I already posted a report about our first 28 or so hours in Penang. You can read that here. We ate a lot just in that time. But there was more!
We started off the day by taking a Grab west from Central Georgetown to Air Itam, to have breakfast at the market. The famous sisters curry mee stall was closed, but we ended up getting curry mee from a different stall. It was great! Also tried some roti canai (1 ringgit per roti) served with curry on the side, and later we also tried one w/ fried egg (not pictured). Finally, we ordered one koay teow th’ng from the stall that was mentioned to us by klyeoh. Even though I ordered this right when we arrived, it took WAY longer to come out that everything else. However, it was also REALLY good and worth the wait. Tender fish balls, homemade pork meatballs, and a delicious broth. Easily surpassed the version we had the day before, even though the day before’s was great too.
The coffee place at the market was closed, but I saw some people drinking coffee in mugs, and I tried to also order coffee from that same place, but accidentally went to a different place, so we had to drink our iced coffee from bags. No big deal. We were able to take them to go as we walked toward Kek Lok Si Temple.
After roaming around the temple, we took another quick Grab ride to Penang Hill and took the train up to the top. We did a short hike around Penang Hill and enjoyed the slightly cooler breeze, then got a fresh starfruit juice at one of the cafes. Then we went back down, and eventually headed back to Georgetown for lunch.
We had lunch at the Indonesian/Malaysian Restoran Nasi Padang Minang at the International Hotel. This place was very busy on Tuesday at lunch time, and it was actually so packed that it was hard to figure out how the line worked or how to get a table. I wasn’t really able to tell what everything was, but we both loaded up our plates with rice and lots of different curries. Once we sat down, we ordered drinks and then they came around to count up our dishes and calculate our prices. I thought the food was great, and I’d definitely recommend this place.
It looks like my editing privileges have expired, so I have to continue my post using the reply! Here’s one more picture from lunch.
So, after lunch, it was time to go back to the hotel and rest. But later we ventured out again.
First, we went to China House to play some cards and eat cake. This popular and well known cafe has approximately 30 types of cake on weekdays, plus more on weekends. We had a coconut banana upside-down cake that was very nice, and also had a juice of some sort and a coffee. They have decks of cards on every table, plus paper tablecloths with crayons available to color.
After hanging out there a while, we walked to Penang’s Little India, which he hadn’t walked through yet. It’s fascinating how a few very short blocks can really change the feel of the neighborhood (something similar can be said about San Francisco). We walked through the streets a bit, then eventually chose to eat at Woodlands Vegetarian Restaurant (since we wanted South Indian tiffin food). Service was kind of bad at this place (our drink orders of chai and mango lassi only came after 4 reminders and after all of our food was finished), but the quality of the food/drinks was great. Paper masala dosa was huge and served with two delicious chutneys, plus sambar. Vadai were crispy and light. Cauliflower fry was a bit salty, but otherwise tasty. Drinks were very good once they came. We appreciated the air conditioning.
After dinner, we roamed up to Chulia Street and found the touristy/backpacker area of town (Love Lane) and had a drink at one of the touristy bars/cafes. Here we ran into two friends we had made the previous day at cooking school, and they told us about a new cafe/bar they had heard about that they wanted to try called “Norm”
We headed over there (it’s located in a sort of random alley) and walked into the bar – it was dark with blue lighting, and felt very new and trendy. We ordered a waffle with three flavors of homemade ice cream (this was good but not great IMO) and the other three (besides me) ordered cocktails made with lots of homemade syrups and alcoholic infusions. I disliked every single drink, but the folks who ordered them were happy.
After this, it was back to the hotel for bed! Day 3 coming soon…
