Penang (Elmhurst)

I’ve posted about Penang in the past because it’s right around the corner from the Asian grocery store I frequent – I sometimes stop by after grocery shopping for a quick bite or to pick something up to go home.  On this occasion, I actually tried to go to Pho Bang, but it was packed, so I turned around and led the way to the surprisingly empty Penang. 

Since my friend wasn’t too familiar with Malaysian cuisine, I decided to commandeer the ordering.  I’d just finished showing him around the Asian market and unlocking the world of cheap-Asian-grocers, so I proceeded to open up this ‘new’ cuisine to him.  We started off with roti canai, a thin pancake style bread that you pull off hunks and then dip into the slightly spicy curry that has bits of chicken and potato in it.  The pancake cools down very quickly, and as it does, it becomes very crispy, but initially – and the thicker parts – it’s very chewy, almost like a crepe but better.  Mmm. 

On this slightly hot day – our summer has been pretty wack so far – I ordered an iced coffee.  Perfect to sip on this warm day. 

Of course, more beef satay – tender as usual, super flavorful… and lovely peanut sauce.  Nom!

Again as an introductory dish, I chose Hainanese chicken (and this time they had white meat – this is the only time I’ll order white meat chicken, but it comes boneless, whereas the dark meat requires a lot of frustration picking at chicken meat off bones!); poached chicken that is doused in a soy sauce dressing, served with rice that has been cooked with the poaching liquid.  Cool and refreshing, I realized that this dish is actually pretty… well, boring.  It tastes good, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day, it’s poached chicken with a tasty dressing.  I probably won’t order this again unless I’m craving it. 

Char kway teow, which I have no hope of translating because I don’t speak Malaysian, but basically thin rice noodles that have been dry-stir-fried (by ‘dry’ I mean with no gravy, not without oil) with bean sprouts, squid, shrimp, ribbons of egg, and other assorted seafood goodies.  I asked for this to be slightly spicy, because I don’t eat it spicy, and my friend eats spicy… and it was still too spicy for me.  I ate a little but then had to stop, but he enjoyed it and chowed down almost all of it.  Nice!  (I love ordering things for people and then they really like it.  Call me weird.) 

After I’d finished ordering, the waiter had said, “And for a vegetable?” and totally shamed me into ordering another dish.  Haha, it was a clever upsell, and I accepted his suggestion of ‘Buddhist’s delight’ which turned out to be a mish-mash of whatever veggies, tossed with a pretty standard (in my opinion; my dining companion didn’t think it was that standard) soy sauce-garlic + corn starch gravy.  I liked it enough – the veggies were tender-crisp, not overcooked and soft, and there was a ton of flavor, but it wasn’t amazing or “I have to order this every time I go here from now on” either.  Tasty, yes, but something I can easily replicate at home.  Still, good job on the part of the waiter, and we were super stuffed by the end of this meal.  So stuffed I couldn’t then introduce Malaysian dessert – 7-color-ice.  Boo! 

Yvo says: Considering my friend really enjoyed the food and now has an idea of what to order if he went to a Malaysian restaurant alone, I would say this was a successful mission.  I personally like Penang – this location had its downswing and now is back on the upswing, it’s so pretty inside and the waitstaff is much closer to what you’d expect at a non-Asian Manhattan restaurant than an Asian restaurant anywhere (ie, pays attention to you) – and this time, the food proved no different from other times, when it’s been tasty and good.  I will definitely be back…
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