Posts Tagged ‘Penang Nyonya Food’
Penang Nyonya Cuisine, The Wok Cafe, The Strand Damansara, Kota Damansara
The Wok Cafe
Today we had scrumptuous Penang Nyonya feast at The Wok Cafe situated at the newly opened area called The Strand in Kota Damansara.Those in search of authentic Penang nyonya style cuisine, this is the place to come. In fact Penang-nites who are in KL visiting will also make their way over to this place.
Antique crockery for sale
Doesn't it feel like eating in someone's house?
Stepping into the shop, you feel as if you are stepping back into time. As you can see from the pictures, the whole shop is decorated with antique items, from the wooden wall fixtures to the grandfathers clock to the pictures hanging on the wall. Its a time capsule. The wooden fixtures, lights, tables..all that you see are real antique. The wooden fixtures were brought in from Penang. Amazing.
Uncle Robert, who owns the shop is from Penang ( no surprise there). He has a shop in Penang called ‘ The Hot Wok’ which is now being run by his son. Most of the food stuff is imported from Penang to maintain its originality of taste.Trust me, eating here is as good as eating in Penang just minus the 5 hour travel time.
Our orders as recommended that night were:-
Main Meals
Roast Pork Garlic Cincalok
Ju Hu Char
Lobak & Tau Kua
Perut Ikan
Kerabu Mango
Assam Big Prawns
Chilli Brinjal Tau Cheow Prawn
Curry Fish Head
Desserts
Nangka Sago
Sago Gula Malaka
Total amount : 229 (11 pax)
Lobak and Tau Kua
For starters, we had the lobak and tau kua ( fried taufu) . I personally enjoyed the lobak, cause its crunchy and also, the filling was full of meat unlike those you get outside, where there’s hardly much meat and the whole thing is soggy cause its been sitting out for too long. This is well worth it.
Ju Hu Char
Ju Hu Char is a typical nyonya dish made with shredded turnips, carrots,cabbage, dried cuttlefish, white lettuce and a little bit of sambal thrown in. Light and refreshing and good for health too! Eaten wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves, it really kick starts your palate in preparation of more good food to come.
Perut Ikan
This dish, as its name sounds translates into ‘fish stomach’ which is true. Comprising of 95% vegetables, with the remaining 5% the fish stomach it does make for a very tasteful curry style dish. This is one of their specialties and is also another nyonya favourite. The mint leaves gave it that minty fresh flavour which blended well with the curry.
Roast Pork Garlic Cincalok
The roast pork cincalok was good as well. Siew yuk fried with preserved baby shrimp (cincalok) with red onions and chillies, just imagining the combination makes me drool. The crunchy siew yuk with cincalok, you can’t ask for a better combination.
Kerabu Mango
This spicy sweet mango salad shows where the thai influence comes in since Penang is near the Thai border. The added kick here was that the ‘heh kou’ (prawn paste) is brought in fresh from Penang. The difference is obvious, the paste was smoother and had more flavour and sweetness.
Assam Big Prawns
Prawwwnns..Assam BIG prawns. This dish was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The prawns were freshed and well done and the sourness of the assam complimented the dish as it seeped through into the prawn meat. Yummy.
Curry Fish Head
And the dish which stole the show that night was the Curry Fish Head. This is their speciality, and it is for a reason. You have to pre-order this 2 days in advance because uncle Robert personally goes to the market to get the freshest biggest fish head to serve. The fish u see is the head of a red snapper. The meat was juicy and fresh. The key here is fresh. It came with ladies fingers, chillies and squid ( upon request). It was delicious!
Chilli Brinjal Tau Cheow Prawn
This dish is is fried brinjal with prawns and tau cheow ( bean paste). It was very tasty with the tau cheow giving it a nyonya flavour to the whole mix. Very nice.
Nangka Sago
Lastly, you can’t go without dessert. To end the superb meal, we ordered the Nangka Sago. Nangka means jackfruit in Malay. This dessert had chunks of nangka coupled with coconut milk and ice shavings. Refreshing on a hot day.
Sago Gula Malacca
This is an old time favourite, sago and gula malacca. This was so good we ordered seconds. Its a very simplistic dessert with sago and gula malacca and also coconut milk. The gula malacca was smooth and oh so sweet (in a good way). I loved it!
Assam Laksa and Heh Kou
Famous Penang Char Kuey Teow
We also sampled some of their assam laksa and Penang Char Kuey Teow. It was very nice though we were overstuffed by then. It was good, and for the assam laksa you can even add your own hek kou to taste. Cool huh.
We all loved this place and will be back there for more. You can count on that 
The map to 'The Wok'
The Wok Cafe
Mervyn Yeoh
26-G, Jln PJU 5/21,
The Strand Damansara,
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya.
012-263 5460
03-6142 7388
Open
Closed on Mondays
thewokcafe@gmail.com
Or from Feedmelah’s restaurant directory: The Wok Cafe
