CRC Chinese Restaurant, Penang

I know. You are asking - where is the Penang char koay teow? What about the asam laksa? Or any other food Penang is famous for? KL/PJ got no Chinese restaurants kah?

Relax. I will come to that shortly. You see, the natives Penangites  are not too excited about char koay teow or asam laksa or whatever that people outside Penang are excited about. To them, these things are biasa biasa only (ordinary). That's what my partner told me. And that's what his sister told me too. 

I get it. Just like me being cool about nasi dagang or nasi minyak or keropok lekor (but I still eat these things like mad when I return to KT). So for them, when it's time to makan besar with family, naturally they want to go to a good Chinese restaurant. 

So on my partner's suggestion, it was dinner at CRC Chinese Restaurant.

It was me, him, his 3 sisters and a brother-in-law. On the suggestion of the server and some of our own choices, these were what we had.

One unique dish was a version of too tor thng (pig stomach soup) where a chicken is stuffed into pig's stomach and boiled in soup. 

The stuffed pig's stomach is served separately from the soup and the server cuts the pig's stomach and chicken at the table.

It looked quite a mess but it was delicious. I liked it a lot!

Then not to be missed is the asam fish. My partner's order. 

Very nice! Like he said, I would enjoy this very much and I did. It has been ages since I had asam fish. This one tastes quite close to my grandma's version.

This tofu dish was very heavy with sauces. Nice to eat with rice.

What is special about it is that it is layered with minced pork.

I love this dragon vegetable. Garlicky and full of wok hei.

This one I'm afraid is not my favorite - tang-o. It has a very strong smell. It's a favorite of my partner's eldest sister. I ate though I was not fond of it because I generally eat any vegetables and the last thing I want is to appear picky at the table. Oh no, I am not picky at all!

That was a sumptuous dinner. Then don't forget dessert which if I remember correctly was on the house.

Oh dear. Another thing I am not fond of. Herbal jelly. Though it was cool and refreshing, the taste and aroma was quite strong.

You want to know what I had for lunch? Well, that's coming up next.