Sunday, February 15, 2009

Keeping the faith, Little India, Penang

The morning after jubilant Thaipusam took the roads of Penang, it was time for Memo's annual pilgrimage to the temple of Banana Leaf Rice at Sri Ananda Bahwan in Little India.


Nothing much tops the excitement upon having the leaf placed in front of you, a blank canvas of the most organic, aromatic faith.


The best vegetarian meal one could ask for, really.


Fried bitter gourd, a tad too battered for me.


Our misstep of the day. This vegetarian cauliflower dish was rather bland and uninteresting and this humble serving (for 3 pax allegedly) came up to RM10.50.


The original Sri Ananda Bahwan, not at all like the suburban flavours served up at its sister outlet in Tanjung Bungah.


We spied at the corner of nearby King Street a stall serving up some deep fried goodies for the hot, sleepy afternoon ahead.


On the way home, we chanced upon the lovely local sakura tree (botanic nomenclature unidentified), which flowers all but once every 12 months, in full bloom. These sakura trees are rare to come by; we spotted this at Jalan Loh Boon Siew, off Burmah Road (before the turnoff to Chinese Recreation Club).


We round up our afternoon out, sinking our teeth into crunchy, greasy vegetarian samosa, our guts sated and our individual faiths restored.

10 comments:

backStreetGluttons said...

I have never tried banana leaf rice vegetarian. Never occured to me as BLR to me is always golden fried fish and chickens , with all 4 curries on rice !

toni

Selba said...

I really want to try the Indian food on banana leaf, it must be really yummy.

-j- said...

i like the food there but it sometimes get a little too pricey!!! especially when ta-pau

HairyBerry said...

so, the aromatic banana leaf is one of the ingredients in your 500ml jar of faith? cool! too bad for the medicore lunch by yay on the sakura! welcome spring (in malaysia..hehe)! :)

Ciki said...

the gourd felt bitter that he was nearly battered to death (!) :P

minchow said...

BSG, same deal for me... always a challenge for me to keep to my vegetarian pledge, with all the fish and chicken in the vicinity! This time it was somehow easier as practically everyone in the restaurant that day were vegetarian post-Thaipusam.

Selba, it IS very yummy!

Duckie, they've hiked up their prices by miles since the early days. Meals here can become quite obscenely priced.

Nic, yes the jar of faith contains many ingredients that need to be refuelled and revisited ;-) Will miss the sight of those sakura bloom when I head back to the city!

Ciki, LOL! If vegetables could speak, I am sure the gourd would have expressed exactly that!

Anonymous said...

I liked the food. I remembered the first time I had banana leaf rice. I requested for the fork & spoon...felt kind of weird and also malu when some of the other customers kept looking at me.

J2Kfm said...

eh?
Ananda Bhawan vege restaurant meh?
here in Ipoh got lotsa meat also.

Anonymous said...

i miss this banana leaf.. just had one yesterday for lunch at subang, it was not very nice :( expensive too, RM10..

Precious Pea said...

I still have not develop the passion for BLR after 2 bad experiences which ended me with tummy upset. Why those i tried never look as good as those you guys blogged??????