I Love Penang!

This was a really quick trip to Penang, mainly to visit my ailing granny (90 or 91 years old!) who had just been moved to a nursing home to get better 24 hour care. Food obsessed significant other (who had rashly arranged to do his IPPT the day after the trip) dragged us off on an island wide food sampling tour. The very first day, we landed (4 of us) in Island Hawker Center and S.O. actually ordered 9 dishes:
Penang Char Kway Teow
Penang Laksa
Chicken Rice (putatively for the kids!)
Satay
Sharksfin soup
Salted fish fried rice
Tomyam fried rice
Battered fish fried beehoon
Fish head beehoon soup

Reeling from that, we went on the next day to the 2 Sister's Char Kway Teow (see picture), Hokkien prawn noodles, yam cake and braised chicken feet, followed after shopping by a road side stop for Penang Road laksa and chendol. Apparently, the 2 sisters are not the ones frying the char kway teow, but their mother, this tiny little lady that fries each plate individually, so at peak hours, you may end up waiting for your food for about an hour. The char kuay teow comes with shredded crab meat on top. A little different from the Penang char kuay teow of my childhood. I remember eating this lovely kuay teow fried with chives (instead of bean sprouts) and served on these glass plates. I wouldn't know where to go to find that lovely combination now. A taxi driver told us, "In Penang, cannot starve one. Even the beggars are very choosy!"Even the chendol was phenomenal. A tiny little cart in a small alley, but with about 20 - 30 people surrounding it and slurping up the icy gula melaka-laden desert under the hot sun. Absolutely delightful, but by the evening poor Steffi was vomiting and my own eating frenzy was curtailed (although Ben went out that night for roast suckling pig!).


The next day was pool and beach day, and the kids had a grand time horse riding, jet ski-ing and making sandcastles on the beach. We met a boatman who had witnessed the Dec 26 2004 tsunami, and described the waves as 9 m tall, and how everybody just "lari" to get away from the giant waves.

Around midday, I rashly volunteered to accompany Ben on his quest to dig the deepest trench in the beach. He dug so deep that he hit a layer of water underground. Thank goodness he didn't find more than that. Probably since then, someone has fallen into the ditch. Anyway, I didn't realise that I was wearing a regular swim suit and he was wearing a full length suit and we happily laboured in the midday sun until I suddenly discovered that I was burnt to a crisp. Now I have 1st degree burns on 50% of my body. Ouch. Not to mention Steffi's GI bug that hit me on the way back to Singapore, but at least it's slowed down my eating spree and will help me to segue into my new year's resolution to EAT LESS AND EXERCISE MORE.