Colours of Penang

Penang is a must-see city if you’re ever in Malaysia.

When I was applying for university many many (MANY) years ago, I opted for Universiti Sains Malaysia as my first and second choice because it’s located in Penang, about 4 hours drive away – the furthest I had ever lived in my life at that point in time. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. Not only did I made some really meaningful friendships, I also spent much of the wonderful 3 years exploring the island’s food prints.

Upon graduation, I still visit the city every now and then, to catch up with friends as well as to continue to pamper my palate. Penang is best known for its street food but in recent years, the island city has become somewhat a yuppie place with many boutique hotels and unique cafes popping up. This is partly thanks to Georgetown becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Area back in 2008, which led to many conservation and rehabilitation projects that helped to preserve the uniqueness of the city.

I must say, Georgetown is more appealing now than in my uni days, albeit the worse traffic jams.

One of the key attractions is the the wall murals by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic, which are scattered in the centre of Georgetown – read his interview here.

Within the UNESCO World Heritage area, there are many colourful colonial buildings. Some of them are still being occupied by residents who have lived here for generations. Others have been converted into guesthouses, or museums, or cafes.

 

In this latest visit, I checked out one of the boutique cafes recommended by a Penangite friend. Ete Cafe is apparently opened by a Taiwanese couple who was once trained in France. The place turned out to be almost a hole in the wall kind of cafe – not easily visible unless you really look out for it. They serve syphon coffee as well as French pastries. The slice of gateau that we had was good but it didn’t come cheap (for Penang prices anyway) as it’s RM15 per slice.

Now for street food, I was pleasantly surprise to find a super yummy wanton mee @ Love Lane in the evening. This plate of delicious noodle had pork lards, and as we all know, pork fat makes the world go round 🙂

When in Penang, one of the must-try street food is char kuey teow (CKT). It’s stir fry flat rice noodles with chili, prawns, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts and cockerels. Locals are particular about their plate of CKT – it must taste good and not expensive. The expensive and famous stalls are usually patronised by tourists or out-of-town fellas like me and my friend. We went to the stall at Lorong Selamat, which has been featured in various newspapers and food blogs. The kopitiam (local word for coffee shop) only has 1 stall, which is the CKT stall and that’s not common since kopitiams usually offer more than 1 option. This means this 1 stall alone makes enough profits every month to pay for rent. Not surprising since a plate of CKT cost RM8 here – extremely expensive! Fortunately, it lived up to its reputation as one of the best CKTs in town (or at least to our taste buds).

Penang is no longer as cheap as it used to be. Prices for accommodations and food have gone up, like the rest of this country. Here’s the expenses for 2 persons for 3D/2Ns.

Accommodations (guesthouse, twin sharing with shared bathroom, excluding breakfast) = RM168/night

Petrol and toll = RM220

F&B = RM150