On the second day, we pigged out! Literally!
On the recommendation of my friend, Niki, we went to try Hot Bowl White Curry Mee, located at 58 Jalan Rangoon, for breakfast. (It’s opened from 8AM to 3PM, and is closed on Mondays.) If not for the large signage outside the restaurant, it’s easy to miss it because of its nondescript appearance and the fact that it’s situated along a narrow road, lined both sides by a mix of shops and houses.
It’s a small eatery but still spacious nonetheless, and clean and bright as well.
I didn’t do any ordering, and basically left it to my husband and his dad since I was unfamiliar with the food. Seriously, I didn’t know what was white curry and never had it before. I’m not even sure if it’s available in Singapore.
I finally get to see for myself what it is, and it’s really white in color! To be honest, the dish doesn’t look exactly appetising with the clotted pig’s blood. It’s also served with dried bean curd skin, cockles, cuttlefish and yellow egg noodle. My husband told me it had to be eaten with sambal mixed into the curry, and the taste turns out to be better than its look. But it’s not something I am crazy about, because I don’t like the pig’s blood nor cockles.
Luckily there were other dishes available, like the meatball kway teow soup, the steamed chicken as well as a unique Malaysian dish called “Chai Boey”.
I like the meatball broth with kway teow (flat rice noodle). The soup is clear and has a well balanced flavour; whereas the hand-made meatball is soft and soaked in the tasty broth. The steamed chicken is quite good as well, but not a big deal since we have better chicken rice in Singapore.
As for Chai Boey, now this is an interesting dish with mustard greens, leftover meat, sliced carrots and dried Chili in an oily stew. In fact, I found out that the name “Chai Boey” actually means “leftovers”. It’s my first time trying it; and yes, we don’t get this in Singapore as well. The stew is tangy and all the ingredients are cooked to a soft texture. Again, it does taste better than it looks. But not something I would deliberately order. It is definitely an acquired taste.
So what do I think of Hot Bowl White Curry Mee restaurant? The food is not bad, generally tasty, but I don’t think it’s a must-visit place, unlike Tek Sen. In fact, we found a hawker stall that serves fabulous curry and at a cheaper price. More on that later.
Now, the Penang trip wasn’t just about food, we also did the touristy thing of visiting attractions. After all we had to walk off the food, and so, after breakfast, we went to Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (aka the Blue Mansion), an UNESCO world heritage site, which has been turned into a museum cum hotel. It’s quite a sight to behold, a large Chinese mansion surrounded by modern buildings. But once you enter into the garden/car park/driveway, it feels rather serene.
I really like the beautiful indigo color of the mansion wall, which is so unique. This is also the color of the juice of blue pea flowers, grown outside the wall, that is used for the blue colouring in Peranakan kueh.
The museum has guided tours in English and the guide is a feisty and sprightly lady who looks to be in her 60’s. She is a pretty engaging story teller, who related the fascinating tale of the original owner of the mansion, a mega rich tycoon by the name of Cheong Fatt Tze, who was also known as the last Mandarin.
The magnificent mansion was built in the late 19th century, and is huge at 56,000 sq ft! However, over the years, since CFT’s death in 1916, the mansion gradually suffered from disrepairs. In fact when a group of private individuals bought the place from CFT’s descendants in 1989, the mansion was seriously in a decrepit state. A lot of money was poured in to restore it to its former glory. Most of the furnishing inside and outside the museum is really not the original. Which is why, I suspect, the house was likely to be even more spectacular in its hey day because CFT wanted a super grand mansion and spared no expenses to make it so.
This is the main courtyard right behind the main hall. There is an air well on the roof that allows rain water to fall into the courtyard, as well as sunlight to brighten the place. CFT instructed the builders to construct an elaborate water drainage system within the house, in accordance to the fengshui master’s advice to keep and grow the wealth.
Another courtyard that separates the public area of the mansion from the hotel area. (There are not many rooms, only 16; so this is really a boutique hotel.)
The picture of the 7th wife of CFT below, who was also his favorite. We were told he had 8 wives!! Though the other 7 were married for the sake of business connections. The 7th wife and their only son were given the privilege of a room where the main courtyard is. The lesser relatives and not-so important people had to live in the other wings of the mansion. (I wonder if the other wives were accorded less favorable treatment.)
When CFT died, he left a will stating that the house and an annual maintenance fee of straits currency of 200,000 to be given to the 7th wife and their son. Unfortunately that didn’t turn out to be a wise move, as my husband said CFT didn’t even take into account inflation, which is unsurprising considering he wasn’t educated. And CFT left the running of the business to his various older sons (who were said to be adopted), typical of Asian family business, instead of bringing in professional management. Not surprisingly the businesses would eventually go south since the sons and their offsprings turned out not to be commercially savvy. Worse, there were so many hanger-on staying in the house, and the expenses inevitably rose. So, it is no wonder there was not enough money to fund the maintenance of the mansion, and CFT’s favored son and his family had to lease out the rooms to the poor, and the house became literally a slum.
This picture taken from the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion website showed how crappy the place was before restoration.
Do check out the CFT mansion and the guided tour when you are in Penang. The story of the man and the house is a mesmerizing one. In fact I’m interested in staying at the hotel in future trip.
After the historical tour, we proceeded for lunch with a couple of my husband’s relatives and opted for Peranakan food. We went to Mum’s Nyonya Cuisine (previously known as Mama’s Nyonya Cuisine), located at 31-D, Lorong Abu Siti, George Town, pretty close to the mansion. It’s one of the recommended Peranakan restaurants in Time Out and Tripadvisor. So, naturally, we have some expectations.
I wanted a Chinchalok omelette (omelette fried with dried baby shrimp or krill), and unfortunately when I requested for it, I missed out “omelette” as I thought that was how it was usually done. When it arrived, it was totally not what I expected. Turned out it was Chinchalok fried with prawn, petai (stinky bean) and sambal. I didn’t like it, the flavor was too heavy and salty for my liking; and I wasn’t the only one who rejected the dish.
We ordered a lot of food (see pictures below), regrettably so.
Loh Bak (deep fried bean curd skin filled with minced meat flavored with the Chinese five-spice powder)
Inchi Kabin (Nyonya Fried Chicken)
Sayur Rumi (Stir-fried prawn with vege)
Assam fish curry
Chicken Curry Kapitan
Top – Stir Fried Long Beans with Anchovies; Bottom – Pork Belly Stew
All I can say about the food at Mum’s is that it’s nothing great and doesn’t deserve any accolade. The only dishes that were tasty were the Assam fish curry and the Curry Chicken, and even then, they were not fantastic. If this standard is considered one of the best Peranakan cuisines in Penang, I suggest you forget about it and focus on other food. This is definitely one of the food disappointments we had there.
After lunch, we went to Straits Quay to check out Monica Quen’s cheongsams that I wrote about in an earlier posts prior to Chinese New Year. When that was done, we continued with our food trip and this time it was afternoon tea at 1885 Restaurant located at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel (10, Lebuh Farquhar, George Town), another UNESCO Heritage site. Yes, we were very gung-ho with our mouths and tummies.
The restaurant was named after the year the hotel was established, and it’s similar to Raffles Hotel in Singapore. This is not surprising because both hotels were founded by the Sarkies brothers.
Pardon for the lack of pictures of the hotel or the restaurant; I didn’t find the place that interesting unlike the Blue Mansion. In fact, I thought the restaurant had a musty smell, and the ornate and heavy English furniture doesn’t impress me.
When we arrived, the restaurant was quite full, though there was a long table available close to the entrance. But there was no staff at the counter; they were either serving some table or standing at some corner and we had to wave to one of them to get attention. She didn’t give us the empty table immediately, and instead had to discuss with a guy, who looked like the Maitre’d’hotel, before finally deciding on that table for us.
The afternoon tea costs MYR65.30 nett per person (Buddy ate for free), and consists of savory finger food, scones, cakes and choice of tea for each paying customer.
Before we went to Penang, I had checked out the reviews of the 1885 afternoon tea, and one of them was written by some English lady who took offense that the tea was not served in bone china teapot and cup. So when I was there, I checked and true enough, that was the case. (You can see from the picture above.) I’m afraid I’ve to agree with her that this cannot be touted as “the finest colonial style dining” when ordinary porcelain tea set is used.
So, how did we find the food? It was alright, nothing to shout about. The pastries and cake are not as refined as some of the afternoon teas I had taken in Singapore and even in Thailand. Like the one offered by Goodwood Park Hotel (Singapore) is of better quality and spread, though the price is more than double what 1885 is charging, but that is because the Goodwood offering is actually that of a buffet. Anyway we went to 1885 for the experience, and once is enough for us.
That evening, we didn’t have dinner. Well, we did in a way, we had fruits instead. Our verdict, at the end of the second day, was that the food didn’t seem so impressive, however we understood that it was likely due to the type of food we had, and we hadn’t even tried the hawker food yet. That was reserved for day 3.
petulantchild 