Penang has undergone a lot of changes since my younger days. When I go home for a visit, I noticed that I do not visit the old places any more. Shopping is more in the modern shopping complexes. The city of George Town has also undergone a lot of changes. In the olden days, rent in Penang and Province Wellesley (as it was then called), was cheap. There was the Rent Control Act that meant landlords could not charge a high rent. So the rent in George Town and many areas in the Island and the Province was very cheap. I remember my dad told me that the rent that we were paying about 40 to 50 years ago was like $28 per month. That was before the Malaysian currency was known as Ringgit Malaysia.
Once the Repeal of the Rent control Act came into being, rent shot up and many people moved out of the city to housing estates away from the commercial areas. There was a shift in demographic of the city. Some shops were unoccupied and later some entrepreneurial people redeveloped it . Some become heritage sites, some become tourist attractions.
In the olden days, Penang was not known for its bustling night life compared to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. There were several night-clubs and most hotels would have their resident bands. The night-clubs would be in town and near the city area of E&O Hotel. The beach hotels would have their resident bands to entertains their guests as well.
On my recent trip to Penang, we decided to go to George Town in the evening. The sole purpose was to go to a tim sum restaurant. The restaurant is supposed to be famous for its tim sum and you can get tim sum the whole day from morning to evening. Actually, tim sum is traditionally served for breakfast. Then some smart businesses offer it for lunch. Now you can have it for dinner and supper as well. Like all food in Penang, most of it is available the whole day. This is true for tim sum in other parts of Malaysia.
We set off and went to Tai Tong Restaurant in Cintra street. By then most of the shops were closed for the day, except some which were restaurants and some stalls selling food. This restaurant has been in existence for a long time. So it is well-known locally.
The restaurant was busy and we managed to get a table. There were mostly locals and there were a table or two of Westerners. The Westerners in the table near to ours seemed to have been here many times before and was raving about the delicious food. They sounded British.
We got our table and ordered our tea. Then the tim sum trolley came by. There was the usual trolley filled with steamed food. We ordered the usual like har gow or prawn dumplings ( the actual translation is prawn cake), siew mai or pork dumplings and steamed char siew bau. The dumplings were delicious. The bau was soft and fluffy and the filling was nicely balanced – not too sweet nor watery. We than had steamed spare ribs. Steamed spare ribs is one of our favourites. This one is steamed with black bean sauce. And of course, my sister ordered her steamed chicken feet. She orders that all the time as chicken feet is not easy to prepare. A lot of work goes into it. So it is easier to have it in the restaurant.
Another dish that takes a long time to prepare is the steamed glutinous rice with chicken, or know as lor mai kai. The rice and seasoned chicken is steam in a bowl. It is tipped over onto a plate, with the chicken on top and is served with chilli sauce
We also ordered the fried flat rice noodles ( or tua pan koay teow) which is a Penang speciality. I must say that the noodles was really good, tasty with the sauce having the right consistency. There were generous amounts of tender chicken, squid and prawns.It was aromatic- filled with the ‘wok qi’, a flavour that can only be produced by the fierce flames when cooking with a wok. This is usually only available with commercial burners. Further more, it was served with preserved green chilli. I am from the old school and I prefer this with preserved green chillies and not chilli belachan.
Then came the trolley with the fried food. As we were watching our weight ( we like to believe), we only had the baked char siew bau, or sio bau. The filling is char siew but the dough is flaky and it is baked, not steam. However the sio bau pastry was not really flaky, though.
On the whole the meal was delicious. However, I found that the there was too much sugar in the food and it got a bit queasy.
The price was really reasonable. Well, this is a no-nonsense food outlet and there is no super duper service. To be fair, the service in this sort of restaurant is considered as good – prompt and friendly enough.
Conclusion:
It is a reasonably priced restaurant with good food. No fancy décor, just plain seating space. Good value for money.
You should try it when you are in Penang.
