[Penang, Malaysia] Nyonya dinner at Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery, Bishop Street

Dinner at 1-Michelin-star Auntie Gaik Leanโ€™s Old School Eatery last night. We managed to get a sneak preview of Auntie Gaik Leanโ€™s Chinese New Year menu, which started off with a scrumptious abalone ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ - our first ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ-๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช (the traditional tossing of the yee sang) this year, and itโ€™s not even the Year of the Snake yet (Chinese New Year for 2025 will be celebrated in Wed, Jan 29, whence the Year of the Snake will be ushered in, to replace the Year of the Dragon).

Our dinner spread yesterday evening:

  1. The abalone ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ consisted entirely of fresh, finely-julienned vegetables - my absolute favourite type of ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ.

The plum sauce dressing for the ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ, plus toasted sesame seeds, crushed groundnuts and cornflakes provided crunch to the mix.

๐˜“๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช - the Malaysian/Singaporean Cantonese practice of tossing the ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ.

  1. ๐˜’๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ข๐˜ช ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ - these traditional Nyonya pastry cups are adopted from the Indonesian โ€œkue pattieโ€ which, in turn, came from Dutch crispy pastry cups, called โ€œpattie shellsโ€ in America when introduced by the Scandinavians in the 1920s. โ€œPai teeโ€ is a mispronunciation by our local Nyonyas of the American โ€œpattieโ€.
    The filling is similar to the Hokkien filling for popiah, i.e. stewed jicama, carrots, chicken-meat and carrots, topped with scallions and red chilis.

  2. ๐˜–๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฌ-๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฌ - Penang-Nyonya spicy seafood custard pudding. Itโ€™s a local Penang adaption of Siamese ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฌ ๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜บ, and Cambodian ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฌ.

  3. ๐˜•๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ช ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ - this is a Penang-Nyonya adaptation of the Siamese (Southern Thai) ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฐ ๐˜บ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ rice salad.

  4. ๐˜“๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ - these are Hokkien 5-spiced meat rolls, known in Hokkien as ๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ.
    The Penang term came from the unique local Penang practice of serving a sticky, brown-hued 5-spiced dipping sauce called โ€œ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณโ€ (similar to the gravy for โ€œ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆโ€, a Hokkien noodle dish) with the meat rolls wrapped in beancurd/yuba sheets. โ€œ๐˜‰๐˜ข๐˜ฌโ€ is the Hokkien word for meat.
    Hence, โ€œ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฌโ€ refers to the โ€œ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณโ€ gravy for the โ€œ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฌโ€ meat roll. The name stuck, even though ๐—ป๐—ผ โ€œ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณโ€ gravy is provided with this dish nowadays.

  5. Achar awak - Penang-Nyonya pickles, adapted from the Burmese community. In the 19th-century, the Burmese community in Penang was known as Orang Awak, and their settlement in Pulau Tikus was known as Kampung Awak. Hence, the pickles they made and sold at Pulau Tikus market was called Achar Awak.
    The Burmese โ€œAwakโ€ was a local mispronunciation of โ€œAvaโ€, the old Burmese kingdom (1365 to 1555). The Burmese name for the Kingdom is แ€กแ€„แ€บแ€ธแ€แ€”แ€ฑแ€•แ€ผแ€Šแ€บแ€แ€ฑแ€ฌแ€บ which is equivalent to Ava Kingdom.

  6. ๐˜ˆ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฎ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฆ - tamarind-marinated prawns. The version here is stupendous!

  7. ๐˜‘๐˜ช๐˜ถ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ถ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ - jicama, carrots, and dried cuttlefish.

  8. ๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ง ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ - very good version here, cooked using Australian Angus beef.

  9. ๐˜Š๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ณ๐˜บ ๐˜’๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฏ - Penang-Nyonya chicken curry, replete with lemongrass, fresh turmeric, chilis and kaffir lime leaves. Its use of fresh ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ข๐˜ฉ (spice mix) instead of dry spices betrays its Thai origins.

  10. Crisp-fried garoupa with soy-chili dressing. This sea creature was so big, it looked like something the Nautilus wouldโ€™ve encountered 20,000 leagues under the sea.
    Absolutely delish, and a must-order.

  11. ๐˜Ž๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ช ๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ด - this dish is a not part of the Chinese New Year menu, but an item on Auntie Gaik Leanโ€™s regular menu, a house specialty and a must-order.

  12. ๐˜•๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜บ๐˜ข ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ. The local โ€œchap chyeโ€ shares a common origin as American-Chinese โ€œchop sueyโ€, but with a much lighter taste profile, with the vegetables here given a quick stir-fry.

  13. ๐˜’๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ฎ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฌ - duck and salted mustard soup (known as ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฌ ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ in Melaka/Singapore-Nyonya cooking).

  14. Giant freshwater prawns in spicy-chili dressing.

Desserts:
16) ๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜บ - black glutinous rice cooked with dried longans, coconut milk and sugar (known as ๐˜ฑ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฎ in Melaka/Singapore-Nyonya cooking).

  1. ๐˜—๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ข๐˜ต - bananas (only ๐˜—๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜™๐˜ข๐˜ซ๐˜ข specie) and a selection of yellow, orange and purple sweet potatoes in coconut milk and sugar, scented with pandan.

Fab meal with some really good cooking. The vibe at Auntie Gaik Leanโ€™s Old School Eatery is almost unparalleled in George Town, with a constant train of local and foreign customers, many queuing outside.

More about Auntie Gaik Lean here:

Address
Auntie Gaik Leanโ€™s Old School Eatery
1, Bishop Street, 10200 George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +6017-434 4398
Opening hours: 12pm-2.30pm, 6pm-9.30pm Wed to Sun. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

14 Likes

WOW! that looks like an amazingly delicious and HUGE Meal.
Thanks for the great Photos and Report (as always)

Considering the Starch Based Noodles and the Name I would expect this to be an adaptation of the Korean Japchae ( ์žก์ฑ„ / ้›œ่œ )

3 Likes

Japchae actually originated from a mixed vegetable dish - same as our Hokkien โ€œchap chyeโ€ in Penang as well, with the potato starch noodles coming into the mix much later.

The Koreans have quite a bit in common with us Hokkiens (Eastern Chinese) as they do with the Mandarin-speaking Northern Chinese and Cantonese-speaking Southern Chinese. Linguistically, even though we are all not mutually intelligible, some similarities can be discerned.

5 Likes

Ah, that is interesting.

1 Like

OMG I am dying hereโ€ฆimmediately Googled airfares to Penang. Sadly too much for my budget now. This is the most amazing looking and sounding food, wish I could also taste it!

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