My favorite Penang Street Food ... Penang, Malaysia

After 3 trips to the island of Penang in a span of 10 years, I can finally tell what are my favourite Penang street food. This last trip, I was hosted by some friendly locals who brought me to taste what they thought was best if not the most popular. In the short span of a 2 hour lunch, I've eaten all these favourites.

We were whisked in a car to Lebuh Keng Kwee (minor street an off shoot of Jalan Pinang) to try the Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul. Chendol was sold at a mobile stall. Locals who came by the stall would order a bowl and then eat while standing around the stall. According to our Penang friends, the owner has set up 2 more stalls with permanent addresses. Their flagship mobile stall is still operating at its original location just outside Jooi Hooi Cafe 愉園茶室. 

As we wanted to take a seat at the table, we settled inside inside Jooi Hooi Cafe 愉園茶室. We are not allowed to order the Chendol and eat in the cafe unless we patronised their stall, which we did.

Inside Jooi Hooi Cafe, there was the Assam Laksa, another popular Penang Street food. Rice noodles are cooked and then dunked in tangy, spicy fish based soup. Those are sardine chunks that's floating above the soup in the photo. The Assam Laksa here is quite good. It's actually so much better then stalls in Gurney Drive that has become a tourist trap over the years.

Inside the same cafe, we had the Penang Rojak, that has fried dough sticks, pineapple cucumber and jelly fish. These ingredients are mixed with a sweetened prawn paste and then sprinkled with ground peanut. I think there were some tropical fruits added into the mix as well. The adding of tropical fruits is what made the differentiation between the rojak in Penang and that in Singapore.

About 3 years ago we drove about 1000km from Singapore and visited this Char Koay Teow stall in Lorong Selamat. I was glad that I'm back at the same place with the same aunty in the red chef hat cooking my plate of char koay teow. Our local friends have a difference in opinion as to whether this is the best char koay teow. It's definitely a popular char koay teow stall with the local Malaysian tourists.

The Char Koay Teow stall is located in Kafe Heng Huat 興發茶室 along Lorong Selamat.

Here's my plate of Lorong Selamat's Char Koay Teow with the fat crunchy prawns, sliced Chinese sausage, cockles, it's eggy fragrance and the obvious "wok hei" (wok fragrance). 

Apart from the street food, Penang is also known for their type of tau sar biscuits, they called Tambun Biscuit. We were brought to Him Heang 馨香餅家, a local favourite, to buy these Tambun Biscuit. (162A Jalan Burma, 10050 Penang, Malaysia  Tel: 04 228 6129)

Here's my box of Tambun Biscuit looking like nicely browned ping pong balls.

The filling inside the Tambun Biscuit is mashed up sweetened green bean paste  infused with the fragrance of spring onion oil.