The Best Char Koay Teow Ever, and more
If I was backpacker visiting Penang for the first time, I would stay around the historical part of Georgetown close to Chulia Street. Why? On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings (correct at the time of writing this), a special talent comes out to cook the best Char Koay Teow ever.
That might sound like a big, enormously bold statement, especially in Penang, the home of this amazing dish. (For those of you not so familiar with Malaysian cuisine, this dish is composed of flat rice noodles, egg, beansprouts, chives, soy, chilli paste, prawns and cockles stir-fried in a fiery wok). But this Chulia St based hawker makes char koay teow using a special touch, by using a traditional charcoal-based flame. It imparts an unbelievably addictive smokeyness which a conventional gas-based flame cannot compete with. Furthermore, all his ingredients are super-fresh, culminating in a treat which can even make the fullest of stomachs feel hungry again (this was another Penang supper after a deliciously enormous dinner).
Chulia St also has another trick up its sleeve; awesome Curry Mee. A flavour-packed, rich, coconutty broth envelopes fresh egg noodles, crunchy bean sprouts and an abundance of seafood make this another flag-bearer of Penang’s embarrassment of culinary riches.
Chendol: pandan jelly noodles in sweet coconutty soup
For people unfamiliar with South East Asian cuisine, particularly Malaysian cuisine, the concept of eating green noodles as a dessert might be slightly offputting. But trust me, having Chendol at the famous stall on Penang road pictured below, and you’ll be in for a treat.
Three main themes run through this dish: slippery, vanilla-esque pandan infused noodles, an icily refreshing coconut soup and sweet, deep red bean goodness. Mix it up, slurp it down; this is one of Asia’s best desserts.
Honey butter cod
CRC is one of those Penang institutions which keeps going and going. It’s always a favourite amongst local Penangites for dinner, and for good reason. It does a number of solid dishes like sweet-n-sour pork ribs, stuffed bean curd amongst others, but there is one dish which it does particularly well: their famous honey-butter cod. It’s a dish I’m currently in the process of reverse-engineering that so I can enjoy its deliciousness at home. Succulent cod, crispy on the outside yet juicy in the middle, lightly coated in a not-overly rich sauce probably amalgamated from butter, honey, soy and rice wine. A Penang classic.
Also pictured below are their prawns fried in an egg batter with curry leaves – which although tasty, could’ve done with a hand-full more curry leaves to intensify the fragrance of this dish.
Snack time
Lor bak (five-spice marinated pork wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried) is another Penang classic. Kheng Pin Cafe on Mcalister Road does what I think is Penang’s best rendition of this dish. The secret to their success is to mix the pork filling with yam, adding an earthy and slightly sweet depth of flavour to this dish. It also goes without saying that their lor bak is extra crispy, too.
Furthermore, their lor (thick sauce made from stock and eggs, thickened with starch) is packed full of gelatinous goodness, the perfect accompaniments for these fried treats. Also, as part of the package, you’ll get some fried shrimp cakes, also delectable, even better when dipped in their chilli sauce.
Surprise finds
Near the Chowrasta market, just off Penang road, I inadvertently bumped into a quiet little eatery that does one of my breakfast favourites; koay teow th’ng. A salty and sweet broth derived from the goodness of chicken and/or pork bones houses fresh flat rice noodles, pork meatballs, fish balls and fish cake, finished with a sprinkling of chopped Chinese chives and garlic oil; this really hits the spot.
Next door to this little eatery you’ll find a streetside cart doing Ban Chang Kuih, yet another Penang masterpiece. It essentially is a crispy pancake, thicker and fluffier in the middle to hold your choice of filling, and thinner and crisper around the edges for that enhanced crunch. My favourite filling is usually sugar and crushed peanuts, but there’s a myriad of choices with you can elect.
Hokkien Mee: Need I say more
Hokkien Mee bears all the hallmarks of traditional Penang street-cuisine. The basis of this dish is a spicy broth oozing with that unmistakeable richness derived from prawn heads and shells, with a touch of sweetness added by pork and chicken bones. The broth itself is really the key: what differentiates a good hokkien mee from a mediocre one is that depth of flavour brought on by the frying, crushing and boiling of the heads and shells of fresh prawns.
Add to this egg noodles and rice vermicelli, beansprouts, Chinese greens, pork slices and prawn meat and a topping of fried shallots, and you have a dish that when done well, there are few things in world cuisine that can even come close to this indulgent flavour explosion. At Sar Teow Lor (Three-way road, aka Katz St), one vendor tirelessly produces a lip-smackingly good version of this dish; with an added secret ingredient: roasted belly pork.
A Penang beachside classic
One of my favourite eateries in Penang is without doubt Ocean Green. Fresh seafood cooked with finesse in a semi-covered sea breeze-exposed setting, it’s just a place you cannot ignore. There are a number of delicious treats they can whip up, here is the rundown of my favourites.
Let’s start simple. Fresh prawns, steamed with a dash of salt and rice wine, is a classically delicious way to enjoy the juicy sweetness of these sea dwellers.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have their cheese crab. Fresh crabmeat and light cheese baked in a crab shell might not sound very Asian but when dipped in their house ginger-garlic sweet chilli dip, it’s undeniably tasty.
Next up are their large prawns deep fried and mixed in a nutmeg-infused mayonnaise, otherwise known as salad prawns. Big juicy prawns and richly sweet mayo coating make this a cut above your average ‘salad ming har kok’ which is readily available at most dim sum eateries here in the west.
The list keeps going, next are their trademark spring rolls, crispy on the outside with flavour packed vegetable filling. Again, their house chilli sauce makes the difference here.
And try to visit when the Satay man is in the house; his grilled treats and smokey and tender, and are worth driving all the way back to indulge and get some more for takeaway. This is pictured below with the Tian Tian takeaway.
Comfort Food at Tian Tian – Everyday Supreme
This restaurant is famous amongst the Penang community for churning out some seriously delicious Chinese treats. For me, their food is homely, and above all, comforting. We decided to get takeaway, hence the non-restaurant looking table in the background.
My favourite without question was their slow-cooked pork resembling ‘hong shao rou’ (red-cooked pork), but with an added touch of soy bean to give the sauce an earthy depth. Soft, melt in your mouth meat, gooey, saltily rich sauce, this stuff is dangerously addictive.
Another classic was their rich prawn curry (top right of the picture). Juicy prawns, braised in a deeply spice infused curry sauce, was another example of classic comfort food that the chefs at this establishment regularly churn out. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to sample another one of their signatures, fried cod with curry leaf and mayonnaise. Not that I need anymore incentive to go back to Penang, but this could be one of them...
