Well , well , well .
Just when you least expect cheap , clean and fast to exist side by side on Penang island , walla , a place like this pops up .
And when I say cheap , I am not referring to those places where bah kut teh still costs MYR 5.50 per portion for per person . Don't know about elsewhere , but if it costs that little on the island , you're freaking risking it ! Not gonna elaborate on that matter further .
Anyway , the cheap I am talking about , hovers around ( more or less ) 10 ringgit per person .
Certain places command two times that amount but don't expect premium meat . Sometimes , I think those expensive joints are either scams or pure herd mentality hype .
Lemme explain further with regards to the pricing ....if you order a bowl of bah kut teh soup for 2 pax , at Good Luck , it is just gonna cost you around 20 ringgit , not inclusive of drinks , rice and any add ons .
3 persons = 30ish , 4 = 40 ish .
Coming to the ambiance , which as you can see is basic with plastic stools and collapsible tables , but so incredibly clean right up to the workers appearance ( now this is OUTSTANDING ) ,although it is much cooler in the open , for those of you who marvel at the chaotic workings of the Chinese kitchen , if you can stand the heat , try to sit near the cooking area and see how the chefs work in unison with their small army of workers .
Most everyone wears white here and of course the sexiest and most attractive lady ( I think she's very pretty ) in the shop , is the order taker who is blessed with a sweet toned voice .
Of the two chefs , I cannot decide if they were former Japanese kitchen trained chefs or not , seeing how the older man wraps his head with a towel in the Burmese style and takes to the pan like he is rythmically beating a drum .
So strange yet exotic , never seen anything like this before .
Am intrigued both by the knot on the older man's head and the beautiful tatoo on the burly young man's lower right arm .
Visual surprise aside , we get down soon enough to the business of eating .
The soup stock reminds me of a joint in Sitiawan , where we had one of the most astonishing heady medicinal mix of herbs .
Skilled at coaxing the pork fat till it melts in your mouth , with skin that is molten jelly and an almost translucent brown , I however
found the meat a tad overdone and dry but the hearty stock more than made up for it .
Rice portion they serve here is larger than a lot of places . Grains are still slightly moist and heavy , but gawd damn , this texture of rice goes sooooo well with the piping hot soup , it triggers that happy cell in your brain into a state of semi ecstasy .
More to come .
She asked us if we would like the straw mushrooms , we initially thought that it would be added into the soup , but my goodness , these are gourmands who definitely love their vegies .
See the pic above , the flavour of the mushrooms seep into the stock and attain a taste of its own .
Yums !
While I did not go and ask questions , it killed me inside as I was obsessed with how they confoundedly married Thai , Indonesian ( see the taukwa dish above which seems like gado-gado with the stuffing on the outside ) , Hakka and Hokkien dishes while looking Japanese , Burmese and Teochew all at once .
How fascinating indeed !
On the whole , a most comforting and eye opening experience for me .
Location : Bayan Baru , Penang
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