What is Penang Famous for..

Ask anyone in Penang...and, the first answer would be Food! Penang people love food and love to eat at any time of the day. There is endless choices. One never goes hungry in Penang - it is cheap and affordable, and extremely tasty and delicious. 

Google search for Penang food and you will find over tens of millions of articles and images! It will do Penang injustice to try and describe Penang food in a single word or sentence because it would be impossible. Penang food is diverse and complex intermingled with the different ethnicities of the people who lives there for centuries. Look at the Chinese alone. It is impossible to describe the Chinese food in Penang as it is as diverse as the origins of the Chinese who have settled there since the Seafaring era. Among them are the Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew. Some Chinese settlers adopted the local Malay culture and intermarried with a Malay wife or husband, creating a unique culture and tradition called "Peranakan", also known as "Baba Nyonya". "Baba" refers to the man, "Nyonya" refers to the woman. The "Nyonya" food is unique and can only be found in the 3 straits settlements  - Penang, Malacca and Singapore. 

One post alone will not cover Penang food. In this post alone, I have featured some photos that I have taken on my recent trip to Penang at 3 different places:

• ​Tanjung Bungah - local Penang fruit trucks parked beside an open air food court centre 
• Little India - pop up stalls along one of the street block, selling halal takeaway food from savoury to sweets, during the Ramadan Festival - a holy fasting month of Islam
• Kimberley Street in George town - very popular with the locals in the evening with street food. The most popular stall is the "Koay Chiap" stall selling fresh homemade rice noodles served in a rich broth of shredded duck meats, pork meat, hard boiled eggs and offals. I came to Kimberley Street that evening to eat "Koay Chiap". It did not disappoint. It was utterly delicious. The homemade noodle was silky, smooth and soft. The meat was tender, salty and sweet. The offals just melted in my mouth. The broth left me speechless. If you don't fancy noodle, you can opt for rice instead.