BY CK LAM

Public Cafe is just another neighbourhood coffee shop in the pleasant surroundings of Gurney Drive. This coffee shop is a favorite spot as it has a stall serving up both delicious yet reasonable seafood noodles and porridge.

Take a pick from the striking mix of ingredients and a choice of several types of noodles.  The price varies according to the seafood ingredients, with pawns, crabs, paddy frogs (tin kai/chui kay) and varieties of fish.

We ordered a number of dishes from the available range, starting with the crab noodle. The claypot came boiling hot filled with thick beehoon (rice vermicelli), pieces of crab, cabbage, choy sum and garnished with spring onions and fried garlic. The clay pot kept the whole dish warm which help the broth to maintain the strong seafood flavour.

The thick beehoon was satisfyingly al dente while the soup was simply marvellous, packed with the sweetness of the crab. The crabs were quite large and there were plenty of fresh and succulent sweet meat to go around for everyone.

The steamy bowl of thin beehoon was cooked with a few prawns along with thick pieces of fish, cabbage and choy sum. Even though I enjoyed the deliciously sweet broth with the fresh bouncy prawn, the beehoon was a bit hard and coarse. It would have been better if the beehoon was prepared with a softer texture.

Followed up were two types of stir-fried noodles, both with harmonious suite of flavors from the plentiful seafood. The round yellow mee was given a hokkien char version, slightly wet while the fine mee tiau was dried-fried. The accompanied sambal added spiciness to the two dishes.

We chose the porridge cooked with fish. The robust fish soup with pieces of fresh fish was delightfully flavored with light seasoning. The porridge was more like rice on watery clear broth. Chopped coriander, spring onions and a dash of pepper topped off the dish perfectly.

I have yet to see a menu around but the prices of the food can be seen on the simple menu written on the board. The name of the stall is simple known as

“Seafood Porridge”

Public Cafe
Gurney Drive
Penang

Business Hour : Late afternoon till night

Closed on Tuesday

Written by CK Lam, food blogger and editor of http://www.what2seeonline.com ; featuring the Best of Penang Food. She constantly combs Penang for the best gastronomical delights and loves promoting Penang Cuisines, Culture and Heritage.