Ayam penyet is delicious!
I think I’m addicted to ayam penyet.
The first time that I ate it was during the hotel hunt with Juli and we stumbled upon this small restaurant, the Ayam Penyet House, next to the Hotel81-Bugis, facing Shaw tower.
The picture doesnt justify how tasty it is
When our dish arrived, it came with large piece of chicken which was deep fried and then smashed with a hammer (penyet means flat in Indonesian/Malay) - covered with a generous amount of chicken flakes and there were some pieces of tempe, cucumbers and a variety of crunchy raw vegetables. The best part was the red hot sambal belacan. It was spicy hot and I love it! Delicious!
My appetite was so whetted that I finished my rice disappered completely in just a few minutes.
Mmm!
Nowadays, there are many hawker centers selling them around the neighbourhood. They are pretty good and I’ve been eating it quite frequently. But I doubt that it could light a candle to the one that we went to at Bugis, namely because their sambal isnt hot enough!
Hot is when your nose starts sniffing and your mouth starts to twinge, your head starts to tinge and then you feel that high.
Yum!
Here is a video of some friends enjoying ayam penyet :
Click here to watch in youtube
Have you ever eaten ayam penyet before? Do you like hot food? And how far is too hot for you?
December 10th, 2006 at 8:14 am
i love it too… *yum yum*
there was once i bought at some bazar and guess what? they served the ayam with plain white rice, one piece of tempe and a few sticks of long beans. pathetic rite?
i have not tried the one at this bugis place. the one i had was at changi and boy, it is really sedap. definitely better than the fake one i had from the bazar…
now you make me want to have this for my breakfast. :p
December 10th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Oh! I’m so jealous. I miss Malaysian food so much. I haven’t tried Ayam Penyet before, I don’t think… but it sounds really good!
Perhaps it’s time to take a trip back for a food fix… *sigh*
December 10th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Ayam penyet at Changi Village was fantastic! :D had some at Pasar Geylang too, but that was pathetic. Shall try the Bugis one when I go there next time.
The hotter, the better. Like you said, when you start sniffling, that’s when you know it’s spicy enough. wld need a lot of water to go along with it tho hehehe. but too hot is when your tongue goes numb and you lose your sense of taste for a while after. but still worth it tho :P
December 11th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Thumbelina,
Just one piece of tempe and a few sticks of long beans? Thats so sad. I hope you didnt pay much for that, because thats just too little stuff there!
The bugis restaurant is an interesting place, the stairs go down instead of up, and you can see people’s feet walking outside as you have your meal hehehe :) Changi is a tad bit too err … far for me, but I might ride my scooter there if I’m adventurous enough!
Gypsy girl,
Its delicious :) I love it!
But can you take hot food? Because the kick is in the extra hot sambal belacan. If its mild, there’s no power to it, And you know what? Who knows, this dish will be so popular that even in Dubai, they serve it. :D
Myztika,
Changi Village? Hmm … Since you and thumbelina recommended it, then maybe I’ll give it a try, with a ride on my scooter ala seetoh from makansutra … heehehe
You know, ironically, the hottest thing I ate wasnt sambal belacan. Instead it was this fateful day when I made a trip to the sushi shop and in my box, I noticed this green paste. I sniffed it. It didnt smell heaty. It looked creamy, so innocently, I took a dollop of the creamy thing and put it in my mouth to taste it.
For a full minute I cant see anything, there was literaly smoke coming out of my nose and my mouth was screaming.
That was my first time eating wasabi. Its such a hard lesson learnt :|
December 13th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Eating spicy hot foods is certainly addicting. I constantly find myself trying to find something hotter then anything I’ve ever had before. Yikes! I’ve had some hot stuff!
Matt
December 14th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Hiya Matt,
Haha, yes, spicy foods can be addicting, I think its the rush that you get each time you eat something hot :) And then we keep making it hotter … and hotter … :-)
April 19th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Chanced upon this blog while googling for something else. Looking at the entry’s date, this comment might be a tad too late…
Anyways…
Gypsy girl - it’s not malaysian food, it’s indonesian! However I’m not quite sure if it’s Javanese or Sundanese. The raw veggies are definitely typical Sundanese salad called ‘lalap’.
And I don’t think it’s sambal belacan, it’s more like sambal tomat, meaning chilli with fresh tomatoes. If you notice, you’ll often find tomato skins mixed in the sambal, and the taste is sweet, sour and spicy at the same time, typical of sambal tomat.
And what’s too hot for me? don’t know yet. I think i’m getting immune to it. I always have to take extra chilli for ayam penyet (so yummy)! maybe wasabi in a large dose yes, but I think Thai food still wins. Their dishes are consistently more spicy than the whole range of padang dishes (the authentic ones from sumatra, not the nasi padang stalls you see in Singapore).
But I too find myself getting addicted to this dish!!
February 7th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
[...] it was actually quite hot. Personally, I didn’t think that it was that hot, considering the sambal in Ayam Penyet that I’ve had before. Nevertheless, I liked the chicken very much. The chicken was [...]
July 11th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Hi….I from Johor Bahru. I visit some Ayam Penyet stall here in JB. The best stall I can recomment to you is situated at the Larkin Plaza, Larkin, Johor Bahru. The stall manage by Kafeteria Sinar Cahaya no. K11 ground floor Larkin Plaza.
You’ll like it. They also sell Soup Ikan Merah. Delicious. See you.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:54 am
the best ayam penyet in jb has got to be Restoran Banafe’s own nasi ayam penyet.
The chicken is so sooo tender, yet the skin so so crispy.
the service is quite bad, though. Had to wait for more than half an hour for our 2 servings of ayam penyet to be served!
p/s : the restaurant is located right smack in front of New York Hotel @ JB.