Taiping, another interesting town for you to visit in Perak after Ipoh. Formally known for their coal mining activity, Taiping is now becoming a famous tourist spot in Perak. Among the places that are interesting in this town are, Taiping Zoo, Maxwell Hill, Taiping Prison, Taiping Lake Garden and many more. And for food hunters, Taiping was also a food heaven. Before this, I had reviewed one famous Cendol in Taiping, you may read it here: Cendol Bismillah, Taiping.

This restaurant is pretty new in town I think? Because I haven’t notice them when I came here sometimes ago. Anyway, The Gate Cafe, formally known as Borneo Cafe, I wonder what was the meaning behind the name, “Kafe Pagar”? Well, gate also can have many meaning, but I believe the owner have their own reason for that name~

Well, let’s just go to my comment on this restaurant aight?

Food: Good! The food was good. They have plenty choices of food in their menu and they also have cake in their menu. I will get this in details at the photo below~

Price: Affordable lah. Maybe quite pricey for Taiping folks who has already familiar with lesser price for any foods in Taiping, but for me, the price is worth it.

Environment: Erm, when I went there that day, it was quite crowded, so it looks quite kacau bilau where some of the table being cleared quite late. But personally I think, the interior was nice. I just like it where they have some small dining area at upstairs, where it was more private and comfortable too.

Chicken Chip BBQ Sauce

Lamb Chop Black Pepper Sauce

Carbonara Speghetti

Chocolate Ice Blended

Location Map:- *click to view large version*

or view in details via Wikimapia: The Gate Cafe Restaurant.

Restaurant Details:- Located at the junction between Jalan Maharajalela and Jalan Ngah Ibrahim. Just opposite the Taiping Hawker Centre. Opening time is, Mon – Sun from 10:00 am – 12:00 am. Their Facebook Page.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude:  4°51’1.08"N; Longitude: 100°44’38.87"E.

Okay that’s all for now, thanks for reading~

Again?! Yeah again, another Chinese Cuisine, but this time it was Chinese Muslim restaurant.

Restoran Haji Sharin Low Grand are very well known restaurant that served Chinese Muslim Cuisine. According to the paper cutting that they hang at the restaurant wall, they already have 7 branches in Malaysia. So, this one in Ipoh was one of their branches and I think they had made a good decision, coz Ipoh have quite a big Chinese community, and I presume that there are a lot of Chinese Muslim folks here and a pure Malay Muslim like me who’d loves to have Halal Chinese food~

Speaking of this restaurant, it was recommended by my Mother *thanks Mom!*, as she also get the recommendation about this restaurant from her officemates. Before entering the restaurant, you will see some simple Chinese architecture in front it. This maybe to show some identity of the restaurant. Inside of it, it was just a simple restaurant, having some simple decoration.

This restaurant is worth to be review because to me, this restaurant is gooood~ I’m impressed with the menu they have, very big menu until I dunno which one I should eat that day, haha. *It’s a complimentary btw*. But don’t worry, I’ll give you some recommendation later, based on what I’ve tried lah.

Okay, let’s just go on with my view on this restaurant:

Food: I just love my food! I ordered for their Roasted Duck (Itik Panggang) with rice and falling in love with it~huhu. So for anyone who are searching for Halal Roasted Duck, this restaurant is the right place. For other food that we ordered, some taste good and some are normal only. Look at the photo caption below to know which is good, which are not.

They have wide choices of food in the menu, if you know what to order then it’s okay, but if you are in your first time, it’s quite confusing. Maybe you will just ask for some recommendation from the waiter or just try for their Special-menu-of-the-day. On that day, I tried for their Roasted Duck because I saw it on whiteboard they put in front of their restaurant.

Their Menu Book

They also have Lamb Kut Teh which is a Halal replacement of Bak Kut Teh where originally it is obviously not Halal because ‘Bak’ means Pork. So in this restaurant, they replace Pork with Lamb instead. HOWEVER, I forgot to order it because I was too excited with the Roasted Duck!! urgh~Nevermind, maybe next time, huhu~

Price: Affordable, but a bit pricey (For me). For the Roasted Duck, MYR 13 per quarter. I think for this, it really worth it because it was quite rare to get Halal Roasted Duck in Ipoh plus the food also good.

But for other food like Belacan Fried Rice, MYR 7 is just overpriced for me~huhu. Same with Mee Hoon Prawn Ball which is MYR 10 for a food like normal Fried Mee Hoon taste, except they have big Prawn in it. For a positive thinking, maybe they put some special spices in the food, that’s caused the price.

Environment: Comfortable, Air-conditioned dining hall. Have big round table which can have 10 people eating at one time for family dinner.

Okay, let’s just go for the picture…. =)

My Dad, being quite conservative again, ordered Belacan Fried Rice. Taste so-so only.

My Mom, expecting this Mee Hoon Prawn Ball to be super special, was left frustrated~ Taste so-so also.

Kong Po Beef with Rice – Now, that’s more like it. Taste quite nice.

Beef Kway Teow.

Lam Yee Chicken. Taste like Popcorn Chicken with some special spices in it. Taste quite good.

Okay, this is what I want to highlight in his post, Halal Roasted Duck!! <3

Map:- *click image for a larger view*

or map details via Wikimapia: Restoran Haji Sharin Low Grand Ipoh map.

Address: No. 14, Persiaran Greenhill, 30450 Ipoh, Perak. This restaurant have their branches in Shah Alam too~

Opening hours:- 11am – 11pm.

Contact:- 05-241 2472. Restaurant Haji Sharin Low Grand Bangi Facebook.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude:  4°35’56.22"N; Longitude: 101° 5’16.66"E.

That’s all, thanks for reading!! I would love to hear some comment from you~ ^_^

Okay, skip dulu any review of Ipoh foods. This time I will review one restaurant that I go during my holiday to Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. Actually there are a lot of restaurants there, but I’ll just review this restaurant because I think they are quite unique because it does not served seafood (as in most restaurant in Port Dickson) but a western-like type of food.

Anyway, maybe I’ll just make it short this time because fyi, this restaurant only had one menu which is Nasi Kukus and Ayam Panggang (Steamed Rice with Grilled Chicken). But yeah, they also have other side grilled foods like sausage, chicken inner and I’m not sure whether they also had grilled fish or not~

The limitations does not stop us to try this restaurant, and surprisingly the restaurant also quite crowded that day (maybe because of the holiday season). The limited choices of menu also happen to drinks where they only have cordial drinks like Red Rose (air sirap) and Grape. huhu~

The Chef – One fierce looking Cowboy, isn’t she?

My verdict:

Food: Well, the menu is very small, cannot comment much, but the Grilled Chicken and the sauce that comes with it was good!! However, I think the portion of the rice is quite small~huhu *I eat a lot *

Sometimes I see people come and go for a short while, maybe because after they know this cafe had only one menu, they refused to continue to eat here.

Price: Reasonable.

Environment: Just another roadside restaurant (Well, Cowboys normally eat roadside right? Nicely decorated according to the theme, Cowboys.

Well, enjoy the photo~*map / address details below*

This is where the rice being cooked, using steaming method which will make the rice soft.

This is the Chicken BBQ. Good. And the sauce also Nice.

One of the side order they have, BBQ Frankfruter.

Location Map:- *click image for bigger size*

Or details via Wikimapia here: Cowboy Place Map.

This restaurant is located at: Lot 1360, Jalan Pantai, Batu 6, 71000 Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude:   2°28’1.93"N; Longitude: 101°51’19.48"E.

Have I said to you that I love Chinese Food so much? Well, yes, but somehow halal Chinese Food was quite hard to find because, as you already know, Chinese food often to contained pork in their ingredients, so I have to be careful. Thus, I continue my journey to find the Best Halal Chinese Food in Malaysia. Lucky me that there are some folks who are a Chinese Muslim that had doing some food business in Malaysia. I had made a review about some of them here: Halal Dim Sum @ Jom Cari Makan Restaurant, Damansara and Restoran Cina Muslim Al-Munawarah @ Seksyen 9, Shah Alam.

However, my search wasn’t end there. Here in Ipoh, I found another good restaurant for you guys to try Halal Dim Sum. Before that, I would like to remind you that, I think this restaurant was not a Chinese Muslim restaurant, it was a Chinese Restaurant having a Halal Certificate by the Islamic Religious Department of Perak. But, I see some of the kitchen workers are Malay. Not being racist here, but some people are very particular, so I have to state this specifically. Here is the picture of their Halal Certificate. Well you can check it at the restaurant by yourself, it was just framed and hanged at the counter wall.

Back to the review, I think this restaurant is worth to try for their Dim Sum. They have a big list for that, see the menu here. However, on that day, me and my family did not order all the Dim Sum as we had already ordered another dishes. So the Dim Sum we ordered was just an additional order. Beside, Dim Sum was quite expensive to us~ :’(

So, without going any longer and before going to the pictures, let me just conclude what I think about this restaurant.

Food: Well I think, their specialities is really on the Dim Sum because other food was quite normal to me. However, they have a large list of menu for you to choose. Try the BBQ Chicken Pau, gooding. The Dim Sum comes with sauce, not sure what sauce it is, but it taste good~ Don’t know how to elaborate more, you may just try it for yourself okay? =)

Price: Affordable. But price for Dim Sum is a bit pricey, but I know it is quite normal. Maybe it’s just me~ =)

Environment: Air-Conditioned. But you can choose Free-air area too. Comfortable and clean. But not really nicely decorated, I mean the restaurant was plain simple. To it’s okay though as long as the environment is clean.

Overall: Average. Good, if you wanna try some Halal Dim Sum.

Okay, before I go for the Dim Sum photo, I will show you what we order for our main course. You can skip it, if you want to~ ^_^

This is my order, Dry Prawn Wantan Noodle with Soup. Ok lar~

My sister ordered this, not sure what it is, Wantan Claypot something…something.. perhaps~ :P

Lemon Chicken Rice, Pak Li Kopitiam one is better I think.

Sweet Sour Fish with Rice. Quite Good.

My father order. Being quite conservative, he ordered for Kampung Fried Rice (Chinese style). Quite good.

Okay, now the side orders part, which is the Dim Sum!

Chicken BBQ Pau. Good!

Prawn Siew Mai dim Sum.

Not sure the name of this Dim Sum. :P

Err, they called this Carrot Cake.

And some drinks.

Three Layer tea. It taste like Cendol Tea. :P

Location Map:- *click image to enlarge*

or details map here via Wikimapia: Greentown Dim Sum Cafe Map. *Well you might notice that I point the pin to a parking lot, but actually it’s not, now they have building there*

This restaurant is located at:
Persiaran Greentown 4,
Greentown Avenue,
Greentown Business Centre,
30450 Ipoh, Perak.

Tel/Fax: 05-255 2010.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude: 4°35’55.46"N; Longitude: 101° 5’33.58"E.

That’s all, thanks for reading~

Well, before this, I’ve recommended some good places for you to have your breakfast in Ipoh, remember? You may refer it here: Restoran Mee Ipoh, Roti Canai Greentown. This time, still, I want to share another good place to have your breakfast in Ipoh, just to make you confuse which one you should go~ =P

To me, this restaurant is quite unique and worth to be review because they have plenty of choices on their menu which is for a breakfast only (I will list out menu later). So me and my family frequently go to this restaurant to have our breakfast, if we don’t know what to eat that morning~

This restaurant is open in the morning only (but still, it will open till 12pm so you can have a Brunch also =P, but some of the menu may not be available). The funny thing is that me and my family always missed some of the menu as we tend to come late~

So, the verdict?

Food: Nice. There are plenty of choices for your breakfast. There are Mee Kari, Bihun Sup, Kway Teow Kicap, Wantan Ayam, Cheong Fun (most of this is Chinese food, I like!). Got Mee/Bihun/Kway Teow Goreng, Nasi Lemak, Half Boiled Egg with Bread, Roti Bakar, Malay Kuih Muih, and many more that I can’t recall. Unfortunately no Roti Canai~

Basically, all the food was nice and worth trying. But I recommend you to try the Curry Mee and the Mee Hoon Soup.

Price: Affordable, if not cheap. Most of the price range for the food is below RM5.

Environment: Normal street restaurant environment. Ah btw, this restaurant also has a branch, near the Carsem Factory, Meru Ipoh. The branch are more proper in terms of the restaurant environment.

Anyway, let the pictures do the talk~

Their’s signature dish, Mee Curry.

Mee Hoon Soup

Fried Kway Teow

Fried Mee

Chicken Wantan.

Half Boiled Egg with Bread/Roti Dengan Telur Separuh Masak aka Roti Telur Goyang.

Location Map:- *Click map to for bigger resolution*

Or details map via Wikimapia: Restoran Mee Kari Kak Yah.

The restaurant is located at:
Jalan Kledang Raya 1,
Jelapang.
*Near Taman Kledang Jaya Mosque

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude:  4°36’55.56"N; Longitude: 101° 3’28.17"E.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. -  Oprah Winfrey

Well, time moves so fast, I feel like it was last 2 days we celebrated New Year for 2011. So, how was 2011 to you guys?! I believe everyone have their own interesting journey for this year right? Well to me, I had quite a dull life in 2011. Issokay, I pray for the best ahead~InsyaAllah.

I wish for all the best for you, and may you achieve what have you been targeting for. As for me, I’ve a bundle of targets for this 2012. But that’s another story, let me keep that for myself okay~

Another things, 2012 will be a very busy year for me (if I get the offer to continue my studies). However, in preparing for that, I will try to complete a couple of draft before the class start. So, next time I will just need to publish the post~ =P. This was important to keep this blog alive~huhu

And, 2012 is Tahun Melawat Perak 2012 (Visit Perak Year 2012), so, as a Foodblogger cum Travelogger and also as a true Perakian, I will try to do some JJCM or travel to the interesting spot in Perak (mainly Ipoh only coz Perak is quite a big state so I cannot cover all ).

Anyway, wishing you a great year ahead!!

Vanakam!! Okay, today I’m gonna blog another cool restaurant in Ipoh, Perak. Well this restaurant had established in Ipoh for a long time, I wonder whether they have any other branch or not~

If you craving for some Halal Indian food, I recommend you this place. Well, actually it is quite easy to find any Halal Indian food here in Malaysia because most Indian food don’t contain pork or alcohol, however you still need to be careful as the beef still need to be slaughtered according to syara’ right?! Anyway, for this restaurant I believed it was safe/halal because I heard the owner was a Muslim.

And one more things, if you ever think that you can get this at Mamak stall, I would say you are probably wrong. Although the menu is basically quite the same with what Mamak stall have, the uniqueness of the food is still there, here in this restaurant. You might just have to feel it by yourself okay~ *But I will try my best to show what was cool here =P*

Okay, let’s just go to my verdict on this restaurant.

Food: The food was amazing!! I mean it’s full of ingredients in it. Well it’s a typical of Indian food, they contained all the spices that makes your face turn red with their hotness. But to me, it was not too hot lah, just so-so only.

Our order. =)

The menu was big. They have variety of choices for every type of dishes. For example, for chicken, they have like 10 different type of cooking. Same thing happen with beef, fish and mutton. There are other side dishes like Naan Cheese, etc.

The food was good to me. Although I’m not into the Indian food, but this time it was an exception. I enjoy it, but as the portion of the food was quite small, I feel like some kind of unsatisfying feeling that night.

Environment: Very comfy. Nicely decorated. Air conditioned. Will show you the interior pictures below~

Price: Affordable but quite Pricey a bit. I will tell the price later below every picture. =)

The Briyani Rice – RM24.50 for 5 persons.

Tandoori Chicken – Half RM17

Beef Dopiazza (Actually I’m not really sure what “Dopiazza” is~ =P) – RM8

Regular Fish Curry – RM20

Mutton Masala – This is gooding!! – RM8

Naan Cheese – RM5

Thick Manggo Juice – Like!! – RM26 per jug.

SoMe InTeRiOr PiCtuReS.

Eating Area

Eating Area 2

Decorations

Decorations 2

Location Map:- *Click to enlarge*

Or details map via Wikimapia here: Pakeeza Restaurant Map.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude: 4°35’59.03"N; Longitude: 101° 5’13.26"E.

Well, the name of the restaurant does not reflect their location, it was located at Shah Alam actually. But yeah, Klang or Kelang town is famous with one of their signature dish which is Lontong. Lontong was a well known Indonesian food, among Javanese people. There are several types of Lontong, but the one that are famous in Malaysia is known as Lontong Cap Go Meh in Indonesia. Well, you can read more about it here on Wikipedia.

This restaurant doesn’t have any other speciality except for its Lontong and Nasi Lemak. Ironically, that’s what makes them so special among Shah Alam folks. Therefore, I might just do a short review this time okay.

The Verdict

Food: The Lontong was good. Love them although it was my first time~ The ingredient was superb!! There was Tempe (Jawa people like this thing very much), Sambal Sotong, Boiled Egg and some other ingredients that I can’t identified because I had ate them~

And the Nasi Lemak Sambal Sotong was also veryyyyy gooodddd~Homai!

Price: Affordable, I believed. RM4.50 for normal Lontong and RM4.00 for Nasi Lemak Sotong. However, I think the portion of the Nasi Lemak is quite small~ =(

Environment: Okay, just a typical restaurant, nothing fancy here. However, sometimes the restaurant is very crowded, especially after 10am. The crowd sometimes makes the customer feel uneasy eating there.

This restaurant is a self-service restaurant. The owner was a very generous person. They open their shop everyday from Monday to Sunday. However, they only open half day, which is from 7.30AM to 3.00PM (Monday-Thursday, Saturday and Sunday), 7.30AM to 12.30AM (Friday). But, I would like to advice you to come early because they always have a full pax and the food always sold out earlier.

Anyway, Hope you enjoy the picture below~ =)

Lontong Biasa

Nasi Lemak Sambal Sotong.

Location Map:- *click to enlarge*

The restaurant was located at Seksyen 7 Shah Alam, at the commercial center near the UNISEL.

or view it via Wikimapia: Restoran Lontong Kelang, Shah Alam Map.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude:   3° 4’32.85"N; Longitude: 101°29’48.97"E.

Okay, that’s all, thanks for reading~ =)

Radix Fried Chicken – Fresh, Halal and Organic.

Yeah, finally I had done all review which was taken by my ex gf (my old camera). This post was taken by my new gf named Fiona (which is also a camera ). Well, this just make me looks like I’m a #foreveralone right? haha~Nevermind, just ignore that. LOL.

Anyway, I give the honour to my first post using my new camera to this brand new type of franchise. Yes, I know, you will probably have this thought in your mind right? Like, “Naah, another copycat of KFC” whatnot. But wait, put away your stereotypical thought this time, it’s really different and quite special too. But yeah, some of the menu was quite the same with KFC menu~ I will show you the picture later.

So, what was very special about this restaurant compared to other established Fast Food restaurant franchise like KFC, Mc Donald, A&W, Marry Brown, Wendy’s, Popeye so on and so on (There’s are a lot to be named)?!

The answer was in the main ingredient, which is the chicken itself. Radix (one of the tradename for HPA group companies) was quite famous for their’s health supplement products, ie, Radix Coffee. For Radix Fried Chicken, they breed the chicken themself. And they claim that the chicken was organically breed, where it doesn’t use any modern breeding technique like antidote injection etc. So, if you are a type of person who are very particular with the chemical usage in your foods, I would really suggest you to try this!~ =)

Chilli and Tomato Sauces is one of HPA Group Products.

Anyway, whether the claim was true or not, I’m not very sure, because to me, the taste and look of the food was quite same with others. Anyhow, if you can tell me the differences, could you write it in the comment section? I will really appreciate it~ =)

The Verdict.
Food: Okay, it’s pretty impressive. I don’t really notice the difference between the Normal Fried Chicken and Organic Fried Chicken, and I just love it. However, some of the restaurant menu was like copying the famous fast food chain in Malaysia, KFC, ie: the Cheezy Wedges, and I think KFC one is better on this part~

Among the menu they have are: Black Pepper/ Mushrooms Sauce Chicken Chop, Radix Chicken Rice, Some regular Chicken Sets, Burgers, Nuggets etc. Mostly it was just like any other Fast Food restaurant but only in Radix, the chicken is organic!

Price: Reasonable. Not sure whether it was cheaper than KFC or not, but even if it is pricier, look, it’s an organic chicken man!! I know it wouldn’t be easy to breed them!~

Environment: Like any other fast food restaurant. They open from Monday – Sunday, 10.30AM to 11.00PM (10.30PM onwards only allow take away). Closed from 1 – 2PM on Fridays in order to give respect to Muslim Friday prayer.

Some Comments.
And, before I go to the photos I’ve taken, I would like to gives some comment/suggestions on this restaurant, hoping that some improvements could be done. First, when I go there for breaking fast, there are some menu that unavailable (not sure about other menu, but I try to order the Chicken Rice, but it was unavailable. Mushrooms Chicken Chop also was not available on that day~huhu). Actually, this just made our choices as customer become limited.

Second, although the interior of the restaurant was quite nice (to me), it was pretty quiet because there is no radio or music played at the restaurant. We also need to use our own radio from our handphone to hear the Azan for breaking fast. Well, in Marry Brown, they played the Azan from their radio.

The restaurant interior.

Third, there was lack of promotion for this new branch in Ipoh. I only know it from my mom friends that recommend this restaurant. Luckily I’ve heard it before when I studied in Sg. Petani Kedah, but I never get the chance to try it there, so that encourage me to try this restaurant in Ipoh.

Forth, try to be creative like any other fast food restaurant. For example, they could do a seasonal menu. ie: like McD have their own Prosperity Burger for certain limited times.

Fifth, no branch in Selangor?! Please have one. You can have in Shah Alam perhaps? =)

Anyway, my comment above is just an extra point. If you are someone who are related to this restaurant/franchise, you may take it as some improvement point for your business or you may just ignore it, okay? No hard feeling~ There is a lot of way to make the business better, I see the potential of RFC to become a big name in future. =)

Hope you enjoy the photos below~~

The Counter.

Black Pepper Chicken chop. Naiisss~

RFC Chicken Delight Spicy. Herbs Chicken.

Chicken Nugget. Actually I saw they used Ramli Nugget for this, if I’m not mistaken.

Cheesy Wedges. Not really a cheese I think, maybe just a Dressing Mayonnaise.

Location Map: *Click to enlarge

or you may view it via wikimapia.org: Radix Fried Chicken Ipoh Branches.

Other Radix Fried Chicken branches:-

You may also contact them via their facebook fan page: Facebook.com/RadixFriedChicken.

GPS Coordinate:- Latitude: 4°36’26.65″N; Longitude: 101° 3’46.92″E.

And that’s all for now, thanks for reading!!~ =)

P/s: HPA group companies is quite famous company that encourage the production of Halal product and food in Malaysia. May their efforts are blessed!!~

A comparison between Flickr, Picasa and Facebook Photos.

Well, this post although quite unrelated to food and travel which is my main niche but it was somehow reflect to this blog. As you know, this blog is all about Food and Travel, therefore, in order to give you better view of what I’m talking about, photos will play the most important part for any of my posts here. I had to put a lot of photos as I can to make the story more interesting.

And in order to cut my bandwidth usage and server load, I had to used external image hosting which is reliable, fast and easy, merely to give the best experience to the visitors and me. However there are hundreds if not thousands of good free image hosting out there, which causes difficulty for me to choose which one is the best among all. However, for today, I will just focus to 3 free image hosting which I think quite popular among users (as they come from a very big/well known company) and easy to use. The three are Flickr by Yahoo Inc, Picasa by Google and Facebook Photos by Facebook.

Lately, if you notice, I had changed my main image hosting from Flickr to Picasa. But why am I changing? Here is my reason:

Flickr.
I had used Flickr for quite sometimes in my previous post. In fact, I use it in my first food review for this blog, where at that time I’m using blogspot!~ =P Actually, the reason I’m using Flickr because it was easy for me to blog. My passion for blogging was limited by my available free time as I’m quite busy in real life, so I will need a very simple tools to help me blogging whenever I free. And as I can’t always get online 24hours/anywhere, I will need to use offline blogging tools like Windows Live Writer (WLW).

Picasa and Flickr Plugin in WLW.

In WLW, you can add on a plugins that available on their site to make your blogging easier, where one of my favourite plugin are Flickr4Writer which helps you to import photos from Flickr and put it in your blog post. It really helps me a lot in terms of putting my photos which I had uploaded to Flickr using their desktop application, Flickr Uploadr.

Picasa.
Okay, before I tell you which one better to another and which one I mostly preferred, I will brief about Picasa first. After the introduction of Google Plus (G+) (One of Google efforts in creating their own social networks), Google had amazingly upgrades Picasa service.

Basically Picasa had 1GB limit for it’s free users. There are also plugin for Picasa image in WLW which is Picasa Image Plugin. You may upload your image through their own Desktop Application or through their web. And to me, the web uploader is better in terms of privacy and simplicity as it was just Drag-N-Drop work. IDK why, but their desktop application is just too complicated for me to understand!~huhu

Picasa Web Albums Uploader.

Image being upload in Picasa Web Albums.

However there are something about Picasa that’s really attract me.

First, is their quota limit. Okay, I will not write very detail on this, you may just compare it by reading here: Picasa Limit | Flickr Limit. As you can see, more or less, both are quite generous in terms of uploading and storage limitations. Both offer unlimited storage with certain limitation. It depends on what types of user you are, a heavy photo uploader or vice versa. However, I prefer Picasa as it has unlimited monthly upload quota and they allow me to see all my photos, either old or new photo.

Second, image resizing. Photo resizing in Picasa as easy as changing the image url structure. Yeah, you can change the image size just by changing the value in the url. Here is an example:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a1aqm6DldKo/Tom5eT2PavI/AAAAAAAAAzY/vZWe9XKsvUw/s640/IMG_0515.JPG

try to change the value in “s640” to any value (new value must below the original image value).

Example: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a1aqm6DldKo/Tom5eT2PavI/AAAAAAAAAzY/vZWe9XKsvUw/s320/IMG_0515.JPG

and if you want the original size, just remove the value:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a1aqm6DldKo/Tom5eT2PavI/AAAAAAAAAzY/vZWe9XKsvUw/IMG_0515.JPG

In Flickr, as far as I’m concern, the photos will be resize into several sizes which already been set by the Flickr. So, to me, it was quite unpractical. Well, you can use html code to change your photo image size but it will not be as perfect as resizing the photo itself.

The same things happen if you want to rename the photo, just change the URL structure and amazingly the photo can still be seen:

Example: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a1aqm6DldKo/Tom5eT2PavI/AAAAAAAAAzY/vZWe9XKsvUw/IMG_0515.JPG

to

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a1aqm6DldKo/Tom5eT2PavI/AAAAAAAAAzY/vZWe9XKsvUw/testwiththenewname.JPG

Well, it’s quite amazing right? How Google Picasa makes your life easier!~

Third, image compression, the quality and loading speed. Okay this is the most important and I’ll combine all this 3 elements as it was quite related together. To done this, I uploaded exactly the same image to Flickr, Picasa and Facebook. I gather all the image in one post, then I tried to do a speed test by using web speed test service like Pingdom, GTmetrix, Webpagetest and Loads.in. And the result is quite shocking!!

See the result below: (Shorter is better)

Test by Pingdom, Picasa and Flickr seems like having the same loading time.

Test by GTmetrix, it’s time for Facebook to stand out. But still cannot pass Picasa.

Test by Webpagetest, winner: Picasa.

Testing from a server location in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

So, it seems like on most of the test, Picasa wins over another. And Flickr is more likely to be the slowest. This is why I love Picasa. Well, on the image compression and quality issue, Picasa is in between Facebook Photos and Flickr. In Facebook photos, the image will be compressed until it effect the image quality. Picasa still retain the same size of the image file while Flickr shockingly increase the size!!

Well, if you want to test it by yourself (in case you don’t believe me ), here’s the link of the photos:

Picasa | Flickr | Facebook Photo

And this is the page I use for the speed test: Fadzioriq Test Blog.

Fifth, very simple organizer. Image can be easily managed and organized. Well, maybe I shall do a full review on Picasa later. In the mean time, why don’t you just explore it yourself~

In conclusion.

Anyway, I think I shall end my post now, coz it’s getting too long. I don’t want to break this into 2 parts because this is not a tech blog and you may just need to do a little bit of research if you want extra details~

Well, the upgrade done by Google to Picasa really attract me. However, I still loves Flickr because they have very amazing photographer community and I always look for inspiration there. But, as my main intention for hosting images are for blogging, Picasa really suits me. They offer fast loading time, non heavy compression, fair image quality and the community is growing fast as the introduction of Google Plus (G+). Extra point is that it has WLW plugin~

And Facebook Photos really degrading the image quality, which is to me, very bad!

What is yours favourite image hosting anyway? Tell that in the comment section, I would love to try it~ Thanks for reading anyway!!