Penang Food Hunt 2007

Rasa Rasa organised a food hunt in Penang and I was fortunate enough to be one of the 96 participating cars. As the food hunt is on Saturday morning, we decided to go early a day earlier. As we hit the NSE after work on Friday, we were caught in a jam and with the on-going highway widening works at the Rawang-Bukit Beringin stretch, it was no help!

We were supposed to head straight up Bukit Tambun for a late dinner but due to the jam, we settled for Tanjung Malim instead. We head to Wun Nam in Tanjung Malim town (GPS:N3 40.910 E101 31.159) which I have visited years ago during the makan trip in the early days. The other car somehow got lost in Tanjung Malim after we split up at the rest stop, brand new Garmin Nuvi playing tricks on Ed I guess :P. Wun Nam is famous for its braised lotus leaf pork knuckle which is soft and tasty with chestnuts in the sides. We also ordered their chiu pai tofu which are homemade white tofu fried and top with minched meat, prawn paste fried chicken, fried roast pork with kau choy far and some vege. Total bill is about RM110 for 8 persons.

We then continue our journey to Penang and arrived very late after midnight and guess what, Penang bridge is closed to 1 lane. We had to crawl behind this slow moving car all the way across the bridge! Finally we are there and managed to settled down at Jess' place there. As I was about to sleep, Ed's engine started on my right, and when Ed finally stop, Adrian's engine pulak started on my left, gosh... hehehe... but I think I had too much chinese tea at Wun Nam, had trouble sleeping :(.

Next day, as blur as most of us are, we got ourselves ready for the hunt and started the day with some good penang char keoy teow at Lasia Cafe in Air Itam (GPS:N5 24.315 E100 17.014). We then walked over to Asia Cafe across the road for some prawn paste chee cheong fun (GPS:N5 24.360 E100 16.964). After breakfast, we head to Paradise Sandy Bay for the hunt's briefing.

After all the briefing, we were given 5 locations based on the rasa rasa penang book to go and we started with Kim Laksa in Balik Pulau. It was a long drive and very time consuming but I guess we are more on the mood for good food than competing. Kim Laksa is located next to the wet market in Balik Pulau (GPS:N5 21.110 E100 14.154) and serve the usual assam laksa or the siam style assam laksa with coconut milk in it, RM2.20 per bowl and its best to take it with a cup of icey Ambrah Sour Plum! After filling our stomach, we proceeded with our hunt of the other 4 places in the jammed up Georgetown! One of them worth mentioning is the Eu Char Koay at People's Court at Lebuh Cintra, the oil they use is clean and very crispy eu char koay but 90 sens per piece!



The hunt then took us to Ghee Hiang for some teh tarik stunts then Air Itam to solve all sort of clues and back to Georgetown finishing at HSBC. Overall the fun was great but we wasted a lot of time to Balik Pulau, well, we are newbies anyway, so its alright, plus we are more interested in eating than competing!

We were given RM15 vouchers each so we decided to spend at the New World Food Court at Swatow Lane (GPS:N2 11.972 E102 15.204). The place is new and clean, but of the various local food we have tested here, the oo-chien (oyster omelette), rojak and fried chicken wings are ok, the rest are so so. The famous ice kacang here is alright but I still think the SS2 wai sek kai one is better.

After dinner, we called it a day and head back to the hotel. Next morning, we decided to skip hotel food and head out to Lorong Seratus Tahun (GPS:N5 24.914 E100 19.348) for the yummy Penang Curry Noodles! The best difference is for curry noodles here are the pig's blood jelly which most of the gang gladly donates to me, yummy! Next, we head to Jalan Perak for the famous hokkien mee at Kedai Kopi Classic (GPS:N5 24.814 E100 18.963). We reached there at about 10am, there are still a mountain of noodles and guess what, the owner told me they have run out!!! Gosh! Must be really good, have to come back! We then settled for some roti babi and chai kueh at Polyland Cafe in Pulau Tikus (GPS:N5 25.927 E100 18.634).

Later, we checked out and heads to my favourite Goreng Pisang at Tanjung Bungah (GPS:N5 27.961 E100 16.784) at the corner of Jalan Chan Seow Teong. They fry the goreng pisang 2 times and its really crispy yet inside is still soft and nice. Everyone who doesn't want it will want more after I make them have 1 ;). Just check out sky's pix when he is feasting on the goreng pisang you know how nice it is! :P

Next, we go to Seng Thor at Lebuh Kimberley(GPS:N5 24.916 E100 20.085) for some really good oo-chien and some penang lobak! The oo-chien is crispy with lots of oysters and I just love the penang style lobak sauce! We then walked to Penang road for the famous cendol (GPS:N5 25.025 E100 19.834) before going over to 1 Corner Restaurant at Jalan Bawasah behind Dorsett Hotel (GPS:N5 25.292 E100 19.540) for some nice assam laksa. This assam laksa is sold by an Indian man who's wife is a chinese and the other thing nice there is fried popiah which I like to dip it and eat with the assam laksa.

Next, we head back to Air Itam to pick up some of the Him Heang biscuits we have bought and stopping by Ghee Hiang as well, not to mentioned the stop at Cheong Kim Chuan for nutmegs. Before leaving the island, I just had to dragged everyone to New Lane for my must have Chee Cheong Chuk(GPS:N5 24.898 E100 19.583). The porridge is still the best I had so far!



After fulfilling our penang hawker's food craving, (actually still want to eat more, but just no room left!), the gang was still gungho to stop by Bukit Tambun before heading home. So Bukit Tambun it is that we went. We went to Prawn Village Seafood (GPS:N5 16.295 E100 26.603) in Bukit Tambun and had a steam seabass, sotong kia, etc.



Finally, we are satisfied and it was then a rush to reach home since its a working day tomorrow but the jam in Bukit Tambun and again at the NSE did not help! But overall its was a fun trip and the food is still as heavenly as it was ;).

Credits: Many thanks for the sporting gang from TMS whom participated and also to Sky for some of his nice photos and for being my "volunteer" blog host, hehe :P