Hi people. Well, guess what? I am in Malaysia right now! =D
Since I am here in Penang, Malaysia (probably for 3 days), I will focus more on the places to eat in Malaysia, and mostly, hawker street food for a few posts forward!
Maybe you might be wondering about what is it with Penang that made me all excited. Well, not much for you guys, but for me, who grew up all the way in Medan, I often went to Penang with my family every twice a year, so it’s like a place full of memory. Oh yes, Medan is indeed very close to Penang which is separated only about half an hour (by plane). I told you this just in case if you’re wondering. 😛
Penang is a very simple island, with some old buildings (but now mostly the buildings have gradually been renewed) with old chinese-feeling houses, and simple culture. My family and I find a peace of mind every time we visited Penang, where we could just walk around in George Town from our hotel (we will usually stay in George Town area) to Prangin Mall or other places of interest, travel by bus to go to further area (such as Kek Lok Si Temple), and eat around like there’s no tomorrow!
For the food, we always look forward to eating the street food which you can find almost in every corner of the city! They have these Kopi Tiams (and usually they label them as restaurants :P) where we could enjoy drinking milk tea, milo, barleys, or any kind of heart-warming drinks, have delicious traditional chinese food such as Wan Than Mee (dry/soup), Char Kuey Teow, Laksa, Chicken Rice or any others!
The prices for the food are relatively cheap (or seems cheap), varying from RM 2.50 to RM 6.00. Well, it used to be very cheap, but due to the currency (Malaysia Ringgit is now about Rp 3800!), it’s not that cheap anymore.
Okay then. Let’s see. Since we arrived at Penang at almost 7 (time in Malaysia is 1 hour faster than Jakarta), we hurried ourselves to do a check-in first in our hotel in George Town. Our cousin was here to take us anywhere for the short evening. After checking in, we went straight to a “restaurant” which my mom and dad previously had visited and found the food decent. My sis and I didn’t know about the “new” place, so we were just fine with any choices. We were so hungry anyway.
My cousin then brought us to the desired place, and it was located in Pulau Tikus area (about 15-20 minutes from George Town).
Here is the place where we had our “culinary initiation“. 😛
Bee Hoi Restaurant! haha. It’s not a restaurant anyway in my kind of mind. It’s a kopitiam. 😀 The place was already crawling with local people when we got inside. We got a table and quickly sat down even though the used plates, bowls and glasses from the previous customers were still on the table. First come first serve rules here. 🙂
Anyway, we ordered drinks first, starting with 2 glasses of Teh Peng (Iced Milk Tea), 1 glass of The Juak (Hot Milk Tea), 1 glass of Milo Peng (Iced Milo with milk), and a glass of Apple Juice. All of those cost us RM 9.40. I dunno how can they just calculate it in their mind and quickly get the result, maybe they have some hidden sempoa/chinese abacus in their brain!
Okay, let’s see the pictures below.
Two most favourite drinks which I always have in almost every kopitiam is Teh Peng and Milo Peng. They just taste so good and so different (maybe it’s just my feeling). In this kopitiam, both drinks were decent.
Lomie.
Since I didn’t try this one, I could not comment. It was my cousin’s dinner and he seemed enjoying every bit of the laksa. 🙂
Chicken Rice (RM 4.00)
This is a hainamese rice with steamed chicken. As much as I’d missed this and would die to eat Chicken Rice here in Penang, the one they made here wasn’t as good as the one we could find in George Town. The steamed chicken was rather tasteless and the texture was a bit dry.
Wan Than Mee – Soup (RM 3.80/Small)
The Wan Than Mee we’d been waiting for all our lives, was another disappointment. Though it looked inviting, but the taste fell short. The soup as the base was so thin, almost water-like and it was also almost tasteless. The texture of the curly noodles, however, was good and the mildly hot and salty chopped pickled chili saved the soul of the wan than mee.
Wan Than Mee – Dry (RM 3.80/Small)
Again from the same stall from the Soup Wan Than Mee, I tried to order the dry version. Dry Wan Than Mee is different to the soup one. It is covered with fragrant soy sauce (not the sweet soy sauce like the one we have in Indonesia) and mixed to perfection. Yes, it’s that simple. The secret lies in the spices they used I guess. 🙂 With this one, though not bad, the wan than mee was just okay. It lacked of salt, and I just didn’t feel the kick! The slices of charsiu were great though.
Roasted Chicken Rice (RM 4.00)
This dish came from the same stall which we ordered the first chicken rice (steamed chicken version). Without much to expect, we thought the taste was gonna be pretty much the same with the steamed version. But apparently this one was much better. The roasted chicken was tender, thinly crunchy on the skin. But still, this did not even come close to the one they serve in George Town.
Char Koay Teow (RM 6.00)
This was the ultimate dish, ordered by my dad because he wasn’t feeling full (or satisfied) at all after eating the chicken rice. Medanese must have known that the Char Koey Teow in Penang is super good! Yes, it looks very simple without all that many ingredients to throw in the wok pan. But with that simplicity (and a good mix of spices and seasonings), it can turn out delicious. The same goes with this Char Koey Teow, the one we had here, was great! The Koey Teow was so fragrant, with hint of oyster sauce, spicy chill paste and prawns! The prawns were so fresh, it kind of bounce back when I bit it in my mouth. 😀 Good job!
Well, I guess it sums up my first day. Not much to do for the first day though. We just happened to keep eating, then we are getting ready to sleep. Guess it’s super late now, and I have to get some sleep.
See you again tomorrow. Hope I have the power to blog about some nice things tomorrow night.
Bee Hooi Restaurant
Lorong Pulau Tikus, Penang
Malaysia