Rating: * * * *
Where:6 Station Rd, Otahuhu
Ph: (09) 270 0668
Wine list: BYO or have tea.
Vegetarians: Scant choice but room for negotiation.
Watch out for: The coffee pork chops.
Bottom line:Cheap and cheerful.
Well within my lifetime, Otahuhu was a village, one of several strung along Great South Rd as it wound its way through the rural hinterland to Auckland. These days it's a bustling suburban centre and, in gastronomic terms, ethnic central.
The best Vietnamese joints in town are here: the last one I ate at had greasy tablecloths and the fluorescent light made my head hum, but the food was great. And whatever ingredient you need is for sale in food stores that look like they might have been transported here direct from Dhaka or Hanoi.
In between are shops with names like "Best Price", offering deals described as "wholesale". I loved the shop with the professionally produced sign saying "Close" in its darkened window; the word is, after all, the opposite of "Open", the signwriter must have thought. Not for the first time I am reminded how fearsomely difficult a language English must be for non-natives.
The woman who welcomed us to Penang was a classic of her kind: she talks to customers and staff in the same bossy bark and would be absolutely astonished to hear herself described as bossy and barking.
She had taken my booking in a tone that was pitched somewhere between sceptical and peremptory. She didn't want my phone number, and I had the distinct impression she wasn't writing anything down. She just said, "See you tomorrow."
If she was surprised that we actually turned up, she showed no sign of it. She pointed at a grand table by the door which looked like it might be a bit draughty and was quite unfazed when we chose a smaller one in the corner.
As the name suggests, the place deals in the cuisine of the tiny state of peninsular Malaysia whose cuisine reflected its ethnic variety: Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian and a spicy whiff of India are all in the mix. So you'll find Malaysian classics like nasi lemak; beef rendang, which originated in Indonesia; and dishes of the Chinese diaspora like Hokkien noodles or wonton soups.
There are dishes to challenge the adventurous (fish head with rice noodles in soup, anyone?) and to soothe the fears of the less daring (chicken fried rice).
And then there are the coffee pork chops.
This was, to be honest, the reason we were here. I had read that Simon Gault, restaurateur of note, said the coffee pork chops at Penang in Otahuhu were Auckland's best-kept culinary secret.
My internet searches have not established that this is specifically a Malaysian dish - I find coffee pork chop recipes on Italian and southern US websites, though I recall that it is on the menu at the excellent Bunga Raya in New Lynn.
Now I'll have to go and try theirs because everything at Bunga Raya was so delicious. At Penang, however, the food was only good. A dish called asam fish - by far the most expensive we ordered at $28 - showed no evidence of the tamarind that its name implies and the fish itself had a consistency that suggested it had once been dried. A fragrant lamb curry and an enormous plate of steamed Asian greens were much better.
And the pork chops? Marinated and cooked in the sticky sauce they were sensational, a sweet-and-sour delight for people who, like me, can't stand sweet-and-sour. If they ever were Auckland's best-kept culinary secret, they are not now, and they're certainly worth the short drive to Otahuhu.
