The Food Capital of Malaysia
Day 18 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 16 in Malaysia
George Town as seen from Butterworth Ferry Terminal
Today we were off to George Town on Penang Island! We had heard great things about George Town, and it would be our last stop in Malaysia. Previously, we considered going to Langkawi, another large island of Malaysia, known for its beaches and rainforests and duty free status. But looking past the glossy pretty photos from travel bloggers and on Instagram, we found insights saying that if we were going to Thailand anyway, then don't bother. So we weren't going to.
Ipoh Tart King
Ipoh Tart King
We took a Grab to Old Town to buy some last minute egg tarts from Ipoh Tart King in the morning. Ippy had discovered that Pandan egg tarts were a thing (as opposed to the traditional Cantonese egg tarts), so she had to give it a try, being a pandan lover. They were bright green and so appealing but unfortunately they looked better than they tasted. The pandan was just too subtle. The regular egg tarts were good though. She also made us get a couple of Portuguese tarts too. They were ok, but we've had better.
Ipoh Tart King display
Egg Tarts and Portuguese tarts
Pandan egg tarts
After picking up some tarts, Ippy wanted to buy more snacks (some famous Ipoh lotus seed paste with pork floss pastries) from Guan Heong Biscuit Shop but unfortunately they were closed. She really likes the two things separately but together?? What a strange thing, but worth trying.
The Journey to Butterworth
We walked back quickly to our accommodation and travelled to the bus station in a very fast Grab.
We barely made the 10am Unititi bus for Butterworth. Sadly, I would've liked if we had the option to ride the train, but this will have to do.
Despite getting seat numbers for our coach it seems that they merged 2 services together so that it was full. People were very unwilling to move due to the conflicting seat numbers so we had to find our own seats. -_- But at least we found seats together.
Welcome to George Town
We arrived at the bus terminal and made our way to the ferry terminal. It cost MYR 2.40 for both of us to ride the ferry to George Town from Butterworth! Now, that's ridiculously cheap!
Penang ferry service
George Town is one the first of the British settlements in the Malaya Peninsula situated on the island of Penang. In fact it was treated as a seperate colony from the rest of the Malaysian colonies for much of its existance. I was told that the best food in Malaysia today is in Penang.
Another Grab was booked to take us to our accommodation, the Grand FC Hotel (which was just a 3 star hotel). It looked quite new and had a car park and a lift to get us to our room, which was twin room. It was all we could get at the price point we were after.
New Siam Road Char Koay Teow
The non descript New Siam Road Char Koay Teow, apart from the massive rangehood I suppose
Our first stop after a long trip was to go to a locally famous Char Koay Teow place called, New Siam Road Char Koay Teow. It's run by this old guy with his food cart that serves only CKT and he does the cooking solo, mostly. He used to cook from open to close, solo, but now his son takes over in the afternoon. But either way it's one chef, all day long. I believe he was at another location before on the street, but this new place he was at had tables and you could buy your drinks seperately as well. He uses actual charcoal to flame his wok and they had bags and bags of charcoal sitting around, ready for use.
We stood in line for a good 45mins. I hate wating but… well, when in George Town… It looked like there were plenty of locals in the line too; actual locals not just Malaysian tourists. When there was only 3-4 people in front of us the old guy retired for the day and his son took over. Nooo, just our luck!!!!
The son at the helm
Oh well. We had come all this way to taste the old man's goods but no worries. Surely his son knew all his secrets. The guy did deserve to retire for the day, it was definitely hard work. He stood in front of this hot wok for hours a day in humid weather. A bit crazy to think about it.
Char Koay Teow
The Char Koay Teow cost MYR 8 (AUD 2.77), which was really cheap, and we also ordered some Teh-C to go with it.
I must say the quality of the dish was fantastic, it had a good wok breath. What really made it tasty was the use of chinese sausage and the egg and prawns. Ippy thought it was a bit overrated and lacked wok breath, actually. It was good but not as mind blowing as some people will have you believe. Would not line up again. 8/10 #ipinions
Around Town
We visited the Tourist Information Centre to have a look at what was on offer. Then we walked around, and found a few notable things:
Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower
Penang City Hall
Penang Town hall
Murals around George Town
After our lunch we went on a walk around looking for various street art or murals that were painted in the area. We hunted them down using the map given by the tourist information centre.
'Kids on bicycle'
This one was quite famous. We came around when there was virtually no one around but about an hour later when we walked past again, it looked very different:
Huge crowd
'Old Soy Milk Stall'
'I Want Bao'
Chew Jetty
Sign
In the evening we visited the last of the old clan jetties, Chew Jetty. The jetties are the last remnants of an old chinese waterfront community built up on stilts over the water. Essentially they were people who didn't own any land and so built up over the water. We watched the sunset mostly, as did many other tourists. The Jetty itself wasn't very big and it did seem a bit intrusive as people lived here, so we did not see much.
Chew Jetty
View from Chew Jetty
The Penang ferry
Lagenda House & Cafe
For dinner we went to Lagenda Kafe. I had the Nasi Goreng (MYR 20) which came wiht chicken satay and the usual fixins - sambal, egg, anchovies and crackers.
Nasi Goreng Bujang Lapok
Ippy had the Mee Kuah which featured chicken and prawns with noodles in a sweet potato soup (MYR 22)
Penang Mee Kuah
We also got a couple of drinks, a mango juice and a papple juice (MYR 7 each). Papple is a mix of pears and it was not too sweet.
Unfortunately there was a 10% service charge which we had never seen in Malaysia before.
Final Thoughts on Ipoh
- SO BLOODY HOT (sorry, I will never get over it).
- Interesting town but not much to do.
- Good food.
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