Penang Street Foods

On May 1st, a group of us went to Balik Pulau. I went to this place call Jalan Baru where they have a Hokkien Mee cum Laksa stall nestled in some Chinese kampung. At that time, there was a big bunch of Gerakan has-been politicians converging there.

Anyway, I am not interested in has-beens. I was only interested in the Hokkien mee because it was late and we haven’t have our lunch yet. So, while ordering, I shoot the video of the Hokkien Mee, thinking that it will be super to share with readers this tiny fishing village. But the si peh lansi auntie was so blardy stuck up. She said I cannot film. I asked her why? She said many people had taken their photos.

Pordah…

However, the lorbak uncle is much friendlier.

But all the foods are nothing fantastic though.

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Here is part two of the Penang Street Foods. This time, it is mostly local products and other scenes from Penang. This video is from AlJazeera, available on Youtube.

I found this lovely video on Penang Street Foods by AlJazeera posted on Youtube and wish to share with readers.

It shows what Penang is all about. The simple life, the traditional foods, the mixed cultures and the laid back life around here. I hope the state remains this unique forever.

This video is also an inspiration to me to produce better videos in future.

Here is another video from Penang Street Foods. This time I captured the Tanjong Tokong curry mee seller near the Hai Choo Garden. Hai Choo Garden or Sea Pearl Garden is more famous for its crabs and prawns. However, if you have time to take a short walk around the area, you will see many of the ethnic Chinese families living their daily lives like playing mahjong, drinking at the tiny coffee shop, hanging around talking, mending their nets and fishing.

This curry mee is nothing special but it is so local so I decided to sacrifice standing in the hot sun, eating the bowl of equally hot curry mee for the sake of taking this video. Ahh…what a food blogger won’t do for an extra blog post…

The chap is totally clueless what is internet and what is blog. I told him he is famous because blogs mentioned about his curry mee but he totally has no reaction. Maybe I should burn a copy of this as a video and give to him.

During rainy days, the nicest thing to eat is ang tau th’ng. In fact, red bean soup is so easy to cook, one should try it at home instead of buying them from hawkers because they are either not tasty or they are overpriced.

Ang tau th’ng and hong tau sar are basically the same, one in Hokkien name, the other in Cantonese. However, the soup is not the same. The two versions :

1) Hokkien/dll style : Red beans, longans, a bit of brown sugar, rock sugar + pandan leaves - boil till soft

2) Cantonese method : Red beans, some glutinious rice and dried tangerine peel and rock sugar - boil till mushy and unrecognizable.

Normally, I either use the slow cooker or pressure cooker to cook because it takes a long time for the beans to get soft. One method of making it cook faster is to wash the beans, soak it in hot boiling water for a while and then, add to the pot of boiling water to cook it further.

So, I made this very tasty and cheap ang tau th’ng. The beans only cost me RM1.20 and I think I boil enough to make 20-30 small bowls, like the portion they sell.

While I was fetching my sons home from school, I passed by Burmah Road at the Tavoy Road junction. I stopped to buy two changs - bak chang and tau chang. Recently, I found that the quality of the bak chang has dropped tremendously and I won’t be buying anymore from this stall. On both occassion, the rice inside is still hard and sandy. They didn’t bother to ask me if I want the tnee cheow and chillie sauce and when I got home, I only discovered it. They are so stingy, isn’t it? How to eat tau chang without tnee cheow lah. Plus so lansi and look so stressed like that. Cutting and putting the changs into the plastic bags only, not like I ask them to fry kuey teow. Yet, when one big SUV came by, they look so cheerful suddenly and greeted the man. Double standard.

My car was parked at the other side of the road and I only brought one RM10 note with me as I don’t want to carry a bag crossing busy Burmah Road (and get snatched). So, I was calculating if I have enough money to buy two bak changs and two tau changs. Wah..maybe they think I cannot afford to eat so that’s why so lansi with me lah. The big chang costs RM5.50 and the small one RM3 while the tau chang RM2. The tau chang is still good but the bak chang small size almost have nothing inside except a piece of mushroom and pork.

I know prices of things have gone up but at RM5.50, the chang is not loaded with much pork, chestnuts, mushroom and salted egg also. Must learn to make my own chang and boycott this cut throat guy.

I will patronise the one in Lorong Susu where they sell nice koay teow thng. (makes mental note to have tea there and take pictures and video)

The Tavoy Road bak chang quality really has gone down.