Eat what, Eat where?: Choon Prawn Mee House @ Paramount Garden

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Choon Prawn Mee House @ Paramount Garden

I had eaten Choon's Prawn Mee when he operated his stall from O & S Restaurant and many food blogs sing praises of his prawn mee. So, when I recently read an article (in the papers) that the owner of Choon Prawn Mee House @ Paramount Garden has now opened his own restaurant (in November 2013) just a stone's throw away from his former location (on the same row as O & S Restaurant), we decided to sample his prawn mee again one Sunday morning.

With his own restaurant, he is now able to offer a variety of Penang specialities instead of just prawn mee.

As my husband and son do not fancy prawn mee, they ordered Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang and Nasi Lemak with Squid.

Both are priced @ RM8.50 and both were below par...and the "ikan bilis" (fried dried anchovies) were not even crunchy. As this place specialises in prawn mee, I wasn't expecting their nasi lemak to be good anyway. [#Tip: Again I say, Chinese hawkers don't make good nasi lemak!]

My order of Prawn Mee with Pork Ribs and Intestines @ RM12 came with half a hard-boiled egg, water spinach, bean sprouts, 3 small prawns, 3 pork ribs (not more than 1 1/2 inch in length) and a fair bit of pork intestines. The prawn broth was full of prawn flavour although a tad sweet. But what I couldn't get over was the 3 measly small prawns, hello....this is prawn mee! Where's the prawns??? I was hoping for a few more...not just 3 small ones! The pork ribs were tender but the pork intestines were just one layer and not the multi-layered type that I liked. Even the fried shallots, sprinkled on top, seemed to taste like those store bought ones.

Another thing that intrigued me was the noodles that I was served that day (I ordered meehoon + mee) were broken up (like they've been cut to shorter lengths) and not the long strands that I'm accustomed to...why it was like that, I don't know, but I don't like it!

Their traditional prawn mee is RM6.50....but I wonder how many prawns you'll get for this price?

I also ordered a plate of "Lor Bak" @ RM12 for sharing. It came with 2 strips of "lor bak" (marinated minced pork rolls wrapped in thin bean curd sheets and deep fried), fried tau fu, 4 slices of century eggs and fresh cucumber. The lor bak was decent but the century egg yolks were not the soft, gooey type that I liked and the pickled ginger was not the thinly sliced, fresh, young ginger I came to expect.

My glass of "Kopi-O Ping" (Iced Black Coffee) costs RM3.00 (so expensive and it wasn't even good) and a bowl of "fu chuk yee mai" (barley + bean curd sheets) was RM2.50.

My Personal Opinion

OK, I admit I've already eaten this prawn mee before (when they were still at O & S Restaurant) and I should know what it tastes like but that was a long time ago. Even then, it was not my favourite prawn mee but it was acceptable for the price of like RM5 a bowl.

But, after reading a rather good review in the Star papers recently, I came with higher expectations of a good prawn me and, sadly, it was not meant to be.

If you don't mind average prawn mee, you can give this place a try but, for me, their prawn mee fell short of expectations in some 'departments' (prawns...too few, pork intestines...not multi-layered, noodles...broken up). At RM6.50 - RM12 a bowl, I expected more!