Laksa feast

Last Friday night, Jac and I had dinner with C and P at Penang Foods Restaurant (175 William St, Northbridge). C had told Jac and me about the fantastic laksa, and we were really eager to try it. I arrived first – I’d walked around the shops in town after work – and as soon as I walked into the restaurant, the glorious smell of curry laksa hit me. I waited impatiently for my dining companions to arrive, drooling in anticipation of a delicious dinner. Luckily, I didn’t have long to wait before the others arrived and the eating began.

Jac had coconut juice (AU$3.00), which was served in a tall glass complete with slices of coconut meat. I presume this was the coconut juice + coconut meat you can buy in a can. Jac’s quite fond of it.

Coconut juice

I ordered lemon, lime and bitters (AU$3.50). I’d expected a bottled LLB, but was pleasantly surprised to be given the real thing, with a dash of bitters at the bottom of the glass.

Lemon, Lime and Bitters

C ordered cendol, which is on the dessert menu rather than the drinks menu, and served in a bowl, looking rather like ice kacang. Which is also on the menu, by the way!

Cendol

We ordered a serve of loh bak to share. The dish conssted of more than loh bak – there’s also fried tofu, deep-fried battered fish paste, octopus tentacles and cucumber. It was a perfect savoury starter to share between four, especially as our dinners didn’t all arrive at the same time.

Loh bak with fried tofu, fried fish paste and octopus

C, P and I all ordered the house speciality of curry laksa (AU$8.50). I ordered mine medium hot, with mixed noodles (egg noodles and rice noodles). C ordered hers extra extra hot, with mixed noodles. P ordered hers hot, with egg noodles. I was impressed with the generous serving – the bowl was piled high with noodles, chicken, fried tofu and sliced fish cake. The bean sprouts were buried underneath the noodles. The soup had a good, strong curry flavour. I’m glad I ordered mine medium hot – any hotter and I would’ve been in trouble! Similarly, Jac took a taste of hers and was relieved she had ordered hers mild. But C, who even had extra chilli in her noodle soup to make it “extra extra hot” thought her laksa could be even hotter still.

Curry laksa

Jac ordered the seafood curry laksa with mixed noodles. It had big juicy prawns, fried tofu and fish cake in it. As you can see, Jac’s soup was not as vividly orange as my soup – hers had more coconut milk in it, presumably to make it mild.

Seafood curry laksa

We were all absolutely full to bursting by the time we finished. I couldn’t finish all my soup, but I trawled through the dregs and searched the last of the noodle and bean sprout bits to make sure I hadn’t missed any morsels of protein, before declaring I was done. :)

The people at the table next to us had ordered the Hainan chicken rice, and it looked really good. The steamed chicken looked moist and smooth (you know, that smooth, shiny white-skinned Chinese-style steamed chicken? It looked fantastic. We were also keen to try the nasi lemak. I just wish I could’ve ordered all three (laksa, chicken rice and nasi lemak), but that would’ve just been plain gluttony. :)

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