Penang Hawker Food @ Chew Jetty Penang Chiak, Kepong

After I posted about Penang Corner, a reader recommended me to check out Chew Jetty Penang Chiak‘s curry mee at Desa Aman Puri – which I did. Despite already being featured in various newspaper articles, I wouldn’t know such a place existed if it wasn’t for his tip-off. So keep the food recommendations coming and I promise to give them a try whenever I can.

From what I researched the owners of this establishment used to do operate at a food stall in a coffee shop nearby. Eventually their business got so good that they moved into a shop lot to provide a more comfortable environment for their regular customers.
But this also contributed to a slight increase in price, which is acceptable if you ask me since it’s basically a cafe kind of place now with air-condition, proper seats, wifi and more importantly cleaner too.

Their menu is quite extensive but the stubborn me will always go for Curry Mee and Char Koay Teow, especially if I was a first timer. These two dishes are my yardstick for determining the authenticity in Penang food and so far, it has proven to work for me.
While skimming quickly through the 3-page menu I was also pleasantly surprised to find ‘Pat Poh’ in the list of beverages. If you don’t know, ‘Pat Poh’ (eight treasure) is a kind of herbal tea that’s very popular in Penang with a status almost equivalent to KL’s ‘leong sui’. Do give it a try while you’re here because it’s quite uncommon in KL.

My first impression of the Penang Curry Mee @ RM6.50 was “wow, are they serious?” Just look at the generous amount of ingredients they put in a bowl, it’s so much you can’t even see the noodles. Both the soup and chilli paste were spot on though I prefer a spicier kick.
I was particularly impressed by the quality of cockles used here – they were big, plump and fresh. The other ingredients present are faithful to what you’d expect in a bowl of Penang Curry Mee too. There’s cuttlefish, long beans, plenty of tofu pok and small cubes of coagulated pig blood. The only thing that was missing was prawns but I didn’t really care at that point, you can’t have anything and everything.

The Char Koay Teow @ RM6.50 comes in either chicken or duck egg (RM7.50) There must have been a mix up because I was served the chicken egg version although I specifically asked for duck egg. Anyway the Char Koay Teow here is fragrant and decent enough, just a tad more moist than it should be. As you can see they really don’t skimp on the cockles, most of them are as big as a slice of ‘lap cheong’ and not overcooked as well.

Impressed with the food, we returned again on another day to try other things. The Loh Mee @ RM6.50 is one of the signature dish here for a reason, the “loh” (sauce) was rich and extremely flavourful. The noodle portion was big as well.

The Prawn Noodles @ RM6.50 was a delight to have and you could see that the soup has a thick broth, brimming with natural sweetness of prawn and pork. It might cost slightly more than the usual hawker fare but looking at the number of full-sized prawns and pork slices, I think it’s worth it.

Hokkien Char @ RM6.50. You can’t compare this dish with the KL style fried Hokkien Mee because they are totally different. It wasn’t as great as those you’d get in Penang but it was good enough for me. You must have it with the sambal as it is the soul of this dish.

All in all, you could find good and filling Penang hawker food here at extremely reasonable prices and I will definitely return for more. Instagram lovers will certainly appreciate this new playground too thanks to the décor along with various aptly placed knick-knacks.

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