Thursday 19 September 2019

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.

20 comments:

  1. Assam fish. I like that. No to pig stomach!!

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    1. hah..hah.. I remember you mentioned you don't like innards.

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  2. this looks sumptuous indeed - the kind of classic celebratory dishes that could certainly be served at a penang wedding banquet in the 1980s! :)

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  3. What's the occasion? Looks like you went over to Penang for some kind of special celebration.

    I would love that asam fish, looks good. Everyone's crazy about that dragon vegetable, it seems - see so many people ordering that at restaurants. Personally, not thrilled by it, many other nicer vegetables...like our midin or cangkuk manis. I may have had that tang-o before, probably liked it a lot more than the dragon veg.

    Tofu layered with minced pork sounds good, never had that pig stomach before - sounds exciting! LOL!!!

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    1. Just a family dinner. The food at this restaurant is very good. I see many customers enjoying their dinner with family. I wish we had midin over here.

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  4. Assam fish, pig stomach soup, dragon vegetable...love, love, love. Would be eating lots more dragon vegetable if only they weren't so expensive. :(
    Tong-oh, herbal jelly...hate, hate, hate. I won't be able to 'stomach' these two even if I wanted to...yuck.
    You see what I mean, we have very similar tastebuds! ;)
    That beancurd with minced pork is similar to the one I had at a tai chow place in my taman.
    6 people...5 dishes (even though they're somewhat big)...that don't sound like you (of course you weren't the one ordering)...wakakakakaka! :D If you, it'd be 2 persons, 4 dishes..lol!

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    1. hah..hah.. you like what I like and dislike want I dislike :) The dishes were big enough to go all around hee..hee...

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  5. same here, I dislike tong-oh and herbal jelly....perhaps next time u can just let ur partner to have them on ur behalf...lol!
    assam fish is my fav dish of all the above.

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  6. oh, I like all the dishes here especially the too tor thng and tang-o and also the assam fish. If they serve these dishes for lunch too, I will eat lunch at this place when I next visit Penang.

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    1. Hope you get to visit. You will enjoy the food.

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  7. I like too tor thng especially for its peppery taste, my mom used to cook very nice too tor thng but a lot of work. I been to penang before but did not get to eat all the nice local food as nobody to bring us around. No to herbal jelly too.

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    1. Maybe your next vacation you can go to Penang hee..hee.

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  8. Everything I like including the herbal jelly. I wonder what is tang-o vegetable.

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    1. It's that green strong smelling vege. When I was small, that was the vegetable served with steamboat.

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  9. There really are so many choices in Penang!

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    1. Yes, indeed! I would love to explore more :)

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  10. I'm definitely picky when comes to vegetables but there are two that I don't like - Tang O and capsicum :P

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    1. Oh I see! I am OK with capsicum but not crazy about it.

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