// Penang Street Foods

We call this place Jalan Tengah flats but I am not sure what is the actual name of this place. It is the block of flats at the corner of Jalan Tengah and Bayan Baru. They have a lot of hawker stalls, both in the morning, during the day and at night.

At night, this Ayam Bawang nasi kandar stall enjoys brisk business. Usually, there is a queue because their onion fried chicken smells so good from miles.

Most of the time, the chicken is freshly fried and still warm when served. The onions is crispy and the oil, well, taste good when mixed with rice. But it is not very healthy, I know.

I had a small portion of rice with one fried chicken and one fried fish eggs.

In the morning, at the same location, there is another nasi kandar stall selling almost similar items. I prefer the morning stall as the curries seem to be more spicy. Or maybe I was already too full to really enjoy the rice as I had eaten some snacks when I was in Queensbay Mall earlier.

Do you know what this block of flats is called?

The next time you go to Pulau Tikus wet market in the morning, watch out for this Malay man stall. He sells one of the best deep fried kadok leaves.

But first, let’s look at the rempeyek kacang and ikan bilis.

The rempeyek is RM2 per packet and I think there are 8 or 10 pieces in a packet. I think most of us know what rempeyek is. It is a crispy fritter flavoured with spices and bits of chilli flakes and curry leaves. On each piece, they put some ikan bilis and peanuts.

It is rather oily but a piece or two is nice. The rempeyek is not the best I have tasted but it is rather fresh. I have eaten some really good rempeyek from Kedah before which practically melts in your mouth with flavours of the spices.

However, this deep fried kadok leave is really something unique. The Malay gentleman sells two varieties, i.e. keropok bayam leaves and daun kadok. I opted for the daun kadok because I love the flavour of kadok leaves. In case you are not sure what daun kadok is, it is that leaves used in the otak-otak.

This kadok leave has a crispy batter flavoured with lots of spices. I am not sure what are the spices but they taste really nice. In fact, this kadok leaves taste better than the bayam leaves I bought from Sabah. I asked the man if he is from Sabah because so far, I hardly see people selling deep fried fritters like these. He said he is from Kedah (I think). The kadok leaves come in a huge packet and costs RM5.

So, do try this the next time you are around Pulau Tikus market.

My hubby and I wanted to go to Cold Storage to get some alphabet shapes pasta this morning. So, we thought it is convenient to just stop by Zealand Bak Kut Teh for breakfast. We saw a lot of people eating there all the time and thought it must be really fantastic.

They have noodles and bak kut teh. It was around 10 am so we ordered a plate of fried fish head beehoon. As you can see, you cannot even find where the beehoon is because the portion is so tiny, the five pieces of fish bones covered it. It is too oily and dry as well.

Since the place seems to be famous for bak kut teh, I thought of ordering a single portion of soft bones and pig’s tail. Do you know how much it costs? RM12 for this unattractive, single portion. No rice, no yau char koay, no additions of mushrooms or anything. Just pieces of meat and a very diluted soup.

The total bill for our breakfast comes up to RM28, with drinks. I should have gone to CoffeeBean if I know it is that expensive.

Sigh….price of foods are spiralling out of control. The cream puffs that my child love has shrunken to half its size. Rice shortage is felt here in Penang hypermarket. Thai fragrant rice costs RM50+ and now, I no longer waste leftover rice. I don’t keep the leftover rice for my housekeeper to feed the stray dogs anymore. I keep the leftover rice for either fried rice or even make fish broth.

If this goes on, there will be less eating out. Maybe I will turn it into Penang Kiamsiap, Panjee economy foods blog. Hehehe.

We go to Ang Hoay Lor quite often for our meals because the Hokkien dishes are good. I have blogged about their new branch which is open only from 12 noon to 6 pm (close on Wednesday). Do avoid the lunch crowd because waiting time is horrendous as they only have one or two cooks only.

We went to have lunch at 2.30 pm and it was a breeze because lunch time is over. I didn’t know that Ang Hoay Lor serves stew pork leg noodles until now. Or maybe it is a new dish? Anyway, the pork leg noodle is really nice. The pork leg does not smell of the canned pork legs. I guess they must have drained off the gravy from the canned pork leg and put only the meat into the regular orh mee or oyster noodle.

I think the plate costs around RM20 which is enough for three person. The noodle is packed with lots of large prawns, oysters, fish fillets and vegetables.

My children all time favourite is the fried rice. It is rather oily but it is darn good.

They oysters omelette which is loaded with more oysters than anywhere else. If the chilli sauce is a bit nicer, it would be better but I dislike the fakey looking chili sauce they give.

I have an earlier post giving the direction to this branch of Ang Hoay Lor.

Until now, I haven’t find a better pohpiah yet. So, I shall declare the Padang Brown’s Pohpiah as the best. The stalls in Padang operate from around noon till night. This pohpiah stall has been around for decades and I am glad that quality remains the same, with fresh crab meats and mantis prawns for the pohpiah.

This uncle has been selling pohpiah since he was a young man. I know ‘cos I used to take my secretarial course when I was in my late teens.

The pohpiah has chunks of fresh, sweet, flavourful crab meat or mantis prawns. You can select them and pay a big more for the ‘keh liau’. I have forgotten the price of a pohpiah but it is worth it because you cannot find better ones around.

The poh piah is served with this gravy, very much like Hokkien prawn mee. It has distinct smell of prawns or is it crabs. So you better like them or you may find them a bit off putting.

Business is always brisk and you may have to wait for a while during weekends when the place is crowded.

Padang Brown is the green field with these roads bordering it - Jalan Perak, Jalan Anson, Jalan Datuk Keramat and Jalan Johor. The place has a 42 years old history and there is even a little monument over there.