The current COVID lockdown entered its 27th day today. No dining-in allowed in Penang, so we did some take-outs from Genting Cafe for lunch today:
- Mee Jawa - a surprisingly tasty version from this stall which somehow slipped under our radar previously. This local Chinese adaptation of a noodle dish first popularized by itinerant Javanese noodle vendors to Singapore and British Malaya in the early part of the 20th-century has evolved to become a popular local Chinese-Malaysian dish: less chili-spicy than its original Javanese counterpart, less pungent condiments or herbs, and a mild, slightly sweet-sour flavor to appeal to the Chinese palate. The yellow Hokkien wheat noodles were garnished with fried tofu and crisp fritters, hard-boiled egg and shredded Chinese lettuce. The gravy has its mellow flavor from tomatoes, and thickened with mashed sweet potatoes.
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Curry mee - the hawker-chef here is the younger brother of the famous Tan Teong Ban of Ah Ban Curry Mee on Kuantan Road, and its standards are among the highest in Penang: we acknowledge that with one sip of its piquant, perfectly-balanced gravy. We ordered their standard serving of a mixture of Hokkien noodles and thin rice vermicelli, in a coconut-infused curried soup, garnished with pig’s blood pudding, tofu puffs, shrimps, cuttlefish strips and cockles.
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Singapore fried noodles - of course, there is no such dish as “Singapore fried noodles” in Singapore: it is a Hong Kong invention which has taken on a life of its own outside Singapore. The version here is simple but tasty: fried rice vermicelli with shrimps, egg, “char siu” (Chinese BBQ pork) strips, chopped carrots and cabbage. It’s served with pickled green chilis, and a calamansi lime, to be squeezed over the noodles.
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Lor bak - a platter of prawn fritters, century eggs with pickled ginger, fried fish fillet, tofu, 5-spiced “ngoh hiang” meat rolls and stewed pig’s ears.
The Penang version of this dish differed from those in Singapore or Taiwan in that it comes with two dips: a “lor” dip, which is unctuous, flavoured with oyster sauce, soysauce and scented with 5-spice, then streaked through with egg-white ribbons, and the usual spicy red chili dip.
All the hawker stalls at Genting Cafe seemed to be doing brisk business despite the no-dining-in ruling, with queues of customers doing take-outs.
