MALAYSIA | THE GREAT PENANG FOOD TRIP ~ WHERE TO EAT IN PENANG, HAWKERS EDITION
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
The moment we landed at Penang’s International Airport, we knew right away that we’d be in for a culinary treat. Besides the numerous TV shows and write-ups about the city’s food, a brochure along the airport’s corridor confirmed everything--it listed each and every dish we needed to sample in Penang and where to get it too! Nifty, eh?!
JOOI HOOI CAFÉ
ADDRESS: 475 JALAN PENANG, GEORGETOWN | OPEN HOURS: 11AM TO 5:30PM | GPS COORDINATES MAP: 5.417129, 100.330583
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| THE CRAMPED DINING HALL OF JOOI HOOI CAFE IN PENANG |
Jooi Hooi Café was one of the first food places we tried in Georgetown. At the time, we weren’t really aware that this is the place to get your asam laksa and char kway teow fix in the city. It was pure chance that we passed by this hole-in-the-wall at the corner of Jalan Penang and Lebuh Keng Kwee and saw multitudes of people trooping inside. A throng of people lining up, both locals and tourists, on an eatery is an excellent measure on how good a place is.
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| KUEH PIE TEE |
The place is packed, the tables and chairs were tightly spaced, and it was quite hot inside. We sat ourselves on one end of the café and ordered a bowl of asam laksa, kueh pie tee and kopi ais. We heard so much about Penang’s version of laksa that we were literally salivating as we asked it, we love laksa!
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| ASAM LAKSA |
We nibbled on our kueh pie tee, a mix of shredded bamboo shoots and turnips on edible pie tee cups, while waiting for the laksa to be finally laid on our table. We were quite surprised that it isn’t milky at all, like how we liked our laksa in Singapore, but rather it has a clearer broth with a reddish tinge. It turns out that Penang does their laksa differently, instead of using coconut milk, the soup is flavored with mackerel fish flakes, tamarind (asam), lemongrass, mint, and chili--which results to a sour than usual broth.
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| KOPI AIS |
Unfortunately, we found it to be unsuitable for our taste; it was way too fishy for us. We quickly washed it off with kopi ais (iced coffee), which was smashingly good. I asked a local acquaintance about this, since I was quite disturbed that I didn’t like asam laksa, Penang’s most famous dish. He told me not to worry, as it is indeed, an acquired taste.
MEE GORENG MAMAK LEBUH ARMENIAN
ADDRESS: JALAN MASJID KAPITAN KELING COR. LEBUH ARMENIAN, GEORGETOWN | GPS COORDINATES MAP: 5.415467, 100.337116
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| THE MEE GORENG STALL AT GEORGETOWN’S LEBUH ARMENIAN |
We first came upon this noodle seller at the corner of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and Lebuh Armenian after visiting the Kapitan Keling Mosque on our first trip to Penang several years ago. Always crazy for mee goreng (Malaysian fried noodles), we ordered a plateful from him. Barely able to speak any English, we used sign language to indicate the spiciness level of our dish.
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| COOKING MEE GORENG LITERALLY ON THE STREETS OF PENANG |
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| MEE GORENG MAMAK-STYLE |
After cooking our lunch, mamak-style, he personally brought our still hot noodles to the nearby benches across the street to where we were sitting. Mamak, by the way, is a term used for Malaysians with Indian descent. It was one of the most remarkable mee goreng I’ve ever tried, and it even got better when a passing vendor sold us a cold bottle of beer.
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| THIS GUY HAS BEEN ON THIS SAME SPOT FOR YEARS |
Years later, we came back to this very same spot, hoping against hope that this mamak hawker was still in his place. Lo and behold, he’s still there, cooking the very same mee goreng! This old man, apparently, has been selling his noodles at this corner for several years already, rain or shine. Curious, I checked out Google Maps’ streetview of the place, and yes, he’s right there too! We’re definitely keeping our hopes up that we’d see him again on our next visit to Penang.
ULTIMAXX CAFÉ
ADDRESS: PERSIARAN BAYAN INDAH, BAYAN LEPAS | OPENING HOURS: 7AM TO 4PM | GPS COORDINATES MAP: 5.335568, 100.306280
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| ULTIMAXX CAFE NEAR QUEENSBAY MALL PENANG |
Lunch came calling during one of our outings to see the Penang Bridge near Queensbay Mall along the Selatan Strait. It was noontime when we finished our quick jaunt at the mall and our even quicker view of the bridge. Not wanting to eat inside the mall, we searched for a good hawker place and found the Ultimaxx Café just right beside it.
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| NASI GORENG |
The place, as most hawker centers are, is not air-conditioned. They have the usual plastic chairs and tables surrounded by different hawker stalls selling everything from asam laksa to char kway teow. But after our experience with Jooi Hooi Café, we wanted to try something else other than laksa, like err, fried rice?
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| ERR, A NOODLE DISH |
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| FRIED BEAN CURD AND TOFU |
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| MORE NOODLES, CAN’T REMEMBER THE NAME THOUGH |
We went crazy this time, buying everything that looked good in pictures. I love how the hawkers in Malaysia have photos of the dishes they’re selling--it’s much easier that way for us persiarans, lol. After a few minutes of food spree, we had a total of three full dishes—nasi goreng, two noodle dishes, a bowl of fried bean curd, and two glasses of kopi ais.
Ultimaxx Café might be a bit off radar for food aficionados in Penang, but we had one of our most enjoyable meals in the city right here.
We went back to Penang for our Beach Hop Asia summer trip, and of course, we ate, and ate, and ate! We got to try old favorites and new ones, and here are some of them.
LEBUH KIMBERLY NIGHT MARKET
ADDRESS: LEBUH KIMBERLY, GEORGETOWN | OPENING HOURS: 6PM ONWARDS | GPS MAP: 5.416222, 100.332952
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| TYPICAL HAWKER STALL AT LEBUH KIMBERLY IN PENANG |
N, a friend from the Philippines working in the city, toured us around the second time we visited Penang. From E&O Hotel where we were cooped up, we took a quick walk to the nearby Lebuh Kimberly where she said we would have dinner. Again, with zero knowledge about Georgetown, we were quite surprised to see a host of stalls hawking Malaysian-Chinese dishes along the length of the street sidewalks.
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| LEBUH KIMBERLY FOOD MARKET AT NIGHT |
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| OUR CHOSEN SPOT |
Quickly securing a rare vacant table right on the street side, she proceeded on ordering our dinner for us along her favorite stalls—seems like she frequent this place quite often as I saw her being chummy with most of the vendors she spoke with (thanks N!).
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| KWAY CHAP |
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| FRIED TOFU, BEANCURD AND LOBAK |
After much terimakasih-ing, she plunked a bowl of kway chap—braised flat noodles all over braised pork innards—and a plate of fried tofu, lobak, and bean curds on our table. The former looked quite intimidating, with its dark broth and unknown pork parts swimming along the dark steaming soup, its thick flat noodles didn’t help either. The fried everything was superb though!
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| MEE GORENG STALL |
We also saw hawkers selling mee goreng, but we were, surprisingly, too full from what we ate that we passed off on ordering a plate. Imagine that, eh? More than the food, I guess the charm of Lebuh Kimberly comes from having your fill right along one of the historic streets of Georgetown.
GURNEY DRIVE HAWKER CENTER
ADDRESS: SOLOK GURNEY, GEORGETOWN | OPENING HOURS: 6:30PM ONWARDS | GPS MAP: 5.440006, 100.308950
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| GURNEY DRIVE HAWKER CENTER |
One of the most famous hawker centers in Penang is located at the upscale Gurney Drive area. I know, a hawker center on a posh area? Most Penangites really don’t care much for this place, claiming the food here is overrated and quite overpriced. But being the tourists that we are, we simply have to try it out and judge for ourselves (not that we’re good food judges, lol).
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| INDIAN ROJAK, WE WOULD’VE ORDERED BUT THE PRICING WAS TOO CONFUSING |
The Gurney Drive Hawker Center is located on a center island in between Persiaran Gurney and a smaller road, Solok Gurney 1. The place is filled by local stalls divided into three sections; Chinese, Malay, and Mamak cuisine. It looks relatively cleaner than most hawker stalls in Penang and there are, surprisingly, a lot of locals eating at the tables. Well, so much for what the Internet says.
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| FRIED CRISPY CHICKEN SKIN |
For starters, we bought a plate of crisply fried chicken skin, which was quite ordinary, to say the least, while waiting for our bowl of asam laksa and char kway teow. Asam laksa?! Yes, we’re giving this famous Penang noodle soup another try just to be sure we weren’t really missing anything.
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| ASAM LAKSA |
The famous Penang noodle soup arrived on our table quick enough, and it looked almost exactly the same as the first bowl we ordered years back; reddish soup, fish flakes floating on the surface. With trepidation, we spooned a mouthful and decided that Penang laksa isn’t really for us.
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| CHAR KOAY TEOW |
What’s for us though is Penang’s other famous street food, the tongue twisting char kway teow. I usually don’t dig thick noodles, but I love this dish, even though I cannot for the life of me pronounce it. It’s basically fried thick noodles set with eggs, bean sprouts, and prawns. The flavor is twice milder than my favorite mee goreng, but I love it all the same.
Indeed, the offerings at Gurney Drive may be quite average, but in terms of selection, you can’t hardly go wrong here. I recommend it for first time Penang visitors who want a good cross-section of what the city has to offer when it comes to food.
TOH SOON CAFÉ
ADDRESS: LEBUH CAMPBELL, GEORGETOWN | OPENING HOURS: 8AM TO 6PM | GPS MAP: 5.418923, 100.332025
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| TOH SOON CAFE, SET ON AN ALLEY BETWEEN TWO BUILDINGS |
During one of those rare hours when we actually went out of our hotel in Georgetown (too hot!), we found this curious hawker place tucked in one of the narrow alleys of Lebuh Campbell. Toh Soon Café, a sign says. We excused our way in through the tight tables and found us a seat after waiting for a few minutes, this place looks quite popular with the locals, a good indication.
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| HOW THEY TOAST IT HERE |
We have absolutely no idea then what we would eat here, it’s just that the crowd attracted us and so did the legitness of its location. While waiting, we were quite shocked when we saw one of the staff toast loaves of white bread on the belly of a rusted drum filled with smoldering coals. What the heck did we get into!?
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| PREPARING OUR KOPI AIS AT TOH SOON CAFE |
Coffee and toasts, that’s the only thing Toh Soon Café offers, and just look at how they do their toasts! We were flabbergasted! Still, we ordered a batch of those metal drum-toasted bread, an egg, and a couple of kopi ais. It was perfect since we really weren’t too keen on anything heavy to eat.
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| TOAST AND EGG |
The toast was wonderfully crisp and was lathered with what seemed like peanut butter. It went perfectly well with our cold coffee. The egg, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. Plunked on a cup, it was very, very soft and looked barely cooked; we absolutely have no idea what to do with it.
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| KOPI AIS FOR TAKE-AWAY |
Looking around and taking cue from other customers, we saw them gulping the egg straight down. We’re no Rocky Balboa and we ain’t definitely doing that. What we did instead was add a pinch of salt and pepper to the gooey mess and dipped our crispy toasts on it. It may not be the proper way to eat it but it worked quite well for us!
On our first post-pandemic trip, Penang was the first city outside the Philippines we visited. We now have a toddler with us, and he’s gonna be tagging along for the continuation of our Penang food trip.
NEW LANE HAWKER CENTRE
ADDRESS: LORONG BARU, GEORGETOWN | OPENING HOURS: 4PM TO 11PM, CLOSED WED | GPS MAP: 5.414807, 100.326520
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| THE SCENE AT NEW LANE HAWKER CENTRE PENANG |
Our first taste of post-pandemic Penang was at the New Lane Hawker Centre. The heavy crowd was a bit of a shock for us—we’re still trying to get used to mingling with people. The area is very much alive with locals and tourists on the hunt for the best Penang food.
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| THE ROAD AS THE HAWKER CENTRE |
New Lane Hawker Centre isn’t really a hawker center per se, it’s actually a street with stalls lining both sides of the road—tables and chairs are located on the parallel sidewalks and open areas. A local food vlogger, Steven Goh of 48 Holiao, herded us to the best stalls this side of Penang. It’s good that we actually have a food guide with us as we were quite overwhelmed with what to eat.
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| OUR ORDERS |
Soon, our table was filled with plates of char kway teow, hokkien mee mixed with lor mee, and cuttlefish kang kung.
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| HONEY ROAST CHICKEN ~ |
Since most of what we ordered were on the spicy side, we separately ordered honey-glazed roast chicken and apom manis for Akira. The honey chicken was actually very good, that we ended up taking not a few bits from his plate. The apom manis, which is traditional Malaysian pancakes filled with either banana, sweet corn, or coconut. The kid chose banana and it was perfect for his, and our, dessert.
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| CHAR KWAY TEOW ~ MYR 14.00 |
I absolutely love the char kway teow, which was served with crab meat, huge prawns, and has that signature charred taste achieved with cooking with a very hot wok. I heartily declared it as one of the best I’ve tried in Penang.
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| OUR VERY FLAMBOYANT CHAR KWAY TEOW VENDOR |
There’s actually a famous char kway teow stall at the New Lane Hawker Centre, the Charcoal Seafood Char Koay Teow which has been serving the dish for forty years, but we chose a different one since the line was just too long and the uncle manning the stall we bought our noodle from was very flamboyant. According to him, he’s also about forty years in the business, and if his noodle isn’t as good as that from the other stall, we need not pay, lol.
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| HOKKIEN MEE WITH LOR MEE ~ MYR 6.50 |
The hokkien mee, which is a dry egg noodle dish, was also savory good. But the one we tried was quite unique since it was was mixed with lor mee, which is a soup-based starch noodle dish. That’s two superb dishes, in one go. And again, it’s served by a stall who’s been in the business for fifty two years.
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| CUTTLEFISH KANG KUNG ~ MYR 20.00 |
The cuttlefish kang kung was a surprise for me, as I initially thought it won’t be any good. The cuttlefish actually tasted like tender squid and it went well with the blanched water spinach. The two are lathered with a sweet salty gravy, prawn paste, and sprinkled with crushed peanuts.
TANJUNG BUNGAH MPPP FOOD COURT & MARKET
ADDRESS: JALAN SUNGAI KELIAN, TANJUNG BUNGAH | OPENING HOURS: 7AM TO 12NN, DAILY | GPS MAP: 5.464207, 100.284935
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| TANJUNG BUNGAH MARKET’S HAWKER CENTRE |
Another place I frequented during our recent visit was the hawker center at the Tanjung Bungah Market. I usually drop by the area early in the morning for my daily walk. The market itself is quite interesting, so much varieties of noodles and dimsums. I would’ve bought heaps, but it would’ve been hard to bring it with us back home, us being on just the first leg of our trip.
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| MY DAILY FIX OF ROTI CANAI ~ MYR 1.50 |
Since I’m supposed to be exercising to lose weight, hence my morning walk, I usually just limit my meal at the Tanjung Bungah MPPP Food Court to a couple of roti canai—which is quite good especially with a glass of kopi ais.
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| FOOD BEING SOLD AT THE WET MARKET PROPER |
I do longingly look at folks forking their mee goreng and char kway teow while I dunk my crispy-soft roti on curry and chick pea gravies. Also, I heard that there’s a stall hawking a really good hokkien prawn mee here. Pfttt, next time.
KANNAAS BAMBOO MASALLA BRIYANI RESTAURANT
ADDRESS: LEBUH CHINA, GEORGETOWN | OPENING HOURS: 9AM TO 10:30PM, DAILY | GPS MAP: 5.418218, 100.339367
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| AT THE KANNAAS BAMBOO MASALLA BRIYANI RESTAURANT |
Looking for a place to sit while our son naps the afternoon away as we explore Georgetown, we chanced upon Kannaas Bamboo Masalla Briyani Restaurant at Penang’s Little India area. Of course, we’re not wasting the opportunity to eat while the kid sleeps.
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| MEE GORENG AYAM MYR 8.50, CHAPATTI SET MYR 3.00, KOPI AIS MYR 2.30, TEH TARIK MYR 2.30 |
While their specialty is bamboo masala biryani, we ignored it and ordered our favorite plate of mee goreng ayam. We mistakenly thought it would come with a fried chicken on the side. Instead, the ayam was chopped and was mixed with the noodles, bones and all—making for a very hard to eat noodle dish as we kept on getting bits of bone with every forkful. Nevertheless, it was still very very good and very very spicy.
Two orders of their chapatti set and a lovely cold pair of kopi ais and teh tarik completed our meal.
DUCK BLOOD CURRY MEE RESTAURANT
ADDRESS: 223B JALAN BURMA, GEORGETOWN | OPENING HOURS: 12NN TO 10PM, CLOSED THU | GPS MAP: 5.423771, 100.321023
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| OUR SPREAD |
We mentioned to Steve that we like curry mee, and he immediately scheduled an eat-a-thon at one of the best curry mee restaurants in Penang, the Duck Blood Curry Mee Restaurant. It was walking distance from The George where we were staying, so to burn a few calories in reserve for what’s ahead, we walked.
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| DUCK BLOOD CURRY MEE RESTAURANT IN GEORGETOWN PENANG |
The restaurant is simple and unassuming but their dishes are some of the best I’ve had in Penang. Well, they do have a Michelin Bib Gourmand plaque on their wall which are awarded to superb restaurants with affordable price tags.
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| PORK INTESTINE CONGEE ~ MYR 11.00 | ROASTED PORK ~ MYR 12.50 |
The first on our table was the pork intestine congee. The porridge was fine and creamy with the chopped green onions adding a bit of zest to the dish, but the star of the show, really, was the really crispy and savory pork intestine. It also went really well with the roasted pork—the crispy skin on that one was just wow.
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| CURRY MEE ~ MYR 9.00 (BIG) | PRESERVED EGG ~ MYR 3.00 |
A plate of Hainanese chicken, bean sprouts, and bowls of curry mee soon followed.
Indeed, the curry mee was really delicious. Along with what seems like flat rice noodles, it has shrimps, tofu, gizzards, and, of course, duck blood—this is where the restaurant got its name. The bean sprouts were a good palate cleanser—the curry mee was very spicy. As for the Hainanese chicken, well, I’m really not a fan of this dish, but my companions quite liked it.
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| SPECIAL DRY CURRY MEE ~ NOT ON THE MENU |
Next on the table was a plate of preserved egg and a special dry curry mee—this last one was not on the menu and was given to us on the house for us to try. The preserved egg or century egg, was really tasty, in fact, it was too delicious that you can only consume a slice at a time. The special dry curry mee was as good as its soupy counterpart, but it was extremely spicy. I mean, I like spicy, but this is probably the spiciest noodle dish I’ve ever tried.
2 comments
Great. This is very detailed article. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWelcome, enjoy Penang food! :)
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