Penang One – Penang Delights under One Roof!

One Sunday morning, feeling in the mood for some Penang delicacies, we took a drive to Puchong where we heard there’s this café that’s serving a whole lot of Penang goodies.  If you have to go to Puchong, ideally do it on a Sunday – that’s when traffic is a breeze and parking is not a problem.  We located Penang One easily – it’s in Bandar Puteri and across the road from Giant hypermarket.  As we were pretty early, there were not that many customers there yet.  The walls are decorated with posters and write-ups of where their dishes come from, in Penang.

There’s the Kg Jawa Char Koay Teow (which I had never tasted in Penang) but which we ordered 2 plates in Penang One!  The first plate we had was with duck egg (RM9.90), which was supposed to be the “special” version.  It was a tad disappointing.  LL commented that there’s not enough “wok hei” in it.  I took it to be attributed to the lack of chilli in that plate because LL ordered it sans chilli.  So I ordered another plate, with chilli and with regular chicken egg (RM8.90).  It tasted better than the duck egg version.  The “wok hei” factor could be better, though.

The Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng (RM7.90) from Lum Lai, Leboh Cecil was decent.  The outstanding feature was the coagulated duck blood.  Smooth and jelly-like, those sinful-looking pieces really lifted this bowl of koay teow out of the ordinary.

The Assam Laksa (RM7.90) is supposedly from the Ji De Chi stall in Lorong Selamat.  When it was served, it looked really promising… with lots of lettuce, cucumber, mint leave, chopped bunga kantan, sliced onions, pineapple strips and big chunks of fish.  The prawn paste was served on the accompanying spoon.  OK, all looked good and pretty authentic, Penang-style assam laksa.  Assam laksa is one of my favourite stuff and I couldn’t wait to dig in.  The rice noodles were good…smooth and slithery as they should be.  Ahh… but the soup… was kinda disappointing.  I believe it had all the right ingredients in it, but somehow, it lacked a certain oomph.  Was it not sourish enough? Not hot enough?  I couldn’t quite put my finger to it… but I just know there is something missing there.

I like the Chee Cheong Fun (RM3.30), from Macalister Lane.  There’s no nonsense about it – the thick prawn paste, the sweet brown sauce and chilli sauce – simple down-to-earth stuff and just simply good.

The Kg Malabar Ho Pin Loh Bak (RM11.90) was mediocre.  I’m sure there are more outstanding loh bak in Penang and this one didn’t do anything for me.

The Keong Curry Mee (RM8.50) from Jalan Burma, was ok.  All the usual ingredients were there: tofu puffs, cockles, shrimps and long beans.  The curry sambal was on the side, and suitably pungent.  I’d say it’s pretty decent but it didn’t exactly blow my socks off.

What stood out for me was the Bark Thong Hokkien Mee (RM7.90) from Jalan Burma.  Known as prawn mee here, this bowl of prawny Hokkien Mee did not disappoint.  The soup was full of character… having been boiled with prawns and pork.  There were pieces of pork ribs and intestines, besides shrimps and half an egg, garnishing the noodles… splash that with some chilli oil and you get this bowl of supremely flavourful goodness.

I also like their Nya Kueh (RM3) … those smooth pieces of steamed cakes that’s eaten drenched with thick gula Melaka.  They were so good we even bought 2 packs to bring home!

So, if you are in the mood for some Penang hawker food in air-conditioned comfort, Penang One has most of them under one roof.  Take your pick.  Do note, however, for take-away noodles, an extra RM1 is charged for the container.  So bring your own container if you intend to “tapau” some food from here!

Penang One
G5 Jalan Puteri 2/1
Bandar Puteri, Puchong Jaya
47100 Puchong
Selangor
Tel: 603-8052-0181
Website: penang-one.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/penang.one