LONDON DUCK
The story goes that London Duck is run by 4 Choo siblings who have worked in London’s top 3 duck restaurants over a period of eight years, including the famous Four Seasons. When they returned to Malaysia in 2010, they decided to pool their culinary expertise and resources together to open the Village Roast Duck at Bangsar. Soon after, they added another two branches at Mid-Valley and the Pavilion. Their latest venture, London Duck was opened at Gurney Plaza in November last year.
As the namesake of the restaurant goes, we decided to order an entire Peking duck and a portion of the aromatic crispy duck. Do note that this is not an entirely “duck” restaurant. They do serve pork, chicken, seafood, rice, ramen, porridge, and noodle dishes too. Over a hundred in all! We found the duck a bit dry although it was quite tasty with the sweet sauce dips, thin pancake wraps, and the usual sliced cucumber and scallions.
GREAT DELIGHT KITCHEN
It is definitely a nice place for a get-together. Service is good and the tables are nicely spread out. We should try the special set lunches the next time. Au Revoir!
Some of us have tried some of the Great Delight Kitchen’s menu a couple of times. We were particularly impressed with both the dried and wet version of its sar hor fun. But you have to book ahead to be sure of getting this dish as Mr. Liang is known to only keep a fresh supply of hor fun. He is also known for his “private kitchen” menu.
Thanks to Arthur and Vincent, we sought to give his “private kitchen” a try. We pre-ordered the two hor fun dishes, his signature “huai yang” braised pork meatball with broccoli (or the “Lion’s Head”), deep-fried bitter gourd, and the red snapper in a light sauce.
The fried prawn with creamy milky sauce and the Cantonese stir-fried egg with crab meat completed our main dishes. For dessert, we savoured the crystallised yam sticks.
The fried prawn with creamy milky sauce and the Cantonese stir-fried egg with crab meat completed our main dishes. For dessert, we savoured the crystallised yam sticks.
So what’s the verdict? It is getting very difficult to find a good “wok hei” sar hor fun chef in Penang.
Great Delight Kitchen deserves four stars for this delightful dish. The fried prawn with milky sauce gets the double thumbs up while the deep-fried red snapper and bitter gourd were also well-received.
We had a nice private room all to ourselves. And it was truly enjoyable to have Raymond and wife, Paley and Willy and wife, Mun Ying with us. Despite the foul air and uncertainty in Malaysian politics as well as the unwelcomed Covis19, we had good food and good company. Que Sera Sera!
HOKKIEN MEE
Amidst a roller-coaster political imbroglio in our beloved country, we took solace by indulging ourselves in arguably Penang’s most famous dish, the hokkien prawn mee.
Hosts Vincent and wife, Cewie had started preparations early with “chea liao” (the real deal) – a generous stock of prawn shells and pork ribs (bak kut). We would occasionally get whiffs of the strong prawn aroma from the kitchen when the lid of the pot is taken off. They have also sourced ready-made crispy fried shallots from Indonesia and the must-have crispy pork lard (bak eu pok). The shallots and pork lard certainly enhanced the flavour and fragrance to the delicious bowls that we savoured.
A freshly made sambal (Indon-style) gave this dish the extra ommph. A mouth-watering dish indeed! A few strands of kangkung (Chinese convolvulus) would have completed a classic bowl!
Earlier, for appetisers, we had polished off two (or possibly three) plates of Vincent’s crispy siu bak, made to perfection.
For dessert, everyone brought something to add to the long list! We had all kinds of nyonya kuih and fresh mango slices. Willy and Mun Ying brought dark brown sugar malai koh and delicious osmanthus flower jelly (made by Mun Ying). Raymond and Paley brought a beautiful cheesecake. Allan and Arthur each brought a bottle of fine wine to make it a long, long lunch! Much to our chagrin, the coronavirus outbreak and the leaping frog Malaysian politicians (coincidentally in a leap year day!) dominated the table talk. Let us all pray for the best for our beloved country and the world!
CHEF HUANG
For our first get-together in the year 2020, we chose to revisit Sin Geh Lang at Jalan Krian. A Chinese-style restaurant located in a row of refurbished prewar houses. Simple interior décor with photos of their dishes on the wall – and that’s the menu!
We pointed at 7 of the photos and the young lady duly recorded our orders.
In a short while our dishes were on the table.
First to arrive was a steaming claypot of paddy chicken (frog legs) with a concortion of ginger, dried spring onion and dried chilli. The thick black-sauce gravy went very well with the piping-hot teo chew broth. We actually ordered an extra claypot of the broth!
The fried tsuar chooi hoo came crispy and fresh. We also tried the deep-fried chim cho (crab stuffings) with prawn crackers, their signature fried bitter gourd in egg, long beans, and pork leg in vinegar. Thumbs up for all the dishes.
In essence, Sin Geh Lang serves typical Penang home-cooked dishes: simple and delicious. Price-wise, the bill came to RM210.
A good start to 2020!
(Photos courtesy of Mr. Vincent Teh@KARR Photography)
