Penang Makan Makan: Day 3

This is the last post for the recent 3D2N group trip to Pulau Penang, Malaysia.

The earlier posts can be found from Day 1 & Day 2.

On our last day in Penang, we went back again to Prosperous Dim Sum Restaurant for breakfast. Even at  11am on a Monday morning, the place is still quite crowded. Needless to say, we went straight to pick the delicious treats for the empty stomachs.

After all the walking for the last 2 days, our foot need some pampering. For that, we went to Kaki Kaki foot massage. Due to our big group, we made reservations the day before.

We went for Package A. Foot + Shoulder + Head

After the foot massage, we decided to take it slow and went to cafe called Chinahouse to chill until time to go to the airport.

They have a good selection of cakes

Remember to visit the courtyard

This place also serves as an art gallery for aspiring artists.

A room specially for the wine lovers. Ignore the part about "single"

I hope you find this 3-part series informational. If you enjoy it, please share this with your friends or on facebook.

My next article will feature Vietnam, a country which I've been travelling in and out for at least 10 times in 2013 alone. In fact, I'm typing this in a hotel room in Can Tho, a city on the Mekong River Delta.

Penang Makan Makan: Day 2

This is part 2 of my foodie trip report to Penang, Malaysia. Part 1 can be found here.

The next day is a Sunday. We woke up early to go into Georgetown for dim sum breakfast. Dim sum, called 点心 in Chinese, is a style of Cantonese food prepared to small, bite sized portion and typically served in small plates or steamer baskets.

The dim sum restaurant we went to is called Prosperous Dim Sum restaurant (福星茶楼), located along the right hand side of Lorong Abu Siti. It is a one way street, so it's very difficult to miss the restaurant. There are ample car parks along the road and around the area, so parking is also not a problem.

Location of Prosperous Dim Sum restaurant along Lorong Abu Siti

We reached the place at around 9am, and it's already packed with people standing around waiting empty tables (Note: the above photo was taken on Monday morning. yes, it's so good that we went back for round 2 the next day). Nevertheless, we managed to find a table big enough for 11 people. Normally, for a dim sum eatery, if you're not there early, most of the popular dishes will have already run out, but thankfully, this doesn't seem to be the case here. At 9am, there are still plenty of food to choose from, and more are coming out from the kitchen.

The first round of orders

The second round of order

Juicy char siew bao with generous fillings

We ended up spending RM 273 for 11 people, which works out to less than RM25 (or around S$10) per person, and more importantly leaving fully satisfied.

After brunch, we head up to Kek Lok Si Temple for sightseeing and offer prayers to Guan Yin (观音, Goddess of Mercy).

The temple complex itself is built on a hill side and is huge, so there are a couple of ways to reach the giant statue of Guan Yin. Most visitors will arrive at the bottom of the hill and can slowly walk up the different levels to a tram station where an inclined tram will take them right to the top. Alternatively, one can drive right up to where the giant statue is, which is what we did.

If you're driving, take the second entrance (the first one is the one immediately after the sharp turn on the road in the map above) and drive all the way in. There is only one way to where the giant statue is, so it's next to impossible to get lost.

View of Georgetown from the temple

Giant statue of Guan Yin

After visiting the temple, we went to find a cafe in Georgetown and just cool off in the blistering heat. Our objective is to find a place where all 11 of us can sit down comfortably, a very hard task since it's a Sunday, and both locals and tourists will be out in full force.

Finally, we found a quite cafe along Jalan Muntri called Passion Hearts. The owner of the cafe did very minimal renovations to the place, so it still retains the ambience of a early 1900s shophouse in Malaysia.

The interior of the shophouse still retains the original style

All the desserts in this cafe is homemade, and taste rightly so.

We spent almost 2 hours relaxing at the cafe before heading to our next food destination. The night market at Lorong Baru (New Lane in English).

Every evening - well, not all, since the market is closed for a day a week, problem is, I forgot which weekday it is, but the odds are still 6/7 days which are open - the end of the road nearer to Jalan Macalister are lined with street hawkers selling many yummy Penang street food ranging from grilled/fried chicken to noodles and satay (chicken skewers).

When driving, enter from Jalan Dato Keramat as entering from Jalan Macalister will be impossible. If you're lucky, one of the few parallel parking lots along Lorong Baru will be empty, otherwise, just park at the big open air carpark opposite Sunway Hotel which costs RM2 per entry.

View of the stalls just about to start the night's business

Loh Bak

Prawn noodles

Chicken and pork satay

So make sure to bring your appetite. And better to come in big group so that you can order more and taste a little of everything.

Coming up next: Day 3. Cheap and good traditional massage, and more Penang cafes.

Penang Makan Makan: Day 1

(Makan: Eat in Bahasa Melayu)

Planning

4 weeks after coming back from Seoul, me and my wife went for a short trip to Penang, Malaysia. This time, we went in a group of 11 people, all of whom are my classmates back in secondary school.

The trip is thought over supper the day before i flew to Seoul, and a "go" decision was made within 5 minutes of the idea being floated up. Tickets were bought 3 days later, and accommodation booked a few days thereafter.

To maximise our time in Penang, we flew the first flight of Tiger Airways (TR2424, 0710 hrs) and return on Jetstar (3K680, 2155 hrs). This combination also happens to be the cheapest ticket, costing a little more than S$ 130.

Our itinerary is thus as follow.

Day 1: 

TR2424 SIN-PEN

Explore Georgetown
Seafood dinner

Day 2: 

Free and Easy. Kek Lok Si Temple

Day 3: 

Whole day free and easy, cafe visiting.

3K680 PEN-SIN

Penang island (Pulau Pinang in Malay) is a turtle shaped island located on the north western part of Peninsular Malaysia with a size of approximately half of Singapore. Unlike the rest of Malaysia, where ethnic Malay made up a majority of the population, ethnic Chinese is the majority here.

So what's there is Penang? Ask any Malaysians and the first thing they will tell you is "FOOD!!!!". So that's what we are going to do. Visit the many steel stalls, cafes and restaurant, and eat til we drop.

Day 1

Our trip begin at 5 am on the first day, where we gather at Changi Airport(SIN) Terminal 2 for our 7:10 am flight to Penang.

Group check-in at Tiger Airways counter

Bags heading in the carousel

On clearing immigration, we went straight up to the McDonalds at the transit area for a quick breakfast before heading to the gate.

United Airlines B777 flight taking off before us

An SQ B777 in the take off queue behind us

Bye Changi!!!

Clear sky over peninsula Malaysia

After an uneventful flight, we landed 15 minutes ahead of schedule into Banyan Lepas International Airport (PEN). Immigration queue was short and within 20 minutes, we are at the car rental counter, collecting the keys to the cars we booked 1 week before.

Final approach into Penang International Airport

The A320 which brought us to Penang

The rental cars we chose are a Toyota Innova 2.0 and a Honda Civic 1.8L, so it's pretty comfortable sitting arrangement for 11 pax.

Civic FB 1.8L

Toyota Innova 2.0

Accommodation wise, we booked a 3 room condominium apartment via Airbnb. The listed name of the apartment is Passpaces property owned by a very friendly doctor. On arrival, we are greeted by his very kind mother who processed our check in and pass to us the keys to the apartment. We are also told the assigned parking lots to both our rental cars.

The apartment is located on the 8th floor and has an amazing seaview. It is fully furnished, with attached bathrooms for all 3 bedrooms. The owner even provided towels, shampoo and soap in the bathroom.

After putting our luggage in the apartment, we set off to hunt for lunch. We researched online and narrowed down to a couple of coffeeshops located in Georgetown.

The first one is Tiger Char Kuay Teow located at Ping Hooi Kopitiam.

Ping Hooi Coffeeshop at the junction of Lebuh Melayu and Lebuh Carnarvon

For RM 4.50, you get char kuay teow without egg, RM 5.00, with chicken egg, and RM 5.50, with duck egg. Naturally, we went for the one with duck egg, which is unavailable in Singapore.

One of the best char kuay teow I have eaten

In the same coffeeshop, there is also a loh bak stall, which rather good deep fried food.

The next place we went to, is Lam Ah Coffeeshop, for the fried oyster omelette or "oh jian".

The egg is deep fried until almost crispy before the oyster are thrown in and served hot with chilli sauce.

After this, went back to our apartment and for a short nap and dip in the pool before heading out to Bukit Tambun at Seberang Perai for some seafood dinner.

From my last trip to Penang 4 years ago, we went to this excellent seafood restaurant called Gee Seng Restaurant, so naturally, we went back to the place again.

Location of Gee Seng Restaurant at Bukit Tambun

Other than the food above, we ordered prawns, crabs and a few other vegetables. Total cost, RM 500 for 11 pax.

We ended the day at Gurney Drive night market, chilling and drinking fruit juices.

Coming up, Day 2 of Penang Makan Makan