The Solace of the Slaves at Sin Kee, Brickfields

Some weekday evenings, I step out of the office and blend right into the parade of the battered and soiled, having clocked another day of being a functioning, serving member of society. On these nights, I can turn only to food that takes me back to age 7, when being functional was considered a precocious trait, not a prerequisite.

Sin Kee, an establishment as old as Conformity itself, reaches out to derelict, empty souls pining for our weekends, our secret projects and predilections. Fat Tulip and I arrive on Tuesday evening to a near full house of hungry folks with that haunting vacant stare, made even more unrelenting by the stark fluorescent lighting.

The Mun Fan (Stewed Pork Rice) comforts as the worn bowl is lifted, unveiling rice laced with the goodness of pork, Chinese sausages, egg and lettuce. On any other night, I would have turned my nose at this because this isn't a spectacular dish by any means, but it's a brand of soothing therapy to the bitter working class like no other.

I can't remember the last time the Sweet & Sour Pork made an appearance on my plate but I order it instinctively, assailed by the memory of the same dish being lovingly prepared by Mom for us three pesky, picky kids. While this revives us somewhat, we struggle to finish the huge portion of battered meat.

The Chicken Chop is a delight, boneless tenderness doused in brown gravy and baked beans and home fried potatoes. The weekend doesn't feel THAT far away now, we think.

We finish with a perfunctory vegetable dish, Long Beans & Brinjal in Sambal. This is too oily and too robust for our liking for by this time, we have too many different flavours on the table confusing our humble palates.

Fat Tulip pays his respects as we depart to seek solace in our fitful sleep. It won't be the last time that we will need Sin Kee's nourishing, almost parental embrace.

Keep it Simple Stupid, Hai Onn Reminds

Hai Onn made it to the top of my to-eat list during my last Penang trip, after repeated reminders from the island quarters of its nostalgic charm, the way real old Penang used to be before it too became all about colossal malls and grotesque "beautification" projects.

We had been warned that service here was notoriously slow, on account of the kitchen & floor team of largely octogenarians, whose pace of life remained staunchly pre-war.

We arrived just a little after noon, hoping to beat the lunch crowd and hopefully keep the waiting time to under an hour. While we waited for the white-haired auntie to shuffle slowly to the back of the kitchen to shout out our orders, the resident Lor Bak stall, already fired up, kept the anxiety & hunger pangs away. The fried tofu cubes were remarkably silky and palatable. A very well-prepared plate of goodies.

To evade Mom's questions about my current love life at the table, I went around checking out the vintage nooks and crannies around the shop. Fittings like these historical electric switches practically commanded a kind of reverential salute.

After about 30 minutes, the Roti Babi arrived. Hai Onn's version was the real deal, packed full of the turnip-carrot-shrooms-and-pork filling heavily accented by five spice. None of the halal sort that you would find at Senior Citizens' or Chinese Recreation Club, the other two places in Penang that immediately came to mind.

Shortly after, the Chicken Chop arrived, the crunchy egg batter languishing in simmering gravy. The sight of this excited me to no end, but to be perfectly honest, the taste hardly justified the wait or the anticipation. This was rather colourless as a dish, the gravy plain starchy and paltry.

Same deal with the Pork Chop which featured tough, overcooked, underseasoned pork tenderloin and same monotonous gravy. We discussed our disappointment later and figured that the simple taste of yesteryears probably got hopelessly lost on our spoilt and over-fostered tastebuds, much like the haphazard development blueprints for the island. Either that or the octogenarians are losing it!

The Hokkien Char looked handsome, but again tasted as dull as hospital food. Struggled to finish this and eventually gave up.

The Sambal Kangkung was the only dish that arrived with too much flavouring. In fact, it was wayyyy too spicy and salty that it ended up a nice pairing to the weak noodles.

Despite being a generally mediocre meal, I was glad to have paid a visit. I hope it sticks around for generations to come, if only to remind Penang what potential it once had, as the rest of the island sinks into utter disrepair playing catch-up.

Sin Kheng Aun, Lorong Chulia

We visited yet another of Papa Chow's oldie-but-goodies, Sin Kheng Aun off Chulia Street a few nights ago. Papa refers to it as the "70-year old" restaurant although a quick search on the Internet reveals that Sin Kheng Aun was established in 1941, which makes it 67 years old. Close enough, I suppose.

We had the usual staples. I was still reeling from a (horrid) heavy lunch with Mei Shean so I was really dragging my feet here. Luckily Fat Tulip was in the house and he's very good at polishing up remnants.

Stir fried tofu and leek. My position on leek remains, i.e. do not understand it, did not touch it.

Hainanese chicken chop. Grease, chicken and spuds... what's to complain?

Curry pomfret. To be honest, we've been over-doing the curry fish of late. I am divided on this -I'm not a fan of the use of pomfret in curry but I can' fault the classic-ness of this dish.

Assam Prawns. Lovely, juicy, flawless. Still, if I had to pick, I would go for Hot Wok's.

Cabbage soup with fishballs and meatballs. Really nondescript. It tastes of nothing but boiled cabbages. Which is not a good thing in my books.

Nice enough meal, and yes we'll be back but in the mean time, a break from visiting the old, old haunts would be nice, eh?