Everyone’s favourite food paradise

Everyone’s favourite food paradise

From hawker food to fine dining, you can find everything your tummy desires and more in our very own foodie heaven Penang.

I HOPE you’ve been having a ho ho ho time these past few weeks, although being a foodie, I personally prefer ho ho ho chiak things if truth be told! And where else can you get that but in Penang? Whether it’s for turkey and mince pies or Char Kuey Teow and Mee Goreng, the island has been packed with cars as visitors from all over the country hunt for tasty food.

It’s good to see that many of our popular hawker stalls are going just as strongly as ever.

During the mornings, the Genting Coffee Shop near Island Glades serves up a particularly popular Chee Chiong Fun, full of peanut-flavour prawn paste, unique even in Penang.

Ah Choo, who cooks and sells one of my favourite Hokkien Mees, is still dishing out piping-hot bowls of her delicious, prawn-based stock and noodles topped with plenty of home-made Eu Chang (onion fritters) in the Sin Lee Hin Coffee Shop near the Tanjung Bungah market.

Morning markets are often a source of good hawker food, and the Hokkien Mee and Kuey Teow T’ng at the Perak Road Market are also pretty authentic.

In the afternoon, pop into the Batu Lanchang Market where the hawker centre buzzes from 11 in the morning to five or six in the evening, serving up all kinds of famous Penang food, particularly their Nyonya kueh, Mee Rebus and Ice Kacang.

Just a little further away is the Taman Free School Hawker Centre, another place you can get Penang food in the afternoon, as well as at the Taman Brown Hawker Complex in Perak Road, where you can find some famous Char Kuey Teow, Pasembur and more Nyonya kueh.

Every afternoon, Raja still sets up his mobile stall, complete with gas burner, at the entrance to Prima Tanjung in Tanjung Tokong, and, from the back of his motorbike, dispenses both colourful, sweet Nyonya kueh and Nyonya Assam Laksa. It’s just like old times as you stand there slurping a bowl of this sour, fishy soup which is kept at boiling temperature.

Of course at night a myriad hawker centres and food courts keep hunger pangs away, from the CF in Weld Quay to Red Garden in town; from Viva in Tanjung Bungah to Long Beach in Batu Ferringhi.

During the past few years, Penang has seen its fair share of changes, not just on the political front. Shopping malls have either recently opened or undergone renovation, and new centres and hotels have been popping up here, there and everywhere.

Which of course definitely means one thing: new eateries, and it is a sign of the changing tastes of Malaysians whose palates are getting more sophisticated, that we have many which offer Penangites more dining experiences.

Apart from those already mentioned in previous articles, there’s Cassis in Pulau Tikus, which is run by local Chef Beh, where you can indulge in fixed course menus which include foie gras and grain-fed beef tenderloin.

Another is Kopicine, part of the successful Langkawi Bon Ton Group, based in Stewart Lane in Penang’s heritage district. This pleasant little corner café is starting to make a name for itself among locals and expatriates, with a carefully thought-out menu of mainly western dishes with a touch of local. Their vegetarian Pasta with Ginger Bud Pesto is cleverly-concocted to combine the best of both worlds, and their ice creams are home made.

Wine bars are also starting to make an appearance, with The Wine Shop in Lintang Burmah where you can purchase a bottle of wine at shop prices and partake of it in their elegant restaurant next door, and the chic That Little Wine Bar in Jalan Chow Thye, where they run wine classes and serve “traditional, clean, European food”.

According to Chef Tommes, who spent five years working in Shanghai with a 3-Michelin-star chefL: “Everything is made fresh from scratch, even our stocks and mayonnaise.”

The ingredients, he assures us, are the best he can get. Their Beef Carpaccio, raw beef sliced so thinly you can see the plate underneath, is served dribbled with extra virgin olive oil.

Experience some fine dining where the founding of Singapore was discussed - the newly-restored Suffolk House, built on the site of Captain Francis Light’s pepper plantation just off Jalan Air Itam.

Whichever tickles your fancy, you’ll probably find it here in Penang. I wish you and your family a fantastic 2011.

-News courtesy of The Star-