Canton-I

Canton-i is a place many ooh and aah about. So, like one of the herd, we followed those sounds of the oohs and aahs. Located in Queensbay Mall, it's reportedly quite popular, from the way I read about people raving about it.

Canton-i is actually a dim sum joint. Dim sums are already your average man's more expensive breakfast. Food in this place is even pricier. This was my choice... fish porridge with pig intestines (something like chee cheong chuk). Priced at RM11.80, it's definitely an expensive bowl of porridge. Compared that to the chee cheong chuk in New Lane at RM4, which incidentally tastes nicer, it's grossly overpriced! Taste wise, there is nothing to shout about!

Ordered this for my gal. Noodles with stewed beef. Beef was nice enough but the noodle was normal, maybe slightly more springy....RM12.80. But the soup that comes with it didn't leave the monosodium glumate (ajinomoto) after taste. Kinda expensive for mee, don't you think?

Son ordered this. It had a sophisticated sounding name, can't quite remember but something like 'fried dough stick wrapped in rice flour'. That's RM7.80. It's actually yu-char-kway wrapped in chee cheong fun skin. LOL! On it's own there is not much taste. You have to dip it into this soy-sauce spiked with some other stuff to get the oomph. But yu-char-kway with black coffee or milo is probably nicer.

Other Half had this rice @ RM15 - another expensive mixed rice. But the roast pork belly was very tender and nice, the skin was just crispy enough. The rest of the stuff was just ordinary.

Also had this 'har-kau'. It's RM10 per basket. If you asked me, I'd say it wasn't quite worth it for this three bite-sized pieces of rice flour wrapped over 2 prawns. You can't go very wrong with prawns unless you really over cook it.

We ordered their pomelo and mango desert which was okay. Tasted similar to the one we had at I-Dragon, also at Queensbay. Can't go very wrong with deserts like this. Anyway, I find this place over-hyped and expensive cos you can eat almost the same stuff from the hawker stalls, at a very, very much lower price. But hawker stalls don't come with the ambience.... LOL!

... and of course minus the Canton-i, a supposedly Hong Kong brand name. Branded food doesn't necessarily taste great. But, it was another different experience, albeit a 'costly' one cos this is Penang. In Penang you get good food everywhere, especially by the roadside. There are many places with comparable tastes. The restaurant was quite empty when we arrived but was filling up by the time we were done. So, maybe brand name also counts. Dining after all is also about being hip and happening...