City Rio Cafe on the corner of King Street and Bishop Street in George Town’s old quarter used to be well-known for its anchor stall: an Indian vegetarian one operated by Munisawar Lal and his gypsy-looking wife who’s always in her trademark floral head-scarf. Their stall was there for over 50 years until they decided to retire in 1997.
Nowadays, City Rio Cafe has only 3 food stalls, but all produced pretty respectable renditions of their respective offerings.
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Wantan noodles - old-school Cantonese noodles, tossed in soysauce-sesame oil and BBQ pork drippings. The noodles were topped with “char siew” (Cantonese-style BBQ pork), shredded chicken, blanched “choy sum” greens and pickled green chilis, and a small bowl of soup with wantan dumplings. Average-tasting.
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Char koay teow - good rendition of the classic Penang-style flat rice noodle stir-fry. The hawker still used a charcoal-fired brazier, which imparted a smoky flavour to the noodles.
- Mamak mee goreng - best dish we had at this coffeeshop. But its location here, near the famous Hameed Mee Sotong just 5 minutes’ walk away at Fort Cornwallis, and Seeni Mee Goreng at the Sri Weld foodcourt, also 5 minutes’ walk away in the other direction, meant stiff competition abound.
The mee goreng was spicy, eggy and replete with tofu and Indian fritters.
Mee rebus - also a tasty rendition, with the same ingredients, but the noodles were blanched before being drenched with a tomatoey-spicy gravy.
Penangites often don’t bother to get off their motorbikes when they do take-aways of their favourite street food - rather, they just stopped right in front of the stall and wait.
The coffeeshop retained an old-world feel, and offered typical “kopitiam” beverages like kopi (rich-tasting, local brewed coffee, which is usually pre-sweetened) and chilled drinks like teh peng (iced, sweet milk tea).
Address
City Rio Cafe
64-I, Lebuh King, 10450 George Town, Penang
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 7.30am to 3pm. Closed on Sundays.
