Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our short getaway to Penang Island, Malaysia, back in July 2022! It was our first trip post-covid and we decided to go on a short 3 day getaway there! It had been at least a decade since either of us have visited Penang so this was a semi-new experience for both of us.
Last week, we continued our day heading to another tourist attraction after the Wonderfood Museum - the Dark Mansion! As the name suggests, the whole place is basically in darkness and the art is lit up using black lights which doesn't make for the best pictures but it looks pretty cool in person!
There was also some tricky illusion art on the floor by the famous Master Street Painter, Edgar Mueller!
Overall it was a pretty short "museum" and after that we went for a tea break eating some traditional snacks at a famous pastry shop called Ming Xiang Tai!
We didn't know it was famous at the time but looking at their products it was pretty clear from all the souvenir boxes they have that it's really popular among tourists. And it was indeed delicious!
After we relaxed there for a bit, it was time for dinner!
26 July 2022. Tuesday.
Since this was our last night here, we decided to go look for the famous street food and try our hand at eating along the street. When in Rome, right?
We went to a random street we found on Google called Chulia street which I guess is pretty famous for the street food just from looking at all the street carts here!
There was quite a queue for this wanton mee street cart and it smelled so good we couldn't resist.
There were tables and chairs set up along the road and outside this nearby shophouse just round the corner and it was pretty packed with people but I managed to snag two seats for us.
Because of how limited the seating was out here we had to share a table with some other tourists but we didn't mind, especially since the aroma of food along the street was making us so hungry!
We waited about 15 minutes for our food and when it finally arrived we couldn't wait to dig in!
The noodles were so good! It was slick but bouncy and was quite wet for a dry noodle (i.e. not served in soup). But the sauces at the bottom mixed with the noodles were super good! The pork char siew was also quite juicy and not dry at all. The wantons were also very yummy, although a little small.
Overall, it was indeed very delicious and I can see why people were queuing up for it. One medium sized bowl for each of us wasn't enough and we were planning to get more but the queue was getting quite long. But we agreed that it was probably one of the best meals we had here; it was that good!
The noodles had whet our appetite for sure, and Sean went to get more snacks from another stall selling chee cheong fun (steamed rice vermicelli) and yam cakes!
It came with some fried shallots, sweet sauce and chili sauce which wasn't that spicy. It was pretty good, but not as good as the one we had in Singapore's Chinatown.
We also got some authentic Penang Char Kway Teow; which is stir-fried rice noodles with vegetables, eggs, Chinese sausage and shrimp.
This is probably one of our favourite hawker dishes and this particular Char Kway Teow did not disappoint. It smelled so good and you could've fooled me by saying it's cooked with charcoal because the aroma was intoxicating!
I wouldn't say it's the best that we've had but it was still really yummy! It tasted quite oily and unhealthy but so delicious! I remember the wok hey was very strong in this dish, and definitely felt like it was cooked by a professional who's been doing this for many years.
For one last snack here we also bought a crepe of sorts? It was super thin and we thought it'd be crispy but unfortunately it was pretty soft. But it had a slight sweet flavour to it and was alright.
It was starting to rain at this point so we went on our way to avoid the rain but thankfully it was only a slight drizzle and we could still go for a walk around the neighbourhood. There were plenty of other street stalls and restaurants in the vicinity that looked interesting!
This was the street with all the carts and after we were done eating we decided to just cross the road and see what else was here.
There was this loooong line for a Muslim stall but I wasn't very sure what they were selling. It looked like some local delicacy.
But the line was so long for this small stall! I thought it was for the restaurant but the restaurant/bar is empty! We would've liked to try whatever food it was if not for the long line.
Along the way we saw a FamilyMart and this cool looking pub! Too bad we're not drinkers or we would've liked to just chill here.
There was also a piece of brick wall that someone painted as Oscar the Grouch which I thought was quite cool! What would've just been a piece of leftover rubble has now become an art piece!
I think we bought a drink from this bubble tea shop because it was too darn warm even at night.
After we got a drink to cool down, we walked along some old spooky shophouses.
And we arrived in a nice brightly lit square with festive lights. There were diagonal crossings here that reminded me of the famous Shibuya Crossing in Japan.
We also passed by more street art and this one was pretty special since it had a backlight too!
While walking we also passed by this big supermarket which looked quite out of place since it was so neat and clean inside.
We didn't really have a destination and I think we ended up in Penang Little India judging by all the Indian shops we saw around. It was pretty cool since we didn't even know Penang had a Little India!
There were even Indian family restaurants like these that looked just like the ones in Singapore too!
We also passed by this cool-looking fire station which looked like it was built by the British but was very well maintained for sure!
There was also this very cool street art close to it that said the police doubled as firefighters in Georgetown until 1909!
I'm not really sure what this place was but I guess it must've been the side door of a temple called Yeoh Kongsi.
The temple itself looks like this, I don't think I managed to get a picture of it in person because it must've been closed at the time.
Source: mypenang.gov.my
We walked along this very red street; it was a like a literal red light district!
It did have another very cool lighted street art depicting the pier. I think we ended up walking close to the ocean.
But since our favourite food court was called The Jetty, we figured we were going in the right direction and eventually we found it!
There was actually a pretty cool-looking archway leading to one of the jettys here that reminded me of Japanese shrines.
We ended up back in our favourite place that we found - the Jetty food court which is this huge hawker centre that had plenty of pretty fairy lights overhead and many stalls lining both sides with numerous tables in between.
Other than the numerous food options here, there's also live music with some professional singers singing karaoke! And more importantly there are huge fans overhead so there's plenty of ventilation here.
We weren't super hungry but decided to get some light snacks like Sean's favourite fried mantou (Chinese steamed bun):
It came with condensed milk that you dip into for some added sweetness. It was pretty oily but still quite yummy regardless!
We also ordered some drinks and a barbecued stingray which was kinda disappointing to be honest. It was saucy and didn't have much meat, and was quite dry overall. It was kind of a letdown especially after we waited about 20 minutes for it.
But we didn't let it ruin the atmosphere for us since the vibe of the place was still really pleasant, and we'd definitely take this over a bar any day.
After that we were pretty tired from the heat and the walking so we retired back to our hotel.
We found out there's a "Shopping Arcade" linked to the lobby of the hotel that we had yet to see.
But it turns out there wasn't much here, we figured because it was still too new and businesses had yet to move in since the whole place smelled of paint.
After that we went back to our room for some much needed rest before our final day, which I will share about next week!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #208 (Penang): Glowing in the Dark and Enjoying Traditional Snacks! 😮
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