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First stop in Penang was some ramshackle coffee shop with this very cool sign.
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Penang is very similar to Singapore in terms of its food culture - 30 years ago. Lots of streetside and alley hawkers whipping up one-plate dishes in the most unbelievable conditions and spartan set-ups.
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Food stop #1.
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Assam laksa, one of the signature dishes in Penang - a tangy, spicy, sour stock heartified by sardine flakes, onions, shredded cucumber and shredded pineapples, with a dollop of prawn paste. Not the best, but the hungry cannot be choosers.
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Another Penang specialty, char koay teow, or fried rice noodles in soy sauce with sprouts, Chinese sausage and shrimp.
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Kueh pie tie, a Peranakan or Straits Chinese speciality, which is crispy little cups filled with stewed radish and topped off with shredded omelet and sweet, hot sauce.
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Popiah, or what I like to call the Peranakan burrito. Which is basically a raw spring roll, filled with the same radish stew from the kueh pie tee, but laced with sweet sauce also.
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Koay teow thng, or rice noodle soup with a plethora of pig parts - liver, clotted blood, tripe, stomach, and goodness knows what else.
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Nice bowl.
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We, of course, had to try the delicious and tasty home-made durian ice cream. Not bad.
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Food stop #2: One of the two famous chendol stalls on Keng Kwee Street, off Penang Road. Chendol is a famous local dessert with a coconut and palm sugar base, filled with pandan jelly and red bean and topped off with shaved ice.
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We found this one rather diluted, although sweet and refreshing.
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Not sure how rojak came into play, but it did. Rojak is a salad of cucumber, pineapple, mango, sprouts, dough fritters and fried tofu tossed in prawn paste and lime juice, and smothered with crushed peanuts.
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The famous Keng Kwee Street with its dueling chendol stalls, and the corner coffee shop with Penang specialties. It's somewhat lost its luster over the years.
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Char koay teow, again, because the first one wasn't so good and we felt we needed to be vindicated.
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Served in traditional takeaway style, which is on a piece of banana leaf and wrapped in newspaper.
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Food stop #3: Well, you know me. I couldn't walk by pancakes without stopping. I swear they all have my name on them. These are crispy crepes filled with a thin layer of crushed peanuts and sugar - some can be topped up with sweet corn, pork floss, cheese
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Little griddles for optimal pancake production.
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Very happy camper. It's my dad's favorite snack, too.
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Champion eater.
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Penang is like a step back 40 or 50 years in Singapore - it's what Singapore could be if we hadn't modernized so quickly without any thought about our cultural preservation. The colonial district is lovely, with old symbols of the city's immigrant past in
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Steamed peanuts.
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Sugarcane waiting to be pulverized into juice.
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An old-timer woks and rolls.
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Ashe's fifth cousin six times removed on his grand-aunt's side.
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An old movie theater - wish someone would restore this and run films here again.
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The newest addition to the Ashe family.
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Lots of old rotting buildings in Penang's colonial district... but at least they're still standing. For now.
