GOOD MORNING TO YOU
If you're like me, someone who hasn't had the chance to go to Malaysia on a road trip for food outings, do not despair. You can check this cafe in Singapore out first!!!!!!! :D As you can tell I'm highly excited because I really think the food at this cafe is extremely yummy, and so different from what I usually eat so it's quite a thrill for me!
The particular cafe/eatery that I'm talking about is the
Island Penang Cafe!
Managed to
con persuade my parents to make a 35 minutes drive just for dinner on a weekday night hahahahahahahaha :3
We ordered the
Penang Rojak as a starter; I thought there could have been a lot more
you tiao (fried doughsticks), but I did like the thick and sweet sauce! Plus there were many bengkoang (jicama; the crunchy juicy thing that tastes like water chestnut) pieces. Maybe it's just a difference between Singaporean rojak and Penang rojak, and I'm more used to the former.
This was extremely tasty though - totally had no complaints! This is
fried bean-curd with a sweet and sour sauce, kind of similar to a Thai-style salad! IT WAS SO GOOD. The bean curd skin was SO CRISPY; it was a bright contrast to the sticky sweet and sour chili sauce. Must-order!
And this is the
Penang Curry Seafood Noodle! As you can see, the servings of ingredients are really generous and there is a lot of seafood. :D I also liked the crunchy bean curd skin they included! The soup was really thick and flavourful, had complexity to it. But it's a bit too heavy for my palate, and I think I could only share this with someone else.
This is my favourite dish of the place - the
Stir Fried Bee Tai Bak! I don't exactly know how to pronounce it - is it Bee Tai Mak? D: Beats me. But it doesn't matter, because it's so good you should just try it!!!!!!!!! The slightly sweet dark sauce coats every piece of noodle and bean sprout so well, that you can taste the smokiness and sweetness so well. I love the fresh prawns as well! I've always associated Bee Tai Bak with food for when you're ill, because I always eat it in soups, so this really surprised me. Island Penang Cafe also has a Fried Kuay Teow (which has generous servings of cockles!) but the Bee Tai Bak sauce is slightly sweeter and just makes it even more of a delight to eat. Not to mention, for the sinful eaters, there small chunks of fried pork lard mixed in well with the Bee Tai Bak so every bite tastes reaaaaaaally full of flavour.
Here's a more up-close shot.
My mom also tried the
Special Penang Soup, which had some seafood and pork skin and belly, and the soup was really delicious - that's my second favourite! I think it's some sort of prawn noodle soup. We also got the
Chendol as dessert (sorry, I don't have a photo because we dug in so quickly!) and that was AMAZING. The gula melaka syrup was so fragrant and it was so sweet and decadent. I hate red beans, but I had one to try. I concur that the red beans are good! The ones that Island Penang Cafe uses are slightly less red, and much larger than the usual mushy red beans you get in desserts. But still, I left them to my parents, who both love red beans.
As you can tell, I really loved almost every single dish I tried here. Can't wait to go back to try more dishes (my daddy's been pressing my mom and I to go back there) but I've been putting it off because of how fattening the food is ahahahahhaah. Moderation is key, people!
The address is 8 Sago Street, here's the eatery's Facebook page if you'd like,
click! It is actually near the Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown and quite near to Maxwell Food Centre as well! It's a 15 minute walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT station, and a 10 minute walk from Chinatown MRT station, I would reckon.
:D Happy to be sharing good food with y'all people!!
Love
Pamela
Labels: Food Entries, Food Reviews, Foodies, Island Penang Cafe, Malaysian Food, Penang Food
