Street western food is another type of meal that storm the hawker and street food scene in Penang. When we mention about western food, it’s more likely chicken chop and fish n’ chips that come across our mind. There are many types of western food, ranging from fine dining style western food, or even McDonald’s is consider as western food as it’s origin from the west. But here in Penang, an Asian city, western food among the locals are these street style western food serving at hawker centre that the food are prepared ala Asian style and at a low price. Asian tweak the western dishes to suit local’s taste buds and the local surprisingly love it.
There’s quite a few famous street western foods like James Foo, Tip Top, LK, Chef Delight’s around in Penang. James Foo was once a favourite but after renovation it’s not really attracting me to there anymore due to the noisyness crowds and over crowded environment. A pro-foodhunter in Penang – Criz Lai, recently introduced a street western food corner to me, it’s the Diner’s Choice Western Food that is located at Gerbang Erskine, Mount Erskine.
It is a hidden gem in a quiet housing neighbourhood. Many people might not know about that place but not me as I was surprised that it’s just near to where my grandma lives. I was aware about this mini coffee house, but didn’t know that they do serve nice western food. After the recommendation, I quickly went to try it out as I was craving for western food so much.
They serve a wide variety of food ranging from chicken, seafood, lamb and steaks too.
We started our meal with a plate of mushroom soup (RM5). In the surprise, the mushroom soup was welly presented with nice cream art on top of the creamy brownish mushroom soup, serve with a slice of toasted garlic bread. It just created a sense of classy soup which blends with the hearty feel of the neighbourhood coffee house. The soup was in fact better than what’s at James Foo’s and there’s like tiny mushroom in it which enlighten my mouth. The garlic bread was crispy and well eaten with a little dip in the salty mushroom soup.
When asking about my favourite street western food, it’s always is the Chicken Cordon Bleu (RM8.50) which is actually stuffed chicken with ham/sausage and cheese in it. At Diner’s Choice, it’s a full loaded ham stuffed in the deep fried chicken and the creamy and waterish cheese filled the inner chicken. The presentation of the food was nice with french fries, garlic bread and vegetable salad as side dishes. It may look small in portion, but it’s just enough to fill your stomach. The gravy was their special BBQ sauce which tasted sweet. In compare to James Foo’s, I felt James Foo is somehow better, but with it’s nice presentation and price, I will go back to this again.
Oriental Chicken Chop (RM7.50) is a dish that available at all street western food locally. Despite the wide availability and simple-ness of the food, people still like eating the battered chicken with oriental sauce and fries. The battered chicken, deep fried and poured with the same sauce as the Chicken Cordon Bleu was serve with fries, bread and vegetable salad too. Unfortunately, in comparison to the one at Little Cottage Cafe, it doesn’t sports the crispiness that the one at Little Cottage Cafe has. It’s just not crispy but to give a comment about it, the sauce make it tasted good. I prefer chicken chop with a crispy crunchy feel.
Overall, this is a hidden gem that you may want to discover. It’s my new favourite street western food place as the price wise and taste are pretty good and I will surely visit this place again for some mouth watering local style Asian food.
Diner’s Choice Western Food
1, Gerbang Erskine (Erskine Grove),
Mt. Erskine,
10470 Penang.
Tel: +6016-4552082
Business Hours: 5pm-11pm (Closed Thursday)
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