Asam laksa and curry mee are just two of Penang’s signature hawker dishes. You can find them almost anywhere on the island, and most of the time they would be of pretty decent qualities.
Here is another place you could try if you find yourself on the Pearl of Orient – at Mount Erskine hawker center.
my niece is an asam laksa addict, just like Haze
The hawker center is situated at the end of Mt. Erskine road, the road most famous for having plenty of graves (hence super congested during cheng beng weekends). Here you will find a dozen or so hawker stalls offering everything from char kuih teow, kuih teow soup, mee goreng, curry mee, asam laksa, oyster porridge, mixed rice, and so on.
Penang asam laksa from Mt. Erskine hawker center
The laksa here is manned by two white haired aunties who certainly knows to keep things the traditional way. The laksa is laden with plenty of vegetable, chili, fish broth, prawn paste, and of course, topped with ginger flower (bungan kantan). It tastes as good as any, and passed my niece’s taste test.
A bowl costs RM 3.50 (but that was over Chinese new year, normal price was RM 3.00 I think)
Penang curry mee, this one with yummy fish ball too
When I’m there, I almost always order the curry mee (previous blog post from 2006). Other than the usual ingredients of cockles, prawns, coagulated blood, and tofu, they also throw in a couple home made fish balls into it.
While fish balls is a nice touch that gives the curry mee an extra dimension, the real deal here is their soup and chili paste. Fresh coconut milk based soup (the reason it appears white) with that aroma and kick from the slightly charred chili. Super yum! RM 4 or so. Try it!
here’s how you get to mount eskin in Penang
Address:
Jalan Mt. Erskine,
Tg. Tokong, Penang
GPS: 5.450560, 100.302064
Operating Hours: 11am to 4pm
While on the way to Penang for Cheng Meng last week, we stopped by Ipoh for a quick dinner. The choice of noms for the night was the famous Menglembu Honey Chicken.
famous Menglembu honey chicken stall (shop now)
While I’ve had the honey chicken wings many times (usually tapao by Horng) The last time I visited this place was at some 10 years ago, and instead of that little small hawker stand, it is now a whole shop by itself, with ample workers to cater for their booming business.
The mainstay is their honey chicken wings (RM 2), but you can also order chicken skin (RM 2), honey bbq pork (RM 3), fried mushroom (RM 2), drumstick (RM 3), chicken breast/ribs (RM 3), and whole quarter chicken leg (RM 6).
the best honey chicken wings there is
We ordered a 2 pairs of honey chicken wings, 2 fried drumsticks, and a plate of deep fried chicken skin to share.
The honey chicken was as good as remembered. Sweet, succulent, and sticky in a good way. The meat gets torn off the bones so easily you can feed this to someone toothless. Chicken skin too would make very good beer food.
As for the deep fried drumsticks though, they were very ordinary, and play second fiddle to my favorite KFC.
If you’re willing to detour a little on a late evening drive between Penang and KL, do stop by this place and get some honey chicken. I assure you the extra 10km drive is worth it.
Address:
Menglembu Wai Sek Kai (Glutton Street)
Tranchell Street, 31450 Menglembu, Perak
GPS: 4.56333, 101.04480
Tel: 012-5161411, 012-5070005
Operating Hours: 5.30 pm – 11.00 pm
Koay Chiap, or braised duck noodle/porridge (鸭粥粿汁), is one of the lesser known Penang hawker dishes that is almost impossible to find outside Penang. (if anyone found one in KL, do let me know).
In fact, even in Penang itself, there are probably less than 10 stalls offering this unique dish, and it is not getting any more popular these days either. This is mostly due to the ingredients making up koay chiap, but incidentally, is also the very reason I love it so much.
lebuh kimberley koay chiap
As the name suggests, instead of normal noodle, koay chiap uses “koay”, the same substance with koay teow, but in a thicker, almost pan-mee style form. The “chiap” refers to juice, or a mixture of ingredients mainly made up from duck.
koay chiap goes well with the sweet peanut soup
In a bowl of proper koay chiap there’s duck meat, skin, intestine, blood, and braised duck egg. All immersed in a light herbal soup used to braised the duck. The dish is often served with a special chili sauce, but sometimes with chili padi too (like the koay chap at ayer itam)
this makes me a happy camper
The koay chiap at Lebuh Kimberley is as good as they come. It has everything that’s supposed to be in a bowl of koay chiap for RM 6, and unlike most hawker dishes in Penang, this one really fills you up. The meat are properly braised and soup isn’t bitter or overly flavored either. Best of all, the coagulated duck blood was simply superb.
I love it with a serving of sweet peanut soup (RM 1.30) to counter the meaty taste.
If you are in Penang and already had your fair share of laksa, curry mee, and char kuih teow, it is time to try something slightly out of the comfort zone, no?
Oh, while you’re at Lebuh Kimberley, check out this braised chicken feet place too.
Address:
Lebuh Kimberley (just before the food court)
Georgetown, Penang
GPS: 5.416537, 100.322473
Operating Hours: 6:30pm – 11:30pm, close on Thursdays
Restaurant O&S is one of those kopitiams that is always too hot, too humid, and too difficult to get a parking space. Yet despite all these “problems”, it is arguably the busiest kopitiam probably in the whole of PJ.
Over here, sharing a table is a norm, and most of the time you’ll have to wait for a few minutes before you even get to do that. If you want comfort and personal space, don’t bother going there, but if you’re looking for good food, this is where you belong!
yong tau foo at restaurant O&S
On my last visit we had the beef noodle and yong tau foo.
The yong tau foo here is self served. You line up, get a plate, choose your favorite ytf, then give it to the lady who would cut them up and add soup + spring onion for you.
The tofu is smoother than baby’s butt, I never miss them. I haven’t had a disappointing piece of ytf from here, ever. Pretty reasonably priced as well.
yummy beef noodle, one of the underrated stalls here
The beef noodle at O&S is perhaps one of the most underrated stalls. I was introduced to this by Haze, who absolutely loved the broth (very sweet and flavorful). Meat, tripe, beef ball, and a few slices of radish completes the dish, and it would have been perfect had it come with tendon.
The beef noodle is only RM 5.50 to RM 6.50.
Haze and KY enjoying brunch
Other yummy dishes at restaurant O&S includes the prawn mee, laksa, kuih teow soup with coagulated blood, and more!
Address:
Restaurant O&S
Jalan 20/14, Seapark,
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.107713, 101.624919
Hours: morning till lunch
For nasi briyani lovers who don’t feel like paying an arm and a leg to get a plate of these yummy rice from mamak chains, here’s definitely a place you should check out.
Located right within the heart of financial district at Lorong Bandar 13 just off Lebuh Pasar Besar is Warong Nasi Briyani Tajudin where you can still get a plate of nasi briyani for as low as RM 5. (that’s about the 2 teh ais at those “high class” mamak these days right?)
Nasi Briyani at Lorong Bandar 13
Since parking is a bitch at the area, we decided that take away was the best option. Luckily, even though the stall was plenty busy, they are well prepared for big number of tapao orders and we got our 5 packets of nasi briyani in less than 10 minutes.
There are some cozy tables at the lorong where this stall operates, so it is an option to dine in, though not a particularly great idea to do so during peak lunch hours.
chicken briyani and lamb briyani, yum yum
Chicken briyani is RM 5, lamb at RM 6. I had mine with lamb, and while the size of that one piece of lamb wasn’t exactly big (barely sufficient), it was rather tasty, and certainly worth the price we paid.
The rice was fragrant, and I love the extra couple packets of curry that comes with it, one being the normal curry and the other tasted almost like satey sauce, kinda interesting but it worked. There’s also a tiny portion of cucumber and onion, I guess you can call those vege?
Other than lamb & chicken, they also serve briyani burung puyuh (RM 7), briyani fish/sotong (RM 6), and plain rice with those ingredients.
Happy eating!
Address:
Nasi Briyani Lorong Bandar 13
Off Lebuh Pasar Besar
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.146794, 101.696255
Tel: 012-265 3653 / 016-602 3737
Hours: 10am – 4pm
