糖朝: Sugar Dynasty (Dessert)

We visited a small shop on the corner of Jalan Nagor where they sell a variety of Chinese desserts - 43, in fact. Yeah, we counted.

It's a small teashop-type place called 糖朝 (tang chao; literally Sugar Dynasty), a clever play on words refering to the Tang Dynasty (唐朝), an imperial dynasty of China, as the Chinese word for 'sugar' and the 'Tang' in Tang Dynasty are homophones.

The shop offers an amazing variety of sweets, ranging from birds' nests to red bean recipes. Other than that, there are also a selection of non-sweet dishes such as spring rolls and a variety of rice dishes and noodle dishes.

The store also provides a delivery service, but only to the Pulau Tikus and Georgetown area.

The store-front. Don't touch the bike.

It's on the very corner of the street.



The poster outside displaying the many types of desserts.

Business hours, just so you know.

From inside the shop. There's a non-smoking area deeper in.

The available options span 3 pages of their menu! And there's 43, count them.

Almond Jelly - RM3.50

Red Bean Pudding - RM3.50

Double-boiled Milk with White Fungus - RM3.50

Sweet Potato Tang Yuan (there's a dry variation of this) - RM2.50

We ordered four types of desserts to sample and greatly regretted it; the sweetness was overwhelming. So we ordered some spring rolls to neutralise the taste.

Jetty Ai Yu Bing (dessert)

Ai yu bing is a refreshing ice dessert that we enjoy very much, especially Aisling. And here's a place where you can find a stall selling our favourite. It's strange how we can love such a simple bowl of ice and syrup.

It's located next to this stall selling an assortment of skewered meat.

And also next to this stall selling laksa.

Customers enjoying their thirst-quenching ai yu bing.

Tiny. But size doesn't matter if it's good.

The front of the stall-van.

Again, Aisling's found a map to better help guide you there. It's opposite the stall selling banana fritters, the same stall we mentioned in a previous post.

Jetty Prawn Fritters

Just some nice home-made prawn fritters that Aisling likes and that we thought you'd like to try.

Here's their phone number.

And here's their location. It's the house behind the stall selling banana fritters.

Kimberly Street's Tau Hua

We were out the whole day today and ended our day having some tauhua (I really don't know what you call this stuff in English) at a corner on Kimberly Street.

The tauhua is really not bad and incredibly cheap (RM0.90 each bowl), so give it a try. It's a tiny stall located next to the stalls selling kuey teow and fried mee. Turn in at the Hotlink shop from Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong and you'll find it at a corner of the cross junction. It opens at about 5pm 'til about 10pm.

Mmmmmm ...

Hey ... who didn't finish theirs?

Look out for this stall.

Here's a map. So don't come and tell us you got lost and somehow ended up in Teluk Bahang.

Sakae Sushi (QB & Gurney)

Aisling has a thing for good sushi, and so we're featuring her favourite sushi restaurant in our first post ever!

Sakae is a restaurant chain serving Japanese cuisine as Singaporeans probably know, since it's based in and currently has about 30 outlets in Singapore. Although kaiten-zushi restaurants are usually considered as having lower price and quality compared to traditional sushi restaurants, we think Sakae has achieved considerable success in both price and quality.

Being a great fan of salmon dishes, Aisling has picked Sakae as her favourite destination for the best salmon sashimi, salmon maki, salmon salad and salmon heck-knows-what-else in Penang. And I agree completely with her. Having sampled salmon sashimi from quite a number of Japanese restaurants around Penang, Sakae serves by far the freshest and sweetest raw salmon of them all.

Fresh salmon aside, I love soba (buckwheat noodles), especially when served cold. I wouldn't say the soba sets at Sakae is top-notch, but the quality is, in my opinion, definitely one of the best, closely rivalled by Tsuruya, another Japanese restaurant chain.

All-in-all, there're simply too many menu options for use to write it all here and we recommend anyone and everyone to give the restaurant a try, we promise you won't be disappointed.

And we've taken the liberty of taking note of the prices of some of the items.

Ika Teriyaki - RM 12.90 (Tsuruya's better)



Salmon Mentaiyaki - RM15.90

Kakiage - RM1.90

Salmon Fried Rice - RM 8.90



Salmon Maki - RM1.90




Ikura Chawanmushi - RM5.90



Tuna Mayo Temaki - RM1.90, Spicy Salmon Temaki-RM1.90




Goma Ice-cream (sesame) - RM5.90



Tempura Yuzu Soba - RM17.90




Cha Soba - RM5.90

Salmon Don - RM10.90

Mentaiko Tofu - RM6.90

Island Way Pineapple Sorbet - RM10.90

Soft Shell Crab Salad - RM14.90 (not very nice, according to Aisling)

Chicken Cheese Yaki - RM10.90

Sashimi Salad - Aisling was too occupied with eating it to notice the price, but we can tell you it's worth it, whatever the price.

Sakae Blossom Negi Maki - RM5.90

Sakae Salad - RM8.90

Kamo Yuzu Soba - RM15.90

Before The Start Of A Meal

Hey y'all,

The Black-Hole Tummy is a food-blog (flog) started by us, Zephyr (http://otherworldlydreams.blogspot.com/) and Aisling (http://aislingamour.spaces.live.com/), because we've been around to so many places and have tasted so many varieties of food, that we'd love to share with the rest of the world ... or at the very least, Penangites and Malaysians.

We'll be covering mainly foods around the mainland and island of Penang, but we might (emphasis on might) go over to other states or maybe even countries and sample some of their local food.

This flog is so-called because Aisling simply loves to eat and appears to have a black-hole inside her as she can keep eating as long as the food is good. Unfortunately (fortunately?), that trait has somewhat rubbed off on me, Zephyr, as I begin to enjoy stimulating my tastebuds while managing to ignore the fullness of my stomach. Oh well.

Text will mostly be my, Zephyr's, work and photography will be by Aisling.

Oh, and if you were wandering, Aisling is pronounced something close to Ashlynn and Zephyr is pronounced zeh-fur.

And please excuse any poor spellings or grammar.

Cheers!