THE EIGHTY EIGHT RESTAURANT
Upping the hip factor in one of George Town’s oldest precincts is The Eighty Eight Restaurant.
This modish dining room is housed within a cavernous heritage building.
Inside, high ceilings, magenta drapes and minimalist wall scones point to proprietor and chef Danny Ng’s particular aesthetics.
Ng, who had honed his craft across five years at Singapore’s Les Amis and Garibaldi, wanted to create a classy restaurant in his hometown of Penang with butlerstyled service. His ingredientled menu changes every quarter, ensuring eager anticipation from regular patrons. T h e co n t emp or a r y ambience and jazzy strains of music lend a brasserie-type energy for diners who are tucking into the famed a butter-poached Loch Fyne salmon
(RM70) or bacon aglio olio (RM35) cooked with a liberal dose of white wine and topped with 30 dayaged Parmigiano.
Dinners comprise more elaborate courses including duck breast – cured for eight hours in brown sugar, herbs and spices prior to its cooking.
Over a grill heated by redwood charcoal – used for its consistent uniform heat – the duck is seared to produce char but not burnt.
To top it off is a glaze reduced to 10 per cent from parsley, butter and white wine, providing a refreshing counterbalance to the duck’s rich intensity.
Ng’s adherence to classical cooking and its traditions means that he builds his dishes with a carefully curated ingredient list for example, a 120-day grain-fed Angus striploin, wet-aged for a minimum of 30 days.
On this, he adds invention with shoyu-sake seasoning, garlic and shallots, with fresh wasabi grated from the root. He confesses to having had to try over a dozen bottles of shoyu before pinpointing the right one.
For desserts, his winning sabayon is served with homemade ice cream made with bourbon vanilla sticks (which fetch up to RM900 per kilo), while the chocolate fondant is warmly gooey on the inside and perfectly fluffy on the outside. www.facebook.com/eightyeightpenang
Ng’s adherence to classical cooking and its traditions means that he builds his dishes with a carefully curated ingredient list.