Sunday, December 2, 2007

Penyet Craze

Beware Hainanese chicken rice, you have a challenger! Mind you, they are hot and fierce~! They can "penyet" (smash) you anytime !!! I am talking about Ayam Penyet, the Indonesian Fried Chicken Rice. So, just chicken rice what, what is the smashing here and there about? Well, just before serving, they will smash the crispy fried chicken pieces so that it will be more tender.

I am not sure if they have been here in Singapore for a very long time. I only came to know about this kind of chicken rice this year. The first time I had it was at Hong Lim Food Centre. Ok, actually, don't really remember if it was Hong Lim, just this hawker centre at CBD, can't really remember the place. :P Anyway, I saw a lot people eating this fried chicken rice served in a wooden bowl. The chicken pieces looked big though, so hungry me practically walked all over the hawker centre trying to locate the stall.

In the end, I managed to find it at an ordinary looking Malay stall. See below. It cost $3.50, still reasonable. The taste was not really good. I mean the chicken has not much flavour and the sauce is peanuty and rich. I think it is a bit too much to accompany the oily fried chicken. So it is really disappointing. . . Then



One such stall opened at Novena Sq selling Ayam Penyet and they claimed that they are from Indonesia, so will be authentic. Curious me just has to try the so called authentic Ayam Penyet which by the way cost $6.50. It turned out to be good! The so called real Ayam Penyet is really nice!!! I especially love their chili sauce as it is very spicy and is tangy. Just nice to cut the oiliness of the fried chicken !

When I say it is spicy, it is really spicy. Do go easy with their sauce if you are not good with chili.

Chicken marinated with typical malay spices taste nice even without the chili sauce. It was accompanied with Kang Kong and their special mix chili. Sedap!!! I had two servings of Chili sauce. :P (Yummy) See picture below.

Although it is nice, but cannot eat too often. I remember having ulcers just days after eating it. Must be the fried chicken and the spicy chili...

So Chili Lovers, I strongly recommend you to go try out their Ayam Penyet @ Ayam Penyet RIA, but after eating don't forget to drink liang teh.

They also have Ikan Pomfet Penyet (don't think they really smash the fish), Embal Penyet (Beef) etc. Got website, can click here to check it out.

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