Song River Roti Babi Stall

Song River roti babi stall (20 July 2013)


The Song River Roti Babi Stall is one of the few stalls in Penang selling roti babi. This is one of the dishes that I missed having for many years already. My late father used to make it when I was small, but that was a few decades ago. I made some inquiries over Facebook, and found out about the stall at the Song River Cafe at Gurney Drive.

This is not the first time I had roti babi here. The first time was some 15 or 16 years ago, but I haven't had it at Song River again since. One of the reasons I rarely go to Song River was that parking here is simply horrendous. I had to circle Gurney Drive a couple of times, and in the end had to park at Kelawei Road.

Although all the parking lots along Gurney Drive was taken, the Song River Coffee Shop was not crowded. In fact, it doesn't look as vibrant as the last time I ate there fifteen years ago, when the place was alsolutely crowded. Yesterday (20 July 2013), when I returned to it again, Song River appeared rather dingy.

I had gone there particularly because of the roti babi, but my wife could not find anything she would want to eat. She was a bit under the weather, feeling heaty, and so was looking for something soupy, but the hawker food available at Song River are all too heaty for her - there was bak kut teh, spaghetti, grilled chicken wings, Hokkien mee and lor mee, to name some. There is a satay stall that is sending satay fumes all over the coffee shop.

Song River Cafe (20 July 2013)


Since none of the food at Song River is agreeable to my wife, I decided to buy back the roti babi to be taken at home. One piece cost RM4.00. I ordered two, and also one crab-spring roll, also RM4.00. So my dinner came to RM12.00. My wife then found some seafood porridge at Public Cafe next door. It cost RM5.00, and we bought it back for eating at home. Like Song River Cafe, Public Cafe was also uncrowded.

Back home again, I re-heated the roti babi and then placed it on a place. It came with an ang mor tau eu dip. This is how it looks like.

The Song River Cafe roti babi (20 July 2013)


To be frank, I felt the roti babi is expensive for RM4.00 per piece. It doesn't have enough meat in it, and the meat is also rather dry. I suppose, packing it for home has also taken a bit off its flavour. The crab-meat spring roll also appears pricey, as I do not detect any crab meat. It was cut into four pieces, so each piece is RM1!

The Song River Cafe spring roll (20 July 2013)


On the other hand, we found that the seafood porridge was well worth the money. It cost RM5.00, but for that price, we got two big prawns, as well as fish meat and fish balls. And, the taste is not bad at all. However, considering the difficulty of finding parking space in the vicinity of Public Cafe, I am not sure whether we would ever go back there for seafood porridge despite the reasonable price.

Public Cafe seafood porridge (20 July 2013)


Apart from home-made roti babi, which my wife makes, and before that, my late father made, the best roti babi outside the house that I have taken was at the Senior Citizen's Association along Scott Road. Unfortunately that restaurant has closed down (I do not know if it has moved elsewhere, but upon making inquiry on Facebook, was told it moved to Cheeseman Road, ... I've got to track it down.)

List of Hawker Stalls in Penang