It’s the first day of the Chinese New Year today, so virtually all the Chinese hawkers in Penang are closed.
Breakfast this morning were take-outs from Astaka Taman Tun Sardon Market & Food Court in Gelugor, a Malay-Muslim enclave, and where everything’s open for business.
Serabai - these were the Malay forerunner of Nyonya apom berkuah. The delicate little crumpets were served with a Gula Melaka-santan sauce, instead of pengat pisang (caramelised bananas in coconut milk-brown sugar sauce) as for apom berkuah.
There’s a perpetual queue at this popular Serabai Istimewa Taman Tun Sardon dessert stall run by Jamaliah Hassan, 63, who’d been doing it for more than 4 decades. She inherited the business from her parents.
For comparison’s sake, this is the apom berkuah, which is common in Singapore and Malacca, but doesn’t exist in Penang’s food culture.
Nasi lemuni from Sari Rasa - we had two separate orders: one with daging masak hitam (beef in dark-sauced gravy), which also came with spiced long beans, curried potato and a hard-boiled egg:
And another with ayam masak merah (spicy chicken in a red chili gravy).
Nasi lemak - a simply coconut-flavoured rice, topped with spicy red chili sambal, anchovies & onions, and a wedge of hard-boiled egg, all wrapped in a banana leaf.
