A Taste of Penang at Aquamarine, Marina Mandarin

Fans of Penang food, hands up! This March, Marina Mandarin brings Penang’s old world charm to AquaMarine.

I started my lunch buffet with a series of appetizers which are hot favourites in Penang, such as Lor Bak, Malaysia Ulam (traditional mixed salad), Achar Ikan (pickled fish); and Cuttlefish KangKong with Prawn Paste sauce. My favourite is the Malaysia Ulam which is fragrant salad tossed in different spices. Spicy to many but definitely very shiok!

They also have a lok lok station which is an assortment of seafood, meat, fish and vegetables, served on satay sticks. To add to the fun factor, you can take your pick and dip the lok lok in homemade peanut sauce at the buffet counter, before enjoying this a la minute dish. However, I find the satay sauce too watery for my liking.

Another DIY section is the Penang rojak with a good variety of fruits, vegetables and you tiao. I was told that they used a special Penang sauce which was slightly sweeter. But I still prefer the black prawn paste leh.

I quite enjoy the main dishes which include fresh seafood in opal leaves with penang assam curry sauce, homemade otah, Ikan Assam Pedas, Nasi Goreng Teluk Bahang. Ikan Assam Pedas was impressive, a spicy and sour fish soup that’s best eaten with rice. It gets me going back for second round.

The 3 highlights of this Penang promotion is non other than Penang fried kway teow, stir fried cockles and stir fried porridge.

Penang fried kway teow is pretty good, considering that this is a halal restaurant. No pork lard is used but fragrance of wok hei is still here. Kway teow here is drier and you get some juicy plus-sized prawns.

Another must try dish is the stir-fried sweet and sour spicy cockles. The cockles tasted very good with the spiciness and hint of sweetness!

My favourite is the ‘char muay’ (stir fried porridge) which is totally a rare gem! It was cooked with lots of ingredients such as meats, cuttlefish and thick black soy sauce. The right combination makes it very flavorful. The browning of the meat add fragrance to the porridge and it has been fried slightly in the wok to give it that slight wok hei taste. I love its thick texture and had two full bowls of it!

The Assam laksa is another delicious dish made with noodles in tangy fish gravy. This dish is a spicy sweet and sour, love it too.

The promotion will be available at AquaMarine, level 4 from 1 to 31 March during lunch from 12pm to 2.30pm, tunch from 12pm to 4pm and dinner from 6.30pm to 10pm.

Buffet lunch will be available at $60++ on weekdays and buffet tunch at $50++ on weekends. Buffet dinner will be available at $70++ on weekdays and $80++ on weekends.

Aquamarine
Address: 6 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Mandarin Singapore Level 4
Tel: 6845 1111