Taste of Penang @ Sentosa

[Invited Tasting]

If you are looking for some Penang Food buffet, here's one that you might want to try. It's only from 10 - 20 May 2012 at Sentosa. I got to try it last night with KopiKosongGirl.

For the Taste of Penang, Sentosa has invited 54 year old Chef Qua Hun Siam from Penang to show case some of his signature dishes. Chef Qua and his wife runs restaurant and catering service in Penang and has cooked for the Chief Minister of Penang. His family heirloom recipes such as Fried Porridge is being served here.


The venue for the buffet is on the 2nd floor of Taste of Asia.
It's open air, so wear light clothing. Being next to Songs of the Sea, you get to watch the fireworks too!


The food prepared by Chef Qua is based on home-styled Penang cooking, so it might be different from the usual road-side hawker fare you have in Penang.

It's open air, so they can do the fried kway teow on demand.
Here are some of the dishes that KopiKosongGirl (KKG) and I think are unique and we liked.


Penang Rojak.
The very fruity rojak from up north is something very tasty.
The secret is in the sauce that they are not revealing. The chef's secret sauce is the answer.


The sauce is light brown in colour, a bit like thick gula melaka texture, but it's not.
Hmm. Maybe there's some gula melaka in it. We liked it. Ask for more youtiao if you are a youtiao fan. ;-)


The Penang Laksa.
We did not find it spicy or sour enough at the first mouth. We thought it lacked something. If you have a few more mouths, you might grow to like it. KKG finished up her bowl of laksa soup.

There was also the Penang Hae Mee, but we found it too 'light' in flavour.


Lor Bak (What we call Ngor Hiong in Singapore)
You can see new batches being fried constantly beside the 'stall'. It taste rather nice. It's Chef's recipe and you can see the pieces of ingredients. It was fragrant, hot (freshly cooked) and had a nice bite to it. It was something we ear marked for seconds!

There was also the otak-otak which was from the same 'stall', but we think you can pass that.


Char Hum (Fried Cockles)
KKG loves cockles and so do I! If you are a cockle fan, you would be glad to know it's the all you can eat cockles place. They serve two types here. The Singapore sambal version and the Penang Chilli version. We tried both and thinks the Penang version triumphs!

The photo above is the Penang version. We were told it's the Chef special sauce added into it that makes it taste so good. (We knew this same answer was coming). It's almost similar to the rojak sauce. Sweetish and spicy at the same time.

The joy of eating cockles here is that everyone has been half shucked! Every cockle also has something and not empty! I had a big bowl of empty shells after the meal. It was slightly spicy, so after eating, your lips burns a little, but it's so shiok!


Char Mui (Fried Porridge)
This is something so unique. I have not tried this before and thought it was worth trying. Gooey version of fried rice! There are lots of ingredients in it. Prawns, bits of meat, seafood etc. It's savoury but has a sweetish hint.

It's not something you will instantly love. My first mouth, I thought it was peculiar, but as you eat it, slowly the flavour comes out. You bite something and wonder what it is, something else and before it, you finish the whole bowl. It's something you eat slowly because it is hot!

For KKG, she said it's an instant like for her. She grew up liking porridge of all sorts! She especially liked the chopped dried cuttlefish bits in it.

We saw an elderly all white hair lady keep going back for more. Maybe she's from Penang.
Penang friends don't really know about it though. If you are from Penang, care to tell me more about this dish?



Penang Char Kway Teow
The advantage of an open air place. You can order the CKT and the person whips it up in great smokes! Probably this is not home-cooked version. How can anyone cook this in Singapore homes? They are very generous with the lard!


This is so funny. After all the frying and smoking all over, we thought it would be super nice. Both KKG and I thought it was so so only.

Then our other dining companion, CalvinTimo and Nicole, they also ordered the same dish and when they brought it to the table, we tried it and it was so much better. We noticed ours had less sprouts and lighter in colour.

Moral of the story, if the first plate is not satisfactory, go for the 2nd one! ;-)



Nasi Kandar

Oh, look how beautiful they arranged the Nasi Kandar. For the above, we had the a bit of everything order when we walked to the Nasi Kandar stall.

A true blue fan of Nasi Kandar will tell you to 'banjir' (flood) it with lots of 'kuah' (gravy).
Here they present it so different. So beautifully plated!


How do you eat Nasi Kandar? Mixed up the rice and the sauce!

Each curry had different unique spices in it. Fish curry, Chicken curry, Sotong Sambal, Rendang sauce, Ayam Kicap (Soy sauce chicken) all mixed together gives it an unique taste! You can see that we were quite 'healthy', it was not flooded with gravy.  We could have gone back to ask for more gravy.

I liked the rice so much, that I was slowly eating it and before I knew it, only a bit of the rice was left with most of the side dishes. I was suppose to share with KKG! KKG ate up all the meats, fish and veg with the little bit of rice. KKG especially liked the tender sotong.



We don't eat durian, but here's Durian Pengat for you durian fans.


There's an assortment of kuih kuih, cendol, ice kachang. We were too full to eat them!
Cendol was a bit on the sweet side for us. Ask for 'kurang manis'!



TASTES OF PENANG @ SENTOSA
Date: 10 to 20 May 2012
Time: 6pm to 11pm (Mon- Thu), 4pm to 11pm (Fri - Sun)
Venue: Level 2 of Tastes of Asia

Price:
$42.90++ per adult
$19.90++ per child (5 to 11 years old)
- Usual island admission charges apply
- Includes complimentary parking and complimentary entry into Images of Singapore
- Discounts apply for Islander members and credit card holders

Getting There:
Sentosa Express – Board at VivoCity, 3rd Floor, drop off at Beach Station
Drive-in – Park at Beach Car Park (Blue Zone)
Taxi – Alight at Beach Station

Reservations: 
Call 6279 1767 or email carla_cardona@sentosa.com.sg


Update: I noticed a group deal site is selling this buffet a bit cheaper than the price above. Not naming it, you can do a search ;-)