1Black Coffee and re-visiting Queensbay Mall, Penang

I thought being invited to have black coffee in old Klang Road was already impractical, but what about this? Just got this from Facebook:

Chin-Huat invited you to "1BLACKMalaysia/1BLACKIran /1BLACKBurma@ London Stansted Airport" on Thursday, June 25 at 9:00pm.
Event: 1BLACKMalaysia/1BLACKIran /1BLACKBurma@ London Stansted Airport "before we fly towards freedom"
What: Bar Night
Host: 1BLACKMalaysia, Democracy First, Elections Now Start Time: Thursday, June 25 at 9:00pm
End Time: Thursday, June 25 at 11:55pm
Where: O'Neills Pub

But this is how entries in Facebook get wide coverage regardless of where you are, it is your contacts and the message that counts. This time, I support Chin Huat from afar. Cheers!

Yesterday, was our second visit to Queensbay Mall, Penang since their opening. Was most impressed with their roundabouts with maturing palm trees amid manicured lawns against the backdrop of sea and Pulau Jerajak (an ex-prison turned resort). In fact, anything set against the sea is an advantage in looking pleasant and nice, which incidentally is their main selling point for their apartments part of the project. The present developer started his modest public company (which he sold during the boom time), in Batu Complex, which is across the road from my former house off 3rd mile, Jalan Ipoh, KL.

The approach road to Queensbay Mall is rather unusual and remembering the last time, I had to watch out for the signs leading to the project, which is to keep to the right to take the flyover leading to the left! Perhaps they need the distance to create the flyover but any layman would have the first impression of 'doing something simple the hard way'. Why not just turn left? It was quite a distance too, to get to the entrance of the mall and then to the multi-storey car park. Here again, on our way out (from level 5), I was happily following the red arrows somewhere in the middle when my wife noticed the direction to turn left instead at level 3, after I had turned right twice for two levels! So I had to do another round.

Actually, I meant to mention about how silly we felt having White Coffee at an Old Town outlet in QM! Old Town white coffee originated from Nam Heong, Ipoh, opposite the original Sin Yee Loong, and we had to pay Rm3.20 ++ each for the basic one! We were not away from home, craving for white coffee for a long time, and besides, I am basically a tea man! Actually, I quipped that we should have walked out when we saw the price which was almost twice that of an outlet in Ipoh because the foreign waiters had the habit of waiting for people to call before coming over to take orders. I mean, this is not a restaurant where customers normally had a hard time deciding what to have. We were actually looking for the hawker centre, which SP remembered since the last time and it turned out to be Arena, a place I noticed from a higher floor when we first arrived!

The second mistake was the misleading leaflet of Taiwan Bull, offering dishes at half price, eg. Rm12.50 for Rm6.25 when in fact, they meant, it applies to the second order only! If only the food was good to compensate, but it wasn’t, having tasted beef noodles in Ipoh and KL. The crispy chicken tasted more like biscuits than chicken and it did not help having this mysterious ‘fragrance’ which followed me the whole journey, thought it was something in the car, and even tasted it when chewing the chicken! Yet to find out the reason, even wondered if it was some gas coming out from my throat!

Anyway, it was no where near, in terms of taste, when we compared our usual char kway teow or Hokien mee for me and Penang or Siamese laksa (by choice if possible, Penang laksa from the stall near Balik Pulau market or Siamese from the stall opposite police station on Burma Road but behind the Pulau Tikus market) for SP, and the smooth cendol from either the famous stall or his competitor off Penang Road, to take away. We like the generous portion of red beans that go with it. Actually for convenience and comfort, I quite like the New World Hawker Centre, especially when with foreign visitors.

The saving grace at QM was the (per entry?) parking fee of Rm1 for more than 3 hours, which compensated for the long drive to get to the covered car park. But being Malaysians, many cars were parked all over, outside the Mall itself.