Waroeng Penyet, The Curve

I had heard ayam penyet being raved about to the nth degree and had gotten increasingly aggravated by its absence in Penang so when the opportunity came up for us to swing into the Curve off our road journey for a late lunch, we did so without further thought.

Ayam penyet is apparently Indonesian in origin, and means chicken that has been flattened before it's fried. The Waroeng Penyet outlet in the Curve, its first in Malaysia, is relatively new. Its menu offers plenty of other dishes including grilled fish, ayam panggang, gado-gado etc. but we were there for ayam and by golly, ayam it was!

Both Fat Tulip and I had the one order of Ayam Penyet each, which came with rice. The chicken came fried and topped with batter, accompanied by fried tempe and bean curd (tau kua) and garnished with some sides of raw vegetables and special flaming hot sambal. Now the chicken was good, there's no disputing this whatsoever. But I had heard so much about it and had looked forward to it with such profuse anticipation that anything, I suspect, would have fallen short. I didn't think the chicken tasted "flattened" but then I did ask for breast, and not drumstick so I may have compromised on some tenderness there. Also, I found it a tad too dry to eat with rice alone.

We decided to add on an order of Soto Ayam. This turned out somewhat bland and watery. I imagined Soto Ayam to be of a thicker, richer consistency than plain clear soup but perhaps I'd been mistaken.
I wouldn't be in a hurry to get off the North South highway for this, although Fat Tulip loved it and threatened to polish off another order.