We last went to Penang back in 2011, where we literally ate our stay away.
This time, we thought that we should try to do things a little differently, though we somehow ended up back at the same places because the food were just so good!
We also tried some new places, with mixed reviews.
Here is our short 3 day 2 night itinerary:
We had agreed that we needed to eat eat AND walk walk for this trip, instead of eat eat eat eat 😛 So we did spend half our time checking out the street art in George Town.
Back in 2009, the state government had commissioned 52 steel rod sculptures, to share the rich history behind the street names in George Town. In 2012, the murals came along, and by 2016, there were really plenty to see.
Armed with the free map that indicated where the more popular street art were, plus a bit of Googling, we really had plenty of fun exploring the streets!
Here’s a short video on the street murals that we have seen on this trip (which I have also embedded below)!
Our absolute favourite was the Old Indian Woman mural by Julia Volchkova, Lumut Lane. It was amazingly realistic 🙂
We are now inspired to visit Balik Pulau during our next Penang trip!
Useful websites:
We had arrived at the airport early, and after browsing all the eateries at the departure hall, we decided to try out Pinang Kopitiam. We ordered a Penang Laksa (RM10+ 6%GST) and Rojak Buah (RM6+).
Had some difficulty trying to communicate with the staff as he kept explaining things in Malay, and we had to catch several key phrases and clarify in English. But he sure was very friendly and helpful! When he served the laksa, he asked if we wanted something, but we could not understand. Then he went “Penang flavour. Don’t know? Nevermind, I show you”, and he came back with the prawn paste, which was the saviour of the dish! Ooohhh wooo! The noodles might have been a bit overcooked, but the prawn paste made the gravy very flavourful, and we thought it was better than the other version that we tried.
They were very generous with the prawn paste for the rojak as well, and I particularly enjoyed the tart green mango mixed with the sweet sauce.
This was such a pleasant find at the airport 🙂
Of course, we have always heard how KFC in Malaysia is so much better than that in Singapore, so we simply popped opposite and ordered a 2-Piece Chicken of original flavoured chicken (RM9.20 nett). The meat was succulent and juicy. But we can’t really tell if it’s truly better than Singapore’s because we have not had KFC in Singapore for such a looong time… Haha… 😛
Pinang Kopitiam:
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What a hot day it was!!!
After trekking to 2 different locations before managing to find some food souvenirs, we went to Coffee on the Table opposite Ghee Hiang to hide from the sun.
Our last cafe in Penang does 3D latte art (additional RM3) for their coffee and chocolate drinks, both hot and cold (additional RM1).
We got ourselves a Iced Cafe Latte (RM14.90+ 10% service charge) and Iced Hazelnut Chocolate (RM16.90+). Pretty pricey 😮 But we were feeling too cui to go anywhere else.
The coffee was way better than the chocolate. The hazelnut chocolate had a strange cloying artificial sweetness, and very little chocolate taste to it. At least the coffee tasted like what it was supposed to, haha.
The free WiFi here was kinda spotty for a while, but was ok for the rest of our chillax session.
But we were most impressed with their 3D latte art which they could do it in iced drinks as well, something we have not been able to find in Singapore!
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We had came to this place twice, the first time it was far too crowded for us to want to wait to buy any food souvenirs, so we figured we should return here to check out what is so good about this place. We came back on Monday, and it was empty (including no one queuing to take pictures with the ‘I-Want-Pau‘ mural just outside the shop) 🙂
While trying to decide what to buy home, we figured that we should try out the patries first, since there were seats available. We got ourselves the 2 most popular items, the Rickshaw Egg Tart 三轮车蛋挞 (RM2/pc), and the Salted Egg Yolk Pastry 咸蛋酥 (RM1.90/pc). We plonked ourselves at a table with the air-conditioning blowing at us 😀
The egg tart was still warm, and it was filled with flaky goodness that was made of many layers of thin pastry. The fillings were not overly sweet, and the combination was awesomely delicious (dare we say better than Tai Cheong’s)! Very worth the money, but probably too difficult to fly home with it still retaining its freshness.
The salted egg yolk pastry was quite disappointing though. It was super sweet with very little egg yolk, and we could barely distinguish the taste of egg yolk from the very sweet lotus paste. We ended up not buying anything and went back to the Ghee Hiang, the bean pastry place to get our souvenirs instead.
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Mr J told us that his cousin has opened a cafe here, so we thought that we should pop over to show some support 🙂
Tried the Philly Cheese Steak Bun 费城芝士牛仔包 (RM5.50) and Tomato Based Luncheon Meat & Egg Macaroni 餐蛋通粉 (RM6.50). For drinks, we shared a Iced Hawthorn 山楂水 (RM1.90). We had initially wanted to try one of the sets, but alas, egg tarts were already sold out by the time we arrived just past 1pm.
For this price, they were certainly quite generous with the amount of minced meat and cheese in the cheese steak bun. We also liked that the bun was quite soft. Overall, this bun was slightly on the saltier side though.
The macaroni arrived shortly after we downed the bun. The tomato gravy was tangy and sweet, whetting up our appetite. There was a generous amount of luncheon meat strips, that looked more like ham. The pasta was cooked just nice, and was slightly bouncy, not bad at all.
The iced hawthorn provided a refreshing relief as it was a really hot day today, but I preferred the nutmeg drink to this.
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We were checking out another series of street art, and were very impressed with the scale and number!
We were also quite impressed by the heat in Penang, and found the nearby Cafe 55 by Coffee Atelier open.
Hubby decided to try a Black Kim Guan Coffee (RM7, inclusive of 6% GST and 10% service charge), which was made from coffee beans roasted in the traditional Penang style. Not bad for a local coffee.
I decided in the Iced Lemon Tea (RM10 nett), for this place served Gryphon tea which is also easily available in Singapore. The iced lemon tea was very intensely sweet and sour.
We enjoyed the relaxed and cosy atmosphere here, and the not-too-freezing air conditioning that was at the right cooling temperature. Oh, the free WiFi was wonderful too 😛
Do check out the area leading towards the restroom, where there is a small art gallery, as well as an area explaining the history of Kim Guan and coffee.
This place also serves breakfast, pastas, sandwiches, tapas, salad, and desserts. However, we were still very full from our hotel breakfast, so we did not try any food here.
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We enjoyed the Indian food at Little India in George Town back in 2011, where we tried vegetarian food at Woodlands Vegetarian Restaurant (loved the Palak Paneer so much that we started ordering this dish whenever we go to Indian restaurants) and delicious tandoori chicken and naan at Restoran Kapitan.
This time, we thought that we should try a different restaurant, and ended up at the Restoran Daun Pisang Sri Ananda Bahwan, as it was the most crowded. There were a good mix of Caucasians, Indians and Chinese patrons, so we thought the food should be pretty decent. In all, we tried:
It was a rather disappointing meal for us 😦
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We were here at the legendary roadside stall in 2011, and the queue remained as crazy in 2016… And the queue at the chendul stall opposite remained non-existent… Oops.
This pushcart stall started in 1936 with the old Mr Tan Teik Fuang learning to make and beginning to sell chendul at Penang Road. Business flourished and picked up when the 2nd generation Mr Tan Chong Kim took over in 1977 and started applying innovation with a business mind while keeping the quality of the product. Today Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul has branches all over Malaysia and is planning on expanding to overseas too.
As usual, we just grabbed a bowl of Chendul for RM2.70, and slurped it up by the roadside, along with the rest.
It was still as good as ever, with the generous gula melaka and aromatic coconut flavours, making it a delightful dessert. Who cares about the hot sun anyway? 😉
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After the not-too-satisfying char kway tiao, we spotted another char kway tiao stall as we made our way back to the hotel, and this time, they fry it with duck egg!!!
Without hesitation, we ordered our second plate of Char Kw6ay Tiao with Duck Egg (RM6) within 2 hours 😮 To add on to the variety, we also ordered a Penang Laksa (RM5), and White Nutmeg Drink (RM2.30).
This plate of char kway tiao was so worth the calories! Something about the duck egg simply made this dish super flavourful 😀 The laksa sadly was lacking the sourness of the assam and was overly spicy for us.
But we were totally satisfied with the CKT alone! 😛
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Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 