Location : Kafe Khoon Hiang, Jalan Dato Keramat/Corner with Jalan Dunlop, Penang. Opening hours are from 8am till 2pm and their closing day is Thursday. It’s situated in the same neighbourhood as Padang Brown food court and Kedai kopi Classic. A highly recommended area for food lovers.
Anyway, after some 12+ visits in 5 years, [trying to make that now a 4 times visit per year] I’ve made up my mind about the Penang Char Koay Teow. It’s basically a great dish but at some places it’s way overrated. So, I stopped asking for the special or extra add-on stuff, as I personally feel that the basic dish is the right one. No need for extra big shrimps or prawns, neither for (too sweet) mantis prawns. Just K.I.S.S. = keep it stupid simple.
I’ve had the CKT at various places and personally I prefer it with regular chicks… Oops, I mean chicken eggs, instead of duck eggs. Anyone out there tried with goose egg? (Grin).
Thus, when we made our way to Ah Leng, I already knew I was going for the regular dish and boy, THE WORKS! It was simply a great treat!
Tastewise? The fast frying-and-tossing-noodles technique of the wokmeister plus a professional handling of the heat, resulted in a most delicious Char Koay Teow dish. Malaysia, truly Asia? CKT: truly Penang!
Another stall in the same Kafe was selling Hokkien Mee. As I’m a big fan of that dish, I could not resist and ordered a bowl.
It looked very nice but after tasting, it was a bit of a disappointment. Not spicy, not sour, the soup tasted sweet. A pity for sure, but then again, who am I to judge? Lots of people, looking like regulars, came and ordered the Hokkien Mee. So, lets agree to disagree and accept that personal taste is very different from person to person.
Ah Leng CKT is one of my favorite place to be in whenever I feel like having a plate of CKT.