Pig Skin White Curry Noodle LWas deciding on which spot we wanted to hit for lunch on what to have for lunch on a weekday where we were off from work and suddenly recalled the existence of an establishment named White Curry 白咖喱 which we had eyed upon at West Coast since a number of years ago. Turns out, the said establishment had been re-branded some time back to be named as Island Cafe 爱人茶餐厅. For those whom are unaware, White Curry / Island Cafe is actually an establishment by the same folks behind Island Penang Kitchen 南洋槟城茶餐厅which is located within the same HDB block that White Curry / Island Cafe; Island Penang Kitchen being a zichar-style restaurant that is better known for serving up pretty authentic Penang / Malaysian fare that is pretty well-loved by the residents staying around the neighbourhood especially. White Curry was an establishment that initially surrounded its focus around serving up Penang-style White Curry; that being said, the establishment seems to have added quite a number of items to provide patrons with a wider variety of dishes which are exclusively available at White Curry — this is perhaps the reason why White Curry had since been re-branded to Island Cafe to better reflect the establishment’s offerings these days. The menu at Island Cafe is segregated into sections ranging from White Curry Noodle, Bee Hoon Soup, Wanton Noodles, Nasi Lemak and Rice Noodle Rolls; there also dishes like the Curry Drumstick Chicken, Braised Pork Rice, and Hainanese-style breakfast toasts available as well — the list of beverages available at Island Cafe would include Traditional Kopi & Teh, homemade beverages (think Nutmeg Juice, Liang Teh, Soya Milk etc.), canned drinks and Milo.
One notable thing about the Penang-style White Curry Noodles that Island Cafe has to offer is that they do have quite number of meat options to go for — this includes chicken, char siew and a seafood variant; there is also a Special White Curry Noodle available as well, though judging from the price tag quoted, should be a variant that comprises of all the different meat options in one bowl and the one to order if one wishes to try all of the meat options in a single seating. We reckon that the Special White Curry Noodle is a little too much for us, and we went for the Pig Skin White Curry Noodle instead. Another interesting to note is how one can choose to opt out of cockles in their white curry noodles here; there is a price difference of $1 if one chooses to opt out of it — something which we decided to go for since we are not too much of a fan of cockles anyway. Patrons will be presented with an electronic buzzer which they will paged to collect the order from the counter once the food is ready to be served. First impressions of the Pig Skin White Curry Noodle was how it looked like a typical curry noodle dish even when it came to the colours of the curry gravy; Island Cafe does not describe on the elements that comes with the Pig Skin White Curry Noodle in the menu, but it is noted that the Pig Skin White Curry Noodle comes with long beans, fish cake, beancurd puff, beansprouts and pig skin; there is also a dollop of sambal that comes on the side, while the default selection of noodles served is yellow noodles and thin Bee Hoon.
Digging into the Pig Skin White Curry Noodle, we went for the white curry broth here first. What is really evident here that makes the difference between the Penang-style White Curry Noodle against the usual curry noodles that we are more familiar with is the flavours of the broth itself. Some might find the Penang-style White Curry Noodles tasting a little bit less flavoursome than the usual curry noodles which we are more familiar with; we would say that it is cleaner and lighter only because the Penang-style White Curry Noodles are prepared with a prawn-based stock usually — the flavours do tend to be not quite as thick or rich in comparison. While there is coconut milk added to help thicken the gravy a little, we notice the addition of coconut water in the broth that helps to add a slightly saltish note that antes up the flavour of the broth somewhat; the sambal adding more oomph with a savoury note that gives the gravy a little more depth and a hint of spiciness that should be manageable for those tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness without breaking into sweat. We would say that the other elements are pretty ordinary and there is nothing much to mention for the most part about them — that being said, the pig skin is all jelly-like and absorbed the curry gravy pretty well; the same could also be said about the beancurd puffs that absorbed the curry gravy much like a sponge. The yellow noodles does come with a bit of the taste of lye; we didn’t really find it particularly disturbing here since it somewhat adds on to the dimension of flavours going on in the bowl somewhat.
Apart from the Pig Skin White Curry Noodle, we had also went for the Traditional Kaya Butter Toast; their Traditional Kaya Butter Toast are probably the cutest in size we had since it features two slices of skinless bread sandwiching the layers of Pandan Kaya and a slab of butter and served halved in triangles. Despite the appearance, we liked how the toast was crisp; the slab of butter comes salted with a flavour almost akin to that of melted cheese — the butter also being a little melted from the temperature of the toast, though we wished they were a little more generous with the Pandan Kaya for a better balance. We also went for the Classic Mocha; basically their rendition of the Hor Ka Sai which features an Ipoh White Coffee base — very punchy coffee notes with a good balance of chocolate-y notes from the Milo. We hadn’t been to Penang to give try the authentic Penang-style White Curry a go, nor have we been exposed to enough Penang-style White Curry around the island to tell if the version at Island Cafe does meet the mark; after all, there are really only a small handful of establishments that do offer the dish — this includes the newly-opened Penang Chendul that had recently sprouted up in the Food Republic at 313@Somerset. That being said, considering how authentic the food is at Island Penang Kitchen, we would think that the Penang-style White Curry Noodle at Island Cafe is a competent one to say the least. Looking forward to give their Nasi Lemak a go some day though; their Nasi Lemak featuring yellow rice that seems to be more similar to Nasi Kuning / Kunyit — a spot that we are likely to make a revisit soon!