Tuesday 13 May 2008

Penang Hill

What do you do when you get a craving for Malaysian food? Of course, you indulge, giving the reason, it's once in a while. The last time I ate authentic Malaysian food was August 2007 (thanks to Tabs and Joan for bringing me around KL!) and I seriously needed a fix.

Of course, as with eating Malaysian-style, you gotta drag someone to eat with you. Gayle is the not-so-involuntary victim. :P Might as well have a dinner date too! LOL.

The place was Penang Hill, located in Midtown Mall (connected with Robinson's Plaza - Ermita).

Prepped up and ready to go.

She smiles.

He smiles.

Jay's terrorist shawl is pwnage.

Here comes the food!

I had a teh tarik. Gayle had boring iced tea.

Gayle's food. Nasi Goreng.

My food. Nasi Lemak.

Food analysis:
The teh tarik sucks. It was too sweet (in fact, EVERY drink in the Philippines is usually too sweet. I don't get why Filipinos feel the need to acquire diabetes earlier) and not enough of that trademark foam on top. I am guessing they don't know how to 'pull' the tea properly. For my non-Malaysian readers, teh tarik is literally 'pulled tea' and its unique taste and texture is achieved by 'pulling' the tea (one container above the other), causing the tea to fall from one container to another, mixing it. The higher the tea is pulled, the better it is, supposedly. The waiter kept correcting by calling it "tea tarik". I didn't give him any tip.

The nasi goreng was fantastic. Granted, it is a lot fancier than the typical pasar malam fried rice, but it was well worth it. It came with 3 big sticks of satay (skewered meat grilled on charcoal) and peanut sauce. The rice was spicy and after a while, Gayle couldn't handle it so we switched rice. Anyway, the serving was a LOT and the food was quite accurate. This one is on my recommend list.

The nasi lemak (literally, 'fat rice' because of its terrific calorie content) was absolutely superb. The only downside was that the sambal (spicy prawn paste) was not that spicy. I never had this with vegetables before, but the spicy kangkung tasted really good. The chicken curry with it was average. I believe that no chicken curry can ever come close to Aunty Joyce's (my other 'mum' from Miri). She makes killer curries. The nasi lemak came with ginger rice, another pleasant surprise. Very delicious, and I highly recommend it.

All in all, my Malaysian food excursion at Penang Hill turned out to be quite good. Moral of the story: Eat the food, schmuck the drinks. There's no way they can make teh tarik taste good if they have to call it tea tarik.

14 comments:

  1. the nasi lemak does not look half bad actually... and the satay looks tempting.

    haha, the teh tarik, can't pull properly? haha. you could go and give some tip or are the owners actually from Malaysia, judging from the name the restaurant.....

    well, glad you at least have nasi lemak there, now all you gotta do is wait patiently for your kolo mee and laksa sarawak. =D

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  2. The kolok mee, laksa, and char kueh tiaw are not available in the menu. *cries*

    I don't know if the owners are Malaysian.
    And yes, the nasi lemak was fantastic. I wish their sambal had a little more kick though.

    So far, this is the only "good" Malaysian restaurant I've seen..

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  3. The "boring" iced tea helped a lot!!! =P
    I super love the food!!
    The rice was mega spicy as in like HOMAYGAD :o hahahahaha

    I had a great time with you. Btw, you looked super happy while eating hahahaha ;p You really missed Malaysian food huh?
    Next time again alrightie?? =P

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  4. Ahaha.. Next time try some other drink! :P
    The rice was fine! Did you see me react to it while eating? Wala naman, right?? :P

    I had a great time with you too. :)
    I just wish they had Malaysian street food. OMG, those are the ones I'm craving for. Yeah, I was happy eating my nasi lemak.

    Of course there will be a next time. :)

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  5. Yabang!!! I'm not used to it ok?? Hahahahaha
    You know me. I love eating rice harhar
    At first, the rice was not that spicy but after 7-8 spoonful of rice.. Oh man. =| My mouth was in fire.
    Seriously, the iced tea helped a lot. Hahahahahaha

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  6. That's because you had bottomless iced tea.
    Refill and refill. :P

    You didn't finish the ginger rice either. :(

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  7. I was mega busog that time because of iced tea =))

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  8. Haha.. Next time don't order bottomless.
    Let's see what happens. :P

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  9. Hi Sweetie

    Now Mum's craving for nasi lemak!!!

    Don't you miss our buffet dinner at Marriot? and our dinners and occasional breakfasts at Grand Palace?

    AND those night outs at Taman Selera?

    I miss Malaysian food! and Malaysia!!

    I miss eating with you the most (even if I eat like a mouse!)

    Love you - MUM

    (NO E MAIL?)

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  10. Ahaha.. Yeah, remember the nasi lemak from Nagaliar? Those were the best.

    Yeah I really miss those Marriot nights. :( Especially when the theme is seafood, Japanese, or Mediterranean cuisine! Taman Selera night outs too. What with the buttered prawn and crabs!

    I am missing Malaysian food even more now when I'm talking about it. LOL.

    Yeah, you need to eat more okies? :)

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  11. Aww those pictures are so cute and sweet lol. Mann Jay at least you've got some sort of Malaysian food in the Philippines! I've got to go all the way to Bristol to get some. And I never go to Bristol, so you can guess how often I have that. Lol. Bath absolutely sucks when it comes to Chinese/Malaysian food.

    I haven't even found proper roast duck yet ='( lol. Certain people can tell you how happy I get at the prospect of eating roast duck now hahaha.

    Although bright side I can get some version of teh tarik. Yayy.

    When are you visiting Miri, ey?

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  12. Thanks sis. :)

    Yeah, well, Philippines is only 4 hours away from Malaysia. :P Where you are is about 17-19 hours right? LOL. Bristol, as far as I know, is the gay capital of the UK. Correlation between homosexuals and Malaysian food perhaps?? ROFLMAO!!

    Ah, my sis and roast duck. I miss the roast duck from that shop near Tasty Point I think. Not sure if you're familiar with that, but it's in town. Speaking of which, I miss the laksa from Tasty Point!! *gah of frustration*

    Teh tarik here sucks.

    Not sure if I can ever go back to my beloved Miri, jie. I have three semesters a year, and my holidays are mostly April/May, and none of you people are back. *sobs*

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  13. =(

    No, April/May is exam period for me. Well, May is exam period. Anyway, the UK is open for you to come XD and if it's the Easter hols we can go to historical places in the UK =)

    My mum always buys the roast duck in the 2020 area. Yummmm...

    Oh gosh. I just got reminded of a dream I had last night...where I was home and my mum asked me where I wanted to go for lunch and I was practically jumping up and down asking to go to Tasty Point. It was a rather realistic dream lol.

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  14. Aww.. I'd love to go to the UK (Roman ruins!) but the prospect of half a day in an aluminum can doesn't appeal too much to me. =/

    I think I know where Aunty Elsie buys from. Ahaha.. If I remember correct, it's the same one I love getting char siew pork from. YUMMM!

    I hearts Tasty Point. =/
    I want the Tasty Point laksa.
    Right now. =/

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