Food choices as a USM student (Part 1)

If you are studying in USM main campus you will know that this university provides a great range of food variety, there's cafe in every hostel and each cafe have at least 3 stalls some have more up to 8 stalls. In the campus itself, there is already more than 13 cafes available and the food choices vary from Chinese, Indian, Malay to Western; mamak to cafe serving cake. But after few years in the University and with friends having transport, we tend to have our meal outside of the campus. (Note that some stall only operates in the morning / afternoon or at night)

Hence here is a list of few places I usually visit. Some are within walking distance while some are to be reachable by car. The foods are good and prices are reasonable hence the frequent visit.

1. PISA Corner

This is the food court I visited most often in a frequency of 3 times per week. This place provides a wide range of food from Korean to Japanese, Roti Canai to Western, varieties of rice and noodles, and also dessert and snacks to sip or munch on. This is the place we always agree to come because you can eat whatever you want to that day without considering if someone are craving for curry mee but another is craving for Kimchi soup. The price is reasonable, of course, it depends on what you order, a bowl of noodle normally charge at the range of RM4 - 6 while other food will be charged at a slightly higher price but still cheap if it's to compare with those served in the restaurant. I personally love the dry curry mee there which cost only RM4, the serving is big and the ingredient served super worth it!

2. Hidden Recipe Cafe

When you have no transport and wanted a good environment to chat, chill and air condition, this is the place you are finding. It's a place with air conditional and walking distance from USM. They serve food from Western to Chinese. They offer a few variety of set which is the normal western food (with mushroom soup, bread, drinks and ice cream) and economy rice with meat, egg, soup of the day and drinks. Apart from that they also offer set from menu which with an addition of RM5 you will get the exact same side dish offer from their western set. My favourite goes to Mee Jawa set which cost RM10 served with coffee! There's a few other noodles and fried rice to opt. (On a side note: rice set portion is larger compared to noodles but both served are reasonable for their prices!)

3. Fast food (KFC / Subway / MCD)

The most convenient food in the world! KFC is the one we visit most often, their lunch and dinner set RM6.90 for 1 piece of chicken, soft drink and fries and RM7.90 for 1 piece of chicken, rice, drinks and coleslaw / whipped potato. Still reasonable right the price :) The smell of the fried chicken is irresistible, every time you pass by the restaurant it does have that magic power to absorb you into it.

Next, Subway the healthier type of fast food! They provide varieties of bread with meat, vegetables, and sauce. They now have the promotion of "Subway Every Day Value" where 4 types of sandwiches are priced at RM7.30. My coursemates who don't eat beef actually fall in love with Meatball Marinara (note that this is beef). If you are a student in USM and are active in events you will surely get lots of Subway coupon. With half price coupon, I would love to buy my favourite sandwich which is Subway Melt!

We don't really have our meal at MCD that often now because they no longer offer dinner set. Other set meal price increases a little too. Btw, lunch set is still available while my friends opt for kids meal! It's still a great place you get to nom as it's open 24 hours and wifi available.

Apart from that, there's Pizza Hut too.

4. Happy Cafe

This is the place we will visit every time we plan to go out for lunch. It's located at Taman Pekaka opposite Maxim Dim Sum. The economy rice has a variety of choices for you to choose, the price is reasonable as well. But if you compare with Ah Hooi uncle from Tekun USM it will be slightly expensive. Side note, their coffee not nice :P

5. Plus 2
Another place for lunch famous with their wan tan mee serving at RM3.70 (small), RM4.20 (medium) and RM4.70 (big)! They also served a variety of fried rice and my favourite goes to Fried Rice with Mango (Spicy) at the price of RM5. It's reachable within walking distance :)

6. Hakka Mee (Kampar Fish Jelly)
It's located at Sungai Nibong, beside the bridge you will pass by if you are heading to Queensbay. This is a place where we can select our choice of yong tau foo (either fried or soup) with hakka mee (other variety of noodles is available too) or yam rice. They are famous with their pok pok chui and chicken wing. I usually order yam rice because it's half the price of noodles :P

7. Super Tanker Food Court

Another food court located at Lip Sin which is nearer to USM but still you will need transport to reach. They are famous for their chicken rice, their soup is special (taste spicy and sour), definitely a must try!

8. Subaidah

Mamak! There's actually one in our school serving at a cheaper price, the one located at Lip Sin is slightly expensive if compared to school price but the serving is great. I love the Tosai there serving with onion or kaya, the portion is big and delicious serving at RM2 per piece. If you are having it in school, try their Nasi Kandar and Fried Maggi. My friend especially loves their Roti John pricing at RM2.80. However the coffee in school not nice :P

9. Ivory
This is a place located at Bukit Gambir, often visit by IK or RST students. A place where you have a variety of choice on Malay food. There also stall that serve Arab food, worth exploring. But I myself actually favour D'cafe Ria in Tekun for their claypot chicken rice serving at only RM4. My sister actually loves it too, the portion is huge.

Khaleel is another mamak located at Ivory open 24 hours for supper and chit chatting. They are famous with their burger ;)

10. Xiao Mu Wu (Heng Leong "Zhu Char")

It's been a long time since I had my meal there. The chef is originally from Kim Hin but recently he himself had open a new restaurant located few stall beside Kim Hin and Tesco serving dinner and it's always full house. Their dishes are served in large portion and cheap price definitely a hotspot for USM student. Oat Mantis Prawn is always on our menu!

11. Ah Blue vegetarian delivery

It's a vegetarian delivery by uncle where you can place your order in facebook group (it's a secret group btw so you need someone inside to invite you in). He served great food with only RM4 per set. The menu varies every day and you wouldn't know what is served till you get the lunch box, it's always a surprise for me. I totally love their food! He sometimes comes with special menu such as Nyonya curry, Assam fish, lamb curry and etc. If you are a picky person, you can comment what you don't want (no spicy, no brinjal, no ladyfinger) or what would love to add (most of them I see add hash brown and egg). I would definitely recommend this to everyone, the only limitation for RST residents is that he delivers only till the gate so you might need proximate 10 mins walking down from your room to the gate and another 10 mins walking up back to your room. Previously he does deliver to your hostel but due to the strict security these days, haiy walk people. But there's no problem for resident inside campus. I do have a post particularly on it, have a look here.

Fort Cornwallis

Few more days till graduation! If you ask me if I'm excited or feeling sad and reluctant to leave I couldn't give you a proper answer as I myself don't understand myself either but as time getting lesser I'm having more gathering and meeting up friends I don't usually meet. And also trying more and more food, cafe and stall in Penang. More food photos on my Instagram while this is an overdue post, one month back? 

Insisted on posting this article as this is that one place I would love to highly recommend people who visited Penang not only for their street food but for a little luxuriously dining experience on Malaysia food.

The place would be Kota Cornwallis! Their food is really really good, agreed by my friends too. They served local food in dining style. I and my friend really love their food, the way they cooked it, the dish they used, the arrangement of the food, the taste and even the smell of it. Below are our order, nyonya, laksa, tandoori and creme brulee.

Nyonya and laksa (each RM25)

You can see from the photo above, nyonya is presented on the left and laksa is presented on the right. I particularly like the laksa as the presentation of it is unique! They serve with six rolls of laksa noodles each with prawn, some cucumber slice, pineapple chunks wrap with rice paper and two fried version of crispy wrap not sure what's that made of but taste good which is juicy inside and crispy on the outside. The broth came with it is also flavorful with prawn scent. Who had thought of this, the combination is brilliant! The nyonya taste good too. It's arranged by layer served with base of otak, blue flower dyed coconut rice in the middle and topped with achar and rendang chicken. Last but not least the tandoori dish below. It served with two pieces of tandoori (it's hiding under the papadum) and two fried dumpling filling with lamb meat. The small little green thing there is a small bit piece of yoghurt.

Tandoori (RM29)

Creme Brulee (RM19)

I love this too! So so smooth. Each creme brulee served with different flavours and all three are great to me! But my friends commented that the gula melaka ones is too sweet for them. Anyway, I'm surprised with the original ones where you find black glutinous rice at the bottom and they matched perfectly with each others.

Flavour: Original with black glutinous rice, Pandan and Gula Melaka

Oops, not to forget that you need to pay for an entrance fee of RM10 for Mykad holder to enter the Fort. It will be slightly more expensive for non-Malaysian. Anyway, you will get a rebate of RM10 if your bill exceeds RM20, it's a great deal :) Remember to keep the receipt and show it to the waiter when you are about to pay your bill. In another way, you get to visit Fort for free! Embrace the history. Anyway, some night they do have performance and so, you might need to check for their event online.

And that's all for food, now people and selfie time!

Ending this post with our entrance ticket. Spot my charm bracelet *wink*

Stress increase?

Have not been blogging for quite some time and I think this blog need a quite update of my current life :)

Been spending my time on thesis recently and that's how my desk look most of the time. Laptop open from day to night, probably sitting on my chair more than 12 hours per day and I can tell you this is not good! Eye sight may got worst staring at the laptop and having big tummy, oh no no no~ And the cup there is not on decoration purpose, it's means to be there, a reminder for me to drink water if not I can spent one day without water.

Trying to balance out my life with a bit of exercising. And trying to practice wake up early and sleep early lifestyle. Maybe spent some time on luxurious food (friends are currently Offpeak fans, you might want to find out that too, they offer great food deal). Yes, I'm trying all way to not only do thesis (denying procrastination?)

But exercising and practicing good lifestyle is real! Been doing a bit of room-yoga-mat-can-do-exercise. One day, I start looking at my own body figure and got surprise on how out of shape I have been. That bloated stomach looks like two months of pregnancy? So then I randomly pick a few set of exercise I got from the web and working it out. The first few days is definitely tough but after some time you will get into that it's okay period. Working out almost everyday now, maybe skipping a day in the middle (I'm still that procrastinate person). No progress in my stomach yet, looks bloated like usual. Probably because too much of sitting and in the wrong way, I have hunch back problem. And another thing is I can't cut sweet food or my diet. I'm lovin donuts these days. Anyway, I'm trying to make it a habit by starting my day with exercise, then bath and some entertainment on web while I'm having my breakfast before starting my day.

I'm also trying to wake up earlier so that I have longer time to spent as I'm not late night kind of people (I can't sacrifice my sleep at night if there's no function). Challenging 6.30am and guess what, I woke up 6am today! (Today is just the first day, months to go~)

I was wishing time to run fast meanwhile wanting it to crawl slower. Dateline up, test up, nothing done. That's a few words to conclude everything up to now. First tests were not up to average for both subjects too, guess I need to work harder on it for the second ones both falling next month.

This wrap up my quick update. My table not too messy still right? Picture taken from above always look artistic. Oh, and I'm currently addicted to snapchat special icon, I play that almost every time I got bored on my thesis writting! Cheers, and have fun on weekends :)