Om nom nom nom

Well if it didn't look like a food blog before, it's certainly going to now. My apologies in advance! Penang was was our next destination and they don't call it foodies heaven for nothing!

Our first stop on the food trail was Red Garden: an open food-court-type place and a must visit for backpackers. Lots of delicious cheap food stalls, beer girls everywhere and in the evening it really comes alive with live music, karaoke, and lots of singing and dancing - a very fun night. It's also here where I found the best wonton noodle soup ever. I could eat that stuff for days it was so good!

The best wonton noodle soup ever!

The next day we had a bit of a look around Georgetown which is the historic part of Penang where we were staying. A lot of really old buildings with some fantastic architecture and something going on down every little side street. We also checked out the old Fort Cornwallis, though there wasn't really too much to see as it was pretty run down and not very well looked after.

Next on the food front was Guerny Drive, another area with tons of food stalls. Jade of course wanted to try everything and pretty much did! After assam laksa, char kway teow, wonton noodle soup, chicken satay skewers, Nasi Lemak and two watermelon juices needless to say we were satisfied, full, but not out of pocket. All that for only 26 ringgit ($10), you can't beat that!

The next day we took a short bus ride to the outskirts of the city in order to see the Buddhist Temple Kek Lok Si. We got off in the middle of a busy street market and set off to find the path up the hill to the temple. Once we found the path we were quite surprised as it was more like a tunnel. Hawker stalls lined the way selling everything, their goods pressing in from all sides including over head. Jade had to walk hunched over the entire way up! We exited the hawker tunnel past through a small building site and entered the temple. Form there we took a small cable car further up the hill to see the main temple and got a pretty spectacular view of the city too.

Walking back down the hill through the hot humid heat, a bowl of soup was the last thing I wanted. But the small and very busy hawker street stall at the end of the road was meant to make the best Assam Laksa in Penang. So of course we had to try some, and it's true, this one was definitely good. I'm still not 100% sure about it though as it does have a very unique flavour. It's very meaty, sweet and sour, spicy and fresh all at the same time, it really has a lot going on and and I'm really not doing it any justice. You'll just have to go try some for yourself.

The very tasty assam laksa

On one of the other sides of the island there is a beach called Batu Feringgi, lots of people had said it was really nice so that's where we ended up next. Extremely touristy and over priced would have been a better description though I think. Tourists far outnumbered the locals and everything was double the price compared to Georgetown. Sorry to say but the beach wasn't anything great. We were also pestered every two minutes by someone wanting us to hire jet skis. However the night markets were quite good and had a larger variety of goods than those in KL. A day here was all we could handle before craving nice cheap food and a bit more local atmosphere, so back to Georgetown we went.

On our very last, very hot afternoon in Penang there was only one thing we wanted: a bowl of icy cool cendol. Nothing tastes better in the sticky heat. Consisting of shaved ice with palm sugar syrup, coconut milk, sweetened beans and some green noodles on top, cendol's just so cool and refreshing. And while it may not sound or look that good, trust me you will want seconds. No wonder it's a national dish.

Very yummy and refreshing cendol

On the morning of our departure there was one last thing we had to try. A local breakfast favourite, Dim sim. Arriving at Tai Tong Restaurant in the middle of Georgetown I think the only way to describe the setup would be like watching a pit crew working on a race car. A team zips out and reassembles the car in a matter of seconds, then off it goes. Our dim sim pit crew were three old Chinese woman who, before we had even sat down, started serving us from their trolleys stacked high with food. We ordered a few different dumplings, buns and Chinese tea, all of which were delicious especially the chicken dumpling.

Our pit stop breakfast

Feeling very satisfied from our dim sim breakfast, we picked up our packs and headed back into the early morning heat to catch the ferry back to the mainland. From there, our next destination: the island of Langkawi.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay in Penang forever though that's probably a good thing else we'd come back a lot heavier than when we left! But it's time to say goodbye for now though we'll be back one day to eat, see and experience some more of this fascinating place.