Eating marathon in Penang, Malaysia

In January, a good girl friend and I took the bus from Kuala Lumpur up north, to visit another good friend who lives in Penang. Our mission, is to see and to eat as much as we can in 3 days and 2 nights.

Penang, a little island on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia with an estimated population of 700,000 people has so much different food to offer that it was recognised as having the Best Street Food in Asia by TIME magazine in 2004, and is known to be the food capital of Malaysia.

What’s there not to love? With a variety of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Nyonya and Thai cuisines to choose from, one can get confuse where to start.

Luckily for us, we know what we were after. Hawker food! We ate so much that I can’t even remember what I ate.  I took pictorial evidence and  will explain as we go…

This is where the journey starts. Gurney drive. It’s a must eat for those of you visiting Penang. Some of the food that you can sample there are,

Fried Lok-Lok!

An assortment of goodies like fishballs, meatballs, sausages,bishops nose, seafood all on a stick. You dip it with the special sauce and eat it.

Fried Oyster Stall. Always a long queue there.

Fried Oyster…yummm

Rojak Stall.

Rojak is like an asian version of a salad. Slices of cucumber, pineapple, tofu, toss together in a shrimp paste sauce dressing with peanuts.

The famous Char Koay Tiaw stall

Char Koay Tiaw

A must try if you are ever in Penang or Malaysia! But of course, nothing beats eating it in Penang. I think I ate it everyday when I was in Penang.

Grilled Fish and Seafood Stall

So much to choose from

For Desserts, try Chendul and Apom

Apom lady

We had so much to eat that night that we had to roll back into the car. The next day, bright and early we started with breakfast in Bukit Emas.

Traditional cup of black tea

Chai koay. Hrm. It’s a steam ‘cake’ with vegetables and dried shrimp.

After filling our stomachs with the lovely chai koay, tea and Char Koay tiaw. (Yes, I told you I eat it for almost every meal). We headed to Kek Lok Si. It’s a famous Buddhist Temple.

Peek-a-boo! It’s the Trio…

Around in that area, where the temple is located, there is a famous Asam Laksa Stall.

The Asam Laksa Stall

It’s spicy, it’s pungent, it’s sour…

You could wash it all down with a cold bowl of Ice kacang or Chendul…

The famous road side Chendul at Lebuh Keng Kwee.

We drove around for hours looking for this place. I forgot what street it was on and we found it by accident.

All I can remember about Penang, when I last visited, which was at least 18 years ago was this stall – and my mum downing 2 bowls of Chendul. I just didn’t get it why she loves it so much back then, but now I do and we both share the same enthusiasm about their Chendul.

My beautiful bowl of Chendul with red beans and attap seeds.

A beautiful bowl of Ais Kacang

A pair of very satisfied customer..

That’s not all that we ate. Some of the other things that we ate during our trip are:

Penang style Chee Cheong Fun

Prawn Noodles or also known as Har Mee

Wantan Mee

A selection of Cempedak, Red bean, Sweetcorn or Durian Ice cream.I chose Durian.

We couldn’t resist buying some Muruku’s and sweet stuff from this man in India Street.

Nasi Kandar from one of the many mamak stalls. We were told that Kayu’s were the best but unfortunately they were not open that day.

Some more fried goodies…

MK and I finally have to stop eating and get going to the bus terminal to catch our bus back to KL. It was a fun journey but I must admit that there was not enough time to try everything.

Well, that can only mean one thing…that we will be back for more!

Until then, for all of those planning a ‘makan-makan’ (eating) trip to Penang, I hope you won’t miss out of these few local favourites.

Advertisement