A taste of Thailand in Prontip

Just a few weeks before Saucer left, we went for an impromptu Thai dinner at a random restaurant. It was a Sunday, after his classes as usual, and we were heading to town to eat. Several suggestions came to mind but were not appealing enough, until I suggested Thai food. Then it occurred to us that we've never really eaten in a Thai restaurant before. I mean, Japanese, Korean, American, Italian, Chinese, even Indian food, we've tried, but not Thai, even though it's so common. Hence, since we were already in town, we picked a random Thai restaurant that we saw along the way. :) This place is called Prontip, and it's at the end of Macalister road, which you will find difficult to miss because it's so prominently situated at the corner of a junction.

We were there early so there was still no crowd, which was good because we were famished! We started with small dishes of pandan leaves chicken and belacan chicken. The pandan chicken fooled me by its simple appearance. Once you remove the leaves, the strong aroma of marinated chicken attacked your smelling senses, building up the momentum before your first bite... and then, bliss... :) This dish is an appetizer all right, and you have to make sure you have rice ready in front of you, because it goes very well with rice! Did I mention that Prontip provides free flow of rice as well? Splendid!

Pandan chicken

The belacan chicken was a little ordinary, though not to say bad. It's very similar to deep fried chicken, except smaller pieces. :P

Belacan chicken

Next, being in a Thai restaurant simply means you MUST order the tom yam soup, without excuses. I don't know about you, but I personally judge a Thai restaurant by their tom yam soup, just like how I judge an Italian restaurant by their garlic bread. It's just their signature dish and if they can't do that right, I have no reason to return. But Prontip, my dear friends, did not disappoint at all. :) I'm proud to say that the tom yam soup they had was extremely tantalizing and appealing to the taste buds. It has the correct amount of sourness and spiciness, without overpowering each other. Some tom yam soups are just SO sour that you could not taste anything else. They also put in extra effort to use proper claypot with slow burning fire underneath to keep the soup warm for a longer period. Plus, I loved the fact that they used really succulent prawns in the soup, together with fish meat and cuttlefish as well. *salivating* Must order this again if I go there next time. :)

Glorious seafood tomyam

Juicy prawns

Another dish that Saucer ordered was the Thai curry crabs, just because he was craving for crabs that night. This was a chef's recommendation and the green curry was unique to the Thais. I personally don't really enjoy crabs because it's so difficult to eat them! And after so much hard work of peeling their shells, you only get to eat one small piece of meat. Definitely not worth it. :P But I did enjoy the taste of the green curry though. Not too spicy and very aromatic. Saucer told me the crabs were pretty good though a bit small.

Green curry crabs

We're already full to the brim at this point of time, and getting ready to leave, when suddenly, the waiter came bearing these desserts and placed them on our table. They're no other than the famous Thai dessert of water chestnut coated with red flour and jackfruit stripes in sweet coconut milk. I just found out from my aunty that coconut milk in its original form is actually healthy, and does not contain cholesterol. Only when it's subjected to high temperature, like when it's added in curry or in 'tong sui' that it becomes cholesterol-laden. So, that means you can eat this dessert guilt-free! Did I mention it turned out to be complimentary? So nice of Prontip, yes?

Complimentary dessert

Overall, the restaurant definitely serves good quality food with reasonable prices. For all the food I mentioned here, it costs approximately RM50 for 2 persons. That being said, it is wise to come early to guarantee a place because by the time we left (7.30pm), the place was already packed to the brim!

*updated

Prontip Thai Restaurant

2 Lebuhraya Peel (Yesterday Club),

10350 Penang, Malaysia.

Tel: 04-2282234

Mobile: 012-4788376

Fax: 04-2282235

Email: prontipthai@yahoo.com