From 1 – 14 March, Suria Café @ The Saujana Hotel, KL is featuring a Penang street food fest with 3 Penang chefs specially flown in from the famed gourmet island itself.
Little touches such as the table setting reminiscing of the tables commonly seen at most hawkers’ joints in Penang set the mood for the evening. Or at least for me it does. I’m a Penangite, and it’s been a while since I last went home.
The popular dishes that makes up the Penang food fame took centre stage of course, else it can’t be named a Penang Food Fest right? 🙂
At the live stations, hot wok at work stirred up sizzling Char Kuey Teow, Mee Mamak and Oyster Pancakes (Oh Chien) .
Taste-wise, it barely met my standards; which was a shame, as I really would like KL-ites/or whoever that patronise this fest to experience true “oh chien“, char kuey teow and our scrumptious mee mamak.
Below: Big juicy oysters caught my attention at The Oh Chien (fried oysters pancake) station. A short chat with the Penang chefs revealed that the preparation was tweaked so that it suits the tastebuds of KL-ites.
The end result was scrambled eggs, tons of chilli and oysters. Not your typical Penang Oh Chien for sure.
Telur goreng mamak – Fried omelette mamak-style.
Beef rendang.
Curry prawns.
Black promfret curry.
Nasi briyani. A bit dry.
Popiah (chinese spring rolls) and banana pancakes were freshly rolled on the spot.
However, I ignored these and went straight for my favourite – the icy SWEET ais kacang.
Frankly, it could have been better. Same goes to the Pasembur (an Indian rojak), another of my favourite tea time snack. The main ingredient – the cucur udang (prawn fritters) were dried out and stone cold. Feedback were given to the team and hopefully from now on these will be prepared freshly cut at the live stations instead.
Other Penang delicacies include the perennial favourite Assam Laksa and Chee Cheong Fun. The Chee Cheong Fun came with the pungent “He Ko” prawn paste that we Penangite love. Ahh, at least this wasn’t “tweaked” and remained original.
Strangely enough, it was the lamb with goat cheese crust that saved the day. It was utterly delicious! The meat was pink, moist and JUICY. I was finally satiated and felt less disappointed.
Good lamb never failed to please me! 😀
Further exploration of the buffet proved fruitful.
The hot dishes such as the braised duck, ginger beef and the crabs were all actually pretty decent. I loaded up on the beef and duck and my friends who tried the Roasted Tomato Soup said it was commendable.
Appetisers.
Something interesting –> Cold spanish omelette with olive tapenade.
DESSERTS: Bread and Butter pudding.
Assortment of cakes and sweets.
And fruits.
The buffet is priced at RM68++ for lunch and RM84++ for dinner.
For reservations, call 03 7843 1234 (ext 6122/4717) or email [email protected] or visit www.thesaujanahotel.com
Suria Café, The Saujana Hotel, KL.
I have great memories of Penang food, especially nasi kandar, at Bayan Baru!
Ah…I miss Pg now 🙁
I love pg ochien @ coffin road (Carnovan st)
So do I!
why can’t KL have the same 🙁
Saw the Kuay kaa sign in your photo, is it Kuay kak? How’s the taste?
Yes it’s kuay kak. But I didn’t try it.
as good as Penang original one?
Sorry to say, no. 🙁
The lamb was good, but their pasembor need to improve a lot.
A LOT.
Man I do miss Penang food! What I would do for a plate of Kheng Pin duck egg CKT right now!!
Kheng Pin duck egg CKT FTW!
this post realy makes me hungry..nom i m thinking of driving frm Bangi to Penang..just fr Nasi kandar and Penang Char Kuew teow ..amacam?
Heheh tak payah kot.. KL also got what!
Unless pergi ramai-ramai dengan kawan! 😀