FAIRY GODMOTHER?

THE OTHER NIGHT we had nothing on, so a group of us decided to get together and have something to makan locally. That's one of the problems I find about Penang - once we're ensconced up this part of town, nothing short of a free taxi ride (there and back!) will make me move out of here in the evenings. It's partly because of the traffic going in, particularly around the Tg Tokong stretch near the McDonald's traffic light, which can be so bad it comes to a standstill at weekends. It's also partly once we make it into George Town, there's nowhere to park!





So we were trawling around for ideas as to where to eat (and me a food writer, shame shame!) when we suddenly hit upon the new KAI MA, the old Yyu Yuan which went bust after less than a year in business. (Which to be frank wasn't surprising because although they were actually quite popular and busy, it got to the stage where service was just awful; we went there once and Mac ordered a mixed grill and I had a Hor Fun; mine arrived after about half an hour and Mac was still waiting 15 minutes after that. He finally stormed off in a huff and vowed never to go back again.) It's the same row as the Ambank/Maybank in Tg Bungah, so we thought we'd give it a go.





The GOOD thing is that it was VERY quiet; there were barely 2 or 3 tables taken in the double-fronted restaurant, which meant for a change there WAS parking out front. And because there was no business, the food came quite quickly, and the service was attentive. After all, you do want them to come back, don't you.

The not-so-good news was that the food was rather pricey, I thought. It now just does Chinese food, because, as is obvious from above, the kitchen just can't cope with two types of cuisines. There's quite a large menu, offering dishes in 3 different sizes: S, M, L. But the smalls start at about RM10 for vegetables, and RM15 for meats.

As there were 5 of us we decided to order everything in S so we could have a bigger choice: Fried Beans with Minced Pork, Taufu with Salted Fish, Pork in a hotpot, fried mixed veg, and steamed fish teowchew style.






The taufu with salted fish didn't taste of salted fish and was too gooey. The pork was tasty but too dry - a bit of "chiap" would have been good, and came in a tiny little pot. The fish was also tasty, tart and soupy, but the fish had been frozen before I think; it had that taste which fresh fish doesn't have.





The Fried Beans was OK, but we didn't have quite enough to eat so ordered a final Hor Fun which was not bad.






Together with a large Tiger, the bill came to RM125 which I thought was a bit excessive, as it wasn't really that brilliant. All in all, not A1 experience and although I would go back if only just because it's not very busy, it certainly wouldn'tbe my top choice. Having said that, I do believe Penang is getting quite expensive and most places are starting to charge more now.