Penang Food | ClayPot Soup - Sungai Ara
Our senses for detecting special and unique food have heightened quite a lot lately, with the few discoveries within Penang that we kind of proud of including the Raja Uda Lok Lok, Warung Kelapa Sawit and Toh Soon Roti Bakar. Yes! Yes! Both island and mainland have uniqueness that we managed to discover and we are going to hunt more of these local cuisine.
We are also thankful to our readers and friends who have introduced us to places like Hammer Bay Ikan Bakar, Lunas Pan Mee and Pi Pa Duck and so on.
This time around we happened to spot an eating outlet that looked like just any typical economy rice outlet at Sungai Ara. Yet, the big red banner that read “Chinese traditional herbal soup” and something big inside the shop actually caught our attention right away. Yes, what was that (in fact two of them) big thing located right at the entrance of the shop?
The two big barrels at the entrance were actually heating pots for herbal soup. Yes, this shop was just not any economy rice stall but the one that offered herbal soup of many kinds. The healthy food in the herbal soup definitely added some spice to the specialty to this outlet. This shop was the only place so far in Penang that had this type of heating pots.
The idea of these heating pots actually came from China and the shop owner noticing the uniqueness of them decided to take this idea to Penang Malaysia. The herbs used in the soup included Ginseng (人参), Cordyceps (冬虫草), Bei Qi (北芪), Dong Sum (党参), Huai Sum (潍山), Bai He (百合). The recipe of the herbal soup was pretty much based on the combination of these herbs.
We ordered Chicken soup with American Ginseng and Cordyceps herbal soup which cost RM20 per pot. Given the herbs and the ingredients inside this pot, we would say the money was worth spending to have a healthy food. The strong taste of ginseng and cordyceps can be tasted and refreshing with each spoonful we sip.
Apart from the herbal soup, other dishes sold at this shop that worth mentioned included pork leg with vinegar (RM5) and Pork Ribs with Yam (RM5). This is another place for those who want to have healthy food in herbal soup form.
302F-1, Jalan Dato Ismail Hashim,
Sungai Ara, Penang
Tel: 012-482 6850
Business Hours:
10.00am – 9.30pm
More Photos at Photo.TuaPuiTalks.com (click photo to get there)
Didn’t know there is such a shop at sg.ara. Going to try it out soon. Thanks yeah..I’ll have more variety of foods to eat in sg.ara now.
samyeaps last blog post..Bandung Travel Itinerary: Fly from Penang to Jakarta and rent van to Bandung
I didn’t know about this place either…seems really interesting…and I agree that it’s definitely one of the first and rare ones using such pots for their soup!!
This is no ordinary economy rice shop;)
Christys last blog post..Baby squids on the plate….oh so cruel! ( A Seafood Odyssey)
eh rather cheap lah. RM20 for the HUGE claypot/bowl.
J2Kfms last blog post..PASTA de GOHAN @ Sunway Pyramid - Pasta, Re-Mixed?
samyeap,
yea, we bumped into this place by chance and glad we did… you should give it a try too
Christy,
yes indeed, it’s one of the unique thing we’ve seen for an economy rice shop… worth going just to try it out
J2Kfm,
For RM20 per pot.. yea.. worth the bucks man… Imagine how much it costs already to put the herbs… really healthy soup….
Wah so near my house … must go try liao when I go back PG. Bring my parents go ….. Good one!
Hello recommended by Ahmike to come visit your blog. The style of how the soup is presented looks interesting. That pot used looks nice ha. Btw you have a nice blog man!
Sgfoodlover from Singapore favourite food
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Wah… RM20 per pot only somemore got so many ingredients inside, very worth it leh. I never know got such lubang at Sungai Ara, must visit this place on coming Satuday. Don’t know drink already I can sleep woo.
StevenGoh.coms last blog post..Dining Can Be Inexpensive @ Chili’s Gurney, Penang
Ken,
Ya.. this is definitely need to try up. We tried it on the 2nd visit, not bad on other soup too. But some of my friends who go together don’t really like it as they don’t like one of the herbs.
So I sapu all lo…:P
sgfoodlover,
Welcome to blog that full of tricks that make you fat. Hope you enjoy reading our food posting…
Steven,
After drink cannot sleep? That one I don’t know la… but at least I sleep soundly the night after…. hee hee
[...] the photo tell thousand words and thousand lies too. Wanna know how it taste, you may need to read more at the food review we had written at the Food and Dine by [...]
Yes, the soup is indeed good! I really hope that they can serve zhu char instead of econ rice.
carisos last blog post..Vintage Bulgaria Restaurant & Bar
everyday i passed this shop but i never try. don’t feel like trying out.
allenoois last blog post..Seafood Hokkien Char @ Penang Chinese Chin Woo Athletic Association
just now my colleagues plan to go but closed on monday haha
I just went to try 2 days back but did not expect the economy rice dishes so bad. Maybe I arrived late ~8.30pm so they already off the tray heater to the dishes. Only left miserable portion and really don’t look appetizing to order. So I ordered pig leg vinegar as that one they can heat up as it comes in a claypot. Frankly, I’ve never seen such a fat pig leg….the meat that they gave me has 1 inche thick of skin and when i pressed it, oil dripped out. I’ve been eating pig leg vinegar in many places but hv never seen such a fat pig leg!! Taste is ok though just that after removing the fat, you only hv little left to eat. As for soup, I guess biz is pretty good as 3 types are sold out. I settled for “pork ribs with old cucumber and barley”. I agree, the soup is good but I must tell you that when they opened the claypot lid, there’s an insect floating inside the soup….also I found a rice flea in the soup as well. I guess to give extra ingredients/vitamins to make the soup taste better. I did not ask to change the soup as insects can be eaten. Overall, I love the soup but too bad, no suitable dishes to go with….2nd time visit? Maybe but this time, I will go lunch time to see whether the economy dishes will look better/decent. Or maybe I will just tar pau the soup home.
jz like allenooi said, passed by everyday but never feel wanna try…maybe they need to change their shop’s sign board to a more attractive 1… haha.. anyway, good recoomendation tuapui
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some how ppl dun like this kind of shop la… afraid expensive ma….
but with this.. will definitely go and have a try
Actually this is NOT the first shop who sells this kind of soup. I know many year ago, there is one along Anson Road. It is inside the carpark, next to Oriental Club. They sell the same type of soup but it was in smaller pot and not as much as RM20. I think it was RM12 or so. And they also sell other dishes that you can order from the menu. Not this type of economy rice style.
winnifred,
They had the big two barrels too? Ooopps we didn’t know that…
wa.. ho seh liao… my father and mum like to drink soup one.. hope they still open for business….
yum yum… herbal soup… here i come….
[...] we decided to head over to Sungai Ara for some healthy soup to nourish our bodies. But we were a bit unlucky that day cause the soup ran out of stock by the [...]
I have try their soup…not nice…
the soup is terribly oily…i think i cook better than them…hehehehe!
lovetoeat…
hmmm it wasn’t like that when we went there…. guess a lot have changed…
so, can you cook for us?? :D:D
I have always loved herbal soup, so when my husband and I visited Penang in August, we thought we should try it out. We ordered the ginseng herbal soup, pork trotter with vinegar, yam with pork rib and economy vegies to go with rice. We thoroughly enjoyed the meal. The yam literally melted in the mouth, the pork vinegar was the way grandma cooked it and the herbal soup was aromatic and delicious. The shop is well presented too with nice deco. It is clean and spacious. When we visit Penang again, this will definitely be on our “to do” list.