Updated: 4th July 2012; This restaurant had closed according to Urbanspoon.com.

The response was beyond everyone’s expectation.

When we put up an event for chowtimes readers, we thought it would be great if we could get 20 people to attend so that we can fill up the small dining area in Mamak Cafe. The response trickled in hour after hour and when we surpassed 20 people I sent an email to Charles asking him if I should stop accepting more. He wrote back saying “the more the better, the entire place can take 120 people”.

Charles is the man behind Mamak Cafe. He opened this new Malaysian eatery in Gastown and ran it with his wife, Julie. They were the same people who used to operate another Malaysian restaurant called Jonker Street in Yaletown.

Since Charles were confident, Suanne and I went on accepting requests. We began to get concern when the numbers went past 30. I wrote to Charles again and this time no response. I guess he was busy and not an email kind of person. I was concerned because the Mamak cafe is not a very big operation and I was worried that they may not be able to handle such a large group. We had organized an event in a small ramen place with 25 people before and it was quite chaotic when the kitchen was not able to handle the group fast enough and the quality of food suffered.

When the count passed 40, we desperately needed Charles to respond. He was not aware that we are reaching 50 requests and that is when Charles said we better stop at 50. Even though we posted the message that registration closed on chowtimes, at the end we had over 70 requests which we had to put some on standby.

We realized that this is not a simple event even with a dozen people. So, Suanne and I went a week before to meet Charles and his team of volunteers to sort out the logistics, the menu, the program. It became a full fledged project – I was not expecting that!

Thank goodness we had Ada and her friends helping with all the heavy lifting. That makes my work so much more lighter. I am just amazed with Ada … she totally surprised me what she did for the event. For her it had to be top quality work. She even thoughtfully put up a sign outside the restaurant to welcome the guests! I like the red chilli. 🙂

The sign was needed actually and Ada had the hindsight to make it on her own. You see, Mamak Cafe is located in a place that you would least expect to find a Malaysian restaurant. Mamak Cafe is located inside a pub called Pub 340.

The week prior to the event, Charles were still deciding how to setup the dining area. Because of the large number of people, Charles had no choice but to take over part of the pub for the event. There was also the issue of having enough tables and chairs conducive for a sit down meal. I was worried (I worry about everything!) but Charles was cool.

When I showed up early on the day of the event, the place was all set. I was quite pleased with it considering that this is actually a pub.

Needless to say, Charles and Julie was super busy that morning. He was the main man whipping up all the food for 50 people. And it is no joke too that each of the menu items are individually and laboriously prepared.

That included flipping the roti canai dough above, grilling the satays, boiling the bak kut teh, cooking the rendang, simmering the curry chicken, preparing the acar, making the prawns sambal, steaming the coconut rice, frying the mee goreng, and pulling the teh tarik. It is not easy especially he had to do that for 50 people.

Charles was handling it very well under pressure. I popped into the kitchen once and see if I could help but seeing the kitchen hard at work, I thought I better stay out and let the man do his thing.

Ada even prepared a nice write-up of the event and the dishes of the courses of the event. I expected something word-processed and printed off a laser printer.

My jaws dropped when I saw the output … fully desktop published and printed in full color. Yeah … next time chowtimes have an event, I am going to see if I could get Ada to do this sort of stuff for me. LOL!

I think one of the reason for the good response was that it was a good deal given by Charles and Julie to chowtimes readers. Charles created a menu specifically for the event which he charges only $12. The menu are spread over 4 courses and includes: (more…)

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-got

Ben: Pan Mee got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-got

Ben: Penang Char Koay Teow got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-got

Ben: Wha about Bah Kut Teh, got or not?
Penang Delight: Got-got-got

Ben: 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 …

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I am excited over the opening of the newest Malaysian restaurant in Vancouver. This restaurant could very well turn out to be the best Malaysian restaurant. From what I experienced two days ago, I think they have what it takes to be successful in the long run.

Just last week, Ron and Nancy emailed us about the impending opening of this restaurant in their neighborhood. Knowing that we from Malaysia, they asked us if we would like try it. Of course, we would. We would not pass on an opportunity like that.

The Penang Delight Cafe is located on Rupert and 22nd Avenue in Vancouver. As a matter of fact, they are located just next door to Kimura.

From the outside, I like the look of the restaurant. The lighted sign outside made sure it caught our attention. One thing that struck me was two opposing information on their signboard. On the right side, they have a tag line that says “Fine Malaysian Cuisine” but yet on the left side, there is a logo in the image of a hawker stall. I thought it was kind of funny.

I was just thinking what is with the word “Delight”. It seems like the Malaysian restaurants in Vancouver likes to use that word. I know of two other Malaysian with that word: Hawkers Delight, Cafe D’Lite and Orchid Delight.

I did not know that but apparently they were opened officially for the first day the day we were there. It was absolutely packed and there was a line up at the door.

Even though we had reservation, we had to wait 20 minutes before we had a table ready for us. So while waiting, we looked at their menu. That was when I overheard the waitresses saying they ran out of some dishes. I think they did not anticipate the volume of business on their first day.

And that is NOT good for us.

The restaurant is clean but seating are tight. This is not a big restaurant. We think it seats about 30 people, max. The manager (picture above, behind the counter) flashed his peace sign when I took the picture. He was friendly and obviously excited with the reception that they are having. When he saw me taking that shot, he came over and asked me if I am from a Chinese newspaper. I just smiled and did not say anything. Anyway, Suanne and I always had a problem explaining to people that we are bloggers because we don’t know how to say it in Chinese.

The walls are decorated with black and white photos of scenery and food from Malaysia. The manager told us that those are his pictures.

Ron and Nancy left all the ordering to me. I gladly took that responsibility. 🙂

I wanted more time to look over the menu carefully. So I decided to first order drinks.

I love their drinks. It is exactly the same way as it is served in Malaysia, right down to the Kopi-O cups. Gosh, those cups with the green flower design are from my dad’s era! The design had never changed after 50 years and it is still the same. The manager told me that he imported them from Malaysia. I like it because he wants to give it a real authentic feel.

I decided to order four different types of popular hot drinks. They are all $1.50 each and not big cups. This is the typical size served in Malaysia.

First of all I ordered Milo (we as kids call them Mee-Lok, not My-Lo). The manager said that he also ships the Milo in their 1.5kg tins from Malaysia. You can get Milo in Vancouver but it is not the same. The version in Malaysia is more creamier and more chocolaty. Thumbs up. When I was young, I always have a glass of hot Milo before I go to bed. My mum was always complaining that our consumption of Milo is so high that we can easily empty the 1.5kg tin in less than a week. I know … some of you readers in Malaysia is gonna laugh at me for getting so excited over Milo. 🙂

I also ordered the Ipoh White Coffee. You will love this uniquely Malaysia coffee. The beans are roasted with … (more…)