Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery - Penang, Malaysia
Our travelling partner suggested this one as our last dinner in Penang. I thought it's a great idea since we haven't tried any nyonya food yet. She told me that we needed a reservation since it's a busy place. But I tried to call and couldn't get anyone on the phone. So we decided to just show up earlier.
We got there just around 6:30. The restaurant opened at 6 for dinner. When we walked in, we noticed that the dining area wasn't that big. Most of the tables were huge round table for at least eight people. There were only three of us! 😅 We talked to an older man by the reception area (perhaps the host?) that we didn't have reservation since nobody picked up the phone. He told us we needed to use an app. Huh..not sure what app to use. But he pointed to a huge square table that had three seats left and asked if we would take that table. We all looked at each other and agreed to take the offer.
The menu was simple and printed on three pieces of paper. Maybe they rotated menu items frequently so they didn't bother to make it looked fancy. I also noticed that the menus mostly had seafood and chicken. No beef and no pork. Vegetables item also available. In the end we selected lorbak, hong kae, eggplant dish and pai tee. Hong kae was actually inspired by our dining mate, a couple of older ladies seated at the other end of the table.
I feel that pai tee is almost a must when visiting a nyonya restaurant. It's light and refreshing. The lorbak was actually pretty interesting as there was a combination of minced chicken and shredded chicken to give the cut portion a texturize look.
All in all, the food were satisfying. We almost ordered a dessert but then we heard another dining mate complained to the waiter that there was hair in her dessert. Ohkay..no more dessert then. So sitting on a huge communal table did have a positive point.
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