A Place 26 Cafe @ Lorong Bangkok, Penang

A plethora of cafes have been established in Penang in the last few years. Some are pretentious and sell obnoxiously high priced food and beverages, but in return giving you a place to exercise your Instagram filters. However there are some offer a cozy environment with worthy try food, and A Place 26 in Lorong Bangkok is the latter. The cafe is petite in size, housing about half a dozen of tables and offering a small menu with focus on healthy food options. Price is slightly on a high side but it is justifiable with the ingredients used.

We spotted a food which seldom, or almost never made it onto any cafe's menu - Khao Jam (RM 24). It is a traditional Kelantanese food, with embryo rice cooked with special juice that made with 40 over types of fresh herbs and serve along with reshly cut herbs and vegetables, fried fish fillet, fried shredded coconut, budu (special anchovy sauce) and watermelon cubes. In other word, it is Nasi Kerabu.

The concoction of the rice with the herbs worked well. Shredded herbs gave the fluffy rice a contrasting crunchiness, and the chillies added a depth of flavour to the overall less pungent rice. You should get this Khao Jam if you are looking for a healthy meal or something with extra fibers intake.

A similar dish is being offered by A Place 26 too - Nasi Ulam but it needs 1 day pre-order in advance.

Another dish we had was Quinoa Chicken Roll (RM 30). It features the classic pan-seared chicken drumsticks wrapped with mushroom and served on a mixture of quinoa and corns, along with some colorful vegetables. The chicken is tender soft and comes with good flavour. This is definitely a healthier choice compared to other conventional chicken dishes but may not be stomach fulfilling for certain individuals.