Penang Street Food

No visit to Penang will be complete if you haven’t tried the street / hawker food. Portions are usually small; hence you could order a variety to try. Or maybe I am just giving myself an excuse to eat more… :) There’s no one dish which is my personal favourite, I love them all.

Here are some ideas on what to eat:

Assam Laksa
Better known as Penang Laksa; it is actually thick rice noodles with tangy spicy fish broth with meshed fish, usually mackerel or some use sardines. Personally I prefer mackerel for this dish. The noodle dish is garnished with mint leaves, julienne of cucumber, pineapple, onions, lettuce, red chili and torch ginger better known locally as “bunga kantan”, which has an aromatic fragrance. Then top it off with a spoonful of “Hae Ko” which is a dark and thick prawn paste, now this prawn paste is an acquired taste, use it sparingly unless you are like me… who absolutely can’t have a bowl of piping hot Asam Laksa without the prawn paste! The prawn paste adds zest to the dish!

Char Kway Teow
This is stir fried flat rice noodles over very high heat, with prawns, cockles, slices of Chinese sausage (hard sausage usually made from pork and pork lard, normally smoked, sweetened, and seasoned), egg, bean sprouts, chives, and chili paste. Some fried the Char Koay Teow with pork lard, which gives that extra aroma to the dish. The best would be to stir fried over charcoal. :-) I am not saying it’s healthy… but it’s a mean dish.. so good… Some stalls offers additional garnishing like crab meat for an additional charge.

Lor Bak
Lor Bak, is a type of meat rolls wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried till golden brown. The meat, mostly pork are marinated in five spices. They are served with two dipping sauce, a starchy sauce flavored with five spices and chilli sauce. You have to dip into both sauces to get the full flavor. Then there are other varieties to add on to the Lor Bak such as boiled octopus (another one of my favorite), deep fried battered fish, prawn fritters also known in Hokkien as “Heh Chih”, deep fried tofu, a.k.a. “Tau Kua”, Century Eggs with pickled ginger.

Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodles)
In Kuala Lumpur, when you mentioned Hokkien Mee, it’s actually udon noodles stir fried in black sauce but in Penang, it’s an entirely different dish. KLites called the Penang Hokkien Mee as “Har Mee” (Prawn Noodles). Penangites just called it Hokkien Mee.
This egg noodle a.k.a “Mee” & vermicelli a.k.a “Bee Hoon” dish is served in prawn broth (the broth is made from pork, fresh prawns, dried shrimps and chilli paste stock) with, morning glory a.k.a. “KangKung), bean sprouts a.k.a. “Taugeh”, sliced pork and prawns.

Curry Mee
This is curry noodle, mixed both type of yellow egg noodles a.k.a “Mee” and vermicelli a.k.a “Bee Hoon”. The soup is a light curry with some coconut milk and the dish is garnish with bean sprouts, squid a.k.a “Jiu Hu”, cockles a.k.a “Hamm”, deep fried tofu a.ka. “Tau Pok” and cubed pork’s blood. (I don’t fancy this but I do know a lot of people who loves it, so I always ask to removed the pork’s blood) If you want it spicy, just add the chilli sauce that they will put in the spoon for you to add in the soup.

Chneh Hoo Passembur
This is a form of salad, ala local style. “Chneh Hoo” in Hokkien is known as raw fish, but there is no raw fish served in this dish, it’s referring to the poached jellyfish. This dish is a Chinese version of “Passembur”. Pasembur is a salad dish that are usually sold by Indian as well as Chinese hawkers. The Indian version might defer slightly. This dish comprised of julienne of cucumber, Chinese turnip, potatoes, “Tau Kua” (beancurd), bean sprout, “Hah Chh”i (prawn fritters) and sliced boiled egg garnished with a special sauce made from sweet potato.

Lor Mee
Lor mee (mee and bee hoon, served with thick prawn-based gravy, a dollop of chili sauce, sliced pork and half a boiled egg). For extras, you may add pork skin, pork intestines, chicken feet and mushrooms. Also, grounded garlic with vinegar.

Penang Chee Cheong Fun
This is a rolled steam riceflat noodle served with prawn paste, sweet paste, oil and sesame seeds. Chilli paste is optional.

Oh Chien
This dish is fresh oyster omelets, “Oh” (oyster) “Chien” (fried) in Hokkien.

Penang Otak-Otak
This is steamed fish cake made from a mixture of eggs, coconut milk fish fillet with lemon grass, ginger, fresh tumeric, shallots, morinda, kaffir lime leaf, wrapped in banana leaf.

There’s many more but I am getting too hungry to write… go discover on your own on the other varieties of street food in Penang. :-)