Back again at Cecil Street Market. It’s a must-visit for any street food lover to Penang these days. A fortnight ago, it was with my fellow ex-Chowhounders, JFores and Deansa. This time, it’s my old foodie friends from Singapore, including KF Seetoh, Singapore’s undisputed King of Street Food.
Back in Singapore, KF was the go-to guy for various visitors to our shores seeking insider info on Singapore’s food culture, from Anthony Bourdain back in 2001, to Phil Rosenthal in 2020.
Bourdan & KF during A Cook’s Tour
KF & Rosenthal during Somebody Feed Phil.
Over here at bustling Cecil Street Market, KF and the foodie gang launched into Penang’s street food options with a vengeance:
𝘒𝘰𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩’𝘯𝘨 from MICHELIN Bib Gourmand-listed Lum Lai Duck Meat Koay Teow Th’ng. Very good to also run into founder-hawker chef, Lau Lum Lai, himself.
The younger Lau, Wei Loon, is tremendously talented, and works at breakneck speed.
The father-and-son duo running the stall is so popular, there is even a wall mural dedicated to them there. 
𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘦 from the popular “flying wantan mee” stall. Be prepared to see what you’re about to eat being sent flying 2 meters into the air.
Teochew 𝘰𝘳𝘩 𝘬𝘶𝘦𝘩 (steamed taro pudding), 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘶𝘯 with its distinctive 𝘩𝘢𝘦 𝘬𝘰𝘩 (fermented shrimp paste) giving a funky edge to the 𝘩𝘰𝘪 𝘴𝘪𝘯-𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘪 𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘤𝘦 dressing, and 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘨-𝘕𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘺𝘢 𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘬-𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘬, more soft pudding-like and akin to Thai 𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘬 𝘱𝘭𝘢.
The two very popular Nyonya kueh stalls, located side-by-side in the market. Each offers 30-40 types of savory snacks, cakes and sweetmeats.
Ladling out the red bean soup (𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘢𝘶 𝘵𝘩’𝘯𝘨) at the Cecil Street Market Fried Sago & Tong Sui.
Economy beehoon mee - a favorite breakfast noodle dish in Penang, as in Singapore.
Sweet red bean soup
We then visited the row of Cantonese-style roast pork (siew yoke) and caramelised BBQ pork (char-siu) stalls at the market end of the food court building. 6 competing stalls, side-by-side.
We were literally stuffed. Can’t believe we’d only tried less than 10% of the food options here!
