KEN HUNTS FOOD: Farmers Cottage (南洋轩) @ One Precinct, Bayan Baru, Penang.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Farmers Cottage (南洋轩) @ One Precinct, Bayan Baru, Penang.

***This place has since ceased its operations.***

Strategically located at a corner unit of One Precinct (right beside I Mum Mum Pan Mee), one can easily spot the place from Suntech or Sunshine Square, Farmers Cottage serves many uncommon South East Asian-Fusion dishes such as Vietnamese Beef Pho and Vietnamese Baguette. In hopes of promoting Nanyang cuisine, Farmers Cottage provides its customers with wide selection of Nanyang dishes at very affordable prices. Despite of the interesting choices, I would say the overall quality of the food was slightly below par... I would not mind heading back but only if they could improve on the food quality....

Vietnamese Beef Pho (Rm 12) comes in a rather huge portion but unfortunately, the broth was not as flavorful as I thought it would be, also, I was expecting them to serve the Sprouts and Basil leaves on a different basket but unfortunately, there were not any. Instead, they had those simmered in the broth before it was served to us. It does not seem authentic to me either as they were using Koay Teow/ Rice-cake Strips instead of the Vietnamese Rice Noodles, moreover, their Beef slices were over-cooked. They were not as fresh as I was expecting either. Worse to worst, their Chili Sauce was a bad match, it does not complement the beef slices nor the noodles well enough in my opinion. It would be better if they could add some extra chili flakes or Thai Fish Sauce for the extra kick and flavor.

Rice Noodles with Beef Balls (Rm 11) is a healthy option for those who are health-concerned and it was the only dish that I enjoyed. It has Rice Vermicelli, julienned Carrots/ Cucumbers, Bean Sprouts, some Thai Basil leaves and 5 Deep Fried Beef Balls. To enjoy, simply pour the sauce onto the noodles and mix everything up and serve as a salad. A dash of Lime juice would be more refreshing. The sauce was averagely okay in my opinion, it would be better if they could have added some Fish Sauce, as for the Beef Balls, they were flavorful but slightly too dry and tough to my liking. Nevertheless, they've made a beautiful touch to this down to earth dish.

We also had this Udon with Minced Beef (Rm 12) which has some Braised Minced Beef, Pickled Mustard Green, Peanuts. The Udon was perfectly cooked with al-dente texture but the sauce was slightly too sweet oily to my liking. More peanuts would have added more marks for the dish considering the nutty texture would complement well with the noodles and the meat.

Tom Yum with Rice Noodles (Rm 12) was rather bland. It lacked of some sourness and spiciness, it was slightly more to the sweeter side and has many coconut milk added. It would be suitable for those who are looking for sweeter yet not-too-spicy version of Tom Yum but definitely not me.

They do have some very interesting selection of desserts available and we opted for this Bubur Chacha (Rm 4). It was way too sweet and creamy to my liking. My friend whom ordered this does not seem to enjoy the dessert either.