Bridge Street Prawn Noodles (known to Penangites as “Keo Thau Hokkien Mee”) has been operating for more than half a century, first at “Sia Boey”, the old Prangin Road Market, and subsequently at the current location about 10 years ago. It’s presently run by the 3rd-generation of the Lau family who started it. Bridge Street Prawn Noodles has been featured by CNN Travel’s Lina Goldberg in her “Great Asian Street Food Cities” series.
The version here has a lighter-flavoured pork-shrimp broth compared to other better-known spots in Penang, which can be too intense for non-Penangites.
What I especially like about this spot is the wide variety of add-ons one can opt for: pork-ribs, pork meatballs & pig’s intestines, besides fishcakes, egg & good quality shrimp.
All three generations of the Lau family which started this business over 50 years ago are still actively involved in the business, even the nanogenarian grandma, who could be seen sitting outside patiently deshelling the par-boiled shrimps.
Lau Senior, who’d been running the business the past 20+ years, now spent his time in the back kitchen, preparing the huge vats of soup stock used for the noodles’ broth. His son mans the cooking station upfront, taking orders from customers and prepares the noodles a la minute in full view of the clientele.
Back to Bridge Street Prawn Noodles for breakfast this morning. 5 years since I first tried it, and the noodle stall is now busier than ever - its latest spike in business resulted from its Bib Gourmand listing in the 2023 Michelin Guide to Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
We ordered 3 bowls of their Hokkien noodles, and one bowl of “lor mee”, identifiable from its darker, sticky-gooey unctuous “lor” 5-spice-scented gravy, thickened with cornstarch.
It’s advisable, if one wants to taste the noodles at its best, come here before 8am, when the freshly-cooked broth is still hot and concentrated.
I always request for add-ons of pig’s intestines, pork meatballs and pork spare-ribs.
I wondered - how did they end up with Laksa Indonesia?! When it comes to noodles, the Indonesians have so many other noodle dishes that they’d think of first: bakmi Jawa from Jogjakarta, mie cakalang from Manado, mie kocok from Bandung, mie soto from Bogor, mie Acheh, mie tiaw from Pontianak, mie koclok from Cirebon, etc., etc.
We chose Bridge Street Prawn Noodles as our mid-morning re-fueling stop during our Saturday walkabout through George Town today. It was extra-busy as it’s still the Chinese New Year season, with a surfeit of outstation diners vying for tables with the local regulars.
We were very, very lucky - we placed our orders and went to get a seat. The second customer behind us in the queue was told, “We are sold out for today!”. It was 10am.
