NOW REGULAR READERS OF MY BLOG WILL KNOW THAT I am more often than not positive about the places I write about, as I think it's a bit unfair to impose my own relatively exacting standards on others who may be more easy going than me. HOWEVER there are times when even this is too low, and yesterday's visit to the Kedai Kopi Public in Gurney Drive was a good example.
We were in town waiting to see someone so decided to pop in as we passed by at about 6pm. In my eternal quest for a good Hokkien Mee, I decided to try one. After all, I hadn't had much to eat that day, and dinner wasn't till at least 9pm.
That's what I was served (top pix) ... well I have to say it was probably one of the worst, if not the worst, Hokkien Mees I've ever had in my life, apart from the ones served abroad which of course couldn't be helped.
First of all, it cost RM5 for a bowl - and all I could see were a few extra TINY prawns, which weren't even prepared the way it should be for Hokkien Mee ie fried with a bit of chilli paste until dry-ish. When I went, "RM5?!!" her reply was, "Yes, it says so on the front of my stall."
Secondly, it was LUKEWARM. Now who in their right minds would serve a bowl of noodle soup less than piping hot? Without wishing to digress into the topic of food hygiene etc, it is without a doubt safer to eat street food which is so hot that most, if not all, the bacteria has been killed. This was positively unsafe.
Having paid RM5 for it, one of course could not justify leaving it so I did try a bit - to find it not just lukewarm but bland and tasteless. The miserly prawns were a disgrace. In fact, after a couple of mouthfuls I gave up. What a waste of money the whole experience was. The pix above is what I left behind: canny Penangites will understand how bad it must have been for me to leave all that uneaten!
So I took a drink of my Iced Lime. Now it's not difficult, I don't think, to make a simple Iced Lime - one just takes a couple of limes, add some syrup, crushed ice and a bit of water and voila! A glass of iced lime. You would think. You know how sometimes in posh restaurants when you ask for plain water they try and dress it up with a couple of slices of lemon thrown into the jug? Well, that's what this tasted like. And they charged me RM1.60 or something for it.
Their saving grace was the Char Kuey Teow Mac had was acceptable, and it cost just RM3.00.
However, if there is one place I would NOT recommend anyone go to for Hokkien Mee or Iced Lime, it is the Pubic Kopi Tiam in Gurney Drive, especially not when Penang has a thousand other better places to go to. I'm the first one to put my hand up and say hawkers really work hard for their living, and I am all for supporting them. However, some stalls shouldn't be allowed to continue as they really just give Penang such a bad name. Some visitors to Gurney Drive may not know any better, so I think it's a case of "cham pak kai" - chopping the white chicken - but it shouldn't be.
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