So, this was a long time coming. A bunch of us were attending a course in Batu Ferringhi, Penang and wanted to document our limited foodscapade there. Most of the meals were taken in the hotel itself so we only had dinner, supper and everything in between to stuff ourselves with authentic Penang fares.
Egg, R and S took our maiden Uber trip which was free to Gurney Drive to try the famous delicacies offered there. This was around dinner time so we were quite famished. Egg and R had some non- halal stuff which they did not bother to rate. So let’s just assume they were delicious.
Next S tried the rojak pasembur next, a must have to those visiting Penang. This particular stall also showed the newspaper clipping of its food. Undeterred by the previous meal, she tried like RM 14 worth of rojak. The gravy was not well- balanced: the sweetness, spiciness and saltiness were off. The rojak ingredients themselves were kind of hard and over- greasy, like the pieces have been re- fried or were exposed to the air for quite some time.
The next day, La Bonito invited us to have dinner with her aunt and uncle at the Captain’s Restaurant, Penang Swimming Club along Tanjung Bungah. This is like the best swim club that you do not have to swim in, ever. The restaurant is located at one of the higher levels (14th floor or something like that) and the view was breathtaking. The food is delectable and cheap too. They serve a jumble of Chinese, Western and fusion dishes. Service was okay, waiting time of probably 15 minutes for our food to arrive. Alas, we were too er, bashful to take pictures of the food while some other mature adults were around. So we just managed to take the picture of the orange juice, which cost a mere RM 1.50 only. We gobbled the white rice with fish curry, salted egg fried pumpkin, mixed vegetables, steamed chicken with mushroom gratefully and thanked our gracious hosts. The food here is honestly tasty and equally affordable but unfortunately, not rateable since we were too polite to scrutinise our food in front of our hosts. It must be our Asian upbringing. Even the mostly wacky La Bonito managed to behave in front of her aunt and uncle. Colour us impressed.
The only shot we managed to get before getting our proper table manners on in front of Aunty & Uncle. Orange juice tasted freshly squeezed.
After dinner, La Bonito’s aunt and uncle dropped us off at Perangin Mall to do some shopping. S dreamt of eating the churros she saw N posted in their WhatsApp group so she was determined to find that place even if it meant walking around aimlessly with a Waze that was trying to be funny by changing up routes every few minutes. Reached the place they did and boy, were they underwhelmed by it. The place was called The Alley Cafe in Stewart Lane. Might have to do with it being in an alley where most people who are not locals will have difficulty in locating.The decoration and ambience was nice, like hipster nice. You know, making- ugly- old- run- down- thing-look- cool- because- we- can- draw- murals- and- make- cool- quotes nice? If the wall underneath our air conditioning unit in our own homes became mouldy and had bubbles or bullae on it, then we could probably open a cafe like this. S gave the ambience a 6/10 with kudos to the owner for having the creative guts for fixing upping this colonial era building.
The churros (RM 9 for 6 sticks) were soggy and dense. They were dense because though they looked perfectly fried outside, the insides were undercooked and we could still taste the raw floury batter. Maybe we came at the wrong time, who knows? It was 8-9 pm ish. We gave the churros 3/10 for taste and something slightly better for the presentation. Maybe 6/10. The salted caramel dip was nice though so that is something.
The cronut (RM 7) was okay, not as bad as the churros. Maybe we are too old to eat these kind of fashionable things…maybe? We were probably expecting too much anyway. We had great imagination of how a fluffy and impossibly flaky croissant being transformed into a donut would be. We gave it a 4/10. Presentation was as nice as the churros’, a 6/10. The chocolate sauce drizzled onto the cronut was okay, not overly sweet.
We also shared a slice of the lemon cheesecake. It was toe- curling sour in a great way. We did not bother to take a picture before we ate the cake as we were still dejected from the previous plate but S personally thought the cheesecake was the saviour in an otherwise overrated place, rating it a 7/10.
Never one to give up, La Bonito coaxed us to forgo our 9.30 pm bedtime with the promise of great dessert. So we walked a bit further to China House at Beach Street. Still in the old quarters area of Georgetown, the front of the shop looked like your typical ordinary… Chinese brothel? Chinese apothecary? But the facade does remind you of something back in the day when this part of town was THE part of town. Once you enter the establishment, wow, you are in for a pleasant surprise. The shop extends longitudinally to the back, through a narrow alleyway, passing through an expansive courtyard with al fresco seating surrounded by willowy fragrant mango trees and some awesome Chinese landscaping works as well as a calming structure of a pool and finally through the building behind it facing Victoria Street. The place looked like it was going on forever. We think there were 3 shops that we went through without ever walking onto the street, the last stop being a bar.
We settled for the for the family- friendly side with the huge long picnic table and benches. The cake table was brimming with delectable cakes from Beach St. Bakery and had a wide range of flavours. Like really, they have everything for everyone. They looked rustic and home- baked though costing a pretty penny with nothing less than RM 10. Some cakes do have alcohol in them so be careful of what you choose, teetotallers. The furniture were repurposed antiques and complimented the Old World vibe they were going for. Books and magazines lined the shelves there, allowing bookworms to stay in the restaurant for ages. They were dusty though so we doubted the reading materials were fully utilised. We suspect most people came and played loud family games like we did. We played Jenga, the block building game where attention- deficit players try to stack one block after the other without trying to make the whole thing fall apart. Pretty nerve wrecking stuff, and a futile effort when you involve stubby fingers like ours. Let’s just say we enjoyed it too much than we should. The table was covered in huge plain white paper for us to express our um, arty ideas with the provided crayons. By the looks of it, let us just say we would not be leaving our day jobs to work in the creative industry any time soon. We give the ambience an excellent 8/10. Very casual, very rustic without looking like it was trying too hard to become hip only to come off as snobbish.
Being the most experienced one amongst us, La Bonito treated us to the perfect dessert while we try to flex our Jenga muscles. She chose the sinfully delicious Towering Brownie. As the name suggests, it is structure made of 3 chocolate brownies stacked together and towering over dark chocolate shavings and nuts. A scoop of vanilla and also chocolate ice cream are sandwiched in between the gooey, rich brownies. The brownies would just have been good chocolate brownies based on its texture, density and richness but the flavour is elevated another notch by the addition of a berry- licious sour base that offsets the decadence and richness of the chocolate flavour. A refreshing twist to an otherwise already tasty brownie. It did become a mouthful for the four of us to finish but finished we did, eventually. The girls appreciated the balanced richness in flavours and rated the dessert a 9/10 while the guys thought the tartness kind of ruined it a bit and rated it an 8/10.
Here is another picture to remind you of the delicous and decadent Towering Brownie
We finally made our way up back to Batu Ferringhi with our nice Uber driver and called it a night. For R & Egg though, the night was not over yet as they made their way through the Batu Ferringhi night market to find some phone cable. Or so they claimed.
The next day as our course pulled down its curtain, me made our way to the airport. We had our dinner at Nasi Kandar Line Clear at the Penang International Airport. Yes, this famous Penang heritage has spread its wings to the airport. We totally expected the expensive price due to its location but it was still too much to pay for a mediocre tasting nasi kandar.
All of us except for La Bonito had nasi kandar with different types of protein. La Bonito genuinely liked her murtabak, it was crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. Nasi kandar is obviously not Egg’s cuppa tea as he only took the rice with the fried fish and vegetables without any gravy. S had the fried chicken with boiled salted egg and vegetables with a mixed curry gravy. N had his deep fried bitter gourds (which was dry and probably refried) and fried chicken in honey sauce while R had something similar. Overall, we rated our food a disappointing 4-5/10 for the taste and expensive price but La Bonito scored hers better at 7/10. The plain nasi kandar Egg had was RM 14 while S, R and N’s dishes ranged form RM 16- RM 18.
We sure wished we had more time to explore the exciting food trail Penang has to offer but alas, this working/ studying trip must come to an end. Who knows, maybe one day we would be all be here together another time and continue our gastronomic journey. From the looks of our performance during the course it might just happen.
So, goodbye Penang and welcome back, Kuala Lumpur/Petaling Jaya!
Honest Foodies Review Team
