Guest Post by L: Delicioso

This is another guest post from my dearest friend, which I would use as an escape for me from my own proper posting. Enjoy again on Penang food fare, but this time something of a hole in a wall, hidden even from most Penangites. It is no hawker food, but once in a while, even the most hawker food lover needs a break for some fresh style. Now let us see what L has brought us.

What’s with Mexican food? For one, I loved it to bits. And second, there’s never a joint here for Mexican till recently. Or at least, just recently, I found it. Penang isn’t just about the finding food at the usual places; it is the “Hole in the Wall” thing that appeals more to me.

So, it was a gloomy evening as my friend and I made our way on foot from Upper Penang Road to Little India. I love Little India as well. I will try blog about it in the near future as there are unanimously good banana leaf restaurants there.

As we sneaked our way through Chulia Street, we passed the Blue Diamond Inn – a backpackers place and one which serves Western and Mexican food! This isn’t the usual restaurant one would stop by for a meal, at least for me. It looks shady and ‘questionable’ but the sight of a Mexican food sign nailed outside the Inn is enough to convince us to stop by after our ‘trip’ to India.

The place was mostly young tourist lads. I wanted fajitas as I love anything with tortillas but *Pedro, a bandana clad moustache dude told me there was none. So I parted with the beef enchilada while my friend ordered chicken quesadilla.

I’m just kidding. The cook, *Pedro is obviously nicknamed by my friend and I. Heck, his picture is even on the Mexican food menu. Check that out if you are ever there. We wanted to believe that *Pedro was a runaway from Mexico after he accidentally murdered someone there. So with a glimpse a better future here, he opened his Mexican food joint here in Penang.

When he brought us our food, my friend asked if he’s from Mexico. All he did was looked at us and shook his head with cold gleaming eyes. Alright, he is obviously Malaysian who is pissed all the time. But hell, he cooks really good Mexican food.

My Beef enchilada is the best I ever had. The portion is huge. With minced beef, button mushrooms cooked in lots of spices wrapped with warm tortillas, I was struggling to finish it up. It was really delicious.

While it was the first time I tasted quesadilla, I loved it as well. Sandwiched between crisped, toasted tortillas are bits of chicken sautéed with tomatoes, capsicums, lettuce and cheese, topped with some chili sauce, it was spicy

Hey, this is probably the second to best authentic Mexican food ever here in Penang and given that *Pedro is Malaysian, he must had known what us Malaysian folks like – spicy food!

Then, it rained in between our meals. The heavy downpour ‘blessed’ our seats but we were too reluctant to move, indulging in our food. While we were dining, an older gentleman began serenading us with his ‘Kapok’ guitar. Obviously drunk, his intro to his song is 15 minutes of yapping, which he then proceeded to strum a couple of lines and went back to repeating the same words.
I loved the place! So down to earth and of course, a budget meal!

My enchilada is RM7 while my friend’s quesadilla is RM6. Don’t think there could ever be a more colorful meal – good & cheap food, dining in a backpacker’s inn, getting the feeling of being a tourist and getting entertained by a drunkard. I would definitely come back here for more action.

P/S: Mr. Drunkard is actually one hell of a guitar player. He once played in Oktoberfest, Munich. Boy, I’m sure he drinks everyday on his trip.

Blue Diamond Inn
Chulia St. Penang