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Malaysian eats: everything I ate in Penang

I’m seriously looking my cred as a foodie. I barely ever blog about food anymore. I miss it. And believe me, I’m still eating TONS and trying new things all the time (my thighs can attest to that). So anyway, all that to say… Yay! New foodie post!

Penang is known as the foodie capital of Malaysia. Before going, I wasn’t sure how I’d like the food because I heard it’s more Cantonese style, which I’m usually not a fan of. But I ended up loving it! I liked almost everything I ate. And it helped that I had some local friends who brought me around to eat or pointed me in the direction of the good stuff.

Looking through my Penang food pics, I’m actually surprised I ate so many different things. I think I did a good job sampling all the local dishes!

Let’s just get right to it!

You can download an offline version of this article on GPSMyCity here. 

1. Char kuey teow

No talk of Penang food is complete without char kuey teow. This is Penang’s most famous dish.  Char kuey teow (fried rice noodles) is a simple dish made of flat rice noodles, prawns, cockles, bean sprouts, and a spicy and soy paste. It’s simple but the people take it seriously. There are a handful of super famous char kuey teow stalls, and people are always debating which is best, who’s retiring, what secret ingredients are used, which is in line to become king, etc. etc. 

I did an entire battle of the char kuey teow post. Find out which one I loved the most!

2. Asam laksa

Char kuey teow has always been one of my favorite Malaysian dishes, but I seriously fell in LOVE with asam laksa! Just like char kuey teow, this is another one of Penang’s most famous local dishes. It’s so strange that I love it so much because this is a fish soup, and I usually don’t like fishy things at all.

Asam laksa has an amazing explosion of flavor unlike anything else. It’s a fish broth made with fish chunks, onion, pineapple, mint, and little limes. The flavors work so well together.  The tangy pineapple and refreshing mint are in perfect balance with the spicy-sour fishy broth. You have to taste it to understand!

I’m thinking of doing a battle of the asam laksa as well, so keep an eye out!

3. Penang hokkien mee

A while back, I did a list of Malaysian food in KL and a dish called hokkien mee was on it. I said that I didn’t like the brown dark sauce noodle. However, I was surprised to find that Penang hokkien mee is completely different!  In Penang, this dish refers to prawn noodles, or prawn mee. So funny how the same name is two completely dishes in the same country.

Anyway, I like Penang’s hokkien mee way more. It’s thin vermicelli noodles in a prawn broth. Don’t be scared by how red it is! The red coloring is mostly from the prawns and is not spice. However, the red paste in the spoon is spicy paste. It’s delicious mixed in and gives it an extra oomph.

4. Cendol 

Along with the 3 dishes above, cendol rounds out the Penang Famous 4. Cendol actually refers to those green stringy noodles. This basic version of this dessert dish is made up of sweet milk poured over shaved ice, cendol, red beans, and palm syrup. I’m actually not really a fan because it’s just too sickly sweet to me.

The most famous place to experience Cendol is Penang’s original famous cendol stall (pictured above). This stall became so famous that there are now hundreds of restaurant branches throughout Malaysia. But you can still experience the original line-up-on-the-street-in-the-hot-sun-eating-standing-up-out-of-a-sticky-bowl version in Penang.

Address: right outside of Joo Hooi cafe – 475 Jalan Penang, George Town

5. Oyster omelette

If you like oysters and omelettes, you’ll like this. Unfortunately, I don’t eat oysters (or anything else in that family). The omelette is made of egg and a starchy flour batter. So it may be a little bit more gooey than your usual omelette.

6. Popiah

I like this one! Popiah is a very thin crepe skin wrapped with fillings like pickled radish, lettuce, tofu, and a chili paste. Usually, stalls that sell laksa will also sell popiah.

If you’ve noticed, the food in Penang is quite heavy, so this actually feels relatively light and healthy. The ones pictured here are fresh popiah with the fresh soft wrapper. There’s also fried popiah, which is like crispy spring rolls.

7. Apom manis

I love these too! These are little fluffy eggy coconut pancakes. The green ones are made with pandan (a plant commonly used in cooking in this area). The inside is usually stuffed with something sweet like corn or grated coconut. They’re so good when they’re still hot right off the griddle… so soft and delicious!

8. Char kuey kak

Char kuey kak (fried rice cake) is a cousin to the famous char kuey teow, Instead of rice noodles, it’s chunks of steamed rice cake. Which are then pan-fried in a big flat pan (instead of a wok, like ckt). And it usually has bits of pickled radish for flavoring. The rice cakes are very soft – almost mushy. I don’t like this as much because I prefer noodles to rice squares.

9. Kuey teow th’ng

Kuey teow th’ng (rice noodle soup) is another milder dish. Instead of the usual punchy flavors, this is a nice, clean pork broth soup, sprinkled with fried shallots and white pepper. The soft fish balls are really good as well!

10. Curry mee

This is a dish found throughout Malaysia, though each place will do it a little differently with different toppings. The soup is a curried coconut milk broth – satisfyingly spicy! A lot of places will make it with a mix of rice noodles and yellow noodles. It usually will have puff tofu, bean sprouts, and prawns. The place we ate at had coagulated blood cake as well (which I hear is common in Penang)!

11. Chee cheong fun

This was my least favorite dish I tried! Chee cheong fun means “rice noodle roll.” In Malaysia, it’s served with two kinds of sauces on the side: a dark prawn paste and a red spice paste. Then it’s sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. I did not like the taste of of the dark paste at all. I’m bad at describing taste, but it was just very strange.

12. Ice Kacang

Also called ABC (ais batu campur – ice rocks mix), ice kacang is a cousin of the cendol. It’s shaved ice with a bunch of ingredients piled on top, and then drizzled with a syrup. The common accouterments are: grass jelly, red beans, corn, and lychee. I know, really weird! But it works and is a great thirst quencher on a hot day. I prefer it to cendol because it’s slightly less sweet.

Here’s another over the top version with a scoop of ice cream!

As you see, for just about all of these dishes, there is absolutely no nutritional value of any sort. While I loved the food in Penang, I felt super unhealthy after a month. And my poor waist and thighs definitely suffered… something that I still haven’t recovered from. Sigh.

So Penangites: how the check do you guys manage to eat healthy and stay thin?! This is the forever mystery to me.

Food courts/night markets to check out for local food:

Penang is street food heaven! There are a ton of food courts and markets where you’ll see a cluster of stalls. Each stall usually only specializes in one dish. And typically at each marketplace, there will only be one stall selling each type of food. It’s very easy to just hit up one market and try a bunch of different things at once!

Here are some popular food courts and markets to check out:

  • Joo Hooi cafe | 475 Jalan Penang, George Town | 11 am – 5:30 pm daily 
  • Chulia Street courts | Lebuh Chulia & Lorong Cheapside | 6 pm – 12 am daily 
  • Chew Jetty night stalls | next to Chew Jetty & Chinese temple | 6 pm+ daily 
  • Lorong Baru street stalls | Lorong Baru, Georgetown | 4 pm+ daily

Have you been to Penang and what did you eat? Did I leave anything out?

If you found this article useful, you can download this article on GPSMyCity here. You’ll get a GPS-guided map of these locations that you can use offline! This means you can spend less time looking for directions and more time exploring!

Comments

  4. I’m a big seafood lover, so there’s several of this dishes I know I would like. Not that big on “icy” dishes, so I would probably skip those!

  5. Mamma mia! What a post full of delicious food. Showing this to my husband since he is going to love every single dish (and will want to eat some Asian food afterward). I love to write about food too and am looking to do it more often. #feetdotravel

    • Your hubby must be a very adventurous eater! And it’s great that SoCal has so much good, authentic Asian food.. Though sadly, I don’t think there are a lot Malaysian places..

  6. All the food looks amazing, my mouth is watering at the moment. I am in love with Asian food, I try at least one meal per week.

  8. Yummmm Char Kuey Teow! We ate so much of this when we visited Penang, it was at Lebuh Kimberley foodcourt – absolutely delicious! Penang is very popular right now … and with good reason! Your post on must-eats is perfect for every visitor so I have pinned for other people’s to enjoy #feetdotravel

    • Ooh I haven’t tried that food court. I ate char kuey teow practically everyday when I was in Penang too hehe. And then I got obsessed with asam laksa and had that all the time too.

    • I love rice noodles too, because they feel a little more guilt-free than wheat noodles, hehe. You would love char kuey teow.. it’s really the best fried noodle dish!

  10. I love the diversity of Malaysian cuisine although the carb content is pretty high so I don’t have it often, but when in Malaysia…. This post gave me cravings! :-)

  11. OMG my mouth is watering right now. I loved food in Penang but I definitely didn’t try as much awesome stuff as you! The laksa was one of the most amazing things I’ve had and I remember enjoying the cendol too. SO much deliciousness in this post and it’s just making me want to go back to Penang! Thanks for sharing

    • YES! The laksa is soooo good! It’s one of the most amazing noodle soups I’ve had too. So many people are surprised I like it (even locals) because it’s so fishy, but it’s so good!

  12. Yay, I could finally load this post! :) The popiah, coconut pancakes, and ice kacang look sooo good.

  13. I loved, loved, loved Penang – it’s my food mecca! You tried a lot more sweet dishes than me, I found butter chicken curry, rotis galore and murtabak and I was done for! Now I want to go back soooo bad!v #wanderfulwednesday

  14. This looks like some fantastic options. When we cruised to Penang we actually went on a food tour and we didn’t see all the foods you have here! Thanks for sharing! #feetdotravel

  16. Wow, now this is such interesting food, seriously! I loved reading about all of these different dishes and learning about all of these dishes, most of which I previously hadn’t heard of. I think I’d most like to try Apom manis, those flavours taste delicious!! YUM!

  17. Ahhh I was already hungry, and now I’m even MORE so! I love Malaysian food. One of the few things I remember from visiting Malaysia as a kid was eating some amazing satay chicken skewers! I might have to make a trip to the (only) Malaysian restaurant in town this weekend now!

  18. Wow, I am so ready to go to Penang and try some of these yummy dishes. My favorite is the Cendol but the others look good too. I pinned this for later to use for when I visit. Thanks for sharing! #feetdotravel

  19. I’ve tried popiah and ice kachang – loved them both. I’ve also gotten around to trying laksa (that looks so much different than the asam laksa you have in this list so it may not be the same thing) and I was dumb enough to take a sip that went straight to my throat and had my non-waterproof mascara running down my face while eating the rest of the meal (my nose also got watery). Haha!

    Teesh ♥ Adventures of Cupcake Girl

  20. I can’t wait to visit Penang in a few weeks and just eat haha! I love Char kuey teow so I imagine I’ll be eating a fair bit of it. Pinned for my trip #wanderfulwednesday

  21. Oh my goodness. I would also struggle to eat anything other than Char Kuey Teow… so good! But now I see there’s lots more for me to try there. Now I wanna go!

  23. Penang food… this is a never ending quest! Even after four months I’m still discovering new dishes. The last one I discovered was the herbal lemani rice… and I still haven’t made it to Balik Pular to try the famous assam laksa there.
    And as much as I love it I agree it’s not the healthiest ever… now I eat salad at home 4 times a week to compensate haha.

  24. You can keep the desserts but the chili crab, chicken and potato curry with tomato rice and my favorite, murtabak. This not only tasted so so good but it was so great watching their talent making them.