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2013-04-25
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Penang Culture is a dining concept under Gurney Drive. Similar to its sister restaurant, it also serves Penang street food.I've heard many great reviews on the authenticity in taste of their food ever since their Gurney Drive outlet opened in Suntec so I've always been wanting to give both a try.I have actually come across the actual recipe of their very own Penang Assam Laksa, shared by their very chefs at Gurney Drive, posted by Her World Plus magazine here: http://www.herworldplus.com/solutio
I've heard many great reviews on the authenticity in taste of their food ever since their Gurney Drive outlet opened in Suntec so I've always been wanting to give both a try.
I have actually come across the actual recipe of their very own Penang Assam Laksa, shared by their very chefs at Gurney Drive, posted by Her World Plus magazine here: http://www.herworldplus.com/solutions/recipes/solutions-recipes-recipe-assam-laksaThis was my first time at the restaurant, so my choices were to go with their recommended and popular dishes, including their Penang Assam Laksa.
The setting of the restaurant was quite Penang street-style like, allowing diners to indulge in the culture of the food. However I've got to say that I felt slightly uncomfortable because the floor was rather oily on the day of my visit, and I could feel the oil slick dragging me from the soles of my shoes as I walked to my seat. Fortunately though (for me at least), the restaurant was rather empty as it was on a weekend afternoon, past the peak lunch crowd.
We ordered the Penang Assam Laksa, and since we usually like our Assam Laksa to taste a little stronger, we tried our luck by asking the waitress if we could request the chef to add more "Assam" to give us a stronger "Assam" taste in our food. (Assam = tamarind paste/juice). She was unsure, so she told us she would check with the chef. Frankly, it was a lazy weekend afternoon for us and we were just looking to have a very relaxing late lunch after shopping, so we were indeed just trying our luck for our request. We didn't want any fuss for our meal so we already braved ourselves for a "no". When the waitress came back after 5 minutes, her reply wasn't what we expected at all: none of the chefs or waiters/waitresses knew what "assam" meant, or what "assam" was, so they were unable to process our request! We then told her that it was ok, probably a little more chilli and lime in the food would be good enough. However, her answer really left us perplexed, confused as to how it was possible for the chef to be able to serve Assam Laksa but not know what "assam" was. We certainly hope it was just some miscommunication along the way. The waitress returned another 5 minutes later and told us they would try to add more "Assam" in our food; we were grateful that although she didn't know, she tried her best to help at least.
We were served plain water while waiting for our food. Right before I drank it, my friend stopped me right in my track and requested for the waitress to change our water, because the water was oily and there were some food particles floating around in it. The waitress came over, took a look, and said "oh yah..... sorry I'll replace it for you". This actually grossed me out quite a bit.
The dessert, Penang Cendol ($3.50) was the first to arrive. The waiter did ask if we wanted it served first or last, but since we've already waited really long for our food, we requested for it to be served first. We genuinely thought we could eat as we waited, and also save some for the end of the meal, but the cendol melted before our laksa arrived.However to be fair, the cendol was good. Indeed, Malaysia's gula melaka tastes stronger and more fragrant as compared to our local ones.
Grilled prawns, $7.90.We thought the grilled menu was another category of food we wanted to try here.
However, these were disappointing because the prawns were really skinny and tiny. If you observe carefully, there is not much meat left if you were to takeaway the head and the tail parts of the prawns. This looks very different from the photo in the menu whereby the heads and tails were protruding out of the plate, with the huge prawn bodies spanning the entire breadth of the plate.
It wouldn't have been so disappointing if the prawns were tiny but delicious, but the prawns were really quite bad. The meat was powdery and mushy, and were stuck to the shell. It was rather difficult to pull out the meat even when I used my hands to peel - 1) I couldn't pick up the meat due to it being too mushy, 2) It was too stuck to the shell, the best I managed was to scrape. Not wanting to waste the dish, I put the prawn in my mouth and tried to use my teeth to separate the shell as I chew to salvage any available edible meat. Other than being a tad spicy, there was not much taste in the prawns.
Our Penang Assam Laksa ($5.90) finally arrived. It took quite long even when the restaurant was quite empty at that time.The waitress told us the chef managed to add some extra "Assam" into our food. We thought this would be the saving grace of our experience so far, but it was also a disappointment. To be fair, it tasted average, at least not as bad as the prawns, but don't forget that ours had extra tamarind added. If there wasn't, I'm sure the taste would be more diluted. Also, we expected there to be some edible and softer bones in the sardine, yes, but somehow lady luck just wasn't shining on our food experience that day. There were some bigger and sharper bones that I managed to pull out of the sardine amongst alot of soft bones; one of it actually pricked me in my gums. It also got a little uncomfortable chewing on so much bones.
One more thing, when I read reviews on this Assam Laksa and look at photos posted by other diners, it always comes with a spoonful of "kecap manis" (soy sauce) served on the bowl (you may also scroll down this food review page to see photos posted by other reviewers - everybody's Assam Laksa had a spoonful of this kecap manis in it!). Ours didn't come served with the kecap manis, and we were guessing part of the lack in taste might be attributed to this missing soy sauce, which is an important element in this dish.
An extremely disappointing experience, but I hope if I had the chance to try out their food again, I would be able to give better ratings.
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