Penang Island is definitely one of my most favourite culinary destination. Located in the Malaysian Peninsula, it is a paradise for street food lovers. They have a range of cuisine here - mostly Malay and Peranakan - and they are relatively very affordable. If you like cheap and tasty food, Penang is the place to go.
In this post I want to share my culinary experience in Penang and how much I loved it. Long before the actual trip, I've already searched a dozen (or more) sites and blogs for food recommendation in Penang - Tripadvisor and food blogs have been providing a lot of help 😁. As I expected, there are a lot of famous eateries / hawkers in Penang but I got to narrow down my list and hope to succeed in trying 'em all in just 3 days - which ended not very successful but I'm greatly satisfied nonetheless.
And here are a bit of reviews on the food I tried in Penang 🍴
1. Lorong Selamat Char Kway Teow (Kafe Heng Huat)
If you search famous Penang Char Kway Teow (CKT) in google, you are bound to find this name. The CKT stall with the red hat auntie is quite famous in Penang and thankfully they lived up to my expectation. Me and my travel mates - my mom, my best friend, and her mom - ordered 2 CKT and a bowl of Ais Kacang to share.
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| Ais Kacang |
Ais kacang is basically shaved ice with red beans, syrups, condensed milk, jelly toppings. Some places, like this one, serve their ice kacang with ice cream on top. It is similar to what we called es kacang merah in Indonesia although I can't say they're exactly the same because they have a quite distinctive flavour difference.
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| Lorong Selamat Char Kway Teow |
Lorong Selamat CKT is indeed very tasty. They served their kway teow with a lot of toppings. You also get some medium sized shrimps, some other seafood, and a few slices of lapchiong (chinese pork sausages) in it. They give generous portion so the price is reasonable for me.
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2. Ghee Hiang
Ghee Hiang is a renowed pastry shop in Penang - got the reference after searching google. I bought some pastries as souvenirs (a.k.a oleh-oleh) for my family and friends in this place.
A few days prior to the trip, I searched "oleh-oleh Penang" in Google and it showed like a dozen pages about Ghee Hiang and Him Hiang. Basicaly both store sells similar pastry product and it seemed that they are business rivals. Couldn't say which one is better though because I haven't got the chance to visit Him Hiang so this review is purely about my thoughts of Ghee Hiang 😊
Ghee Hiang is famous for its Tau Sar Piah - a sort of pastry with mung bean paste filling - based on reviews online but the one that wows me is the Beh Teh Saw - a crunchy version of piah with caramel filling.
While the Tau Sar Piah is just another pia kacang hijau* for me, Beh Teh Saw was a new stuff. I haven't taste anything quite like it before and I do have to say I love the crunchy texture. This is only my opinion but I would recommend for Indonesian to skip the Tau Sar Piah and buy the Beh Teh Saw instead because I don't think the Tau Sar Piah is anything different with the pia kacang hijau commonly found in Indonesia. I even think that some version of Indonesian pia kacang hijau is better to be honest. Hehe.
*Pia kacang hijau is the Indonesian version of Tau Sar Piah. There are a lot of variation of pia kacang hijau throughout Indonesia with (probably) slightly different names in each area. Some famous types can be found in Bandung, Jogjakarta, and Bali.
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3. Mama Miya Coconut Ice Cream
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| Coconut Ice Cream |
The weather in Penang can be very hot during the day and what's perfect for a hot day? Ice Cream! 🍨
There are a lot of restaurant and stalls that serve coconut ice cream in Penang but Mama Miya Coconut Ice Cream is one of my favourite. It is located just across Khoo Kongsi so if you're going there, don't forget to try the ice cream :)
The ice cream is really really good and pretty cheap. For RM 7 you can get a tasty and cool coconut ice cream served in half of a coconut with the flesh shredded and topped with various kinds of toppings like sweet corn, nuts and nata de coco. Plus every purchase of ice cream comes with a glass of refreshing fresh coconut water. It doesn't get any cooler (and tastier) than this! 🍦
Love, love, love this ice cream so much! Even come back 2 days in a row for more. Definitely a must try in Penang!
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4. Siam Road CKT
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| Siam Road Char Kway Teow |
Siam Road CKT is definitely my favourite dish in this whole trip! In fact, it is one of the most delicious kway teow dish I've ever had.
Siam Road CKT is one of the most popular CKT in Penang. And based on my personal experience, you have to wait for quite some time to get the CKT, most people waited for 1 hour or so. Thankfully because I ordered just a few minutes after the stall is open for business, I only had to wait like 20 minutes until the CKT is brought to my table.
The struggle to get this CKT is real. Haha. As I said earlier you most likely had to wait for about an hour to get your food and that does not include you waiting for a seat - the hawker center was not too big but the customers are flooding in once they open so maybe try sharing a table because a lot of people does that - I suppose that is a common culture when eating at a crowded hawker center in Penang.
But do not let that scares you from trying the CKT because I assure you that it definitely worth all the trouble. Siam Road's CKT is operated by an uncle and his son. While the uncle cooks, his son does almost all the other things like serving, taking order, wrap to-go orders, etc. The uncle seemed to have been doing this for a long time as he skillfully cooks the CKT with ease. He use 1 hand to stir the CKT and the other hand to fan the charcoal so it wont burn out.
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| Siam Road Char Kway Teow |
Tips when trying Siam Road CKT :
- get there early (around 3 pm when they opened is best)
- if you're not travelling alone, get 1 person to order, and the other can find a table inside (the uncle's CKT cart is accross the road of the hawker food center)
- share a table if you must
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5. Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul & Ice Kacang
Just like its name, Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul & Ice Kacang is sure famous. The long lines will tell you so.
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| Ice Chendul & Ice Kacang |
We ordered 1 Chendul and 1 Ice Kacang as we want to try everything. They tasted very refreshing and quite light if compared to the Indonesian version of this desserts - perhaps they use less coconut milk? I don't really know though.
In all, these are really good as a refreshment on a hot day but I have to say that I actually like the Indonesian version better because of the richer taste. Hihi.
6. Laksa Pasar Air Itam
We went to Laksa Pasar Air Itam for lunch after visiting Kek Lok Si Temple as it is not too far from the place and my mom wanted to try their well-known laksa.
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| Sugarcane Juice & Laksa |
I'm not a fan of laksa actually so I just tried slurping one spoon - one spoon only, not even a spoonful - of their broth. Because I originally don't like laksa I cannot really describe the taste, but instead I will put it up like this. They are served hot and smelled really delicious. My mom and my friend's mom had the 2 portion above and they said that it was good. The broth tasted very rich and even though I only had one spoon, I can really taste the kick of flavour.
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Another favourite of mine! Don't actually know the exact name but this stuff is super delicious. So it's basically milk tea, but they blend it together with ice and it comes out really good. Actually, this is some-kind of an unexpected gem me and my friend found. So we had dinner at a hawker center near my hotel because we failed getting Siam Road's CKT on our first try - we came at about 7.30 pm and the uncle said that its sold out :( But that turns out to be a blessing because we get to meet this teh ais (or whatever it's called, but let's call it teh ais for now haha). This is another must try in Penang. Not sure if other hawker center sells this stuff but do try them here if you go the chance. When we went for dinner there, we want to try something refreshing to drink and our waiter that time happens to be Indonesian so we ask for her recommendation for drinks and she recommends the teh ais - we didn't hear properly as there are a lot of people and it was kind of noisy, me and my friend even debated whether the waiter said teh ais or thai ice (?) But anyway it tasted amazing! I love the taste and texture of this drink. Basically it is tea, milk tea perhaps. And they blend it with ice so it tasted a bit like milkshake although not as creamy but I love how the top is foamy. This drink is really so good that we came back the next day just to buy the teh ais and literally not buy any food, just drinks.
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7. Teh Ais / Thai Ice (Probably in Kedai Kopi Tien Lai - foodcourt area across Glow Penang)
Another favourite of mine! Don't actually know the exact name but this stuff is super delicious. So it's basically milk tea, but they blend it together with ice and it comes out really good. Actually, this is some-kind of an unexpected gem me and my friend found. So we had dinner at a hawker center near my hotel because we failed getting Siam Road's CKT on our first try - we came at about 7.30 pm and the uncle said that its sold out :( But that turns out to be a blessing because we get to meet this teh ais (or whatever it's called, but let's call it teh ais for now haha). This is another must try in Penang. Not sure if other hawker center sells this stuff but do try them here if you go the chance. When we went for dinner there, we want to try something refreshing to drink and our waiter that time happens to be Indonesian so we ask for her recommendation for drinks and she recommends the teh ais - we didn't hear properly as there are a lot of people and it was kind of noisy, me and my friend even debated whether the waiter said teh ais or thai ice (?) But anyway it tasted amazing! I love the taste and texture of this drink. Basically it is tea, milk tea perhaps. And they blend it with ice so it tasted a bit like milkshake although not as creamy but I love how the top is foamy. This drink is really so good that we came back the next day just to buy the teh ais and literally not buy any food, just drinks.
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8. Gurney Drive Hawker Food Center
Gurney Drive Hawker Food Center is actually a rather large market that sells a lot of hawker food. They are so many sellers and I'm not really sure which one is good but we just went with the flow and see which one has long lines. Haha.
We went here for dinner and I really liked the ambiance of the place. It's nothing fancy. It's crowded, loud and a bit hot because there are so many people but I enjoyed those. It's basically an open air dining area where you can feel the sea breeze blowing. It is located near the sea and it seems like a lot of people that come to the place are tourist.
We tried a lot of food which some I forgot the names. So I'll just provide the photos down below :
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| Deep Fried Lok Lok |
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| Some kind of Rojak (?) |
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| Fried Oyster Omelet |
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And . . . that is all what I've eaten in Penang! Not much really considering there are sooo many famous food stalls and restaurant I haven't visited. I will definitely go back to continue the food adventure :D
Though this post is super late as my travel is 2 year ago, I hope it is still relevant and it will help those of you if you're planning to go to Penang! Make sure that you don't miss trying out the local delicacies in Penang, because they are really really great :)
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