One of the definite Penang hawker dishes is Hokkien Char (福建炒), or Fried Hokkien Mee. However,this dish is quite different from what is served in Klang Valley even though they are identified as the same name.
I’ve been searching for this exact dish in KL/PJ area for a long time with no avail, so I just had to have it over this CNY season in Penang. This one is from Sin Yin Nam kopitiam at New Lane.
Penang Hokkien Char at New Lane
Hokkien Char usually consists of yellow noodle and mee hun in dark sauce, with slice pork, prawns, and vegetable, with sambal belacan on the side.
The main difference between this and the KL version is the lighter sauce base, the sambal belacan, and the usage of yellow noodle instead of those fat noodle in Hokkien Mee. As a consequence, the taste too is lighter and more subtle, but that being said, it is not at all a less superior version. In fact, I prefer this over the KL version anytime (most likely due to my upbringing laaa)
now where can I find something like this in KL?
I was utterly satisfied with this plate of Hokkien Char, one of the best RM 5 ever spent. The same place also offered one of the best pork intestine porridge (猪什粥), do not miss it if you are there. If I didn’t have the cravings for Hokkien Char, the pork intestine porridge would always be my favorite.
Penang style chee cheong fun: with three sauces
Of course, one does not simply only eat one dish in Penang for dinner. I had a plate of chee cheong fun (RM 2.40) to go with too. Two pieces, unopened, and with chili, just the way I like it.
Chee cheong fun Penang style is always bare, and served with shrimp paste, sweet sauce, chili paste, and sesame seeds, and sometimes with a bit of fried shallots. I like it quite a bit more than the HK version with prawns or char siu. If you need to find one of these in PJ, look no further than O&S in Paramount Garden.
Haze ordered the Asam Laksa at the corner of the road, it wasn’t any good and they over charged us to the tune of RM 4.50 (Chinese New Year price?). Never gonna buy from them ever.
Address:
Lorong Baru, Penang
GPS: 5.414726, 100.326312
Restaurant O&S must be the most popular kopitiam at Taman Paramount/Seapark area (not to be confused with Taman Sea), and for one very simple reason – the place is filled with awesome hawker foods!
I’ve been here for so many occasions I mistakenly thought it was already covered on the blog, but it’s never too late I guess.
Restaurant O&S at Taman Paramount
The restaurant is opened for breakfast, lunch, and actually dinner too (with limited stalls operating, a siu chau for example). Breakfast/lunch on weekends is an affair not for the faint hearted, the place is absolutely packed, and you often have to share the same table with strangers ala HK style. It also goes without saying that securing a parking space isn’t a trivial matter around this area.
Then again, if there’s good food, that’s a small price to pay isn’t it?
Prawn Mee at restaurant O&S
The prawn mee at O&S is arguably the most famous dishes in this kopitiam. The stall here is operated by real Penangites (I always test their Hokkien) and offers both normal prawn mee soup, and loh mee (Penang style) soup. You can also opt for extra ingredients such as bigger prawns, pork ribs, and intestines.
A normal bowl goes for RM 4.50 and the soup really does pack a punch with that sweet prawn taste, on par with Yon Lee, TTDI, one of my favorite prawn mee places, with extra ingredients the price can go up to RM 7.50 or more but ohh soo tasty!
Penang Chee Cheong Fun & Laksa
Another thing that I always order at O&S is the Penang style chee cheong fun. The difference between this and HK chee cheong fun is that the Penang version comes with just the chee cheong fun, with har kou (prawn paste), dark sauce, chily, sesame seeds, and fried shallots. Less than RM 2 for a small plate, very addictive. There isn’t very many places you can find this.
Then there’s the asam laksa that is sworn by so many. Haze loved it and claimed that it tastes the same as her favorite Cheras pasar malam version. I tasted it a bit and it was actually quite good! Again, plenty of har kou too, and all the proper ingredients you’ll find in a bowl of Penang laksa like banana flower, cucumber, onion, and a big chunk of fish.
Haze and KY at restaurant O&S, Taman Paramount
There’re other good stuff at O&S that I shall be covering sometimes later, the Yeong Tau Foo, the steamed chicken rice, and more! Stay tuned 
this is how you get to O & S restaurant
Address:
Restaurant O&S
Jalan 20/14, Seapark,
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.107713, 101.624919
Ahhhh, asam laksa, the other Penang hawker food that makes up the big three must try dishes whenever one visits the pearl of orient. The other two, of course, are char kueh teow, and prawn mee.
the glorious Penang laksa, look at the amount of fish!
While you can find pretty decent char kueh teow (aunty gemuk at Kelana Jaya, Seng Lee at Damansara Height), and behind and prawn mee (such as this one at Yon Lee, TTDI) in Klang Valley, getting a good bowl of asam laksa outside Penang proved to be much tougher.
The best asam laksa I’ve found this side of Peninsular Malaysia would be the stall at Alisan, SS4. While it ‘s pretty good and positively edible, there’s still quite a big departure in quality when you compare that to those from Penang.
Laksa at Taman Emas kopitiam, opposite Peng Hwa high school
While the Ayer Itam stall often gets the nod as one of the best Penang laksa, many locals from this part of the island usually prefer this stall within Taman Emas kopitiam at Jalan Gottlieb.
This is the same stall that used to operate at the intersection between Jalan Bagan Jermal and Jalan Tanjung Tokong, some half a kilometers away. I remember mom used to tapao from there over 20 years ago.
popiah, chee cheong fun, chai kueh, and laksa
The laksa, selling at RM 2.80, comes with fresh cucumber, lemongrass, vegetable, torch ginger flower, pineapple, sweet prawn paste, chili, and that asam based broth thicken with porch and shredded ikan kembong meat. Heaven!
The stall also sells deep fried pohpiah that goes very well with the broth, and the chai kueh is not bad either.
KY and Shiang
For those who might not fancy laksa as much, there’s curry mee and char kueh teow stalls too. We ended up tapao-ing 10 packets of laksa to KL. Note the number of pre-packed noodle they’ve prepared in the photo above to give you an indication of how popular this place is.
The shop operates from late breakfast to afternoon. Try it!
Address:
Taman Emas kopitiam
Jalan Gottlieb
10350 Georgetown, Penang
GPS: 5.433316,100.302864
When it is 4 in the afternoon, you are feeling hungry but don’t feel like spending a fortune at one of those Char Chan Teng (茶餐厅) nor greasing yourself at the nearest Mamak stall, try getting some old school Chinese light dishes and Tong Sui at places like this stall at Seapark’s Kedai Kopi Khong.
a very busy stall
The stall operates from around 4 something at the afternoon till late evening. The menu is actually pretty extensive, here you can find at least 5 types of Tong Sui (糖水) (varies day to day), fried noodle and mee hun, fried poh piah, chee cheong fun, yam cake, yau char kuai (油條), and more.
For this “high tea” session, the two of us ordered 2 pieces of chee cheong fun for each person, and a pair of fried poh piah. I had the “On Soon” (安顺) Chee Cheong Fun that came with some ingredients such as dried shrimp in it, while the other noob ordered the plain variety. I also ordered the bean curd skin Tong Sui with Gingko nuts, and the noob had another type tong sui with the name that escapes my mind right this moment.
tong sui, 2 types of chee cheong fun, pohpiah
The On Soon Chee Cheong Fun (top right photo on above collage) is a pretty interesting dish, it sort of bridge between the plain Chee Cheong Fun and the Hong Kong variety that are prepared with generous amount of ingredients. The dried shrimps and (I believe) radish provides some interesting texture and offers a unique taste unlike the other two types. The Tong Sui I had was very good too, with decent portion of Gingko nuts and very smooth bean curd skin. As for the Poh Piah, well, I can find better ones at Melaka, but this was actually decent.
map of seapark
The Tong Sui were RM 1.30 each, and the rest all adds up to less than RM 10 for two, pretty fair price for the food we got. This place tends to get very busy just before the twilight hours, do give it a try.
Address:
Junction of Jalan 21/19 and 21/22,
Seapark, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.109749, 101.621357
