I’ve long wanted to try the ayam penyet (crushed/smashed chicken) at this place in Bandong here where I buy my nasi lemak and all the Malay kuihs in the morning but I never had the chance to do so. Finally, last Saturday evening, I decided to drive past the area to see what they had…and to my delight, even at around 6.00 p.m. they had already started their business for the evening…and there were already quite a number of people eating there.
I noticed that there were a lot of them eating some kind of fish dish and I wanted to try that, so I ended up ordering the ayam penyet (RM6.50)..
…for my missus only.
It came with some rice wrapped in banana leaf…
…which gave it a pleasant special fragrance and by the side, there were some keropok (rice crackers), a very small piece of tempeh (a soya bean product), a bit of sambal cili (chilli sauce) and some bits of raw veg.
The chilli did not have any belacan (dried prawn paste) in it and did not go down too well with the raw veg to eat as ulam…and the keropok was a bit limp (lau hong/masuk angin). The tempeh was nice but there was simply too little of it. My missus thought the chicken was hard and over-fried and she could not figure out what it was that they had sprinkled on it…and they did not clobber the chicken as in the case of the ayam penyet elsewhere. The final verdict was that it was a disappointment and what she had here (RM5.00) and here (RM16.90) were a whole lot better.
I had what they called pecel lele (RM5.50)…
…which is originally an Indonesian dish with a fried catfish served similarly with the other condiments that came with their ayam penyet.
The fish was really very nice…
…and I must say that I enjoyed it despite the same complaints about the condiments in the ayam penyet dish.
All in all, unless I happen to be in the vicinity, I certainly would think twice about going back there again as the food is kind of pricey for an open air roadside eatery and even the drinks, iced lemon tea at RM1.60 a glass, are more expensive than at the regular kopitiam (coffee shop) in town.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 