Bali Hai @ Gurney Drive, Penang

Yup, back to Penang food again ;-)

We wanted to have seafood for dinner and cant think of where to have (that's near Gurney). Francis called his penangite friend to recommend and she said Bali Hai!Just down the road!

Bali What?!? Oh, oh i see....

We decided to take a stroll there since we're just staying nearby..

The moment we reached Bali Hai, it was rather pack already (that was around 7:15pm).. we were told that it'll be full house by 8 pm. Definitely cut-throat prices, we thought, looking at the location. But the crowd, suprisingly, consists of more locals rather than tourists..hmmm, was that a sign? Bali Hai has a fantastic array of live seafood and fresh seafood, so much so that they have a tagline on the signboard boasting If it swims, we have it!

Of the many live seafood displays I've seen, Bali Hai's looks the freshest and most tempting..

We had some fried sah zhui fish.....deep fried till real crispy, the meat was sweet and juicy, I ate everything up except for the head. Goes really well with the chilli sauce though WF found it a tad fishy and didnt like it at all.

The fried squids was everyone's favourite....The batter was extremely light, but crunchy at the same time. The squids, very springy, the flesh was quite thick, which gives a nice bite into it. We absolutely, absolutely love this :-)

We had the steam garupa which was utterly lip smacking..The fish was fresh; meat was extremely sweet and silky smooth; and the sauce was superb. Having the fish steamed to the right level of 'cookness' had obviously enhanced our eating experience too..

Andrew, the ever champion eater, wanted to have fried rice after having a plate of white rice. We ordered the small portion so that all of us could try too.. Am glad that andrew was greedy, coz this fried rice was another delicious order! The fried rice had great wok hei, laden with 3 main ingredients; ie, prawns, fish and eggs. Take a dollop of their sambal belacan and mix with the rice..*slurps* what else can I say?

The stir fried kangkung belacan was just average, though Bali Hai's version was very generous with prawns. Not that memorable..

The sweet sour crabs was serve last....Bali Hai's sweet sour (and spicy) crabs was very tasty, the balance of each flavours was just nice, not over powering the rest. The sauce was rather thick, which I preferred. Crab flesh was extremely fresh and meaty, as we ordered live crabs. Though the mantaos were sorta tiny and slightly compact (I prefer the fluffy types), still does it's magic in lapping up the delicious sauce.. Total bill was RM206.80 for 5 of us, not that cut throat after all, for such a scrumptious meal.

Bali Hai Tim Sum/ Seafood market is located at 90A-90D, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang. Tel: 04-2288272. Just along gurney drive, you wont miss it.