Out of Norm Travels - 2019 Penang Food Hunt

Penang aka Pearl of the Orient was where I indulged my food cravings and laid my head for 3 nights some 2 weeks ago. Its street food helped Penang to hold the Best Foodie Destination badge by Lonely Planet in 2014 and ensured that this little state, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is mentioned over and over again in countless food blogs, websites, news and magazines. 

Food in Penang is generally time segregated with many stalls open for a specific period. For a foodie like me, this can actually mean that I could eat different types of food at different time periods in the SAME location! Talk about gluttony at its finest! So here was my food roll call for this trip!  

Morning from 7am:

7am to 12 pm: Transfer Road Roti Canai. This real piece of Penang heritage has been dishing up this typical Malaysian food from the same roadside stall for some 80+ years. This photo does not do justice to the delicious fluffy and thin (almost filo-like) crispy layer of dough with slightly charred edges. I had their roti telur (egg version) and roti kosong (plain version) with chicken curry matched with Teh Tarik (beverage of choice with pulled milk tea). Ordering is simple -just grab a seat next to the stall or in the tables located in the road opposite to the stall and wait for the server to swing by. 

7am to 2.30pm: Another place with a long history for a morning/ early afternoon meal is the Prawn Noodles at Bridge Street aka CY Choy Road Hokkien Mee 正宗橋頭福建虾面專賣店 that is located beside Anson Bridge, which connects Beach Street to C.Y. Choy Road. Right at the corner of the heritage area with cooling seated area on the side. The winner here is the prawn broth - sweet and full of flavour so it is guaranteed that many kilos of prawns were used to boil it to such goodness! Great value at RM4.50 (add RM2 for meat and egg) for each bowl. According to www.penanglocalstuff.com , Bridge Street is actually the old name of C.Y. Choy Road. Like many stalls in Penang, this stall is only open till 2.30pm so make sure you keep the opening timing in mind if you want to grab a bowl of this prawn goodness!

7am to 2.30pm: Lorong Seratus Tahun Curry Mee I found out about this stall’s reputation from Google Maps. This was a good morning stop since it’s just behind my stay at Mcallister Road. Great way to remember this road name is that it means number 100 (in Malay). Curry Mee aka curry laksa, or laksa is a noodle dish with a coconut based milk curry gravy. What differentiates Penang curry mee from the other versions around is the toppings: pig’s blood cubes, cockles, cuttlefish slices, shrimp, and tofu puffs. You won’t find this version elsewhere else outside of Penang since Malaysia is predominantly Muslim and nearby Singapore has basically banned all pigs blood or cockles from its general food diet.

10am to 630pm: Indulging in Malaysia’s favourite dessert, Cendol requires a bit of a tag-team effort especially if you are taking on both competition stalls located on the same street at Lebuh Keng Kwee, off Penang Road – located directly opposite each other, both stalls have been operating for decades. One is called “Penang Road Famous Cendol” (orange bowl) and the other is called “Penang Road Famous Teochew Cendol” (blue bowl). After indulging in both bowls, I personally preferred the orange bowl of shaven ice touched with aromatic Gula Melaka (brown sugar) and fragrant coconut milk even though the blue bowl had a continuous line. Either one is perfect for the blistering 33 degrees heat of Penang. 

Early evening from 4pm

New Lane aka Lorong Baru is a good place to start. Just like magic at 4pm every evening, it is closed to vehicular traffic and transforms into a food haven with rows of stalls lined on each side ready to feed the hungry folks willing to brave the Malaysian heat. It is only fitting for this place to be marked with a large mural of a child eating from a huge bowl and a squirrel sitting on his head and eating – you can find this on the side wall of 118 Hotel Macalister. 1^st is the quintessential Char Koay Teow: A transliteration of the Chinese characters 炒粿條 / 炒粿条/ Hokkien name: chhá-kóe-tiâu. It is said many times that if you did not eat Char Kway Teow when you are in Penang, you have not visited Penang. My go-to place for this oily, charred, dark soy sauce glazed flat noodle mixed with cockles, prawns, chilli and bean sprouts cooked inside a big wok fanned by flaming charcoal is at Charcoal Seafood Char Koay Teow 炭烧海鲜炒粿條. This stall has some pieces of thin crispy Lap Cheong which gave the dish a nice topping.  Although I am not a fan of fried oyster omelettes in Singapore, what sets the Eng Kee Fried Oyster apart is a careful mix of eggs, flour and of course the rich and succulent, bouncy, juicy oysters - poles apart from the shrunken versions that died a thousand deaths I get at home.  For dessert, nothing beats a nice cold Chng Ting aka Cheng Teng 八宝清汤. The ingredients of this dessert varies but this stall had dried longan, barley, gingko nuts, lotus seeds and Pang Da Hai (胖大海) which is believed to be able to get rid of humidity and “heat” of the body.

For a bowl of duck koay chap, you must go to Mr. Por’s Duck Koay Chap @ Restoran Kimberly. A little cart just outside the place with a queue is the marker and filled with all types of duck parts and pig innards. Everything is done in-house as it has been for the past 30 years, from the noodle rolls to the stewed duck before the final chili dip sauce. Places like this stew the duck meat with its duck parts like wings, necks, and gizzards for many hours. What I got at the end was a broth with duck meat at maximum flavor. Do note that Restoran Kimberly only opens at night from 530pm till 11pm.

Shout-out also to the folks at Piknik as they always make us feel so welcome and their waffles and coffee/ drinks are so refreshing!

As Penang is also well known for its many murals, I managed to dig in to the delicious food with mural walks all over town! Here are some of the different types of murals and art pieces I found:

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!