Sungai Ara Zhu Cha

Hello,

People came, people left. That’s working life. It is sad to see some good colleagues leaving. Good thing is, you can enjoy nice farewell lunch with them sometimes :evilsmile: I asked myself sometimes, “What is the purpose of having farewell meal? Enjoy the food or enjoy last moment with fellow colleague?”. Anyway, today I bring you to a Chinese restaurant in Sungai Ara, Penang, namely…. Sungai Ara Zhu Cha in which we celebrated a colleague’s farewell there.

Seriously I was not sure about the actual restaurant name. It opens in the afternoon and there is another stall just beside it called Seng Cheong Seafood (胜昌海鲜) opening at night. Workers in Bayan Baru/Bayan Lepas area should be familiar with this place. It is famous with its Spicy and Sour Fish Rice Noodle Soup (酸辣面) (RM20 for 3 pax). The noodle soup is rich in ingredient, such as lemon grass, tomato, pickles (Kiam Chai), Chinese cabbage, celery, ginger, etc until you can see the rice noodle. Taste good and is a must try.

The restaurant is famous with various kind of noodle. We have oyster noodle (蚝面) (RM12.00 for 2 pax) ordered that day… another not bad dish. Came with fresh prawns, the oyster was fresh.

We even had pork knuckles noodle (猪脚面) (RM15.00 for 2 pax). The reflective dark soup made this dish attractive. However, we found that the pork knuckles were limited and torn into small pieces. I prefer to have one big portion of pork knuckles came with bone and skin so that I can slowly chewing and sucking it…. oh yeah.

Shang Mee (生面) (RM12.00 for 2 pax) is another recommended dish. The noodle was fried to crispy before pour with base soup with egg white. Best part was that it came with big prawns.

Other than noodles, we also ordered Balacan Chicken (Dried Shrimp Paste Fried Chicken) (RM16.00). Not bad as well as the chicken was tender considering it was deep fried.

As usual, a plate of mixed vegetable (RM12.00) to convince that we did take veggie that day.

Before I forgot, you should order its Nutmeg with Sour Plum juice (豆蔻酸梅水). I remembered once I took nutmeg drink somewhere else and my throat felt funny (like syndrome before you get sore throat) after that…  probably too sweet or too much artificial. This is not the case for this restaurant and it tastes good.

As a whole, the restaurant provides signature and nice food, especially their noodle series, at affordable price. The restaurant can be crowded during lunch time but there is an ample parking space just in front of it. To make reservation, please call on or before 11am.