Eat. Drink. Penang.

Went Penang over the weekend with Cobby, sis and parents. Sis suggested staying nearing the town but Dad wanted to stay near the beach, so we stayed at the Corpthorne Orchid. Overall trip was quite fun. We didn’t do much or go to any special tourist attractions, but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly anyway. We spend our time strolling along the white sandy beaches and picked up shells as well as do a little leisurely shopping at the limited shopping malls. We even got a little adventurous and took public transport by ourselves. Oh yah. Of course, there is the food.

Oh the food is heavenly… where do I begin…

You know what they say… When in Rome, do what the Romans do. So when in Penang, of course must EAT where the Penang locals eat! The best foods we’ve tasted were from the roadside coffee shops and hawker centers. When in doubt, just choose the store that the most locals order from.

So what are some of the more memorable meals..?

Lunch at a roadside coffee shop. There’s a store that serve some fantastic crispy roast pork, char siew and chicken rice. The kyaw teow soup is also super tasty with freshly made fishcakes.

At the hawker center at the night market, we ate the famous Penang Char Kueh Teow and it is heavenly!!! It’s not as sweet as those in Singapore and it is so good! We also had prawn soup noodle that such awesome soup that Cobby couldn’t stop praising it as he slurped away. Then there was the BBQ chicken wings. When it came, we didn’t expect much cause it looked like any other chicky wings in Singapore. But when we take a bite, our eyes went O_O So tasty… Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside! The BBQ stingray was quite nice, they use curry powder to marinate the fish instead of coating it with sambal ala Singapore style. Nice, but I prefer it our way…haha. What else… ah, the Hainanese Popiah. Guess what, it’s fried. And instead of using radish as the filling, they use cabbage. There’s also a strong taste of five spices (五香粉). Served hot and crispy, nice!

The hawker was super crowded and you have to wait forever. But we just chill and chat and drank our beer as we waited patiently for our food to come. The atmosphere, although crowded, is strangely relaxing. Maybe because the stall owners were all so nice and friendly and everybody else is in a holiday mood. So it was a really enjoyable night.

On the last night we went to the seafood restaurant called 东海 for dinner. Mom said that we patronized the restaurant when we went to Penang as a child, so we thought it would be nice to reminisce the past. (though strictly speaking I can’t remember anything really) We didn’t expect much quality wise, but we were pleasantly surprised!

THE FOOD WAS GREAT…

We gobbled down every single dish with relish! But it was quite an experience when it comes to eating this giant, alien-like prawn dish. It totally freaked out me and sis, but honestly speaking, its’ flesh is really, really good. It’s sweet and tender and taste like nothing I’ve ever tasted. So another happy culinary experience for us! Yeah!!!

There was a 2 hour delay on our flight back, but the airline gave us complimentary meal vouchers to this diner at the airport. It’s like the local Kenny Rogers style restaurant. And it’s another surprisingly good meal! The chicken is well marinated, grilled to perfection and Oh So Tender and tasty! Hahaha.. this blog entry got a lot of exclamation marks~! But its true. Friends ask me about my trip and the first thing that pops into my mind was – “the food was great!” Haha that’s me! But overall it was a fun trip. I feel so much better now. I should really go for more short trips. Good for the mind, body and soul. Where shall we go next?