Penang Hawker Food

Okay, I know I said the next post would be another one on CC's family restaurant, but seeing how I posted about Sibu hawker food here, I thought I'll just quickly write this on Penang hawker food, because I had some yesterday and there isn't a lot of pictures. :)

Liang and I went to a hawker centre in Lorong Swatow, near New World Park in Penang yesterday. Because I am lame, I forgot the name of the kopi tiam, it's the one opposite-behind Continental Bakery.

Both of us had Liang's favourite at the kopi tiam - TomYam Maggi Mee (RM3.00). Mine without taugeh (bean sprouts) of course, and Liang's with extra taugeh.

Not really a classic Penang hawker food, but it's good.

I've had that before last year - those were really good tomyam noodles. The soup was spicy and sharp, and the seller was generous with noodles, seafood and pieces of chicken. It's filling and very satisfying...some might complain it wasn't spicy enough - but because both me and Liang have low tolerance for chili, it suits us very well.

(You may be wondering why I didn't have Char Koay Teow. Cos the Char Koay Teow at that place wasn't fantastic...I prefer the TomYam noodles.)

We got badgered into ordering a plate of O-Jian (Oyster Eggs) (RM2.50) to share.

Liang asked for less oil...I think there's not much difference, haha.

I haven't had a lot of O-Jian previously on the account of health reasons. As good as they are, they really are quite oily and unhealthy. :( But the O-Jian we had was yummy. The oysters, although not super fresh, were fresh enough not to be smelly and the fried egg was crispy on the edges yet soft in the centres with the oysters to balance out a great crispy-gooey taste. I really liked it...such a guilty pleasure. Especially the crunchy bits of the egg!

And there you go - a Penang hawker food post...at last. And only two dishes. I am such a bad Penangnite. :(

- Mouse

P.S. Our food, plus drinks, come up to less than AUD12.00.

Sibu Street (Hawker) Food

I finished writing this much later than I planned to. :x Anyway, here's the post on Sibu Street Food! Erm, I don't really know the exact location where we had these, but they are considered pretty common in Sibu. We actually didn't have a lot of hawker food because, y'know, CC's parents are like awesome chefs. But of course we have to try the most famous Foochow food in Sibu. For those who don't know, Sibu is primarily dominated by Foochow (福州) Chinese and CC herself is Foochow.

Possibly the most famous Foochow food to me is Kampua 干盘面. I've been hearing about these noodles for approximately 5 years and they are like, one of the primary reasons I went to Sibu. Hoho. Anyway, Kampua is a noodle dish traditionally made with hand-made noodles, char siew (roast pork) and dried shallots.

The famous KAMPUA...at last!!

Close up of the Sibu celebrity.

I really like it. The noodles are springy and yummy and I think it's a very simple dish that puts everything really well together. The sauce is just right for a dish of dry, yummy noodles, and the shallots are crispy and nice. Definitely not disappointed with it and definitely wishing that Penang has these noodles.

Mad bought her version of Kampua from Kuching - except they're more known as Kolo Mee there. I didn't manage to take a clear picture of the Kolo Mee alone - so have a group picture.

Kolo Mee in two kinds - I forgot what and why though...

It's definitely different from Kampua although they look similar. I can't exactly pinpoint the difference but there is a difference. Kolo Mee is yummy as well and they are served with steamed wantans as well as char siew.

Mad also bought some Sio Bee over - another traditional Foochow food.

Kuching Sio Bee.

It's rather like Siew Mai but I think it's so much yummier than the usual Siew Mai. Being that the 'skin' is thinner than Siew Mai, the Sio Bee is so much meatier and more fragrant. The way the meat is spiced is different, too. I could gorge on the whole plate! :D It's that good.

Next up we have Kompia 光饼.

Not your average burger.

It's a type of baked bread that is crispy, hot and yeasty when it comes straight out of the oven. Traditionally it's plain bread and you eat it with whatever filling you want - but CC's family brought us to this place where they served the Kompia fried with meat. Hot and meaty, the meat juices were soaked into the bread and the first bite is yum. So very good but also so very damaging to a girl's hips. :( CC's parents gave me a bag of traditional Kompia to take home but I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of those.

Backtracking a little, along with our Kampua meal, we had Wantan Soup 云吞汤 as well.

Wantan and veggies and soup.

It's not too different from the Wantan Soup I'm used to, but it's very good. There's a lot of veggies in the soup and the wantan is good and flavourful. Fishballs in the soup are munchy and nice as well.

We also had something called 红酒粗粉 Hong Jiu Chu Fen which translates roughly into Red Wine Thick Noodles.

Red as in red wine.

The soup is cooked with red wine and served with thick, short white rice noodles, black fungus and eggs. I didn't have a lot of it on the account that I can't really have alcohol - but the one sip of soup I had was rather good. The red wine wasn't very overpowering although you can taste it on the tip of your tongue. I think it's a really unusual dish - and I do love the boiled eggs. :D

The last Sibu street food on the list is 鼎边糊 Ding Bian Hu which is a kind of fishball koay teow soup with black fungus.

Fishbaaalls.

I will get the address from CC for this one (to be updated) because this is like one of the most famous dishes in Sibu. The fishballs are handmade and hand-beaten by the owner, fresh, every single morning. They are never NEVER served frozen. And I have to say those fishballs are like ten kinds of awesome. They are just so fresh, springy and tender, and you can really taste the fresh fish in every bite.

We are really spoilt for food in Sibu. ;) Bad news is, I think I haven't lost the weight from what I ate in Sibu...yet. Huhu.

Another restaurant post is in the works!

- Mouse



EDIT: 鼎边糊 Ding Bian Hu and 红酒粗粉 Hong Jiu Chu Fen are both made with black fungus not seaweed. Sorry, my bad and my bad memory. >>;;

Roti Bakar (Penang)

I will be doing a post on Grossi Florentino's soon - just need to get the pictures arranged. There's not a lot of pictures, but because the lighting was pretty blah and our cameras were pretty blah as well - a lot didn't turn out nicely, so I have to edit them somewhat.

Anyway, if you haven't already, San did a lovely post on Waterfront Station Pier, so do read that!

For this post, I am going to introduce the old-fashioned very typical Penang breakfast - Roti Bakar - at one of its most famous spots in Campbell Street. And it looks really dodgy, too. Hahahha.

Venture into the DARK ALLEY WAH. And no I do not know the random uncle.

I never knew Roti Bakar existed until my bestie Liang took me there last week after recovering from fainting in horror after hearing I didn't know what the heck was Roti Bakar.

Roti Bakar is thick slices of bread which is "burned" (in other words toasted) in a fire-pot with charcoal - in which the charcoal-toasting is its specialty. It is then slathered with home-made kaya　(coconut jam) or home-made peanut butter and served with a half-boiled egg if you want it.

I had the kaya roti while Liang had the peanut butter. There's not much difference in the presentation.

Roti x2 and egg x2

My kaya Roti and My egg.

My first bite was OMGSODAMNGOODWHY. Why haven't I tried this thing before?! It's so simple and easy and looks so ordinary but it tasted SUPER. Super super nice!! I had returned for a second meal since. :D

Apparently people don't dip their roti into the half-boiled egg. The half-boiled egg was just to accompany the bread for afterwards. Well I dipped and it tasted damn damn good. Oh, you season the half-boiled egg yourself with soy and pepper, to your liking.

Mount Everest! :D ...Or Mount Kinabalu. Okay, just Penang Hill.

The speciality drink of the place is Kopi Ais to go with the Roti.

It's black but not drain water don't worry.

The Kopi Ais is very very rich in taste and went well with the Roti although it is just a bit too sweet for me.

After we finished our roti, Liang was still greedy so we had another order of Roti Stim to share.

Stim Stim.

Roti Stim is steamed bread using hot water (from the same barrel they bakar the other roti), spread with butter when still hot and soft and sprinkled with sugar. I have had sugar toast before but this Roti Stim is really wow.

...Anyway, there won't be a lot of hawker food post if people are expecting lots. Health conditions preventing me from gorging my usual amount so apologies for that. But do try the Roti stuff when you come down to Penang/Malaysia. So yummy.

The lot above costs us RM8.40. That's approximately AUD$2.60. I can't even get a large takeaway coffee for that in Melbourne. :x

- Mouse

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Wantan Mee & Hokkien Mee (Penang)

Finally had my share of hawker food! No Char Koay Teow yet (WHY WHY WHYYY) but my next favourite, Wantan Mee! I should note thought it is not a dish that Penang is particular famous for or credited for the originality, but we make pretty damn good Wantan Mee anyway. :D

Wantan Mee from one of my favourite stalls. I don't have an address for it, but if you ever want to try out this dish, just hop onto a taxi and tell the taxi driver, "Uncle Taxi, coffee shop opposite the Pulau Tikus police station with the famous Hokkien Mee!!" Indeed the coffee shop is famous for their Hokkien Mee. But cos I had a craving for Wantan Mee, I had that.

Crappy pics, I'm sorry. It was 8AM in the morning and the coffee shop was dinghy and the lightning SUCKS. I took a whole load of pics and only managed to pick out two, TWO that is slightly presentable. Blah.

My parents' Hokkien Mee - which is basically a spicy noodle soup with yellow noodles and rice noodles, served with fishcakes, prawns, TAUGEH and fried shallots.

My Wantan Mee - thin and yummy egg noodles in a soy-based sauce with fried wantans (pork wrapped in crisp pastry), roast pork and veggies. YAY.

I'm not going to describe how the food tastes like. Just that it is Penang hawker food and it is awesomely, fantastically, finger-licking, nothing-tastes-like-it AMAZINGLY GOOD.

Remember. Police station. Pulau Tikus (Mouse Island). Opposite.

- Mouse

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