Voyager Of The Seas - Royal Caribbean International [Shore Excursions At Malaysia]

First of all, this is a very over due post which I have no time to finish after my last two posts(here) on our 6 days Voyager Of The Seas Cruise Trip during June school holiday. Along the journey there were 3 ports of call whereby we stopover at Port Klang, Penang (Malaysia) And Phuket(Thailand). Since on board I am very excited to visit Penang as I have heard and read a lot of good reviews on their food especially Penang Laska, Cha Kway Teow and Bak Kut Teh.

In this post, I would like to share with you some of the places and food that we tried during our Penang stopover.

Tastes Of Penang At Sentosa

Tastes of Penang is the first of Sentosa's 40th anniversary food events to be held by the sea. And for the ongoing 11 days event, patrons can enjoy buffet spread and live cooking stations of Penang hawker favourites and scrumptious home-style dishes such as Char Mui(fried porridge), Char Hum(fried cockles), Nasi Kander and etc by a team of expert Penang chefs, who cook these authentic dishes that are not commonly found in Singapore.

TASTES OF PENANG AT SENTOSA

For appetizer, we start off with "Fruit Rojak" which consists chunks of fresh fruits such as pineapple and rose apple together with cucumber, stuffed beancurd puff and etc mixed with their special spicy sauce and generous amount of crashed peanuts. Just a note, this Penang style fruit rojak does not contain the usually "shrimp paste" like we we had in Singapore.

At the buffet spread you can find two different flavour of Char Hum(fried cockles) such as the Penang sweet version vs the Singapore spicy choice.

First we have Char Hum (fried cockles) with sweet sauce from Penang which is something new to me as I have never eaten cockles prepared in such manner before. The sauce is quiet tasty and it blends well with the fresh cockles to brings out it's flavour. Moreover these cockles are all opened so as to make it more convenience for everyone to consume.

Although the "sweet" version taste good with the extra nutty flavour from the crashed peanuts but we still preferred the "spicy" version where deep-fried pork lard and curry leaves are added to enhance the flavour.

Lok Bak or also known as "Ngo Hiang" (which we are more familiar) is made with mixture of minced and chunk of meat together with five-spice powder instead of minced meat, prawn, water chestnut, yam or etc that we used to eat in Singapore.

Char Mui (fried porridge) is one of the "unique" dish which is hard to find in Penang nowadays. This dish is made with some prawns, meats, dried cuttlefish, black soy sauce together with porridge and etc. The mixture is then "stir-fry" until thicken and fully absorbed the flavour from the cuttlefish and the rest of the ingredients before loading it with lots of chives (ku chai) and serve hot. Emmm perhaps I can try to replicate this at home.

Penang Bak Kut Teh  has a fragrant Chinese herbal broth that goes together with some Pork ribs, Pork Belly and black mushrooms . Each mouthful of the soup leaves your mouth lingering with the aroma from the nourishing herbs like dang gui and yuzhu. Personally I enjoyed the taste of this soup which is not very peppery as compared to some that I have tried.

Penang Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodle Soup) has a flavorsome broth which simmer with pork ribs, prawn shells, prawn heads and etc. The bowl of noodle soup usually consists of prawn, sliced pork, kang kong(Chinese spinach), hard-boiled egg and yellow noodle served with generous amount of broth and topped with some crispy deep-fried pork lard.

Penang Char Kway Teow is a "must try" because it is individually fried upon order to maintain the taste and quality of each serving. We simply love this especially it's fragrant "wok hei" plus the thin rice smooth noodles which infused the flavour of the cockles, prawn and egg, definitely this has won our votes for second helping.

Nasi Kandar is a popular northern Malaysian dish which originates from Penang. It consists of steamed rice which served with a variety of curries and side dishes. Although I prefer to have individual dishes separated from the rice but the idea of eating this in a new way indeed surprised me with his unique combination of flavours when everything is mixed up before consuming. Somehow or rather it gives me a thought like eating "bibimbap" using different ingredients.

Above are some of the side dishes for the Nasi Kandar where you can see:- Sambal Fish, Udang Sambal, Spicy Cabbage, Curry Brinjal and etc.

Penang Assam Laksa has a bit different taste which is a little more spicy and sourish than those sold in Singapore. No wonder the Chef suggest that I should only eat this as the last dish so that it would not affect the taste apart from the rest of the dishes.

DESSERT AND BEVERAGE

Chendol is a very delicate and fragrant dessert which served with shaved ice and drizzled of Gula Melaka(coconut sweet) syrup and coconut milk. According to the chef, the Chendol strips used are imported from Penang instead of the usual darker colour chendol strips used in Singapore. Over the taste is quite but I would prefer less coconut milk so that I could enjoy the unique taste of the gula melaka syrup.

So excited to spot "Durian Pengat" at their dessert counter and I find this year's pengat is much better and stronger in taste compared to what I had last year during "The Ultimate Crab & Durian Buffet @ Sentosa Boardwalk".

Nothing fancy about these Assorted Nonya Kueh so you can left this out if you are too full for any dessert.

This is my favourite cooling drinks which I often grab from my market fruits' stall. To me, nothing beats some cold fresh coconut juice to quench your thirst during warm weather. And also this works well for the body while we gets to enjoy the spicy and strong flavour from the Penang food. Other than the refreshing juice, there are also some wobble jelly in it which makes you go "crazy" to scoop more and more, perhaps you might even go for a second order as this is definitely a refreshing drink.

For more photos related to the "Tastes of Penang At Sentosa" you can click on the facebook link HERE. Lastly I would like to thank Lisa from Sentosa Leisure Group for the tasting invites.

TASTES OF PENANG

Date: 10 - 20 May 2012
Time: 6pm - 11pm (Mon- Thu), 4pm to 11pm (Fri - Sun)
Venue: Tastes of Asia, Level 2 (near Beach Station)

Price: S$42.90++ per adult; S$19.90++ per child (5 to 11 years old)
(Includes admission to Images of Singapore and complimentary parking at Beach Station. Sentosa Island Admission charges apply.)

For reservations, call 6279 1767 or email carla_cardona@sentosa.com.sg.