Penang collaborates with popular Hindi TV channel to pull in tourists

Penang collaborates with popular Hindi TV channel to pull in tourists



The Penang state government is planning to increase its market share of Indian tourists through a collaboration with a popular Indian TV channel.

The 17 million viewers of AAJ Tak TV will get an opportunity to see Penang’s best attractions to be featured in a special programme at the end of June.

The programme showcasing the best of Penang was shot from May 31 to June 4 by a crew. The crew included AAJ Tak TV show editor Amit Tyagi and Indian celebrity couple Nishant Malkani and Gia Manek.

Both Nishant and Gia are well known television stars back home having starred in many top drama series in India.Both TV stars will be promoting Penang through the channel to their Hindi-speaking audience mainly in India, Britain, the Middle East and Asia.

“We are confident that the number of leisure and business tourists from India will increase and the collaboration with AAJ Tak will further promote and help boost the publicity and awareness of Penang.“There were 43,537 Indian tourists who visited Penang last year, although there were no direct flights,” said Ashwin in his speech at the event.

Amit said the coverage of Penang would air as part of AAJ Tak’s one-hour travel show called Saas Bahu Aur Betiyaan.

“It has a Bollywood-type format with dance and songs featuring Nishant and Gia, who are famous TV stars,” he said.

Yeoh in his address said the state was very serious in making a permanent name as a top tourist destination in the Indian market.

“This effort by having AAJ Tak’s crew and India’s famous TV stars in Penang is also another strategy to showcase the state further to the Indian market,” he said.

~News courtesy of The Star~

Penang Radio Frequencies

One FM 87.8
Hot FM 88.2
IKIM FM 89.0
Fly FM 89.9

Kool FM 90.2
Mix FM 91.0
Hitz FM 92.8
Mutiara FM 93.9
988 94.5 / 96.1
Klasik FM 94.9
Minnal FM 96.7
Sinar FM 97.1

Kedah FM 97.5

Zayan FM 98.1
Traxx FM 98.7
THR 99.3
My FM 99.7
Nasional FM 100.5
Ai FM 101.3
Suria FM 102.4
Era FM 103.6
Lite FM 104.4

Melody FM 106.5

Red 104.9 FM 98.1

GoXuan 107.6

Celebrity at Chowrasta Market

Taiwanese celebrity draws attention at Chowrasta Market

HOUSEWIVES in Penang seem to have fallen for the charm of Taiwanese celebrity chef Chen Hong.

He was at the Chowrasta Market yesterday and was instantly recognised by the marketgoers.

Some were keen to have their photographs taken with him while other fans were heard calling out his television nickname “Ah Hong” as he passed by.

Chen was embarking on a food adventure which was being filmed as a segment of his popular cooking show.

His mission is to discover lesser-known street food by sampling fare prepared by the hawkers and restaurants in Penang.

Among his fans was housewife Dimas Harun, 60, who had been watching his shows for over 10 years.

“I learned to cook Chinese food by watching the show and my family loves the taste of the dishes.”

Shaking hands with Chen made Dimas a happy lady. She was meeting her idol for the first time.

“It is surprising to see him here and I admire his friendliness,” she enthused.

Taiwanese tourist Lin Ying-Hsiu, 29, said it was hard to believe that she could meet Chen in Penang, as she had never met him in Taiwan before.

“Chen is one of the popular icons in Taiwan. I am proud to see he is popular in Malaysia too,” she said.

Chen will visit 30 hawker stalls and 20 restaurants in Batu Ferringhi, George Town, Pulau Tikus and Gurney Drive during his two-week stay in Penang.

“The state is a food paradise and I like the passion of the eatery operators here.

“They go all out to make their food tasty,” said Chen who was also unveiled as Penang’s food ambassador for Taiwan by the state government.

“I am honoured, as this is the first time that I am co-operating with a government in my career,” he said.

Chen said he would be working on a cookbook and a television programme during his visit, which is in collaboration with Food Digest magazine, and the online food portals FoodTok and Gourmet Garden.

~News courtesy of The Star~

Egg-streme deception

Egg-streme deception

FAKE eggs, which are allegedly full of chemicals, have been found in Penang.

A housewife who bought a tray of 30 eggs for RM11 in a market has complained to the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) that they were fake.

CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris said the housewife brought the eggs to the association’s office on Jalan Mesjid Negeri yesterday morning after finding something fishy about them when she tried to cook them.

“She said the eggs did not smell like real eggs and were tasteless.

“They had unusual shapes and were larger than real eggs. The fake egg also had a rougher surface than the genuine one.

“When broken, there were no signs of the chalazae which is the opaque ropes of egg white that hold the egg yolk in the centre of the egg. The fake egg white and egg yolk quickly mixed together unlike those of genuine eggs,” Idris told a press conference yesterday.
The fake egg yolk is of a darker yellowish hue.

He said they found that the yolk of the fake egg was more yellowish than the real one when they cooked one of the fake eggs to find out the difference.

Idris said an e-mail circulated in the Internet had stated that fake eggs were common in China and were full of chemicals.

“According to the e-mail, the shell is made of calcium carbonate while the yolk and egg white are made of sodium alginate, alum, gelatin, benzoic acid and calcium chloride besides water and food colouring.

“Calcium chloride may cause liver diseases while benzoic acid can be harmful to the brain and nerve cells,” he said.

Asked how consumers can differentiate fake eggs from genuine ones, Idris said it would be very hard to do so as they looked almost the same.

“Try to look out for the weird shapes,” he said, adding that CAP staff went to buy eggs from the shop where the woman had bought the fake ones and the staff found the eggs were indeed fake.

He said CAP would write complaint letters to the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry and the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority to urge them to carry out investigations.

The ministry’s Penang enforcement division head M. Guna Selan said his office had not received any complaints of fake eggs so far.

“I will check with CAP first on the details of the complaint before deciding on the next course of action,” he said.

The content of the circulated e-mail was found through a Google search.

It stated that various ingredients, including an unknown powder and alum, are mixed together to make the egg white.

For egg yolk, some lemon- yellow colouring powder is mixed to a liquid and stirred.

The liquid is then poured into a round-shaped plastic mould and mixed with so-called ‘magic water’, which contains calcium chloride.

Hardy shells are formed by pouring paraffin wax and a liquid onto the concoction which are then left to dry.

-News courtesy of The Star-

Travel agent excited to discover Penang

Travel agent excited to discover Penang

FOR Taiwanese travel agent Yan Yu-Ping, she simply cannot wait to discover Penang.

“I was told that Penang has a vibrant culture and I just want to see it for myself,” she said, adding that this was her first visit to Malaysia as well.

The 24-year-old is part of a group of 13 Taiwanese travel agents and media members who arrived at the Penang International Airport on Monday for a four-day trip to discover Penang’s tourism attractions.

Upon landing, they were taken to the Hai Nan Town Restaurant at Tanjung City Marina in Weld Quay where they were served Nyonya and Hainanese delicacies such as assam prawn, curry fish head, claypot mutton and deep fried spring rolls,

State Youth, Sports, Women, Family and Community Development Committee chairman Lydia Ong said while many Malaysians visited Taiwan, the number of Taiwanese tourists coming to Malaysia was still low.

“Hopefully, when they return to Taiwan, their experience here will help the travel agents and the media members, whom are from travel magazines, to promote Penang.

“Every year we go to Taiwan for holiday, but very few of the Taiwanese come here, so we need to sell Penang,” she said in her speech.

The group’s itinerary includes a trishaw ride along George Town Heritage City to the Streets of Harmony where they will get to experience the fusion of Chinese, Malay and Indian culture.

They will also be taken to visit other famous tourist spots including Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si Temple, Botanic Gardens, Tropical Spice Garden and Penang Butterfly Farm.

A lunch at Penang’s famous local hawker food at New World Park awaits them tomorrow before they depart for Taipei later the same day.

-News courtesy of The Star-

Penang Radio Frequencies

One FM 87.8
Hot FM 88.2
IKIM FM 89.0
Fly FM 89.9

Kool FM 90.2
Mix FM 91.0
Hitz FM 92.8
Mutiara FM 93.9
988 94.5 / 96.1
Klasik FM 94.9
Minnal FM 96.7
Sinar FM 97.1

Kedah FM 97.5

Zayan FM 98.1
Traxx FM 98.7
THR 99.3
My FM 99.7
Nasional FM 100.5
Ai FM 101.3
Suria FM 102.4
Era FM 103.6
Lite FM 104.4

Melody FM 106.5

Red 104.9 FM 98.1

GoXuan 107.6