SINCE its establishment about half a year ago, Dipstick Restaurant has been constantly adding new items to its menu of food for which Penang is famous, as well as a few specialities of its own.
House specialty: The Roti Komtar has an omelette base and a conical roti with ice cream inside. “When we first opened, we focused on our buffet barbecue and steamboat concept with a choice of seafood, lamb, chicken and vegetables. There is also satay and the famous Penang rojak as well,” Dipstick Restaurant operations director Siti Mariam Abdullah said.
After about two months, the outlet expanded its menu to include a list of a la carte items, comprising local favourites such as nasi lemak, soto ayam, mee kuah tulang and a list of speciality roti.
“We pride ourselves on serving traditional food – the type that one can get only if they went to the outskirt kampung areas of Penang,” Siti Mariam said.
For example, the nasi lemak at the outlet comes with salted fish, ginger and chicken marinated in a special way unique to kampung food back in Penang, from where she hails.
“Truth be told, our a la carte dishes were only included later because we were in the process of perfecting them,” Siti Mariam said.
About a month and a half ago, the restaurant finally launched its own speciality dishes – the Roti Komtar and Roti Special Dipstick.
No ordinary murtabak: The Roti Special Dipstick with chicken, eggs and vegetable in it. The former is actually two conical-shaped roti on an omelette base, with ice cream in the top cone, while the latter resembles a murtabak with chicken, egg and vegetable all wrapped up in a thin roti and sliced into smaller pieces.
Reading the menu, one will notice the names of famous Penang locations, such as Komtar, Batu Feringghi, Bayan Lepas, Jalan Burma, Gurney Drive and George Town, tagged to some of the a la carte menu items.
“Certain places are well known for certain items, so we have named some of the dishes after the places where the best of the respective dishes can be found,” Siti Mariam said.
She added that the restaurant was decorated with images of famous places in Penang to boost the feeling of nostalgia and provide a unique environment for its customers so that they would feel closer to the island when they dined there.
Plans are also in place to open a branch outlet, either in Bangi or Damansara, in four to five months’ time, and eventually, franchise the chain of restaurants.
Most would probably wonder at the name of the restaurant as it brings to mind the famous lok lok vans, where people gather around boiling pots of soup to cook their own food that comes in bite-sized pieces skewered on sticks.
“We got the idea for our restaurant from the lok lok concept. When we went around Penang, we discovered that the latest trend was to use a hot plate and place a pot for steamboat on it, so we copied it,” Siti Mariam said.
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