5 Best Must Eat Street Food When You Visit Penang. (food)
♡Assalammualaikum and hello everyone!♡
The streets of Penang city (especially Georgetown) are renowned as a food paradise mainly due to its diversity in ethnicity, culture and religion. Its multi-ethnicity brings forth such celebrated variety in Penang’s street and hawker food. There is no lack of food options here, and is difficult to find a store that falls short of a rating lower than “delicious”.
1. NASI KANDAR
Another Indian Muslim dish that was claimed to originate from Penang, fragrant rice topped with different curry-based meat or vegetable dishes of your choice. Covered in similar fiery-red orange but the curry for each dish actually did taste different. Do beware as they use their chili and spices very lavishly. There is a whole street selling Nasi Kandar around Little India of Penang, along Lebuh Queen and Lebuh Chulia.
2. CHAR KOAY TEOW
A familiar dish for Singaporeans. Char Koay Teow is a national favourite in Malaysia and Singapore. Of Course, Penang has their fair share of famous char koay teow stalls with their own signature taste. What I appreciated most from Penang-style Char Koay Teow is the flavor of ‘wok hei’, and the freshness of the ingredients. Also, going for the duck eggs option did give a richer taste to each mouthful of noodles. I can’t vouch for Lorong Selamat’s Char Koay Teow to be the best in Penang, but it is definitely worth a visit.
3. CHENDOL
How can anyone forget the famous dessert in Penang. A bowl of shaved ice filled with chewy green rice flour jelly (chendol), red beans, fresh coconut milk and a splash of gula melaka (brown sugar) syrup. t is easy to spot the famous store for there is a never-ending queue outside Joo Hooi Cafe. Also, it is rather fascinating looking at the speed of preparation by the vendor. The quality however may not be as consistent – during the second trip there, the coconut milk tasted diluted and there was not enough gula melaka. This ice cold dessert is nonetheless a wonderful respite from the blistering tropical heat.
4. AIS KACHANG
If you are not a fan of coconut milk dishes, ice kachang (also spelt in Malaysia as ais kachang) is a combination of shaved ice and a mixture of red beans, grass jelly, sweet corn, assorted fruits, generously drizzled with rose syrup and condensed milk.
What is special about the ice kachang at Kek Seng is that they have additional toppings of agar-agar (jelly) and homemade durian ice cream. It is wonder how all these multifarious ingredients could result in a delish dessert.
5. PENANG ASAM LAKSA
A proud signature dish of Penang, Assam laksa is a rich and spicy, fish-based soup noodle broth of tamarind juice, chilli paste, lemongrass, topped with prawn paste and mackerel/sardine flakes. It has a tangy, wholesome flavor from the tamarind which some may find it too overpowering.
I believe it falls under the category of acquired taste where you would appreciate the rich broth more with each spoonful. They are normally served with either white or yellow noodles, while some stalls have a choice of thick or thin bee hoon.
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