The weekend has arrive and this Saturday, I will be staying in G-hotel beside Gurney Plaza. The charge is RM255 without breakfast for superior room with king size bed. I will get to do a lot of window shopping as Gurney Plaza, Penang’s lifestyle shopping mall is nearby. At the moment, it is under expansion, so there will be some construction work going on. Just the other day, I had a set dinner in Manila Place for an affordable price of RM35++. This is because it came with mushroom soup (plenty of chopped button mushrooms in it), bread, butter, appetiser, coffee or tea, salmon teriyaki as one of the many main courses to choose from (quite delicious and big helping) and ice-cream as the dessert.

G-hotel is not like any other hotel that you find here. For one, the interior decoration is very modern and hip. You will not find big vases of flower and hanging chandeliers unlike the older hotels. Here, you will find a very cosy lounge with plenty of sofa sets and cushioned chairs with lighted lampstands beside them. The setting is just like a modern house’s interior, cosy and comfortable. The lighting is dimmed down for that romantic feel. The flooring is raised wooden platform with side lights. I am looking forward to today’s stay and check in time is after 2:00pm.

There is a new drink in town called Coke zero. Why this name? Well, it is because there is zero content of sugar which is healthier and you don’t put on unnecessary weight or calories. Coke zero : Life as it should be : Real taste, zero sugar.

It quenches your thirst while giving you that extra ‘ooomph’ flavor. I love Coke as it has a distinct taste and the Coke cans are collector’s items. There are so many varied designs of Coke Cans around the world and you can sell them for a small fortune later on. Just check out the link and see for yourself.

Last night, I had dinner in The Food Loft in Gurney Plaza. And yes, there is a statue of a brown naked woman with a violin. It was part of the decoration and the ambience looks like those of a hotel. The chairs were linen covered soft cushion. You need to get a card each person to order. Simply find your table and take note of your table reservation number. Then order your food and you need to bring your card along to be scanned by the computer for the order. Tell the cook your table number and he will bring the food to your place. After the meal, you card will be scanned again for the payment.

I did not go to Gurney Plaza for quite some time and when I dined in Food Loft last night, I noticed that there were a lot of changes to the refurbishment in the process. On the ground floor outside, there is a new restaurant called Chilis serving something like Mexican food with burgers and tortillas. It was very crowded and poor Breeks shifted further away from near the entrance did not even have a customer. Maybe it was poor planning to shift so far away and being overshadowed by the newly opened Chilis. Tonight, I am going to treat my family to Food Loft as my parents have never been there before.

Recently I treated my family to a sumptious birthday seafood dinner in a cafe in Penang. Above are two lobsters of 1.1kg each with cheese, button mushrooms and onions. The 2 lobsters cost me RM220 on the big plate.

Here is a side view of the lobster thermidor that I order during my birthday treat recently.

This photo is taken of baked crabs mixed with chilly sauce and eaten with bread.

This is my favorite dish of Nestum butter prawns. Notice how big the prawns are. I am feeling hungry again.

Fresh oysters topped with baked cheese. I don’t particularly like oysters but this was something different than the usual order. Thank goodness the cheese cover the raw taste of oysters.

This is stir-fried broccoli with humongous prawns. See how large the prawns are and is one of my favorite dishes. I just love the crunchy broccoli.

I love food and have treated myself sumptious food quite often. On the other hand, I also need to watch my figure so that I don’t become unnecessarily obese which may lead to more health problems later on in life. I have seen people using Food Scales to measure the calories that they will take and was very precise in their calculation. No more and no less. They eat what they will burn up for the day. And through this way, they maintain their weights constantly so that there is no comsumption of excess calories.

Food scales can also be used for baking cakes. You need to measure the amount of flour, butter and baking powder to bake a good rising cake that’s spongy and not too hard or too few ingredients. Food scales have helped bakers and cooks to prepare delicious meals with precise measurements so that the food taste ideal and delicious. During my secondary years in school, I took up home science and learnt baking, cooking and sewing. The course and syllabus was useful until now because I can learn how to cook simple meals especially when I was staying alone in Singapore. I know what ingredients to add to make the soup tasty, and fried vegetables scrumptious.

Last Sunday was Father’s day and I treated my parents, sister and boyfriend to a delectable Chinese seafood meal in a restaurant in Penang. Above are 10 baked cheese crabs. They were a mixture of button mushrooms, onions and tangy crab meat.

This is a photo of ‘choon piah’ or spring rolls. It is full of julienned turnips, carrots, some meat and spring onions dipped with barbeque sauce. The flavor is piquant and delicious.

This is English spinash soup or ‘bayam chye’ with century egg, dried anchovies or ‘ikan bilis’ and egg white.

This is Nestum butter prawns or cereal butter prawns, one of my favorites. Indian curry leaves and chilly padi are added for the ‘oomph’ flavor in this dish.

This is ‘paitin’ fish streamed with ginger plus some other plum sauce that gives it a delicious taste. Though I have set my camera mode to macro, this shot is not too clear.

This is chicken satay or marinated chicken barbequed with peanut sauce at RM 80 cents a stick which is slightly above the normal price of RM 40 - 50 cents a stick if you buy outside.

Just last week, I treated my parents, sister and boyfriend to a sumptious meal in a Chinese Restaurant that’s always packed with diners. We had to book first for a table of 5 in order to get our place. It was my parents’ 38th Wedding Anniversary on 7th June 2007. I ordered steamed kale, seafood soup which has the sharks’ fins ingredients like real crab meat, dried scallops, etc without the endangered sharks’ fins. I also order ‘choon piah’ or fried rolled vegetables in battered skin or ‘poh piah’ skin. My dad loved the streamed and fried bones pomfret costing RM50 per serving. Finally we had our fried Singapore noodles with plenty of big prawns. The meal was delectable and sumptious and all of us enjoyed dining here.