Suanne and I don’t normally return to the “crime scene”.
Once we write about a restaurant, we hardly go back for a second visit. There are simply too many other restaurants out there for us to visit and write about. What more, all you readers out there has this insatiable appetite for more new posts on restaurants.
But this time I am gonna make an exception. We re-visited Penang Delight with Ron and Nancy again to try dishes we missed the first time we were here.
You see, we were very “mm-gum-yuen” from our previous visit (see post here). We were there on the first day of business and the restaurant was completely overwhelmed with the reception they had. Almost everything we wanted to order on their menu, they ran out of it.
Assam Laksa –> sorry!
Pan Mee –> sorry!
Penang Char Koay Teow –> sorry!
Bah Kut Teh –> sorry!
Loh Mein –> sorry!
So yeah, our heart is so “mm-song” already. You know the feeling right? It is like unrequited love.
Something like that.
Oh … for those of you who wants to know what the words “mm-gum-yuen” mean, well, there is no good translation for it. Maybe there is but I can’t find a good English word for it. It is something like feeling unsatisfied but not in a negative way. It is more like unsatisfied in an emo way.
Something like that.
So we made a vow to return to Penang Delight. That list of dishes they ran out of the first day of business rose to the top of our bucket list. In Malaysia, we have a Manglish expression for it.
“Die-die also must eat!”
So, yeah-lah … we all die-die also must eat. We die-die also must go back.
This time round, it was my turn to make the reservation. Some more, Ron and Nancy made me call Penang Delight to make sure they have all the dishes we missed the last time. So, I called them … twice! I need to make sure.
I wanted to call twice because the first time I called them, they sounded very busy and did not want to chat.
Ben: Assam Laksa got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-gotBen: Pan Mee got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-gotBen: Penang Char Koay Teow got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-gotBen: Wha about Bah Kut Teh, got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-gotBen: Loh Mein? Got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-got … everything also got.
I did not trust them and so I called the second time a day later just to see if they will give me the same “got-got-got” answer.
Wah-lau! Got style!
I was totally surprised to see the sign above when we got there. Although I did not tell them that I am Ben of chowtimes when I made the reservation, I think they were expecting this Ben. I think they were monitoring the comments made on the Penang Delight post where I did mention we are going.
Just in case that maybe Penang Delight might be mentioning names on every table that is reserved. Nope. All the other reserved tables have the normal “Reserved” sign. Ah … this table is special, you reckon? LOL!
Yeah, Penang Delight did realize that it was “chowtimes” who brought them quite a number of referrals.
And this makes me worried a bit because I realize that when I say “it’s nice”, the word nice gets magnified a bit. I better be more careful with what I say! Better still, ignore what I say on this blog and just be entertained by the stories. Deal?
Wah-lau! Got free snack some more!
As we were getting settled, the manager came over and gave us some Heong Peah which I once blogged about. He said his friend from Malaysia brought some over and wanted us to have it.
These stuff is precious. It is something we can’t get here. Super flaky and will disintegrate on the first bite. There is a technique to eat it but I’ll explain next time.
There was a long string of discussion on Pan Mee on the first Penang Delight post (which BTW generated a whopping 133 comments). So, the first order of business that day has got to be the Pan Mee.
The Penang Pan Mee is $9. I can’t believe it had been a long time since I had this and have forgotten about this dish. The strange thing is all the Malaysian restaurants had failed to offer this even though it is not a difficult dish to make.
My mum makes this at home a lot. She uses the “mit” (tearing) method which is by far the best way to make the doughy “noodles”. However, the “mit” type is labourious to make. So, most restaurants will make it using …
manual rollers to roll the dough onto sheets before cutting it up.
Too bad … Penang Delight’s Pan Mee is the ones made with rollers.
The ingredients are simple and is pretty standard in all the pan mee versions. It has to have shredded black fungus and minced pork cooked in broth (usually chicken).
It also must have shallots. Yeah, Malaysians love deep fried shallots. Makes the food very “heong” (fragrant) as they say.
Overall, the Pan Mee was OK … can pass. But I had better.
But the most important ingredient is the anchovies … not just any anchovies. Only the Malaysian type of anchovies will do for the Pan Mee. Sorry to say this but all the countless types of anchovies in Chinese stalls are rubbish.
Just last weekend, we stumbled on a shop in Chinatown that has the sign that says “Nanyang Anchovies” (Nanyang is China’s ancient name for South East Asia). It looked and smell the closest to the ones from Malaysia but not quite the same. So we bought it to try at home. We had it for dinner tonight. And the verdict is … rubbish.
The anchovies in Penang Delight tasted better. But they are too tiny. And too broken too, like they are of lower grade ones.
Let me tell you. If restaurants will just get a few kilos of the real deal into Vancouver and make dishes like nasi lemak and pan mee, it will be a hit. Why, you can even deep fried it as snack … goes very well with beer.
There is a historical town in Malaysia called Melaka that is famous for the dish above. The town of Melaka was the center of power during the days when the Portuguese and the Spanish colonized the area before the English took over.
So what is it?
It is nothing but chicken rice shaped pressed into balls. It is just a novelty but Melaka is famous for serving Hainanese Chicken Rice this way. Yeah, I remember when I was young we always stop by that famous restaurant for it. Weird.
So you get six balls of rice along with the Hainanese Chicken above.
The Malaysian version comes with sweet soy sauce which I like. The sweet sauce is great “jup” with the rice. Don’t waste the “jup” here. It is not salty and you must drizzle it on the rice. Very nice.
The Chicken Rice Ball (6 balls and the chicken) is $10. It was not bad but I was hoping to have it all to myself. Sharing it four-ways leaves too little for satisfaction. 🙁
And … I wished they “jum” (cut) the chicken into bigger pieces.
We also had Bah Kut Teh ($11) and this is popularly also known as BKT.
If you had never had BKT before, you should. It is traditional herbal soup with pork rib, mushroom, vegetable, garlic and deep fried tofu.
It is a popular dish where it is eaten 24 hours. You can have it for breakfast, for dinner or even middle of the night suppers. Yeah, my dad and I goes out at 2AM for night suppers often, and always for BKT (read about my late night adventures here). This is a Chinese Malaysian dish. Malays will NOT touch this. You know why? Because this is all pork.
BKT is usually sold in restaurants that serves nothing but BKT. So, I am wondering if a BKT restaurant will work in Vancouver. I think it could.
Suanne makes great BKT, you know that. I was telling her to start a BKT restaurant. What do you think? There was once she made BKT for me to bring for the office pot luck. It was a hit.
Anyway, the BKT came served in a clay pot … bubbling hot … smelling good too. The herbs used include include ýuk juk, star anise, and goji berry. Oh very important too is the garlic … whole bulb of garlic (which you don’t eat but for flavouring).
Their broth is the clear type. Penang Delight realized that chili in dark soy was missing, a very important condiment and brought it later.
Since we tackled this dish last, the pot got a bit colder. The nice thing was that Penang Delight brought it back to the kitchen to have it reheated for us.
We also had Penang Char Koey Teow ($9). This is like the stir fried flat noodles you get in most HK Style Cafes … except that it is like a million times better.
This is also a Chinese Malaysian dish. The Malays have their Mee Goreng and the Chinese have their Char Koay Teow. Char Koay Teow is usually made with flat noodles but sometimes people prefer it made also with yellow noodles.
Sorry about breaking the protocol in the picture above. For once, I forgot take pictures of the food before digging in.
This is quite OK. This can rank among the top Char Koay Teow in this part of the world. It could do with a bit more wok hei.
But there is something sorely lacking here. I keep on telling people … if someone add this one ingredient into char koay teow (or even laksa), half of the Malaysians in Vancouver will go berserk. They will have sleepless nights thinking about it. They get panic attack at the mere mention of the name.
Let me tell you some more … that if any restaurant introduces this, they will instantly be crowned as the king of laksa and king of char koay teow overnight.
So, what is this ingredient I am talking about? Anyone?
I wanted Nancy and Ron to try the Malaysian style toast. It is called Kaya & Butter Toast ($4) and it came with a hot drink. Kaya and Butter Toast is more popularly referred to as yin-yeong and is sold in kopitiam (coffee shops).
So what do you think about this Ron? Nancy?
Here, I have a post on this breakfast which I had in Malaysia a few years ago. What you should look at is the half-boiled egg.
For dessert we had Bubur Cha Cha ($3.50). This is sago, sweet potatoes, taro, black eye peas in coconut milk. Not my type of thing really.
Oh, I got a story to tell you about Bubur Cha Cha.
In Malaysia, when we get to secondary school, we get streamed into courses that we are pretty much stuck with for the rest of the remaining school days. The boys will get to do either commerce or industrial arts. The smarter boys gets exercise their brains to study commerce while the others, well, lets say that they get to use their hands. I was in commerce stream and we boys in commerce streams get jealous that the other boys get to make bookends and copper tooling. It was so cool.
As for the girls, they get streamed into commerce or home science. One of the subjects is cooking and guess what they make in school – Bubur Cha Cha!
Oh yeah … sweet! So if a girl likes you, you get a Bubur Cha Cha treat. Hmmm … now that I think of it, I never got any. I wonder why.
The Malay Kueh was $4. It came with 3 pieces. It is steamed cake with Gula Melaka. Yup, it is nice.
We had more goodies – kiddie goodies! This one is free from the manager given to us as a Christmas gift. LOL! It was just some giant pocky stick.
The manager handed us their visitor book which we gladly signed.
Oh … that is the answer to the secret ingredient question I had above. There you go!
The prices are quite expensive to tell the truth. I know I am just saying this from the standpoint that many of these food are really cheap in Malaysia. But in the context of a dinner in Vancouver, $14 per person is quite OK.
OK. I am “gum-yuen” already. I can let go now. What about you, Nancy and Ron? You guys “gum-yuen” too? Happy with the food?
BUSINESS HOURSMonday: 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Friday: 10:00 AM – Midnight
Saturday: 10:00 AM – Midnight
Sunday: 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Hi Ben, the Pan Mee is like the Filipino-Chinese maki-mi. Its easy to make but not readily available here.
That chicken rice is on my hit list!
That chicken rice is a bit expensive. 10 bucks for 1 leg and rice.
Is it really only one leg?
The HCR is $8.95 (according to the menu that Ben posted previously) which is the going rate. Each Melaka rice ball is $2 – so I guess Ben and gang got a deal on the two dishes (six balls and the quarter chicken HCR).
I checked their online menu and the 8.95 HCR includes the rice. For 9.95 you get the HCR with the 6 rice balls. (8.95 in their lunch menu.) I guess the price is comparable to other restaurants if you look at it as a complete meal. I was sort of comparing it to half a Hainanese chicken which usually goes for 10 to 12 dollars, without the rice.
🙂 I was thinking that there might be 2 important ingredients missing in the CKT, i.e. crispy pork lard or see-haam (cockles). So.. it was the see-haam..
I’m going back to KL for a visit in next month, so I”m going to stuff myself wif CKT, panmeen, asam laksa, mamak food, etc. not forgetting my absolute fav – KL fried hokkien mee – the last time I was back in KL 2.5 yrs ago, I had it a total of 7 times in 4 weeks!!! No way can I get hokkien mee in the Netherlands. Can you find it in Vancouver or anywhere in Canada, Ben/Suanne?
Hi Chai-Leng: Yes, we can find Hokkien Mee (KL Style) in Canada. The best is found in a place called Chez Suanne. Check out the post here http://chowtimes.com/2008/03/07/hokkien-mee/
It’s so nice that they treated you very nicely since they knew who you were! I’ve never seen the chicken rice formed into balls in my area, but I don’t have many Malaysian restaurants to visit.
Ben, next time you make a reservation could you just say someone else’s name? I think you got a good deal this time around because they were expecting Chowtimes.
Look at the liau in the pan meen. We didn’t even get that much. That first pan meen experience was really bad for me as the meen was just so tough to eat.
Jealous! 🙂
Hi Lissa: Hehehe … sorry about that! Now that you mentioned it, I remember you had a bad experience with their pan meen. Was the lieu (in Cantonese, liau in Hokkien!) on our bowl was more than what you had? Tell you what … next time you make a reservation, just say you are Ben. I guess I can lie and use someone else’s name when making reservations but I can’t lie (I can’t stop blinking when I lie). LOL! Moreover, I am proud of my name. You are funny. Ben
Ben gor-gor, when you lie on the phone the person on the other end can’t see you are blinking a lot. 🙂
Hi Lissa: I know when they can’t see my eyes when I am on the phone. The problem is when I turn up at the restaurant. 🙂 Ben
I’m definitely going to check out this place. I see that it’s right next door to another little gem I recently ate at, a new japanese place called Kimura; hope you do a review of it one day Ben.
Hi El Kamino: Yeah, Kimura is on my list of to-try. But I can’t find a good opportunity to go. You see, Suanne does not like Japanese food, especially raw fish and this place is too expensive to bring the whole family. Need to find an occassion or someone to go with me. Ben
Hi Ben,
I’ll be home for CNY! Yippee! But home is Sarawak so no mit pan meen, no curry laksa (but got better Sarawak laksa… will get shoot for saying this), no Klang BKT, no banana leaf rice (my absolute favourite), but at least I get yin-yeung bread for RM0.80 (lol) and roti kosong for RM1.20. And lots of see haam… Can add extra to the cha kway teow(besides the default 5 biji)for RM0.50! And kawan, we might have been conquered by all the Toms, Dicks and Harrys but where got Spain? You sudah lupa your Sejarah lah! 🙂
Hi Belinda: Oh yeah … you are right. I remember Malacca was colonized twice before the British came. I recall now … it was not the Portuguese and Spanish. It was the Portuguese and the DUTCH. Oh BTW … show off! I am jealous of all the food you are going to eat. Hope you put on 20kg or something like that! Baru you tahu! LOL! Ben
Oh one more thing, Belinda … please describe the difference between Sarawak Laksa and the Best Laksa (also known as the Semenanjung Laksa). Ben
Ben, Sarawak laksa is the best. I get my rempah from there too as my dad is from Kuching. I ran out of stock now so have to use other alternatives and cannot belanja you the real deal lo! LOL!! BTW, have you tried the Korean anchovies before? They looked the same, wonder if they are similar to the SE Asian ones taste wise. Anyways Belinda, even putting on Michelin tires is well worth it, so jangan peduli what Ben chakap…he only jealous! Just for laughs…..
Korean Anchovies, HM? Is that those bigger and silvery ones. Nah … my bigoted self is not interested. LOL! Seriously are they good. Where can we try them? Ben
Don’t know what they taste like, never eaten. Saw them at the Korean supermarket in Coquitlam & they come in different sizes. Don’t know where you can try them either, maybe Korean restaurants??
Yes, Sarawak Laksa is the best.
LOL. I already look like Michelin (wo)man now. Been in HK for 4 months, almost every week dim sum. I don’t know how to describe the taste of the BESTEST laksa… There’s something to the laksa soup. It’s not as lemak as curry laksa, but it tastes soooo good. Could be the sambal belacan in the paste. And we have it with a side of sambal belacan and lime juice to add extra oomph! HM must be salivating now… 🙂 Wow, your posts on Malaysian food always draw so many comments.
Belinda, I’m drooling all over my keyboard! I like lots of sambal mixed with lime juice for my laksa and the brand I use is Swallow Brand Sarawak Laksa. Eat all you can while you’re home!
Hi HM: Where do you get your Swallow Brand Sarawak Laksa? Gotta ask Suanne to go get it to try at home! I want to see if it really beats the Semenanjung ones. Ben
Sorry Ben, only can get in Sarawak & in Brunei just across the Sarawak border. If I get any in the future, I’ll remember to send you some, ok?
Hi HM: OK, chuup first! Will look fwd to trying some Sarawak Laksa. I was watching an episode of No Reservations about Sarawak … yeah, they also claim that Sarawak’s Laksa thrumps KL’s. That I got to taste for myself. Ben
Ben, I’m phoning around to see if any friends of mine have some to spare for you…..wish me luck!
Oh gosh … *clap* *clap* *clap*.
ok Ben, I’m heading back there for the 2nd time for lunch today & hopefully, they also “got-got-got, everything-got”!! Will try something new. Last time, we had HCR, Nasi Lemak, Char Kway Teow & teh tarik.
Hi HM: Report back, yeah?
Oh HM … if you are going today (Tuesday), we just realized that Penang Delight is closed today.
Too late Ben…I got there with a bunch of my friends & it was indeed closed. I didn’t see the end of the post with the business hrs this morning. Now, I not “gum-yuen” leh! I’ll definitely report back when I do go!
Everyone seems to kena the “go-on-closing-day-Tuesday”. I did that a couple of weeks ago, I think Alice too??
Come to think of it, not many restaurants chooses Tuesday for a day to close. I think Mondays are more common. Ben
Lin’s and Long’s are also closed on Tuesday but Shanghai Village and Ningtu are open. So there goes my theory about Shanghainese restos :-).
From my observations, many Chinese restos close on Tuesdays. But some that used to, seem to stay open on Tuesdays now. Maybe they switched to Mondays as days-off, or maybe the poor economy (and HST ?) are bringing down business, forcing some to open 7 days/week.
When we were in the restaurant business, Monday was the day sales reps would come visiting (in person) and take orders. Although you could phone it in, you would have to be fluent in English to communicate with the girls at the order desk. The sales reps, usually older white guys, are very friendly and “trained” to deal with the ethnic customers. They would be able to give you a good deal or tell you about weekly sales. We had great rapport with our sales reps.
Oh? You had a restaurant before, Lily? If I may ask, which one is it? No problem if you do not want to share. Ben
Yup, totally agree about the anchovies. Whenever I go back to Malaysia, I always bring lots of them back from Pangkor Island. It’s hard to make nice nasi lemak with the anchovies found here. 🙂
Bingo, Kooky Culinary … Pangkor Island is one of the better places to get anchovies. Suanne used the “Nanyang Anchovies” that we bought in Chinatown to make Nasi Lemak yesterday. It was no good. You are in Seattle aren’t you? Too bad, or else I will “minta tumpang ambik balik sikit” Ben
I don’t mind asking Kooky Culinary to tau-pau Cheesecake Factory Jamabayala Pasta and all those yummy cheesecakes the next time she comes here 🙂
Lol! Good thing you double checked to make sure they have the dishes you want! 🙂 Marv ‘n I went this restaurant a few days ago and they were also sold out of a few dishes we wanted. Actually, the server said they were also out of chicken! But we managed to get a couple of satay skewers of chicken…strange. Oh wells, looks like we’ll have to give the restaurant another visit! 🙂 Have you tried their roti coconut with ice cream? We heard this was really good, but they were also sold out of this when we arrived lol!
i always hate when a restaurant says they are out of something. It bugs me even more when a place like this has Cheong Lee across the street.
Hi Lemondroplet: Roti coconut with ice cream? No, I had never tried it before. Sounds delish. I think we should all learn our lesson … call Penang Delight ahead of time and make sure they have what you want. Ben
I think the ingredient we miss the most in noodles is the clams. The clams in Malaysia are so sweet.
So what was in the Char Koey Teow? BBQ pork? Shrimp? Squid? This dish comes in so many variations. Looks like a fair amount of dark soya.
I’m so hunngry from looking at the pics I am off to Tamarind hill for lunch!
Hi Sedap Makan: The ingredient is like clam but not exactly. It is cockles (see haam).
I stand corrected about them not being clams but I know exactly what you are talking about. My wife who came from Malaysia is always pining away for that ingredient and whatever we buy never measures up even if it looks similar. Lucky for Carol she is headed back to Malaysia in just over a week and will be there for Chinese new year. I don’t think you can bring this back on the plane so I am out of luck.
Hi Sedap Makan: I never had problems bringing over anchovies but Bak Kwa I know is out of the question. Here … this is the list of food you can bring into Canada and it does seems like anchovies is OK. http://www.beaware.gc.ca/english/brirape.shtml#a2 Ben
Years and years ago when I was quite naive, I did bring back a vacuum packed bak kwa. My mom who came to visit me also managed to bring in a pack. But now with all these knowledge, if I do bring one home in the future, I’ll be blinking a lot in front of the immigration officer when I answer No. LOL! (j/k)
Yeah, Lissa. Two trips ago, I came back with FIVE KILOS of Bak Kwa. It was like precious. Landed in the Seattle airport and those customs guy took it all and threw them in a bin. Gosh! Don’t they know what they are?!? I had half a mind of asking them if I could go squat at the corner to eat it there before the inspection point. What a waste! Ben
Could you really eat all 5kg of bak kwa if they said ok? 🙂
Another “gold” is full cream milk powder. Can’t bring this in either 🙁
Yes, die-die also must eat!
Ben,
I love your reviews, but I have one request: Could you please start putting the ADDRESS (and phone number) of the restaurant on the review where it is easily visible, like right at the top or bottom of the post? It’s often quite difficult to figure out where the restaurant you’re reviewing is! Thanks, and keep up the wonderful reviews!!
Peter
Peter I agree about the address sometime ther sometime not. It is helpful especially when there are several with similar name. Quite often you can read it in the photos like this one on which 3885 Rupert is clearly visible. Can be hard to see on the phone if you are out and about.
Hi Sedap Makan and Peter E: I had updated the restaurant info with their business hours on this post. It’s a lot of work going back to previous posts to retroactively update all of them but we will try to do so going forward. Take a look at the additional info I added to to bottom of the posts and let me know what you think. Ben
Ben, that’s FANTASTIC! You’re the best!
Oh boy Ben. We have been drinking Teh Tarik, albeit from instant almost every day. As for the Kaya, Ron enjoyed it so much that we went out and bought some. The one we found was light in colour and was a Hainanese Kaya with Honey made in Singapore. The brand was Glory. In any case, we have been having this for breakfast on the weekends. Serious sugar highs.
Hi Nancy: What color of kaya did you get? I prefer the green pandan flavoured ones. Just hate the brownish type – too coarse. Ben
I found that the Glory brand kaya is the best. First ingredient is coconut unlike most which is sugar.
I like the green nonya one too!
Ron and I are now satisfied we tried what we had originally set out to taste. I did wish there was more wok hei as well and agree that pricing is a bit high especially compared to our recent visit to BK cafe. I know I am biased as due to its close location, but I’d rather go here than the chain Singaporean/Malaysian restaurants out there. For decor, I’d say I’d prefer it over the smaller Malaysian restaurants so all in all not a bad little place if I feel the craving.
Hi Ben and Suanne,
I love Bah Kut Teh! I used to like those from Ellie (a Taiwanese Malaysian restaurant) but since they closed I have been just making my own using those pre-package herb from Asian supermarkets.
Hi Suanne, do you make yours from scratch? And do you mind sharing your recipe? If you plan to open a restaurant serving BKT then it may have to remain a secret but I will be your regular customer!
Winnie
Hi Winnie, I dont make them from scratch as my knowledge of Chinese herbs is not good. I also used the prepackage ones. I think what Ben like is that I use pork shoulder butt which has lots of meat. Besides the tofu puff and shiitake mushrooms, I also added bean curd sticks which Arkensen likes.
Hi Suanne,
Which brand did you use? I have been using one that is made in Taiwan…It’s probably not very authentic but it has nothing else but the herbs and they are in 2 part, finer herbs in a tea bag looking paper package and the rest in a bigger bag that looks like cheese cloth pouch. I want to try a different brand. I haven’t try pork shoulder butt, I have been using back ribs for my BKT because I like some bones in mine. May be I will do one with both back ribs + shoulder butt next time. amm… Bean curd sticks are great, I will try to add them too. I usually put lots of garlic (skin on) in mine. My bf likes to fish them out and eat the melting garlic. Do you add vegetables in yours? btw I accidently walked into a store called “Golden Summit” across from the Richmond public market and found lots of Singapore/Malaysian spice packages. May be I check out what BKT herb packages they have.
Hi Winnie, I usually used A1 BKT which is just spices without the actual herbs. Occasionally, I will get those with actual herbs but I cant remember the brand name. Yes, lots of garlic is key to make a good BKT. Well, the guy and boys in my house do not like vegetables. You can add suey choy or lettuce would be nice.
Oh no, honey … you don’t ever put in veggies in Bah Kut Teh. It is called BAH Kut Teh for a reason. Or else it is CHOY Kut Teh. Don’t be adventurous, OK? It is good as they are.
Regarding Bak Kwa,its a meat product which is banned,So you can only bring in fish products,So thats why I have brought back dried fish,Ikan Dilis,Fish Sauce or Patis and 15 cans and jars of fish.Dried Fruit and Veggies are also fine
Hi PinoyGourmet, welcome back! I’m just wondering why you would bring back patis. Is it a special kind? Coz Filipino patis is readily available here in Filipino stores and even at T&T.
Hi Crispy I brought back really dark Balayan,Batangas Patis,It is almost black because it is not diluted.The Patis or Fish Sauce here tends to be lighter or filtered.Just like Bagoong Balayan is different from normal bagoong
Hey Ben! I love the Manglish. Reminds me of my university days in England – most of my closest friends are Chinese-Malaysians. I miss them! They made me a lot of Malaysian dishes like BKT, yee sang, and nasi lemak. Would love to try a restaurant version of these dishes and Penang seems like a good place to do that!
I finally got a chance to try this place on a busy Saturday night. Good thing that I made reservations. This place is super packed. My family had to squish between tables to get to our seats. Thankfully, our food order arrived fairly quickly. We had a bunch of food including Mee Goreng, crispy noodles w/ ho fun, chili tofu, noodle soup, roti, Milo and their milk tea. I like this place; it’s different. The owner is nice and he talked to everybody.
My 2nd time here for lunch. I made a reservation but I didn’t get your special reservation greeting. Guess they knew you were Datuk Ben (Lordship) 🙂
They were pushing for the yee sang and we said ok since I hadn’t eaten that for years. It came with several small slices of salmon. The lady boss (I guess??) dropped all the sauces etc for us but she stayed to lowe (mix)with us. I found it strange because it’s usually reserved for members of the table only and not with an outsider? We found it a bit too sweet (from the plum sauce?). We didn’t finish it. Price is $23.
Roti canai is a sad layu (Ben, help me with the translation. Can’t remember the english for this word) case. Not flaky at all!! And it’s sweet. The curry that came with it was so diluted. Ugh. The chicken satay was no better. Burnt too much. Disappointed as the first time we had it, it was good.
Char koay teow was good with the wok hei. My kids ordered hainanese chicken rice (not the rice balls version) and said it’s good but mommy’s version is better. (Thank you my sweets.) I tasted some. The soy sauce with the chicken is very sweet (am I repeating myself?) and the rice looked ok but there’s no fragance.
My 2nd try at the pan meen. The meen was definitely softer unlike the first time where it wasn’t really cooked. Unfortunately, I felt that this time the broth wasn’t as good as the first time. I will NEVER get this dish right each time I order. 🙁
The first time I was here, they made a mistake and gave us the asam laksa. Wow, it was heaped with veggies and pineapples etc. So I ordered it today. Got a poor man’s version. 🙁 Have to dig a bit to get the sparse veggies. A bit too sour. It came with a piece of fish (not sure what kind).
I guess I’m so over Penang Delight.
P.S. Kids are having Pro-D. Thinking of doing a skytrain ride to check out Mamak Cafe. Do they allow kids into the pub for lunch?
Hi Lissa: Layu — gua tak tahu-lah. 🙂 The Yee Sang wasn’t good huh? Wait for tomorrow, maybe I’ll post my Yee Sang experience. As for Mamak Cafe, I think you can go. The eating area is a section before the pub and so that is OK. Ben
Found the meaning of layu. It means withered. Like bunga sudah layu. The flower has withered. Please do tell of your yee sang experience soon.
When I see the Chicken rice(ball) on the window, I want to go. But, they don’t serve even beer. How do I go for dinner?