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It was raining heavily that Sunday afternoon and instead of fetching him at work, we asked him to return home first and wait for the rain to subside before heading out. It was around 5 pm when we finally drove out; without lunch on that rainy afternoon. Imagine the hunger!
While figuring out a place to go, my bro excitedly mentioned, "Bugis!"
Apparently, his colleague had been raving so much about this ayam penyet shop in Bugis and he was really keen to give it a go. Myself meanwhile, got a little enthused, thinking that there's a new ayam penyet shop in town and I'm gonna try it (I love trying out new stuff)!
While at Liang Seah Street, he called his friend asking for directions and the name of the shop. The only clue he gave us was, "Same row as the 7-11!" -___-
Do you have any idea how long the row of shophouses there was? And there we were, really hungry and having to tackle this active 15 month-old who wanted to dash off everywhere but wherever we're heading.
I walked ahead of him as he tried to communicate over the din at that noisy street. Then I saw it. The ayam penyet shop. I know it's an ayam penyet shop because... because I've been to their other branches before la!
**Previous entry HERE**
So much for a new-kid-on-the-block... Even my bro can't hide his disappointment. Heh. But we're very hungry so who cares? Besides, I heard that they have some new stuff on the menu.
When this was served, all of us thought that this bowl of Javanese hot & sour vegetable soup looks... weird. It's more reddish than the brownish hue that we're accustomed to. No long beans and what are those beansprouts doing there?!
Had a sip of the soup. Ahhh... Still the same. Nice. Very nice, in fact!
One of my favourite satay ever! Never mind that they're unlike the ones that we're accustomed to. It's the taste that matters and I love these.
The tender and nicely-marinated chicken meat. And that sauce. Boy!
Too bad they don't come cheap. :(
I'm surprised my bro insisted on ordering this. Guess he's starting to like his vegetables after all.
Love to see the abundance of keropok being heaped on top.
My mum compared the taste of the peanut sauce from both the gado-gado and the satay, to check if they somewhat 'cheated' and used the same sauce for both. Definitely not. Tasty as the gado-gado sauce was, it was slightly bland as compared to the delish satay sauce.
One of the new items on the menu. 'Iga' is actually beef ribs and these are cut into smaller pieces before being deep fried. Be wary of the chunky bones, though.
Ordered these for my mum and she, who loved her meat to be less lean; love the bits of sinewy tendon in between the tender meat.
My dad wanted fish and it's either Bawal Penyet (deep-fried pomfret) of the Bawal Bakar (grilled pomfret). I recall how much he loved the Ikan Bakar (grilled tilapia) which is no longer in the menu so I got him this. Not the same but similar, at least.
I remember my brother pointing out a disclaimer of sorts, saying that they will serve 2 pieces of fish if those in season are on the small side. I laughed at it, thinking it to be absurd.
When this was served, I finally figure out what they meant. The pomfrets were pretty small, alright. Slightly smaller than the size of one's palm. The flesh is thinner but sweeter. And also crispier! I sure don't mind these small fish. Unlike the 'penyet' dishes, this was served with sambal kicap - soy sauce with cut chili padi & shallots.
My brother wants to eat chicken wings and he also want the signature Ayam Penyet. I told him that it's either one or the other. I won't help him finish those up as I was nursing a cough and trying to avoid eating chicken (esp. fried ones).
He asked me a pretty silly question. "How come this one not 'penyet' (smashed)?"
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My order. I've always wanted to try the Iga Penyet but since my mum chose that, I opt for something else, for variety's sake. Beside, my hubby love ordering this and I'm very curious as to its actual taste.
My goodness! I've always envisioned the deep fried meat to be pretty tough to chew, akin to a well-done steak. Turns out, the Empal (marinated beef patty) was crispy on the outside and really tender inside.
Imagine frying left-over beef rendang. Yeah, something like that, just slightly sweet (Javanese loves a hint of sweetness in their food).
So there. We also ordered ox-tail soup for my dad. My only gripe was that the veggie chunks like the carrot and potato was added to the soup a little late so they're kinda bland and hard.
Their sambal for the penyet dishes was good but pretty spicy . When I can't take the heat, I took some kicap manis (sweet soy sauce) from my dad to help counter the spiciness.
I know that I have some gripes with Waroeng Penyet's seemingly lowered standards. But I the food this time was kinda ok. Maybe because we came before the dinner crowd start thronging in. Pius, I totally dig the ambience of dining al-fresco on this busy, gastronomic street. All the colourful shophouses and people coming there for all the same reason, namely FOOD.
Makes me feel like I'm in Macau or Hong Kong, liddat.
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