Invited Review at Young Heart Part 2: Food

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After snapping photos for quite sometime, we finally get to settle down and have dinner! :D
We started off by sipping some hot Ginseng Oolong Tea (人生乌龙茶) RM15 per pot which is one of the chef recommended teas besides Tie Luo Han Tea (铁罗汉) RM19 per pot. A very nice tea with a smooth aftertaste (甘味). Good kickstart. First time I had this kind of tea. The ginseng is wrapped in the oolong tea leaves. When we pour in hot water, tea leaves expand and they simultaneously release ginseng and oolong flavour. Thus both flavours are infused and goes down the throat smoothly.

If you think Chinese tea is not your type, there is an array of Natural Flower Tea Mixture to choose from the menu. That night, Ann served Rosehip, Hibiscus and Green Apple Tea RM9 per pot.
I think it would be more interesting to add Stevia Rebaudiana (甜菊叶) leaves (additional RM1) which could give the tea a sweet-like aftertaste. The sweet-like aftertaste would complement the sourish taste and refrain the need of rock sugar syrup provided by the restaurant.

The tea started off very sour because we left the tea mixture in the water for too long. Haha so many people taking photo, can't help it. But its okay, a couple rounds of adding water, the taste was just right. Actually this tea is suitable for a large group of people because the flavour is released fast and wouldn't be diluted easily.

I can't remember if the sourish taste is from rosehips or hibiscus. But the red colour certainly came from the hibiscus. Refreshing tea indeed.

Let's move on to real food! We were served with a bowl of Soup of the Day, 贴心滋补靚湯 RM6 for medium (2-3 pax) / RM9 for large (4-6 pax).

Just looking at the soup, we already know its a perfectly cooked soup. No oily surface and the flavor was rich. Saying rich doesn't mean the soup has to be super thick. If you look closely, the soup is not cloudy. I believe all these can only be achieved by boiling the soup under slow consistent charcoal fire. The ingredients are still intact and soft. The chicken feet was cleaned properly and feels soft.

Another additional ingredient to the lotus root soup is the Ipoh grown raw ground nuts. Slightly bigger than our Cap Tangan peanuts but it remains in shape even after 2 hours plus of boiling under charcoal fire. Certainly fulfills the home cooked soup criteria. Cariso slurped every single drop of it lol...

Next up, Stir Fry Choyote Leaves with Roast Duck Meat (龙须菜炒燒鴨肉) RM5 (Medium) + RM4 (with duck meat) and RM9 (Large). The duck meat overpowered the natural vegetable taste a bit but overall its a good dish as its crunchy, rich in fibre and the gravy was slightly to the sweet side. The plant wasn't too old either. The leaves belongs to Buddha Palm Gourd. I have only seen another version type of 龙须 which is the fern variety. This vege does not require the chef to peel away the fibrous skin.

I agree with the others that light stir fry version (清炒) would be nicer. Be aware that light stir fry is without garlic.

The following dish was an appetizer. Deep Fried Prawn Dumpling, 虾仁炸饺 (4pcs, RM6) The wrappings and prawn shell was crispy enough to be munched all together XD Everything goes into my tummy :D It was surprising to find the fillings were juicy. Fresh prawns were used in this dish so no 'water/fridge' smell.

Drizzle some sweet sourish Thai style chilli, perfect.

Very quickly, Hearty Pumkin Fried Rice (爱心金瓜炒饭) RM7.80 per plate. The dish is placed under Young Heart Hassle Free Rice section in the menu. So cute~ hahaha....

The fried rice would be moulded into a heart shape. I say its highly recommended for Valentines Day and Father/Mom's Day hahaha. Its very clear that the shallots were self fried and the addition of pumpkin cubes is a nice touch. Fried rice wasn't oily and tasted just nice with a hint of sweetness from crunchy pumpkin cubes. Rice grains were not lumped together (a pre-requirement for good fried rice).

A whole fried chicken wing was served together with the rice. Not overly salty and the flesh remains juicy. Good :) According to Ann, the wings were marinated based on her mother's secret recipe.
However the wing I had (from 2nd batch) was slightly oily. Not really a huge problem. What matters is the oil used to fry the chicken. Simple, black oil = black chicken, clean oil = golden brown chicken. Hahaha...

I love to eat this plate of stir fried cabbage. Naturally sweet, crunchy and not oily. I also like the fact that they cut the vege into long strips. It helps when the vege needs only a quick stirfry. You can see that the vege is not limp. The strips of blackwood fungus adds more crunchyness to the dish's texture.

Then comes another fried rice, Lotus Root and Wax Sausage Fried Rice (莲藕腊肠炒饭) RM8.80 Looks plain isn't it? Do not be deceived as every spoon of it was packful of wax sausage taste. They did not add large quantity of the wax sausage into the fried rice but it was still very fragrant! From there, we can also taste that the wax sausage is of good quality and fresh. Wax sausage would have a certain smell if kept too long.

Since we were served with fried rice already, noodles was served to balance up. 3+1 Cup Chicken Noodles , 3+1 杯鸡面 (RM8.80) as the original set (RM7.80) was paired with white rice. All Personal Meal consist of meat, vege and white rice. Additional RM1 will be charged to change the white rice to handmade noodle or fried rice :)

Based on Ann's explaination, the chicken dish was called 3+1 Cup Chicken because the sauce comprised 1 cup of sesame oil (麻油), 1 cup of Hua Diao Wine (花雕酒), 1 cup of soy sauce (酱油) and 1 portion of chillies (辣椒). Thus the Taiwanese dish is Malaysianised hahaha...

This chicken tasted so different from other 3 Cup Chicken. No signs of Thai Basil and the flavour was much milder (of course still tasty). Chicken was tender and meaty. Handmade noodles were smooth and bouncy (probably they added slightly more eggs than water). Another surprise because the noodles were left on the table for some time (photo shoot) before consumption. I think the portion was just nice. To add value, maybe an extra chunk of meat or extra noodle or a glass of tea would be nice.

Time for some fish. Pan Fried Salmon Head (豉油王煎三文魚頭) RM15 for half fish head. Probably because we ate it slightly cold again, it tasted a bit more fishy than it should be. Normally grilled salmon would taste really good with crispy skin. Soy sauce is normally used in steaming fishes to bring out the fresh taste (鲜味), I am not too sure about grill dishes though. Maybe everyone is too used to pair teriyaki sauce with grilled salmon.

Maybe the soy sauce can be modified a little by adding some brown sugar and slather it on the fish before removing the fish from the pan. It would give a nicer colour to the fish and adds crisp to it. A few slices of lemon wedges could be thrown in as well. Sweet, sourish and fresh. I think it helps to reduce the fishy smell too. Yeah. Lemon was what's missing in the dish.

I have tried Preserved Spinach with Roasted Pork but not the dish below. Pickled vegetable Stuffed Chicken (梅菜鸡) RM28 whole bird (一只), pre-book only (須預定). This whole bird can feed about 4-6 person :P So you can imagine how stuffed we were at this point.

The chicken was well braised with the even chicken skin colour. Chicken thigh was good. Tender and smooth. The dish was fragrant and tasted more to the sweet side. Gravy was delicious and great to be eaten with rice. The essential ingredient of this chicken dish is the soy sauce. A good quality local Penang produced soy sauce was used. Well brewed soy sauce brings a hint of natural sweetness and not only plain salty. That contributes to the smooth tasting gravy and nice even colour for the chicken.

The chicken gravy pairs well with rice ahaha...I had some white rice drenched with the gravy. Good~

Additional dishes served for us to try was Braised Duck with Special Bean Paste (狗仔鸭) RM20 (half bird/半只), RM38 (whole bird/一只). A dish with strong galangal ginger (南姜) flavour and tender braised duck. Not overly salty but I felt the ginger over powered the duck. Perhaps its the nature of the dish. Another dish good for rice :) Only duck is the most suitable meat type to be cooked in this manner.

Ann also scooped some Braised Sweet & Sour Black Trotter (炭煮猪手醋) for us to try. RM9 (Medium) and RM16 (Large) Just like Cariso mentioned, the gravy was a bit too sweet and I would prefer the meat to have some fatty layer because the lean meat served was a bit tough. I think they would have to adjust the vinegar ratio a little. Not sure if they added water as some don't.

This Old School Pan Fried Waterchestnut Cake (花香馬蹄糕) RM5 (4 pcs/块) was something new to me. I had the deepfried version ones at another restaurant before this.

Just right amount of sweetness and osmanthus flower smell wasn't overwhelming at all. Steven and Cariso was improvising the dish by squeezing lemon juice on to the cake. Wahahaha! You should look at their face after the first bite on that improvised cake. Later on they find that its better to just sweep the lemon slices on the cake surface before eating. That step would make the cakes taste more refreshing and less oily. The were still bits of waterchestnut in the cake for us to bite on. The cakes were not too soft either and the texture was just nice.

Later on, we moved on to smoothies, juices and more desserts :D yay~

The Honey Lemon Sea Coconut (蜂蜜檸檬海椰) RM6 tasted like fermented coconut sap (tuak in Malay)! It really did! Hahaha Cariso claimed to be 'high' after drinking it. LOL The drink does not contain any alcohol but somehow the mixture created a familiar aftertaste.

2nd drink served was Pumpkin Soya Bean Milk (黃金豆漿) RM6 was good. Thick and if not mistaken, no sugar was added. Mild natural sweetness came from raw pumpkin. I never thought they can be a combination lol...

The next drink was Banana, Black Sesame and Soya Bean Milk (無間道) RM6.80 Another special drink. Black sesame wasn't overpowering at all and the rest of the ingredient really blend well together.

I have a feeling if they were to replace soya milk with cow's milk, the ingredients would not come together well. The soya milk sort of tied all of them together. I wonder if the black sesame used was imported from Japan.

Anyway thumbs up for all the drinks except for Ice Blended Mixed Berry Vanilla (香草綜合莓果) RM6. Everyone agreed it was too sweet and ontop of that its normal compare to the other drinks presented to us. This drink is a chef recomendation probably because of the patern produced by pulling the mix berry cordial in the drink. It suppose to look like clouds. Haha..

Mango Puree and Sago Pudding (芒果花園) RM 4.50 per bowl. Good dessert in terms of presentation and taste. Natural striking colors of the fruits had already attracted our attentions and the natural sweetness of the mango puree was a great ending to our dinner. Mango was blended with some fresh young coconut water. Red dragon fruit cubes, sago and young coconut flesh was added as the final touch. The Chinese name of the dessert was certainly spot on as it looks like a fruit garden. Haha!

My head was throbbing towards the night (actually midnight when dinner ended =.=) due to lack of sleep. Ann was kind enough to serve one more drink for me and Cariso (tumpang-ed).

Chamomile & Chrysanthemum Tea (消暑双菊茶) RM5 with aloevera (芦荟，additional RM2)

Chrysanthemum flavour is more than Chamomile and I like the fact that they did not add any syrup into it. It was generous of Ann to add in aloevera as well. Refreshing and a great drink to wash my palate after eating so much that night.

The aloevera required a bit of work for clean up process. The aloe cubes had slightly sourish taste to it. Apple vinegar was added to remove the aloe's slimy substance. In short, they were cleaned thoroughly :)

Chamomile has a soothing effect and my head did feel better (at least can tahan until I reach home to snooze off :P) Thanks alot!

Very satisfying indeed. *Burps*~


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Location:
Young Heart Restaurant
No. 44A, Jalan Cantonment,
10250 Georgetown, Penang.

GPS coordinates - 5.430291, 100.311275

Tel: 04-2288084

Business hours: 12pm - 10pm (Closed on Mondays)

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