Archive for the ‘Penang Food’ Category
Dear Readers,
We at PenangTuaPui will be observing on this coming Saturday, March 28 from 8.30pm till 9.30pm as part of our support to Mother Nature and to help increase the life span of our beloved Earth.
At the same time, we will also be migrating to a new server with the help from our webhosting company, Exabytes. This is due to recent server overload happening on our site few days ago.
Thus, PenangTuaPui.com site will not be available over the weekend from Saturday 2.00pm onwards until Monday 8.00am for our server migration. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.
We will be back with more food reviews and more postings of Penang Foods~!
Sincerely,
PenangTuaPui.com
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As a newbie to an area, I would usually choose to patronize the restaurant that is recommended by word of mouth or through the blogs. This time around I chose the Cia Xiang Seafood Restaurant in Bukit Tambun for our family weekend makan outing. This restaurant is nearby the Bukit Tambun Interchange of the North [...]
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My family and I eat regularly at , but we’ve never gone to the original outlet at Market Street. I’ve always enjoyed the food there which serves Chettinad cuisine and immediately said yes when the invitation came in from PenangTuaPui. I was excited to see what the original outlet had to offer! The menu for the night mainly focused on South Indian cuisine and we were told that the food is cooked fresh everyday!
First up to whet our appetite was a Chettinad style Vegetable Soup (RM3). It was a light clear soup with cauliflower, carrots and french bean. The soup was a great start to the meal! We were told that the soup had a yellow tinge due to the use of dhall.
Next up was Bitter Gourd Chips (RM6). This was a surprise as it was sliced really thin and crispy to the taste! I’m not a big fan of bitter gourd though cos I don’t like the bitterness and this was plenty bitter!
The Squid Fry (RM8) was dish I really enjoyed. Squids are very easy to overcook. But there was no sign of hard rubbery squids here. Even after it cooled down substantially from all the photography, the squids were still nice and tender.
Meanwhile, the chicken cutlet (RM6 for 2 pieces larger than the photo above) is easily my favourite appetizer of the lot. The cutlets were very flavorful thanks to the generous use of spices with a slight tinge of heat to it. And there were also very soft with a slight crisp edge. I would definitely order this again!
The luciously thick Mango Lassi (RM4 – comes in a bigger glass than the photo)
The Ladies Finger Pepper Fry (RM7) was an instant hit! The ladies fingers were finely chopped and had a surprising chewy texture. The generous but not overboard use of black pepper gives the dish its zing. I’ve never had ladies fingers cooked in such a delicious manner!
The Kadai Vegetable (RM9) was an assorted vegetable dish cooked in a rich slightly spicy gravy. I tasted beancurds, tomatoes and lots of button mushrooms in the dish. We were told that Kadai is the big vessel that is being used to cook the dish, hence the name.
The Mutton Chukka Varuval (RM18) is another one of Karaikudi’s specialities. This turned out to be the spiciest dish of the night. But I loved it! The mutton pieces were scrumptiously tender and very well marinated with spices. I wouldn’t hesitate to order this again as I found it paired very well with naan bread.
Next was the Chettinad Potato Masala (RM6) which was a mild dish. It would go well with the spicy mutton dish too! I liked the fact that the potatoes here were not too mushy so there was still a bite to it.
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We had an opportunity recently to attend a food review that is out of what we have covered till now. Up to now, PenangTuaPui has limited posting on Indian food which we are beginning to cover for more. We are lucky to be in touch with Karaikudi Restaurant to do a food review about their Indian Cuisine as well as to understand more about indian culture and indian food.
There are two Karaikudi outlets in Penang with this one at Market Street, which is inside Penang’s Little India itself while the second outlet is at Tanjung Bungah. The chefs for these two restaurants are different although it is handled by the same management.
We have the upper floor for the food review purpose so that our presence will not disrupt the present business operations below. In fact, we were there during the dinner so the tables below were pretty much packed anyway.
Most of the decorations inside Karaikudi are imported from India to imitate the environment of the original Karaikudi city, the capital of Chettinad. The painting above is also an import from the homeland of Chettiyars.
Meet the fellow bloggers , , , , , and . Where is PenangTuaPui? As usual, the 4 of us are at the lower right of the picture 
We are lucky to have Hafiz (Marketing Manager) and Lakshmanan (Restaurant Manager) to be our hosts for the food review. Both of them provided lots of explanation and background about Karaikudi and the dishes we had to enable us understand more about Indian Cuisine.
For a start, we decided to do something different on the food review with the use of an evaluation form. This form actually helps us to jot down our taste and perception at the moment we taste it when things are still clear in the mind. It will also let the restaurant know of the so called customers’ feedback.
Mango Lassi (RM4.00) was the drink of the day which came in medium height glass. Any Indian restaurant you go to will tell you that their Mango Lassi is good and this one is no exception either. The mango lassi is thick and full of flavour but less creamy (less butter taste) compared to Passions of Kerala.
Chettinad Style Vegetable Soup (RM3.00) is a home made vegetable soup with spices and the yellowish colour on the soup is because of the use of dahl. The soup is watery type and not as thick as the western style while the taste is not that strong either. Perhaps, this is not just our style.
Bittergourd chips (RM6.00) is an addictive appetizer served with fried chilies and curry leaves. The bittergourd used is smaller type which is much bitter compared to its bigger brother.
Taking the first bite of this bittergourd, one can feel the spiciness surrounding the bittergourd snacks but gradually the bitterness taste becomes more evident and the effect seems to linger for some time. The spices used have encapsulated well the bitter taste at the begining but tingling your taste buds with spiciness before letting the bitterness sets in.
The crispy bittergourd can be quite addictive too despite the bitter taste. Each time after we finish one chip, there was a mix feeling for spiciness and bitterness that somehow tempting us to take the next bites. The Kashmir Chili used was quite crispy as well but not too hot in taste. Still the spiciness flows down the throat as we swallow it.
Chicken cutlet (RNM6.00) comes in a lovely shape that bring smiles among some of the bloggers. Want to take a guess why? Because it is made into the heart shape specially for us…hehe
The boneless pieces of chicken is marinated with eggs and bread crumbs before being fried. It contains chopped green chili and coriander as well.
The chicken cutlet is quite tender without sign of being overfried and taste a little bit, (yes, just a little bit) spicy because of the chili. Tam Ciak said it feels like eating the spicy KFC chicken nugget….
We thought this is supposed to be a dessert but Chettinad Special Dosai (RM4.00) can just be a sweet dish to have with main dish.
The dosai (thosai) is actually a favourite among the kids because of its colourful and sweet taste. It has cut dried cherry on top as well as sesame seeds. Once you open the inner part, it reveals the dessicated coconut in different colours red, green, yellow and original colour.
We initially thought nutmeg was included as well but we got it wrong. The dosai can be eaten on its own or it goes well with the dishes we have too.
Chicken Briyani (RM9.50) comes in a typical Indian container that we normally see in the movie except this is much smaller. The briyani uses basmathi rice which is longer and more fragrant compared to normal rice. One piece of chicken drumstick is included in the briyani rice with an egg served on top of the rice.
Sometimes we just cannot help ourselves laughing when we see the names although we know this is how each dish is called. Yes, our bad for being such mischievious… Chicken Kothu Paratha (RM9.00) is essentially Prata (bread) that has been chopped and served together with cooked chicken. This dish looks simple enough with nothing to be amazed yet perhaps it is the simplicity of this dish that makes it special at Karaikudi.
Some of the dishes we have, clockwise from bottom left; Mutton Chukka Varuval, Chicken Briyani, Chettinad Potato Masala, Kadai Vegetable and Ladies Finger Pepper Fry. To know more about each of this dish, stay tuned for next post~!
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PJ has a famous , in Penang we have it too. Same price, same quantity, similar packaging but a whole lot more spicier. Definitely for those nasi lemak lovers looking for sambal pedas in their rice.
The funny thing is, the photos you are about to see are already one year old. That time, I knew I was going to move to Selangor so it was my last attempt to try as many Penang food as I could. One fine Friday afternoon, SL and I drove all the way from Bayan Lepas to Sri Weld Food Court at Beach Street just to try two food that were said to be famous there, beef noodles and nasi lemak.
Although the journey seem short for me now since I start working in Selangor (you know lah how freaking long those LDP highways are), those working in Bayan Lepas would know it is unusual to drive all the way to town just for lunch. Usually we just settle in Batu Maung, Bayan Baru or Bukit Jambul.
I hesitated for a while (for one year lol) on whether I should post this, main reason being the crappy photos. But then, why not? I think the photo is fairly self-explanatory on the level of spiciness in the sambal. Red hot!
For RM1.20 you would get a packet of traditional nasi lemak with a slice of hard boiled egg, some ikan bilis (fried anchovies) drenched in sambal.
Nasi Lemak drilling in progress. For me, finishing the nasi lemak was a challenge because the spiciness would numb your tongue and make you sweat like hell. And I ordered a cold drink so it only made things worse. You know how cold drinks make hot food taste even hotter right lol.
By the way, if you come early in the morning you would see rows and rows of freshly packed nasi lemak arranged in front of the stall. It’s a very neat sight and really great for photo. If I ever return that’s the shot I won’t miss.
Oh, this is one of my favorite drinks in Penang where we call it 932, basically a lime and sour plum drink. The limes are stuffed with sour plums and placed in a huge jar to be infused with sugar water (I think). Preparation is straightforward and simple, just mix with water and ice.
It is a very cool and refreshing drink, sweet tasting and not sourish like ???? ‘Kiet La Sem Boay’. 932 drink is extremely hard to find in KL, and they don’t call it 932 here. It’s called ?? ‘Pou Kat’ instead. So far I only seen one coffee shop selling it and the taste is just not as nice as those in Penang.
Yeah I mentioned that I was here to try the beef noodles too. But too bad the photo of the noodle is just too bad I dare not show it here. So, have a look at the stall instead lol. Taste wise I still find the opposite the Balai Bomba much nicer, with more meat too.
OK since it’s been a year I last went, I don’t know if the stalls are still there. Can anyone verify? For a super-delicious-omg-I-must-eat-one-now photo of the nasi lemak, head to . And apparently, has already reviewed the nasi lemak and beef noodles even before I went there! Haha.
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As a baking enthusiast, it thrills me to bring you this piece of news that Big Boys Oven will be back in Penang for another round of classes!!
This time, there will be an exciting full day cake decorating class (using fondant) and also a tiramisu class!! ~swoon~
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–> Cake Decorating Class (Hands On Class)
Pastry Chef Sunny Yaw will share with you:
- How to make your own fondant (sugar paste) and gum paste
- How to cover a 2 tier cake with fondant
- How to decorate the 2 tier cake with flower theme (similar to photo above)
Time : 9.30am – 5.00pm
Date : 18th April 2009 (Saturday)
Fee : RM550 per student (All materials included, plus tea break)
(Limited to only 6 students)
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–> Glorious Tiramisu (Hands on class)
Tiramisu, a rich decadent and desired dessert! Come learn the art of making this glorious dessert with Sunny Yaw!
Time : 9.30am – 12.30pm
Date : 19th April 2009 (Sunday)
Fee : RM150
(Limited to only 6 students)
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Limited seats available! To register for the class please email bbonorth@gmail.com or sms/call 012-4209433
I can hardly wait!! 
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The Wok Cafe is a newly opened restaurant at Kota Damansara serving home-cooked authenthic Penang Style Nyonya Cuisine. If you’re from Penang, The Wok might sound familiar because their first branch – Hot Wok is indeed located in Penang along Burmah Road (previously at Tanjong Tokong).
Opened only about a month ago, Mervyn the head cook and owner extended an invitation to me to their restaurant to try their Nyonya cuisine and Penang hawker food. Being an avid fan of Penang hawker food, I was eager to find out if The Wok could live up to the standards.
It was a surprise visit because I happened to be at Kota Damansara for dinner and suddenly remembered about Mervyn’s invitation. After meeting the owner himself and got ourself seated, he presented us with The Wok’s menu, which was extensive and had almost all the Nyonya food I’ve ever known. But I was actually more interested in the Penang hawker food listed in the last page, lol.
Anyway take a look at the drinks, can you guess what are they? No they are not teh ais and sirap bandung but soya milk mixed with gula Melaka and rose syrup respectively! I think I have openly expressed my dislike towards gula Melaka before but when combined with soya milk, it was a great and refreshing drink for me. This is so simple you can try making one yourself!
A serving of Otak-otak (for two persons) cost RM5. Under the soft and squishy fish paste was a layer of fish meat. I enjoyed it but I might have loved it more if only it was spicier.
Since Mervyn stressed that they have retained the original Penang cooking style when it comes to their hawker food, the easiest way to verify this claim was to order a bowl of Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee) @ RM6.
And truthfully enough, the Prawn Mee was of Penang style with light and sweet tasting soup packed with prawn flavor. Interesting enough, some nice and crunchy lard was present in the noodle. Ah.. it has been a long time since I last tasted a good bowl of Prawn Mee like this in KL.
Char Koay Teow, the iconic Penang hawker food @ RM7. There’s simply no other food that can represent Penang better. I particularly ordered this because I had been deprived of a good Char Koay Teow for months, lol.
If you feel RM7 is expensive for Char Koay Teow, well don’t be because that’s the standard price for any restaurants here. Besides, the price is justifiable by the big portion and the four huge, fresh sea prawns. My god those prawns were so meaty and juicy.
The Wok included sliced fish cakes into their Char Koay Teow, which is not a norm in Penang. And one of my favorite ingredients, cockles was missing too. When asked about the cockles, Mervyn explained that the cockles were not fresh that day so they were omitted from the dish. An acceptable explanation. I wouldn’t want any unfresh ingredients in my Char Koay Teow that would spoil the whole dish or, worse still, cause me food poisoning later.
To be honest, it tasted nice for a plate of Char Koay Teow especially those yummy prawns.. simply heavenly. But if compared to the real Penang style Char Koay Teow, I found the authenticity to be lacking due to the lack of the special fragrance and ‘wok hei’. I feel I am very picky, lol.
Just to be fair, it’s not easy to be a master in all Penang hawker food. Even Penang hawkers themselves are specialized in their very own food only. You won’t be able to find a stall selling both great Prawn Mee and Char Koay Teow, would you?
Mervyn then suggested that we give their Penang Hokkien Char a try. Hokkien Char is a fried noodle (usually yellow mee mixed with vercimilli mee) with dark soya sauce and meat, prawns and vegetables @ RM7. Sometimes liver is included as well.
Like the Char Koay Teow we had earlier, The Wok wasn’t stingy with the ingredients. Huge juicy prawns and generous strips of meat were given.
If eaten on its own Hokkien Char seems like a very normal noodle, which is why sambal is so important for this dish. Sambal is like the soul of Hokkien Char, to provide the desirable spicy and slightly sourish flavor to this noodle. Even just a hint of sambal would make all the difference in the taste and open up your appetite.
But not all sambal would make the cut yeah, because only authentic Penang sambal is qualified for the task. Well, I am glad to say Mervyn has managed to cook the Hokkien Char and sambal very faithfully according to Penang style.
Then it was time for desserts. First up was Cendol @ RM3.30.
And followed by Sago Nangka @ RM3.30 too. Both SL and I preferred this to cendol because the jackfruit bits and sago were just much enjoyable compared to starch noodles and kidney beans. This is highly recommended for desserts.
The father and son team of The Wok Cafe has put in a lot of effort decorating the restaurant to give it a 50-60s feel. With many Nyonya decor, antiques, photos around, dining at The Wok Cafe felt like being sent back to the past.
Round marble tables and old coffee shop chairs will bring out the nostalgic feeling in you. Provided if you’re born before or around the 80s lah, else I doubt you would feel a thing lol.
I know Penang Hokkien Char is not easy to find in KL after being here for some time. So, if you’re curious about how Hokkien Char tastes like and not visiting Penang anytime soon, do head to The Wok Cafe to try it. The Nyonya cuisine looked pretty interesting as well and I won’t hesitate to return to sample it. And if you’re staying near Kota Damansara, do know that I am pretty jealous of you because you have easy access to great Penang food cooked by a true Penangite lol.
The Wok Cafe
Authentic Penang Nyonya & Local Cuisine
26, Jalan PJU 5/21
The Strand, Kota Damansara
PS* – The Wok Cafe is located at the newer shoplots across the road from Kayu’s Nasi Kandar. After turning into The Strand from the traffic light, keep left and you will notice a big electrical shop and Alliance bank. The Wok Cafe is just behind.
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While we were having our breakfast at waiting our foods to arrive, a light breeze carried some nice, fragrant smell that the food database in our brain quickly searched for association of this fragrant smell. The flashed images of apong quickly came into our attention.
Our heads immediately turn to the direction of the aroma to look for a familiar sight, apong stall.
In a small stall setup, we see this man preparing to cook some apongs out from the two charcoal stove. Hmmm.. with just only two stoves available, there is not much output that can be produced at one time. Tam Ciak commented this man could be a retiree trying to past time and make some pocket money at the same time. Quite enterprising, eh?
The man is quite friendly and chatty as we stand nearby to wait for our orders. As Huat Koay begins to snap pictures, one of his friends teased him of being famous which the man blushes and look downwards most of the time… heheheh
This indian snacks is sold as a side dish at the stall besides apong. Hmm.. what is the name of this snack?
Using the charcoal to bake/ steam the apong will result in slow yet much consistent finished product because of the slow heat used. Of course, with the charcoal fire burning, it will last longer than using the gas stove.
The pan can fit each apong nicely like mini size wok. The heat from the charcoal will slow bake/steam the apong till it is ready for consumption. Normally, the mixture will be poured onto the middle portion and the seller will turn the pan around until the mixture covers the bigger surface area.
Of course, the remaining will usually falls back to the middle which is why the middle portion is always thicker compared to the edge. The more mixture put each time, the thicker middle portion it will be.
The apong that is ready is put in front of the stove on top of the banana leaves but then there is no cover on top to prevent flies or insects to contaminate the food. Surprisingly though, we did not see any fly or insects nearby the stall, pure coincidence?
The apong is much crispier and tastier with thinner middle part which Huat Koay prefers compared to the one at . Maybe we were just plain hungry that time…
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is one of the latest additions to the eating scene in Bayan Lepas area. I found out about it when a friend had sent me their Opening Promotion Brochure. RM9.90 for set lunch! RM13.90 for set dinner! the brochure had said. I liked the Red, Black and White color scheme. I liked their quirky cute logo. And the brochure certainly looked interesting! So kudos to their advertising agency!
Incidentally, as I planned to visit the place for dinner, I had read of it. I was impressed that they offered a Healthy Steam Cusinese Set complete with herbal soup! So off we went!
I had high hopes for the place as we entered the venue. It was very well decorated. Very chic! And complete with pool table too!
Glancing through the menu, OXO Cafelab serves a variety of cuisines – Asian, Western, Local. And they serve breakfast too from 8am-11am.
For their opening promotion, OXO Cafelab is offering 15% discount for their set meals. A set meal comes with a drink (cordial), soup OR salad, main dish and dessert. No discount for ala carte orders. I opted for the set meal and chose the Soup. Soup of the day was Mushroom Soup. I didn’t really care for the soup as I found it too starchy and bland.
We had another set meal and opted for the salad, which thankfully fared better than the dismal soup.
My main meal choice was the Juicy with Boxthorne Fruit and Plum Sauce. (This set is normally RM18.70, after discount – RM15.90) The chicken piccata here was basically chicken chop coated with egg and then pan fried. I found the boxthorne fruit and plum sauce interesting as it gave the dish an Asian twist to it. Overall, a very normal dish save for the interesting sauce.
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Another weekend foodhunt…hehehe. Saturdays used to be a day that we would sleep much longer to recharge our body after whole week’s work but these days, it has become our food hunt day of the week especially given the amount of time that we can drive around Penang to search for food.
Our food hunt started with first stop at Delima Mas Kopitiam at Greenlane Market, the one opposite Hamid Khan secondary school. This kopitiam is also on the other end of Genting Kopitiam where we covered and before.
Being a hokkien mee lover, Huat Koay is naturally inclined to order one whenever he sees such option available.
The hokkien mee arrives shortly emitting the familiar aroma the moment it is put on the table. The hokkien mee looks like as if it does not have enough soup as you can see most of the top part. Or is it because of the generous amount of ingredients? We think the former is more accurate to describe.
This is another stall that has kangkung as part of the ingredients which Huat Koay looks forward to see. The other stall that also has kangkung is the one at . The soup has just enough prawn taste but a slightly stronger taste would be preferable.
The hokkien mee looks pretty decent and basic without the option to add internals like the one in . Yet, we prefer this type of hokkien mee as it looks more complete with all the “proper” ingredients required for hokkien mee. Each bowls sells RM2.30 for regular and RM2.80 for large.
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