My little Greek adventure

This post has been long outstanding. It's been 3 months since my trip to Greece and the photos (thousands of them!) have been lying dormant in my thumb-drive. Amazing how time really flew! I was so caught up with other stuff the past few months, since returning from Greece & Abu Dhabi. There was the New Year, then Chinese New Year and in between, my medical woes.... which hopefully have been settled now.

So... there you have up there that beautiful pic of the Acropolis, as seen from our hotel window. It's so spectacular, isn't it? Especially when viewed at night! We did climb right up to the site on one of the mornings and the view of Athens from there was breath-taking. I shall cover the sights of Greece in Raynebows later.

We chose a central location to stay - Monastiraki - a very hustle-bustle area with everything right at our doorstep - shops, restaurants and the Flea Market in the Plaka area! The train station is merely 300m away from our hotel - a really "plus" point, especially when we had to lug our baggage to go to the airport! It was such a breeze as the train goes straight to the airport - no need to change train/station at all!

So.... how did I find Greek food?

I shall elaborate more on what we actually ate there... but first, I want to showcase some of their desserts...

I have no idea what they are called. We found all these in a local food outlet which sold cooked food as well as a wide array of their sweets! They were all placed on HUGE trays and quite a number of them were soaking in thick syrup... they do look verrrryyy sweet & rich, don't they??

Their pies and pastries were all served in humongous pieces - just look at these!



These looked like birds' nests huh??
Every restaurant that we ate at, we were served a huge basket of this bread...

They may look nice but actually the texture's quite dense and hard and dry ...
They taste better when toasted with garlic & butter like this...

The Greeks are great meat eaters. Lamb and pork are the firm favourites... beef don't feature much on their menus but are available. Chicken and seafood are not really favoured there... maybe not in winter...

So, LL and DL had a great time feasting on their meat dishes... Pork Chops like the one above... and Braised Wild Boar with Onions...

This was also Pork ... in white sauce and served with garlic rice...

... and another time it was served with pasta...

LL loved their Lamb, cooked in any way... roasted like this...

... or grilled the good old fashioned way...

Me? I found their Moussaka much more appetizing (and not so heavy!)... The soft layers of mashed potatoes and aubergine were tasty, easy to eat and very filling!

Topped with white bechamel sauce and grated cheese, Moussaka is easily the Greeks' favourite fast food... and mine too!

Ohh... here's another favourite of the boys ... Grilled Meat (all kinds!) ... which is sold practically everywhere, from roadside souvlakis to trendy fine-dining restaurants!



A huge platter like this can easily feed the 3 of us!

What about vegetables? Well, you only have one choice - Salads! This is the typical Greek Salad - tomatoes, capsicum, onions, croutons and chunks of feta cheese! I love their juicy tomatoes and capsicum but can do without the feta cheese, thank you :-)

So it's a better option to order their plain Garden Salad - which was just tomatoes and greens served with a dash of vinaigrette dressing!


Oh yeah... the Greeks like to stuff and bake their tomatoes and capsicums too. I didn't quite fancy these... the stuffings were mainly cheese & rice :-S

In the background there is a slice of their Spinach Pie - mashed spinach rolled in pastry...

Soups aint great either - rather bland and oily...

Since we were staying in Monastiraki, we were recommended to try "The Best Pork Chops in Athens" which was located in a dark creepy side alley - it was quite a hair-raising walk that night as we went in search of this place, frequented mainly by the locals. It seems to be a family-run business... here you can see the very-buff son doing his thing grilling the pork chops...

All my close-up pics of the pork chops didn't turn out well, mainly because the lighting was very dim where we were seated. But I can tell you how they tasted - they were extremely salty!!! And hard! Because they were over-grilled! What they did was grill these thin slices of lean pork and then sprinkle handfuls of salt over the meat and then pile them onto a plate to serve to you!

This was the only seafood item we ate while in Greece... a plate of Little Fried Fish - yes, that's how it was listed on their menu! This was at the cafe by the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.

We had a chance to visit the market in Monastiraki (2 minutes' walk from our hotel) ... what an eye-opener that was!

Firstly, you can see all their workers/vendors donning white coats - very "clinical", don't you think??

Caution: Explicitly gory pics coming up....









Let the pics speak for themselves... hehe ...


Most of their seafood were the frozen kind...


They are big on octopussies...

See how beautifully symmetrical their fish arrangement is??!

Loads of cured meat in the market... sausages, hams, bacons....

... in every shape, size and colour...

Ahhh... Olives are Greece's No.1 produce...

... nuts and raisins too!

I will post about the sights of this trip in Raynebows, hopefully soon :-) So... do check that out later!

Assam Laksa & Coconut Jelly in Penang

Continuing with my makan spree in Penang...

After the 2 breakfasts that we had, we went to Queensbay Mall (because it was also raining and we had to abandon any outdoor jaunts) ... not that we had anything to shop for, but it was more like we had to exercise a bit to work off that heavy double-breakfast! After a couple hours of aimless window-shopping there, we decided we had enough and headed on to my must-have Assam Laksa!

Yes, this is the place...

The Air Itam Market Assam Laksa is a must for me whenever I visit Penang. I have tried some of the other popular assam laksa in the island but somehow this place holds the No.1 spot for me. It's not exactly the most glamorous location ;-) but then, hey, I'm a loyal supporter of this enterprise!

That Ah Pek has been manning this stall since time immemorial, I think...

We had hardly taken our seats and before we could even blink, bowls of hot steaming Assam Laksa appeared on our table. Ahh... the familiar ceramic bowl, the metal soup-spoon, the red chopsticks - this assam laksa has its own personality which can't be found anywhere else.

I think the soup is somehow kinda watered-down a bit, not as thick as it used to be... and of course the price of RM2.70 per bowl has rocketed... but I'm still happy. The soup still maintained the delicate balance of sour, sweet, fishy with the combination of bunga kantan, daun kesom, mint leaves, bombay onions imparting its unmistakable aroma. The rice noodles were smooth with just the right touch of chewiness...

LL wanted to order his 2nd bowl but he was stopped by SIL who said that there's another assam laksa joint down the road which she insisted we had to try. Oh well, more about that below.

There's this stall just next to the Assam Laksa selling fried goodies... and being the gluttons that we were, of course we had to have some...

We had fried popiah and some fried fuchook (beancurd skins)... hmmm... fresh out from the wok of hot oil... I think they were just decent but not mind-blasting.

So, after our one bowl of assam laksa per person, we hopped back into the car and drove down the road, to this place...

Just across from the Asia Cafe, there was a cluster of stalls by the roadside... and chairs and tables with umbrellas set up along the side lane.

This was the Assam Laksa stall which SIL said was very good...

So, we ordered a couple of bowls...


Verdict: Hmmm... we should have stuck to the Air Itam Market laksa!!!

The laksa here was bland and totally unexciting. It just did not hit it off, ok. I almost wanted to turn back to the market to satiate our cravings... but then SIL suggested we tried the Fried Mee Mamak which she also said was good.

OK lah... since we were already seated there (and we had to wait 10 minutes to get a table!), we decided to try the Fried Mee Mamak...

As you can see, when this plate of noodles was served, I thought the guy had given us the wrong item. It looked more like mee rebus than fried mee... it was way too "wet" to qualify as "fried mee" methinks. Taste-wise: nahh, forgettable. Pretty tasteless, noodles were too soggy, totally no oomphh.

(Note to self: don't trust SIL's recommendations in future, hehe!)

After the spicy food in Air Itam and the disappointment at the 2nd venue, it was time to head back to the city for some refreshing dessert. CK Lam told me we absolutely must try the Penang Coconut Jelly in Jalan Dato' Keramat! We managed to get a parking along one of the side roads perpendicular to the busy Jalan Dato' Keramat and headed into the shop.

The whole shop sells nothing but coconuts - workers were busy cutting coconuts from the small mountains spread out in the shop. We plonked ourselves at a table and each had one of these...

... yummy refreshing soft smooth jelly straight out of the coconut! After spooning all the yummy jelly into our mouths, proceed on to the coconut flesh which was just the right "age" - not too soft nor too hard! Of course Joe the boss there refused to tell his trade secret as to HOW they made the jelly inside the coconut using the natural coconut water only. Hmmm... using the "injection" method perhaps?

Each jelly coconut cost RM3.70... and if you tapau them, make sure you keep them properly refrigerated! Joe said they can keep for 3 days...

Joe did mention they will market this in the Klang Valley later, in a big way... so all you people here in the KV just have to be patient, ya!

Look out for my next & final posting on my makan trip to Penang - the BEST Lobak there!