This nyonya shop is still relatively new, opened a few months ago at Plaza Glomac. Long Table was established by a family where they wanted to preserve the typical nyonya style cooking of Penang.

We were treated to sample some bowls of Penang assam laksa. This laksa had a very thick fish broth, mostly from the amount of shredded fish, in this case ikan kembung. It was very tasty especially when eaten with the ‘har gou’ (shrimp paste).

For starters, we had cucur udang. This cucur udang defers abit from the usual one we get from the roadside because the batter used was lighter, and it didn’t give that heavy feeling. Furthermore, it was mostly bite size pieces, so it doesn’t take up too much space in the tummy for the more good food to come.

Roti babi. This I only thought we can get in Penang, but Long Table offers this delicacy in their humble restaurant as well. As the name says, this is bread filled with a filling of pork, potatoes, carrots and peas. Eat it by dipping it in the lea perrins sauce which comes together with it.

Our first main dish came, which was Ikan Gulai Tumis aka curry fish. The fished used here in this dish was black pompret and it came packed with ladies fingers. Not too spicy because I was able to eat it. The fish also gave some sweetness to the curry.

Sambal Petai Prawns was up next. A petai lover, I absolutely loved this dish because they were so generous with the petai, as well as the prawns. Went really well with my rice. Yummy.

Next was Ince Kabin or fried chicken. This fried chicken came with a dark brown colour, almost looked like it was burnt, but I later learnt that it was how it was marinated. I found the chicken abit hard initially when I bit into it, but once you get to the meat, its really quite tender and juicy. It also came with a sprinkle of tiny keropok, which all of us finished up in no time.

And how can we have a nyonya meal without ‘Ju Hu Cha’. Eaten together with the fresh lettuce, this dish was very refreshing. Furthermore, the black chinese mushrooms in this dish, helped soak up alot of the moisture, hence it almost had a juicy texture to it.

Steamed otak otak was one of the final dishes. I like this version of the otak otak as compared to the ones that are grilled, because this one retains  more moisture since its steamed. It doesn’t feel too dry. Furthermore its wrapped in banana leaf, it smells extra fragrant.

To close our meal, we finished off with some sweet desserts. Onde-onde and Jemput Jemput aka Co-codok. I loved the onde onde especially when I bite down into the center where the gula malacca will come gushing out. You’ll keep going back for more.

The jemput jemput, I haven’t really tasted it before this, but if i remember correctly it was actually deep fried mashed bananas. Interesting, but this should be eaten hot because if not, it’ll go all soft and have that ‘masuk angin’ feel to it.

We really enjoyed our time there at LongTable. Good food and good company. You can never go wrong with those two combinations.

**Dear readers, please note that LongTable is closed on SATURDAYS and not on Sundays as previously stated **

LongTable

The Long Table Restaurant
Block D-02-1, D-03-1
Glomac Plaza Jalan SS7/19
Kelana Jaya
47301 Petaling Jaya
Selangor

Non Halal

Opening times

Sunday to Friday ( CLOSE ON SATURDAY)

LUNCH  – 11.30 am till 3.00 pm

DINNER – 6.00 pm till 10.00 pm

Tel:012 2469928

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.

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)

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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 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

www.thewokcafekl.blogspot.com

Or from Feedmelah’s restaurant directory: The Wok Cafe