Good food in Penang, please contribute here :)
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Greetings from a true-blue Penangnite,
In Penang, it's not a matter of where to find good food but where to AVOID BAD food because virtually everywhere you go along the street sides or coffee shops there's good food! I've proven this to my wife, who was then my GF - when I first came to Singapore, the food here was...well...I better not say anything if I can't say anything nice, yes and that includes SIngapore's famed Chicken Rice (When in Penang, for CHicken Rice, try the one near the 'Delta' at Chung Ling High School Ayer Itam) Ok...so she did not believe so I took her on her maiden trip to Penang (also to showcase to Mum), told her to choose a stall, any stall along some side road somewhere and she did, a Char Koay Teow stall. Soon...the oily dish came, adorned by blood-dripping cockels. She took one mouth full and...the rest is culinary history - everytime we go back to Penang, it's the Char Koay Teow and so far we've been back a couple of times and at random the various char koay teow stalls, Laksa stalls, Ngoh Hiang stalls (or known as Lor Bak in Penang), Bak Kut Teh stalls beat Singapore's hands down. Now...just to appease the patriotic, I'm now a Singaporean but when it comes to food, the oil of Penang food still runs in my blood.
So...learn NOT where to go i.e. the commercialised food courts @ KOMTAR, GURNEY Plaza etc...and head for the streets. Gurney Drive is a good place to start. Also...don't leave before trying the Ice Kacang @ Swatow Lane - To die for: EVery fruit in the orchard can in in the ice kacang!
Have a safe and 'burb' satisfying trip.
Cheers
In Penang, it's not a matter of where to find good food but where to AVOID BAD food because virtually everywhere you go along the street sides or coffee shops there's good food! I've proven this to my wife, who was then my GF - when I first came to Singapore, the food here was...well...I better not say anything if I can't say anything nice, yes and that includes SIngapore's famed Chicken Rice (When in Penang, for CHicken Rice, try the one near the 'Delta' at Chung Ling High School Ayer Itam) Ok...so she did not believe so I took her on her maiden trip to Penang (also to showcase to Mum), told her to choose a stall, any stall along some side road somewhere and she did, a Char Koay Teow stall. Soon...the oily dish came, adorned by blood-dripping cockels. She took one mouth full and...the rest is culinary history - everytime we go back to Penang, it's the Char Koay Teow and so far we've been back a couple of times and at random the various char koay teow stalls, Laksa stalls, Ngoh Hiang stalls (or known as Lor Bak in Penang), Bak Kut Teh stalls beat Singapore's hands down. Now...just to appease the patriotic, I'm now a Singaporean but when it comes to food, the oil of Penang food still runs in my blood.
So...learn NOT where to go i.e. the commercialised food courts @ KOMTAR, GURNEY Plaza etc...and head for the streets. Gurney Drive is a good place to start. Also...don't leave before trying the Ice Kacang @ Swatow Lane - To die for: EVery fruit in the orchard can in in the ice kacang!
Have a safe and 'burb' satisfying trip.
Cheers
behyx said:From these threads here and here,
I've decided to go Penang on my own from 22nd (Sat) to 27th (Thu) April 2006.
Personally, i'm a food lover. I can eat a lot a lot of meals in a day, and i'm still skinny...
Since Penang has a lot of good food, please PLEASE recommend me some of the best places i can taste them, so i won't settle for anything lousier.
kenele said:
Gurney drive no more already, all th ehawkers have moved to a certain carpark, don't know eher but you won't miss much, the stalls are not always open. there is a huge night market in front of Sunway hotel, i think can try.
just get a map at the airport, Penang island is quite small , the map should be clear enough
moriahphotos
New Member
Personally, hailing from the island where all good food seems to originate from, I dun recommend going Gurney Drive at all cost. It is downright expensive and not worth the money even though its still cheap compared to singapore. I dun understand why there are still ppl who favor the place but being a local there (16yrs before moving to singapore) I wun go there unless all the other food haunts have been burned down.
BUt, on a cheery note, i see there are a number of CSers who are either from Penang itself (Greetings from a fellow Penangite!:cheers: ) while some who has been there... Recently I find there a lot of penangites in singapore... oops think I OT liao ;p
BUt, on a cheery note, i see there are a number of CSers who are either from Penang itself (Greetings from a fellow Penangite!:cheers: ) while some who has been there... Recently I find there a lot of penangites in singapore... oops think I OT liao ;p
Belle&Sebastain
Senior Member
kenele said:
Gurney drive is closed when my wife and i were there during chinese new year, actually Gurney food not so good.
Hope this isn't too late, since your trip is on 22nd April.
Lorong Selamat Char Kway Teow is superb. Was there in May 2004, one big plate of RM5 char kway teow gives you about 5 big prawns, oversized cockles and yummily fried kway teow.
New Lane has some good food too, street hawker style. Sorta like S'pore in the olden days.
Batu Ferringhi has a stretch of night pasar malam that stretches for a few kilometres, good for walking. There's a big hawker centre there too, food is not bad tho a tad touristy.
There's a lot other food places i have not explored, but like the locals say, avoid Gurney at all costs.
Lorong Selamat Char Kway Teow is superb. Was there in May 2004, one big plate of RM5 char kway teow gives you about 5 big prawns, oversized cockles and yummily fried kway teow.
New Lane has some good food too, street hawker style. Sorta like S'pore in the olden days.
Batu Ferringhi has a stretch of night pasar malam that stretches for a few kilometres, good for walking. There's a big hawker centre there too, food is not bad tho a tad touristy.
There's a lot other food places i have not explored, but like the locals say, avoid Gurney at all costs.
if you're a penang boy/girl, check out http://www.penanghokkien.com
I used to go to gurney for Tao Hua, you guys should try it, you don't get brown sugar version in Singapore. (think jolly bean started to sell them, but I've never tried their version before.)
if you want to squeeze it out in a market, you can try out "corner laksa" at Air Itam market, or the "Lao Yee Curry Mee" AKA old lady curry noodles. Curry noodles is closest to what you guys call laksa in Singapore, in Penang, Laksa refers to the Asam version.
You should also try out the Indian Mee Goreng, it is very different from the Sg. I'm no food snob, but the Sg. version is quite bad.
Check out when you can visit a Pasar Malam. They usually close 1 street 1 night of the week for the night market. Get a real authentic experience of what a Pasar Malam is like, with make shift stalls, oil lamps, noisy generators, wares spread out across the floors etc etc...
cheers
I used to go to gurney for Tao Hua, you guys should try it, you don't get brown sugar version in Singapore. (think jolly bean started to sell them, but I've never tried their version before.)
if you want to squeeze it out in a market, you can try out "corner laksa" at Air Itam market, or the "Lao Yee Curry Mee" AKA old lady curry noodles. Curry noodles is closest to what you guys call laksa in Singapore, in Penang, Laksa refers to the Asam version.
You should also try out the Indian Mee Goreng, it is very different from the Sg. I'm no food snob, but the Sg. version is quite bad.
Check out when you can visit a Pasar Malam. They usually close 1 street 1 night of the week for the night market. Get a real authentic experience of what a Pasar Malam is like, with make shift stalls, oil lamps, noisy generators, wares spread out across the floors etc etc...
cheers
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