Taste of Penang

A friend of ours introduced us to this little food store at Sunnybank Hills, it's called Taste of Penang, and to me, it's one of the most authentic Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine you can find in Brisbane. It's a really small, unpretentious store tucked away in a not-so-high-traffic area. It doesn't have too much of an ambience of any kind, but the food is good enough to make me a returning customer!

The price of each dish is very reasonable and we kinda went a little crazy while ordering. We did finish everything though, in case you were wondering. 

We first had the fried pork and prawn rolls in bean curd skin, we call this "hei tzo" back home. This is soooo good! The flavoring is very authentic and the filling was well-seasoned with 五香粉 (five spice powder)! The skin is also fried just right- crispy but not too oily. The dipping sauce is some sort of vinegar and dark soy sauce mix that complemented the dish very well. Delish~

We next had the otah-otah, which is coconut and curry flavoured fish paste baked in a bowl. I did not really take to this dish very much, it had too much coconut milk that it drowned out all the other flavors. More spice could be added, me thinks.

3rd side dish we had was fried bean curd with sweet chilli sauce, or what we know as "taohu goreng". This was super nice! Again, very well-fried, crispy skin with very soft and silky beancurd within. The toppings were a mix of peanut powder, cucumber strips, shredded carrots and sweet chilli sauce. You can't go wrong with this combination even if you tried.

The last side dish we had was this thin-skinned rice noodle roll with crispy shallots, sesame seeds and sweet hoisin sauce. We call this "chee cheong fun" back home. This is seriously THE BEST dish ever! Totally worth the 20-30 min drive. It's just plain rice flour rolls essentially, but the texture was slippery, thin and silky, and the sauce is just heavenly.

One of the main dish we had was the laksa, which is like a mix of curry-ish paste and coconut powder soup with fishcakes, prawns and noodles. We totally did not like this dish at all. Again, too much coconut milk. We couldn't taste anything else. Not recommended at all.

The last main dish we had was the fried flat rice noodles, or "char kway tiao". This was absolutely perfect! I am a big fan of this dish even back home! It's basically flat rice noodles fried in dark soy sauce and sweet sauce with heaps of other ingredients like bean sprouts, prawns and chinese waxed sausages ("lup cheong"). You can tell it's good char kway tiao when you can smell the so-called 'slightly burnt' fragrance which somehow brings out all the other flavors. They fried this dish with chilli and it was really spicy. It kinda was too spicy for me so I couldn't finish it. This is their default level of spiciness so for those who can't take spicy food, be sure to let them know when you order!

Oh my god I'm so hungry now.