Planning a foodie trip to Penang soon? Here are your best bets when it comes to the city's most iconic street food
Penang, like Singapore, is well known for its vast selection of street and hawker food. From char kway teow to prawn mee, there’s no shortage of different (and very famous) renditions that you have to try if you are visiting.
Of course, as with all street food, everyone has a different (and very passionate) opinion of what the best ones are and so ultimately, you just have to try them all to form your own opinion.
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As an ardent foodie with very strong food opinions, I was extremely excited when I flew down to Penang with my family for a week-long trip last month. I was ready to try all the hawker food possible and I had made a list of what Google deemed the most famous.
Of course, all my plans were thrown out the window almost immediately when I hopped into my first cab in Penang to head to a supposedly famous char kway teow spot. The driver heard my destination and gave me a weird look.
“You’re going here?” he asked while making a face. “But why?”
He immediately recommended what was, in his opinion, a much better option and changed course to drop us there instead. Suffice to say, he was right.
After all, who would know a city better than its cab drivers, many of whom have trawled the streets for years and tried all the food there is to try? This quickly became my favourite thing to do in Penang. I would get into a cab and ask the driver to recommend a street food spot and attempt to try it.
By the end of my trip, I managed to compile a pretty solid list of some of the best street food in Penang, all recommended by the city’s trusty cab drivers.
As promised, here are my findings that you, too, can use to kickstart your epicurean trip to Penang.
1. Siam Road Charcoal Char Koay Teow
It’s hard to go anywhere in Penang without someone recommending a visit to Siam Road Charcoal Char Koay Teow so we knew that it was a must-try after a cab driver (and the BBC) passionately explained why it was the best.
“I used to go there before it was even famous,” our taxi driver said with a laugh. “It was very good. And then some Thai actress ate there or something and it started getting popular and it really just grew from there. Now the lines are so long.”
Siam Road Charcoal Char Koay Teow is helmed by one of the oldest char kway teow hawkers in Malaysia, Tan Chooi Hong, and his son, who will take over the cooking whenever his 80-year-old father gets a little tired.
The humble stall features Uncle Tan frying up plate after plate of goodness in a blazing outdoor wok covered only with a metallic taupe. Behind him is a small and cramped seating area where diners are quickly and methodically seated and ushered away once they are done.
The steaming hot plate of char kway teow itself is simple in its conception with fresh noodles, eggs, salty-sweet Chinese sausage, crunchy beansprouts and fresh shrimp. The wok hei, gleaned from the charcoal stove Uncle Tan uses, adds depth to the dish and the sausage and shrimp provide an umami richness.
Tatler Tip:
No matter what time of the day you go, expect to wait at least two hours or more for your meal. Take note that the stall also typically closes at 6 pm and that the line at some point will be cut off to ensure that they can close on time. Your best bet will be to arrive as early as possible and to be prepared to wait in the heat.