Saturday, April 20, 2013

懷舊娘惹餐廳 Restoran Pinang Peranakan

These days submerge and not surface up for blogging is something that honestly could make you lazy. Not only that, you will be running out of idea what to do and what to write. You will tend to lose your focus and your objectives whether this blog is meant for food review or basically recipes creation. But, who cares, right? As long as you are the owner and you know what to do regardless is food review or recipes creation, as long as you know there are some readers out there will read some of the posts here and or some of the readers will keep following your posts, what would you be losing? Well, I would have to admit that in terms of monetary, you are definitely losing out a lot! And these days things are so expensive, nothing is cheap, and that factor could honestly make one frustrated about it.

But what comfort you most is readers are like part of the family, they give advices, ideas and so on. Isn’t that warmth your heart? It does to me.

Let’s side track a bit… GE 13^th is the hottest topic in town, even in Facebook or in any where. It’s no longer a topic to chat in Kopitiam or any other coffee shop. Some friends are even talk about it during lunch, coffee or Tweet about it. And some are even boiling angry over CEC (Central Executive Committee) for not recognizing the particular party, and from the nomination this morning, latest news was announced that there are a lot more of independent nominees contesting this GE. Well, basically there are a lot to talk about, some colleagues and friends are taking 15 days off to campaign, to get donations and etc.

Let’s move back to food, talking about expensive food these days, recently got to know this place where I’ve just discovered. Food serving was reasonable, and the price as well. Though the place is rather quiet and not many people visit, however it ain’t any bad idea to host a friend for lunch or dinner.

Pinang Peranakan Restaurant or in Chinese is call懷舊娘惹餐廳 is located in Logan Heritage Building, at Beach Street, Penang. To be more specified, it’s same row as Standard Chartered Bank and it’s diagonal opposite of HSBC Bank. It’s easy to recognize but parking is a headache. However, you can park your car at the empty land that is opposite the building.

Talking about food, it’s always my job to do, of course, when there’s some one whom is good in this area, you would be humbling submerge again. Anyway, these are the food that we had that day and it had made everyone of us happy and the time that we spent together in terms of working team was great.

Curry Tumis Black Pomfret Fish

Brinjal with Minced Pork Meat

Nyonya’s Tao Yiu Bak

Nyonya’s Lobak

Assam Prawns

As for the desserts that ends the lunch was Nyonya Style Ice Kacang and BoBoChaCha.

Oh yes, not to forget that the restaurant also cater for those that want to have a quick bite and not fancy over having ala carte. Set lunch is serves as well, customers would encourage to check with them before order.

Other Reviews

Cquek

Jerine Lay

Carolyn O’Donnell

Contact Number / Address

懷舊娘惹餐廳

Pinang Peranakan Restoran (Authentic Nyonya Cuisine)

4, Logan Heritage

Lebuh Pantai / Beach Street (土庫街)

13000 Penang

Tel: +604-261 2269

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Little Kitchen @ Nyonya 娘惹小廚房

Does anyone know how does Penang was bestowed the UNESCO Heritage title in year 2008? I was told the guideline in conferring is tedious and under many studies for many rounds. However, I was lucky to have Mr Loh of Little Kitchen @ Nyonya briefly told me the main 4 criteria. That is the Main Gate, the Partition, the Staircase and the Floor Tiles. These 4 items have to be maintaining it well as per the guidelines.

A brief history about this place… Little Kitchen @ Nyonya was established in 2006, 6 years ago. It’s located in Lebuh Noordin, a straight of houses that were built in 1927, and it named eclectic shop houses which are from 1880 to 1940s (18^th to 19^th Century). Before it was turned into Nyonya restaurant, they were mainly into Bird Nest business. A box of Bird Nest Tart can sell at RM50, pre-order 30minutes before and you can have a nice and delicious tart. This Bird Nest business was operating since 20 years ago, even today, they are still operating.

Little Kitchen @ Nyonya used to operate ‘Personal Dishes’ like what Hong Kong people call it Speakeasy/Private Kitchen (私房菜). Then after, they decided to move into Nyonya dishes reason mainly because the chef, is Mr Loh’s mother and she’s a Peranakan heir; secondary in their previous place was rented, and the owner decided to increase their rental.

Mr Loh and his family believed in quality food for their customers, thus, many of the dishes are in small serving. Even the chili that is needed for blending also required using Grade A chilies. So, from there you could imagine food quality is a thumb up for it.

Anyway, this place was discovered by my sister-in-law, where she was accidentally came across an article that written by Guang Ming Press. With that, she recommended to us and brought us there for a family lunch. It was absolutely a place where you shouldn’t be missed; the authentic Nyonya taste, and the antique plates and bowls honestly gave you a special touch and a remarkable meal too.

Mr Loh also taught us what drink that serves in Nyonya restaurant. Normally it serves Nutmeg Tea or Ginger Tea with Brown Sugar. Of course, Chinese tea like Pu-erh (普洱), Oo Loong (烏龍) are serving as well.

The dishes here is going to divide into 2 types, 1 for the adults that can take on spicy food and the other 1 is for the kids.

Enchi Kabin – Nyonya Fried Chicken (胭脂炸雞)

Namchut Fish, of which to me is more of deep frying fish and the condiment is more of like Nyonya’s Salsa sauce.

Stir Fry Vegetable, according to Mr Loh, such vegetable is hard to get and it’s only available in their restaurant. I just can’t recall what is the name of the vegetable.

Salted Meat and also called “Kiam Bak” (鹹肉)

Nyonya Lobak (鹵肉), which consists of Chicken Lobak and Boar’s Liver Lobak (豬肝鹵肉). Honestly, this is one of the best Lobak that I ever tried.

Jiu Hu Char (Fried Cuttlefish with Turnips, 扁魚炒沙葛), this is such an authentic food that almost every Nyonya family or Hokkien would know how to cook.

Fish Maw Soup (魚鰾湯), a simple soup that is consists of Chinese cabbage and carrots. It’s a nutritious soup for the children.

“Kiam Chai Ark” Soup (Salted Vegetable Duck Soup, 鹹菜鴨湯) is another soup choice that Little Kitchen @ Nyonya is offering.

Let’s introduce the spicy type of dishes for the spicy lovers…. Sambal Ulam (Leafy Heabs). The spiciness of the chili categorized into 3 categories. If you could take on the spiciness, they will recommend category 3, otherwise, category 1 is sufficient.

Cincalok Stir Fry Meat (鹹蝦醬炒豬肉). This is my very first Cincalok dishes, in fact, have never have a chance to try this. It really could taste the shrimp freshness. Cincalok is made of fermented tiny shrimp, the shrimp in the pinkish colour Cincalok are readily identifiable and the taste is salty (source: Wikipedia).

Acar Hu (Pickled Fish in Turmeric Vinegar Sauce, 阿扎魚), it’s a tiny fish that deep fried it with hot oil and cook with turmeric and vinegar sauce. This is definitely an appetizing dish.