Page 9 - RCI EV Asia October 2015

EAT STREETS: (this page) Heaven on a stick, George Town street food is varied and delicious. No trip to George Town would be complete without sampling the spicy noodle goodness of Laksa. Color, vitality and taste in a bowl; Prawn Mee. Rojak Buah - traditional Asian fruits mixed salad with ketchup, peanuts and sesame seeds.
Chokniti Khongchum / Shutterstock.com
Indian cuisine and has many similarities to the market streets in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. An abundance of healthy food served on banana leaves can be found
in the restaurants around here. Head to Lebuh Pasar, Lebuh Queen and Lebuh Penang; when you hear blaring Bollywood music from speakers, you know you are in the right place.
Located in the northwest of the city at
the junction of Burma Road and Swatow Lane, the New World Park is one of George Town’s best food courts. Here you’ll find scores of Penang specialties such as mee rebus and hokkien mee all under one giant roof at inexpensive street prices.
Although more busy than the New World Park, the Red Garden is conveniently located on Jalan Penang and is an excellent place to find lok-lok, assam laksa, rojak, and other classics such as Thai and Filipino food.
Southeast of the city center, the Cebil Market Food Court is a classic food court located on Lebuh Cecil. The market here is a good place to try laksa, char kway teow and roast duck and is open from 8am-5pm.
Gurney Drive on the coastal esplanade just north of George Town is also one of the most famous areas for street food in Southeast Asia. While it has become known for the large cluster of carts proudly serving up great street food,
there are also plenty of wonderful seafood and “steamboat” restaurants as well as steakhouses so you won’t have to worry about leaving hungry.
While at Gurney Drive, some local Penang favorites such as lok-lok should not to be missed. Much healthier than the typical deep fried stick snacks, lok-lok is boiled in water rather than oil. You’ll find everything from meat and seafood to vegetables, Chinese dumplings and quail eggs on the skewers along with a choice of sweet, peanut, or spicy sauce. Three skewers can be bought for around $1.
A famous Malaysian Indian food, pasembur is another great choice.
It consists of a salad with shredded cucumber, potatoes, fried bean curd, prawn fritters and egg topped with a special sweet and spicy nut sauce. You can choose to mix and match the ingredients or order one with everything.
Who would think that mixing fruit, chili seasoning and a fish taste would be a good idea? A favorite dessert in Penang, Rojak, features chunks of fresh fruit smothered in a sticky sweet tamarind sauce with a fishy aftertaste. Peanuts are added which gives a nice texture to the salad.
While in George Town a must see is the Chendol Stall at the junction of Lebuh Keng Kwee and Lebuh Penang. Chendol is a very popular dessert made from coconut
milk, thin green pandan flavored noodles and palm sugar. Red beans, rice and grass jelly are added on top as additional toppings. The stall has been there since 1936 and reportedly has the best chendol in Penang.
One thing to remember while dining
out in Penang, pork is often used as
an ingredient even in meals marked “vegetarian”. Noodles and dumplings are made with lard to hold them together, and the only way to be sure of avoiding pork
is to eat only from the many Muslim carts which are marked with an Arabic symbol that reads ‘halal’ underneath.
First time visitors to George Town may find approaching busy hawker carts on the streets a little intimidating, but the fact is these owners are actually friendly.
ENDLESS VACATION 7