One of the things I loved about Penang was the food, even though I got to sample only a tiny portion of it. It was clear from the very beginning of my trip that food is a big deal in Malaysia. Our Lonely Planet guidebook had a lengthy, rather lovingly-written food chapter, highlighting the specialties of each region and describing Penang as a "gastronomic ground zero". Then I whetted my appetite on the in-flight magazine, as it was totally devoted to food and drink, with stories on restaurants, chefs, and traditional dishes, accompanied by the very best in food porn photography. And since my visit coincided with Mother's Day weekend, the local paper carried full-page articles on Mom's favorite recipes.Generally, the food reminds me a lot of New Orleans food -- in spirit, anyway. It's what happens when several different cultures get together and start trading ingredients and techniques, creating new dishes with the stuff on hand. So you can see Indian curries and spices and tandoor ovens; Thai aromatics and chiles, and Chinese-style barbeque and noodles, along with rice, coconut, and lots of seafood. (Aside from seafood, chicken is the most popular meat, because observant Muslims won't eat pork and Hindus won't eat beef.) The abundant fresh fruit and sugarcane provide plenty of delicious drinks.
My favorite dining experience was at the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre, pictured above. Located a good taxi ride from the hotel and facing the sea, it's where you can sample street-type food from dozens of different food carts, all surrounding a central seating area. We walked slowly past rows of smoking satay grills, racks of roasted meat, trays of vegetables, woks cooking noodles and rice, and piles of fresh fruit ready to be juiced, overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices. At last we settled on this stand:
We ordered two dishes of nasi goreng, which is basically fried rice with a fried egg on top, served with cucumber slices and tomato sauce. For drinks, we ordered orange juice from the stand next door. (Sorry for the dreadful photo, but it was impossible to get any picture at all without using the flash.)
The new ingredient to me was the handful of tiny, whole fried fish mixed in with the shrimp and vegetables. It made for an addictively crunchy, salty, seafood taste in every bite. Delicious! The orange juice was fresh-squeezed and also delicious.One of the things I adore about street food is the price. Our entire meal came to 10.50 ringgit, which is about US$3. And this was at the "posh" hawker centre; the guidebook said we had to expect a somewhat higher bill at this place compared to the others.
I now have a whole list of dishes I want to try the next time I go back. Meanwhile, I'm keeping my eyes open for any Malaysian restaurants here in Hong Kong.
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