught my eye because of the name of the general manager, which in Cantonese, literally means very happy. I can imagine his parents must have been very happy to have Mr Ho born into this world to name him this.

A little bit of honesty is all that matters...

Without fail, whenever we are back in KL, Hubs and I, including Hubs's family who live in Perth, will visit Kanna, our favourite banana leaf restaurant for some good curry, freshly fried chicken/mackerel with rice and vegetables.

All this while, the good people in Kanna have been faithfully serving up this dish on real banana leaves. And so it's really sad to see that they have bow down to the pressures of cost cutting by substituting the leaves with so-called synthetic banana leaves, which are basically just papers. My first experience of the "synthetic banana leaves" was way back in February this year when we brought my twin and Bro-in-law who were visiting from the US, to have the banana leaf experience. It's just not the same anymore because the rice dish just somehow lost its soul.

And when Hubs older sister, husband and friends visited in April this year and wanted the friends to try the banana leaf experience, I decided against going to Kanna. And it's even more disheartening when they come up with this sorta cheap, "marketing" excuses to appease their customers. We haven't been there since then.