Drool in Penang

The Straits Times, March 6, 2007
By Cheong Suk-Wai, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT


LARD-DEE-DA: It's hard to resist the ubiquitous lard-laden speciality, char kway teow,nicely washed down with teh tarik. -- WANG HUI FEN, CHEONG SUK-WAI


Something is a-stirring and it's aromatic: Yes, Penang street hawkers continue to reign supreme in Asia. Forget franchises. It all boils down to family secrets


SHAKESPEARE had it that music is the food of love.
But for my younger sister and me, music begat our love of food.

That's all thanks to piano lessons in Penang every Friday for five years in the 1980s. As the Malaysian city was then a two-hour drive from my home in Sungai Petani, Kedah, we got to enjoy the world's street-food paradise that is Penang once a week.

Back home on Chinese New Year leave last month and fed-up with festive fare, my sister and I decided to retrace the Friday flavours of our childhood with an impromptu makan marathon around Georgetown, the capital of Penang state.

It has been 20 years since our last piano lesson, but given that the city's most famous hawker stalls were founded as early as 1923 and are still chiefly run by their founders' families, chomping our way down memory lane would be a cinch.

First stop, Georgetown's central wet market of Pulau Tikus, which is Malay for Rats' Island - apt, as the fat and furry rodents skitter about the drains and floors in broad daylight. As they say, the fatter the rats, the better the grub.

And good grub is rarely better than my RM2.50 (S$1.10) plate of Tan Choo Hoon's char kway kak (flash-fried rice flour cubes with chives and beansprouts) at Stall 17.

Redolent of freshly rendered lard, dark soy sauce and garlic, it's the deeper-flavoured sister of Singapore's chye tow kway (carrot cake).

My sister bides her time till we hotfoot it to one of Penang's hottest no-signboard pushcarts outside the old Kwai Lock Coffeeshop for her favourite breakfast of apom balik, a sweet rice flour wafer with just a waft of coconut.

The pushcart's current owner, Mr Tan Eng Huat, 58, says his late mother, Madam Seng Ah Poh, sold apom at the same spot for 40 years. Now his wife, Madam Yeoh Kooi Khim, 56, keeps apom aficionados happy.

As of last year, Kwai Lock also boasts the only branch of Penang's famous Hutton Lane soup kway teow - thin springy rice ribbons with shredded meat and fishballs in superior stock. For this, Penangites give thanks, as parking is notoriously difficult in Hutton Lane.

Along the way, we hail two newer Pulau Tikus mainstays.

There's Mr Joe Jaganathan Veloo, 46, who's been selling 200 pandan-flavoured putu mayam (stringhoppers) a day out of his van for the past 15 years.

Every fluffy mouthful is like chewing a cloud, with bursts of gula melaka and freshly grated coconut solid enough to tide you over till lunchtime.

But in Penang, no one waits that long for his next bite. Just ask Madam Rosnah Saidi, 40, who hails from Jurong East but settled in Penang after her arranged marriage 19 years ago.

She and her husband Adam Zaibis, 40, started selling Penang's best RM1 nasi lemak and fiery-crisp RM1 curry puffs in 2002, shortly after he was retrenched from his factory job. Now, they sell about 800 packets of nasi lemak and about 1,000 curry puffs every day, with help from their three kids - and three maids.

We stagger on. In the Sin Hwa Coffeeshop, we bump into an Indonesian maid taking a just-washed wok out to Madam Song Lee Lean, 50, whose drier version of Penang char kway teow is studded with crisp crackling bits. It's 35 years of chive- and chilli-flecked perfection on a plate.

We are her first order of the day and within five minutes, 17 of her fans crowd around all of Sin Hwa's nine tables.

Madam Song took over the stall after her father Song Ah Lek died 10 years ago. She stops frying at 5pm daily, but her younger brother Song Wee Chye fries at Pulau Tikus Market at night (she's better by far).

This, then, is the secret to Penang's continued supremacy among street hawkers - the city's best keep it all in the family.

No signboard? No problem.
In laid-back Penang, keeping it all in the family means that stalls usually take long root, so customers know exactly where to find them.

Who needs hype when you have history like this?
History is also the best quality control there is, for the hawkers guard their family name fiercely, which is a good thing as Georgetown's 1.5 million denizens are famously disdainful of out-of-town cuisine copycats.

Yes, we have bananas
THEY say sea air aids digestion, so my sister and I shoot the breeze along the beach strip at the northern tip of Penang Island. There's no going past the salty-sweet crunch of Tanjung Bungah Goreng Pisang van though.

Cousins Lim Thuan Hin, 40, and Teh Choon Pin, 30, also tempt you with homemade tee kueh (Chinese New Year glutinous rice cake) which they mass-slice with guitar string, then fry in batter.

The result? Penang's answer to fried Mars Bars. Yum!

Alas, when we stop by, Mr Lim is just mixing up his two flower pots' worth of 'Lim's secret recipe' batter and hasn't begun deep-frying his fruit, so we save our stomachs for lunch at the Kek Seng Coffeeshop downtown.

This 100-year-old kopitiam's grouchy hawkers are prized for their lor bak (five-spice crispy meat roll) and asam laksa.

The third-generation coffee shop owners' homemade durian ice cream - all luscious and bittersweet - is addictive.

If it's slush you crave, join the thirsty throngs slurping up the coconutty goodness of Teochew Chendol from the lone van outside the Joo Hooi Cafe down the road.

But for my sister and me, ice kacang can only mean Swatow Lane. Why, our Mum has been enjoying its icy treats since she was a teen, with her elder sister whom we call Gor Ee (Hokkien for 'fifth aunt').

Gor Ee perennially stumped the stall's late founder, failed opera star Lee Kar Tee, with her order of 'ice kacang without the kacang'.

As of Jan 8, Swatow Lane's most famous hawkers have been bundled into the spanking-new New World Park Foodcourt, which has the shiny-bland look and feel of the refurbished Serangoon Gardens Market Food Centre.

These days, Mr Lee's grandsons Lee Eng Lai, 55, and his brother Lee Eng Huat, 50, shave the ice for the thirsty thousands.

Not in the mood to queue, we repair to Padang Brown for 50-year-old Ong Leng Hin's popiah (spring roll), crammed as it is with juicy chunks of fresh crab. It is the only stall in Penang to offer this.

Next to him is Penang's most famous pasembur, a uniquely Penang salad of jicama, cucumber, beancurd and prawn fritter doused in chilli-melded sweet potato puree.

A day in Penang isn't done without the city's nasi kandar, or Mamak-style aromatic curry rice - from famous family eatery Dawood in Little India.

Sadly, the original restaurant has been shut for five years as the founder's eldest son, Aliyar Dawood, 64, is in an ongoing ownership tussle in court with his younger brother.

It is 8pm when we greet Mr Aliyar in his makeshift shop next to the family's culinary jewel and order piping-hot chapati, piquant chicken masala and what is, for my money, Penang's best teh tarik, frothy-sweet with no cloying aftertaste.

Should we surrender here, amid the boom of bhangra beats, flash of fairy lights and flutter of pigeon flocks?

What the heck. We swing by Lorong Baru (Malay for New Lane), the gluttons' junction off Macalister Road, where I succumb to a second plate of char kway kak, and my sister savours Penang's finest chee cheong fun. And burp all the way home.

Memories are made of these.

History, not hype, baby

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5 things to do

1 Do walk, instead of drive, to truly explore Georgetown: Penang is not a backpackers' haven for nothing. If you start at the ferry terminal at 6am and stroll leisurely around the heart of Georgetown, you will clock about 25km by day's end.


2 Do trace Penang's heritage trails: Explore Penang's many stately homes or if that's too high-falutin', eyeball dying arts such as making joss sticks, roasting coffee and blending perfume. For details, contact Khoo Salma Nasution of the Penang Heritage Trust on (02) 4262-0123 or e-mail info@lestariheritage.net

3 Do check out the new Jerejak Resort and Spa on Jerejak Island. This island off Penang Bridge was once the Alcatraz of Malaysia, but the island ceased being a high security jail years ago. It underwent a sea change in 2004, and now offers ritzy spa-and-stay deals. Access is by ferry only. Call (02) 4658-7111, fax (02) 4659-7700 or e-mail reservations@jerejakresort.com

4 Do visit Queensbay Mall: Opened in December last year, this 2 million sq ft mall has 500 big brand stores. Finicky Penangites are also flocking to its giant foodcourt, so it's worth checking out why. For directions, log onto target='_blank'www.queensbaymall.com.my

5 Go nutty on nutmeg: The oil of this prized sweet fruit and spice soothes body aches. For all things nutmeggy, Penangites' choice is Cheong Kim Chuan, at 611-F, steps leading to Kek Lok Si Temple in Air Itam (tel: (02) 4828-4316) or 11 Jalan Pasar, Air Itam (tel: (02) 4828-3509).

2 don'ts

1 Don't eat at restaurants: Time magazine knew a good thing when it named Penang as the world's street-food capital in 2004. Penangites have a reputation for being discerning and frugal, so the city's hawkers offer the best meal deals.

2 Don't waste your time in Gurney Drive, once an elegant hawker-lined esplanade on the fringes of Millionaires' Row. The promenade is now blighted by sludge, no thanks to the 2004 Asian tsunami and litter. HERE is our guide to one-stop guzzling in Penang's various food hubs:

BREAKFAST: Pulau Tikus
Pulau Tikus Market Daytime Food Centre (right next to the pork butchers), Jalan Pasar: Char kway kak, 7 to 11am

Van with registration plate PDX6343 parked outside Marble Arch mall, right next to Pulau Tikus Market: Halal putu mayam, 7 to 11am

Outside Sin Hup Aun Coffeeshop, 10m in front of the putu mayam van: Halal nasi lemak and curry puffs, 8.30am to 11pm

Kwai Lock Coffeeshop, 295B Jalan Burma, 5.30am to 2pm daily except on the first day of Chinese New Year, tel: (02)016-404-1434: Apom balik, 7 to 10am daily; Hutton Lane soup kway teow, 7am to 12pm daily

Stall outside the Sin Hwa Coffeeshop, right opposite Pulau Tikus Police Station in Jalan Burma: Char kway teow: 10.30am to 5pm daily


BRUNCH: Tanjung Bungah
Assorted fruit and vegetable fritters and gooey battered tee kueh, 12pm to 5pm daily except on the eve and first day of Chinese New Year


LUNCH: Penang Road and Burma Road
Kek Seng Coffeeshop, 382-384 Jalan Penang, 8am to 5pm daily except on the first day of Chinese New Year, tel: (02)016-402-3069: Lor bak, asam laksa and durian ice cream

Stall with the sign Teochew Chendol in Lebuh Keng Kwee, outside Joo Hooi Cafe, 475 Jalan Penang: Chendol, 10am to 7.30pm daily, except when it rains heavily


TEA: Padang Brown and Swatow Lane
Jalan Johor-Dato Keramat food junction: Popiah, 2 to 7pm daily, except on Thursdays. Pasembur, 2 to 6pm daily

New World Park foodcourt, Swatow Lane: Ice kacang, noon to 8pm daily, except on Wednesdays

DINNER: Little India
Restoran A Dawood, 61 Queen Street: Nasi kandar and teh tarik, 10.30am to 10pm daily


SUPPER: Lorong Baru
Perimeter of Wisma Central, at the junction of New Lane and Jalan Macalister: Chee cheong fun, 7 to 11pm daily, except during the first day of Chinese New Year