For date night a few weeks ago, I decided to take Toby to Penang Affair after discovering that it could be vegan friendly at Steph's blog and gluten free at gluten shmooten. Asian food (except for Indian) has been tricky since going gluten free and I know Toby has been missing it. Penang Affair however is an exception with '90% coeliac friendly' advertisement. We ordered for starters the vegetarian sang choy bau which had a range of vegies and mushrooms thinly diced and covered in a thick strong vegetarian 'oyster' type sauce. It was delicious and I'm so impressed that it was g/f:
We also shared the satay tofu dish. This satay sauce was perfect over deep fried tofu, bean shoots and with the smart addition of cucumber. This was our favourite dish, simple but so yummy.
For mains we shared the spicy lemongrass vegetables but asked for it to be mild. This was mild enough for me, although toby still thought it was a bit too spicy for him. It contained a range of green veggies, loads of garlic, lemongrass, chili and tofu.
and we shared the Char Kuey Teow (CKT). I was really looking forward to this after seeing the delicious looking pic at Steph's blog and thought that maybe they would use tamari or g/f soy sauce but instead this was super bland with basically plain noodles, fried tofu and herbs on top. We ended up asking for more satay sauce to mix with it.
Overall, we were pretty impressed with Penang Affair. The meals were very well priced ($10.90 for the CKT, $15.90 for the lemongrass vegies and $5 to $7 for most veg entrees), the service was great and it really was special to find an omni asian restaurant that could do both g/f and vegan dishes. It also has a large selection of beers and Kelly Brothers cider. I look forward to going back one day soon to try the vegetarian laksa and penang eggplant.You can also read reviews at Where's the beef? and Gluten Savvy.
Penang Affair
325 Brunswick St
Fitzroy
9419 7594
Lunch 12-3pm
Dinner 6pm to late (closed mondays)
www
Ah, I'm glad they (mostly) looked after you!
ReplyDeletePenang Affair is probably our favourite bad-weather home-delivery option at the moment.
That satay sauce looks wonderful. I've been on the hunt for a good satay sauce recipe for ages now... haven't yet managed to find one that suits my imagined ideal. I'm liking the chunkiness of that one!
ReplyDeleteCindy, have you tried the satay tofu since your initial bad experience?
ReplyDeleteHannah, I know I haven't managed to get it right either. One day though...