While there are numerous places serving Japanese and Korean barbecues, Texas-influenced smoked meat was something uncommon in Penang. We decided to give it a go by ordering their Pork Knuckle Set, which arrived well-wrapped in foil packaging to keep it hot while the taste was flavourful and tender, with the meat falling off the bone.
We tucked this place in the space in our brains reserved for food and ordered their Cranberry Turkey set for Christmas while having some misgivings as turkey tends to be dry despite its rather exorbitant price.
We were pleasantly surprised because the turkey was well-marinated and generously packed with stuffing. When we found out that the stall had relocated to a proper restaurant space over at Bishop Street in early September, we decided to pay them a visit.
We were greeted by the friendly Malaysian-Vietnamese couple that run the brand-new restaurant, Hong and Jen. It turns out besides serving up fantastic barbecued eats, the couple have quite the backstory.
Hong, who is 29, met his wife Jen, 33 at the Spago Dining Room at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore, a sophisticated fine dining restaurant by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.
There, he honed his cooking skills as a Chef de partie, or a station chef while she was a hostess. He was part of the team that served a member of the Johor royal family and celebrities like David Beckham and Leonardo DiCaprio. According to Hong, Puck himself would visit the restaurant at least three times a year to check in on the quality.
Penang-born Hong grew up watching his mother cook and would frequently help out at her small hawker stall over at Perak Road since his secondary school days and shared, “All of my siblings can cook well, but I was the only one who followed in her footsteps.”
Driven by his passion for cooking, he enrolled at the Culinary Institute at Taylor’s University and had a short stint working in KL before moving to Singapore to work as a baker at the Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel.
After one year there, he was hired by Spago and accrued experience in French and American cuisine before starting to find his job mundane. He had plans to move to Melbourne and becoming a chef there, but Hong and Jen received some happy news instead: she was pregnant with their first child.
The couple decided to head back home to his hometown of Penang and started conducting research into different types of eateries as Hong didn’t want to work at another hotel, as wages there tend to be on the low side and he had to uhh…bring home the bacon *excuse our jokes, please*.
He discovered what he considers to be a niche market on the island for Texan-influenced barbecues and used knowledge in American and Western dining to come up with his menu, opening up a stall in Weld Quay in November 2018 and ran it for over four years.
He shared how they had a hard time at the food court at their son had to sometimes sleep there while they worked and this year, they decided that the time was right to open up a restaurant.
His custom-made smoker –– he’s on his second now which he now uses in his restaurant –– can be seen through the glass panels in his kitchen so that you can watch the chefs prepare the meat in the oven, which uses firewood.
Hong shares that the important thing about barbecuing is keeping the fire “low and slow, at temperatures of 225 – 250 °F.” Some meats like their pork ribs, take five to six hours to cook, while their beef briskets –– which are only served on weekends –– take longer, at around 12-13 hours.
We went there hungry, and we weren’t disappointed. We ordered up the adorably named ‘Oink Oink and Chick’ platter that included 100g of pulled pork, 100g Pork Ribs, chicken leg, as well as sides of creamy mashed potato, coleslaw, cornbread, soft rolls, and Mac & Cheese. There were two of us and at RM40 per serving, we found it to be affordable and worth it.
While the pulled pork didn’t catch our eye on the plate, we started loading up on the meat after tasting it because weirdly enough, it nostalgically reminded us of Mekdi nuggets, in a good way.
We also found ourselves picking up the perfectly marinated pork rib, caveman-style and gnawing on scrumptious meat until only the bone was left. Their poultry did not disappoint as although usually barbecued chicken meat tends to be drier than the Sahara Desert, this one was gorgeously juicy.
As all that meat can be overpowering, we alternated between digging into it and the sides. We loved the creamy mashed potato and the soft rolls while we found the Mac & Cheese to have a strange spicy taste and the cornbread was underwhelming.
We also added an a la carte order of their crispy Smoked Pork Crackling, which in Penang Hokkien is ‘sio bak’ or ‘siew yok’ in Cantonese, that should just be called Pork Butter because the meat simply melted in our mouths! Besides that, we tried their pork sliders, which we chomped up in two bites, it was good but just slightly oily.
We dipped all the meats in their homemade Sriracha-styled chili sauce, which added a spicy kick without overpowering the flavour of the meat. They also have Mexican-styled barbecued hot sauce, but we preferred the former.
Hong explained that their secret is behind the hours they put into marination –– their New Zealand beef briskets are marinated for a good 24 hours. To prepare everything well, preparing the meat takes time and Hong says that during holiday seasons such as Thanksgiving they often go three full nights without sleeping.
They also have some buns and desserts worth checking out such as the cream cheese garlic which Jen shared, “We were actually one of the first to start selling in Penang before it started becoming a trend”. While we’ve tried it previously when we ordered it via delivery, its best eaten instore as it was flambéed on the spot and packed with cream cheese.
The décor is simple, and the focus is definitely on the food, with plans to add more items such as pasta and pizza to the menu in the future. Hong divulged that certain items that he sold previously like his Pork Knuckle, is off the menu now due to rising meat prices caused by the inflation and he’s determined to keep the dishes affordable for his customers.
To give full disclosure, we’re still recovering from the food coma while writing this after visiting SmokePapa BBQ and we’ll definitely be back!
SmokePapa BBQ can also be found on Beep and Grab. They also deliver via Lalamove and can be contacted via Whatsapp at 0164177803.
Address: 41, Lebuh Bishop, George Town, 10200 George Town, Pulau Pinang
Opening hours: Wednesdays to Mondays from 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.