Update November 2011 :
Apparently after the initial fanfare,they now have an issue with freshness and quality control which is so wrong especially since they use coconut milk so liberally.
Tubers can be undercooked and even left out in the open so long they start to rot,sambals left to discolour and darken due to over refridgeration.
Oils used for deep frying recycled countless times till the dishes come off as greasy rather than super oily.
Only recommended for those with stomachs of steel.
---------------------------------------------------------
Penang Peranakan claim :
Cowdung and Pigeon feathers.
Acar hu looks more like pekasam.
Enche Kebin doesn't even remotely bear any resemble Penang nor Peranakan both in taste and presentation.
Kari kapitan is Kapital-F-A-I-L
Celebrity Tie Up :
Looks like Axian aka Jason Yeoh of "Axian's Food Adventures" tv programme,absolutely doesn't mind denting his already bashed up reputation by using his celebrityship to back this outlet up so long as money come.
Checkout his facebook and blog and see all the crap hurled at his recommendations by countless Malaysians.
Where and which part of Penang did he crawl out from?
Some backwaters of Jelutong,the nucleus of tasteless Penang food?
Not that I am saying Jelutong doesn't have its gems.It does.A sad total of just 3 gems (ok I give in,make that 5,if u must have the 2 nasi kandar outlets included)in this vastly populated district,one the morning curry mee pushcart,two the economy rice that opens till dinner,three the crab porridge.But there are so many more horrible makan places to outweight the good any given time.
Price :
Like a Yoyo and Roller Coaster.
Crazy! Some items are cheap and some,expensive,drinks are a costly affair where they even charge 80sen for plain water
Overall Impression :
A big mish mash between self order ala Hongkong style food outlets,Old Town coffee counter and flooring,a tiny Tokyo kitchen cubicle(they even managed to squeeze in a satay area! good grief!),a roadside kopitiam drink counter with minimalist,colourful bench sofa and lighting that looks like it could fit into G Hotel's budget for the broom closet.
Simply put,they wanted to reach out and attract every fickle type of customer, thus they gathered apples,durians,petai,kiwifruit together,deepfried them in one big wantan and aptly named it Nyonya.
This is what REAL Malaysians will certify as R-O-J-A-K
Taste :
Penangites will hate this cos definitely not Penang in origin.Most glaring reason....absolutely no sugar in the food.Second...not fine,very 'chor lor',no finesse.
Rather it is KL/Malacca Streetfood cooked in the style of clever aunty types transplanted from New Village/smalltown eateries,where the food is a sweat pouring experience best eaten under a zinc roof,preferrably near a drain.
Homesick KLites will find this comfort food cos the noodle is undercooked,food is super oily,santan is cardiac arrest thick.Malaccans working here will love the WARM bubur chacha.
Serving Bowls :
Gigantic.Bowls are the size of a plastic hand basin,large enough for you to wash your face in.Plates the size of medium sized serving trays.
Management :
The Fuhrer.
Scowling,obssessive,verbal diarrhea, local big sized man who likes to pick on 'lembu' staff from the kitchen window where he is cos he got no confidence in any of the staff getting anything right
Service staff :
Sacrificial victims,barked at and cornered into a confused state of mind,by the big bad wolf marksman manager,who has fibre optic laser eagle eyes able to penetrate past customers heads just to keep tabs on every slightest mistake the staff might commit.Somebody get him a time machine.
That the staff are smiling is just a cover as it hides the fact that they are blur cowering foreigners who like to gather in a straight line,with their backs near the cash till and kitchen window waiting for a firing squad to pull the trigger and end their misery.
The whole idea,even if it infuriates the boss even more, is it offers them,a momentary respite away from His Excellency's "I wanna eat you" glares and poisonous stares
Menu :
Weird....even got Nasi Dagang(east coast kampung cina villager?don't laugh but that could explain the presence of White House coffee which reminds me of a kopitiam in Kelantan),Black Pepper dishes,Banana split,cheap supermarket western sausages for those that come to a Nyonya restaurant but don't wanna eat Nyonya food.The beef with ginger tastes more like the sauce used in the recipe for yellow wine ginger chicken.Butter rice is a horrible experiment gone wrong.
Order Chit :
Hongkong style,but terribly confusing even though it is just one small piece of folded paper printed on both sides cos there is no sense of alphabetical order.To give you an idea of what I mean,it is like going into a housing estate,finding that the road next to Jalan A is Jalan K preceeded by Jalan C and so on so forth.So in this case you need to flip your order chit back and forth looking for the corresponding alphabet to your order as if you were sitting for an exam
Value For Money:
Not really especially when they dare put one tiny,pathetic Jack-the-Ripper was here mutilated chicken the size of two fingers in my wash basin of curry noodles.
If you hanker for value for money KL/New Village streetfood,The Chicken Rice Shop's Curry Chicken Noodle is a better bet.
Comfort :
Warm,cramped and uncomfortable
Positive comments :
Almost always crowded cos of the "Nyonya"tag (NOT!),Axian's puny elfen nerd face and looks nicer from the outside than when you actually sit down and dine.
Food smells good on first impression,you dig in and the aroma really entices you.But once their dishes cool down,they are not in the least bit appetizing,just makes you wanna dilly dally,look busy rather than have to finish it.Bleaugh....
Look,I tried....I really did.
Apparently after the initial fanfare,they now have an issue with freshness and quality control which is so wrong especially since they use coconut milk so liberally.
Tubers can be undercooked and even left out in the open so long they start to rot,sambals left to discolour and darken due to over refridgeration.
Oils used for deep frying recycled countless times till the dishes come off as greasy rather than super oily.
Only recommended for those with stomachs of steel.
---------------------------------------------------------
Penang Peranakan claim :
Cowdung and Pigeon feathers.
Acar hu looks more like pekasam.
Enche Kebin doesn't even remotely bear any resemble Penang nor Peranakan both in taste and presentation.
Kari kapitan is Kapital-F-A-I-L
Celebrity Tie Up :
Looks like Axian aka Jason Yeoh of "Axian's Food Adventures" tv programme,absolutely doesn't mind denting his already bashed up reputation by using his celebrityship to back this outlet up so long as money come.
Checkout his facebook and blog and see all the crap hurled at his recommendations by countless Malaysians.
Where and which part of Penang did he crawl out from?
Some backwaters of Jelutong,the nucleus of tasteless Penang food?
Not that I am saying Jelutong doesn't have its gems.It does.A sad total of just 3 gems (ok I give in,make that 5,if u must have the 2 nasi kandar outlets included)in this vastly populated district,one the morning curry mee pushcart,two the economy rice that opens till dinner,three the crab porridge.But there are so many more horrible makan places to outweight the good any given time.
Price :
Like a Yoyo and Roller Coaster.
Crazy! Some items are cheap and some,expensive,drinks are a costly affair where they even charge 80sen for plain water
Overall Impression :
A big mish mash between self order ala Hongkong style food outlets,Old Town coffee counter and flooring,a tiny Tokyo kitchen cubicle(they even managed to squeeze in a satay area! good grief!),a roadside kopitiam drink counter with minimalist,colourful bench sofa and lighting that looks like it could fit into G Hotel's budget for the broom closet.
Simply put,they wanted to reach out and attract every fickle type of customer, thus they gathered apples,durians,petai,kiwifruit together,deepfried them in one big wantan and aptly named it Nyonya.
This is what REAL Malaysians will certify as R-O-J-A-K
Taste :
Penangites will hate this cos definitely not Penang in origin.Most glaring reason....absolutely no sugar in the food.Second...not fine,very 'chor lor',no finesse.
Rather it is KL/Malacca Streetfood cooked in the style of clever aunty types transplanted from New Village/smalltown eateries,where the food is a sweat pouring experience best eaten under a zinc roof,preferrably near a drain.
Homesick KLites will find this comfort food cos the noodle is undercooked,food is super oily,santan is cardiac arrest thick.Malaccans working here will love the WARM bubur chacha.
Serving Bowls :
Gigantic.Bowls are the size of a plastic hand basin,large enough for you to wash your face in.Plates the size of medium sized serving trays.
Management :
The Fuhrer.
Scowling,obssessive,verbal diarrhea, local big sized man who likes to pick on 'lembu' staff from the kitchen window where he is cos he got no confidence in any of the staff getting anything right
Service staff :
Sacrificial victims,barked at and cornered into a confused state of mind,by the big bad wolf marksman manager,who has fibre optic laser eagle eyes able to penetrate past customers heads just to keep tabs on every slightest mistake the staff might commit.Somebody get him a time machine.
That the staff are smiling is just a cover as it hides the fact that they are blur cowering foreigners who like to gather in a straight line,with their backs near the cash till and kitchen window waiting for a firing squad to pull the trigger and end their misery.
The whole idea,even if it infuriates the boss even more, is it offers them,a momentary respite away from His Excellency's "I wanna eat you" glares and poisonous stares
Menu :
Weird....even got Nasi Dagang(east coast kampung cina villager?don't laugh but that could explain the presence of White House coffee which reminds me of a kopitiam in Kelantan),Black Pepper dishes,Banana split,cheap supermarket western sausages for those that come to a Nyonya restaurant but don't wanna eat Nyonya food.The beef with ginger tastes more like the sauce used in the recipe for yellow wine ginger chicken.Butter rice is a horrible experiment gone wrong.
Order Chit :
Hongkong style,but terribly confusing even though it is just one small piece of folded paper printed on both sides cos there is no sense of alphabetical order.To give you an idea of what I mean,it is like going into a housing estate,finding that the road next to Jalan A is Jalan K preceeded by Jalan C and so on so forth.So in this case you need to flip your order chit back and forth looking for the corresponding alphabet to your order as if you were sitting for an exam
Value For Money:
Not really especially when they dare put one tiny,pathetic Jack-the-Ripper was here mutilated chicken the size of two fingers in my wash basin of curry noodles.
If you hanker for value for money KL/New Village streetfood,The Chicken Rice Shop's Curry Chicken Noodle is a better bet.
Comfort :
Warm,cramped and uncomfortable
Positive comments :
Almost always crowded cos of the "Nyonya"tag (NOT!),Axian's puny elfen nerd face and looks nicer from the outside than when you actually sit down and dine.
Food smells good on first impression,you dig in and the aroma really entices you.But once their dishes cool down,they are not in the least bit appetizing,just makes you wanna dilly dally,look busy rather than have to finish it.Bleaugh....
Look,I tried....I really did.
