Penang Street Food Paradise – 槟城美食天堂

Just returned from Penang for food and wall arts hunt.  We stayed at 23 Love Lane ( a very nice boutique hotel converted from a conserved house) which is very near to Chulia Street.  If you are looking for local hawkers food, I suggest you find a hotel near Chulia Street, it is extremely convenience.

1) Kimberly Street Road Side Hawkers (Lebuh Kimberley)

The road side stalls open after 5.30 pm.  Recommended stalls:

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The Yong Tau Foo stall is on a mobile bike.  The taufoo is very soft and smooth.

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Bit disappointed with the taste of the CKT as the owner has a good “performance” on his cooking of the CKT as the fire is so strong that you expect to have very good wok Haei but was very bland.

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This stall selling one of the best chicken feet that I ever have (top 3).  Best I had is in Macau.  The braised chicken is so so though – can skip.

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This is the most famous Duck Meat Kway chap among this road side stalls.  Unlike other food stalls, they owned (or rent) an entire coffee shop to serve the customers.  They used duck egg to cook the Lor egg.  Very nice!  But I find the smell of the duck meat overwhelmed the overall taste (could be I am not a duck eat guy !)

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This another nice staff – Cheng Tng.  The liow is pretty generous.  I ordered the cold version (due to the weather) I believe the hot version would be better.  The best is not the Cheng Tng but their home made almond tea.  Remember to add Gingko seed.  Die die must try!

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Other stalls that we have not tried including Lok Lok, Oyster Omelet, Lor Bah, Siew Mai dim Sum

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2) Kheng Pin Coffee shop (80 Jalan Penang (Junction at Jalan Sri Bahari)

Famous Lor bak (Goh Hiang) and Wonton Mee.

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Found the noodles too soft and soggy and not QQ.

Also ordered the char Kway Tiow – which is very ordinary.

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Saw one mamak Indian man walking into the coffee shop with a basket so something….being a food detective, I rushed to him and order a….epok (curry puff) Rm1.50 /pc.  It is out of the world, best I have tasted for century.  Reminded me the epok I had outside old ACS primary school near the Registry of Marriage in 1969.

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3)  Chew Clan Jetty

There are quite a few stalls selling loal food in the café outside the Chew clan Jetty – we did not try as it looks like catering for the tourists.  Interestingly, right inside the Jetty, found this Big Bowl Ramen.  Big bow! How big can it be?  Look at the bowl next to the man inside the restaurant.. OMG (watch the carbo, bro!)

4)  椰脚粿条汤 (183, Carvarnon Street – Near Komptar)

Recommended by my good friend also a foodie Alan, do some search on a blog and read the stall open from 8 am to 2 Pm…2 PM. !!!!  we reached the stall at 1.30 pm and they already look like below (#$%@&).  Check with the workers and they said they close at 12 pm (sometime 11 am all sold out).  Never open beyonf 12 pm.  Hope the blogger be more responsible in their article.  Sigh !  Next time lor.

The same blogger recommended a char kway tiow about 5 stalls from 椰脚粿条汤.  The shop closed too when we arrived.  It is called Tiger Char Kway Tiow at 179 Carvarnon Street.

5)    吕家打石街牛肉粿條汤饭 Lebuh Pantai和Lebuh Chulia的交际 处有间红白色的消防局,正对面就有间南亚茶室 (Lam Ah Kopitiam),

So we walked across the street of 椰脚粿条汤 to hunt for any good gem.  Getting bit hungry by then and saw a beef kway tiow stall and decided enough waiting and ordered each a beef kway tiow soup.  Wow.  wow.  Best surprise found of the day.  The soup is so tasty.

Also to try the very good oyster Omelet in the same coffee shop.  The coffee and tea is very good too.  I tried the ice Ying Yang (tea and coffee mixed).

6) The Legend Nonya House (2 Gat Lebuh Chulia – opposite Chew Clan Jetty)

Portion quite small so can order most dishes.  The asam fish, taufoo and egg plant is quite good.

7) Pasar Air Itam Asam Laksa (Jalan Pasar Road, 11500 Air Itam, (Beside the Air Itam Market)

One of the must try dish when you are visiting Kee Lek Si.  Walking distance from the temple (about 15 mins walk).

There are many stalls beside the laksa stall.

The curry noodle is nothing special.

8) Goh Huat Seng charcoal old school steamboat (59-A, Lebuh Kimberly – very near to the Kimberley duck mest Kway chap) open 6 pm to 10 pm

Very nostalgic feel like back to young day Chinese New Year reunion dinner where all sit around the table with the charcoal steamboat serving the delicious and fresh seafood, meat, fish balls and vegie.  The little fan is the new technology though (we used to used the paper made fan).

9) Chulia Street night food street (junction of Carvarnon Street and Chulia Street) after 5.30 pm

Most famous stall here is the curry noodles and the “mother and son wonton mee” which we have tried.  Its is out of this world!!!

10) Toh Soon Coffee  (184 Lebuh Campbell (before Penang Road) Near Hotel Continental)

This is like our old days Ah Kun kopi oh with peng kang roti.  same same.  Crowd also same same.  we decided to give it a miss because there are so many people in front of us in the queue (mainly Singaporeans sua ku).  So just bought 2 packets of nasi lemak to try.  The chili is very Indian curry spice base.  Not bad especially it only pack with small portion (and dnt need to queue).

11) Hon Kei Food Centre @ 45 Lorong Kampung Malabar (near Lebuh Cereia)

So instead of queuing unwisely for the kopi – O, we chose an air con café 5 metres away – serving extremely nice Ter Huang Kiam chye.  We ordered mee sua + having our tapoa nasi lemak.  May be it is too early for breakfast, the shop is rather empty.  Yummy.  Happy.

12) Penang Famous Teochew Chendul (27 & 29 Lebuh Keng Kwee)

Ok, after the Ter Huang Kiam Chye Mee Sua – we went for the 2 most famous chendul in Penang which is about 15 mins walk. They are just opposite each other in a small lane. We tried both stalls but prefer the one on the left hand side of the road (the one with lesser queue).  The longer queue stall, you can order and eat in the coffee shop – which also have few good stalls (char kay tiow, rojak etc).

Other stalls:

12) Egg Tarts and Yam bun

Next to the chendul stalls and on the main road (Penang Road) – try their egg tart and fried yam bun.

13) Tau Sa Piah ( Heem Hiang and Ngee Hiang)

Two very famous shops – one at Jalan Burma (HH) – quite far need to take cab.  NH is everywhere near chulia street (Beach street near little India).  NH sell  very good sesame oil.

14) Pickles and Tidbits

Head to Chowrasta Parsar = selling variety of pickles and tidbits.

15) Other stalls that walked pass that we have not tried (next time lah) – do your search to see if they are any good!

That’s all folks…its time to reduce weighs upon returning to Singapore.