Tastes of Penang

18th January

Lazy morning writing my blog & catching up with planning etc....I discovered through some reading that the East Coast has a different climate to the West and at the moment its the rainy season over there so I'm abandoning my plan to visit Terengganu and the Perhentian Islands as they are effectively shut - The ferries only run from April to September. 

I had a walk down to the Jetties again. These are like separate little communities formed by immigrants settling in the city. People still live in the little houses on stilts but they are also a big tourist attraction now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Jetties

I visited Hean Boo Thean Kuan Yin Temple - quite a mouthful - another highly decorated Buddhist temple

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Later I went on a Food tasting tour of George Town - which is another very 'touristy' thing to do but it was great as she told us a lot of the history of Penang as you walked around the streets and there was so much food - basically several starters and three main courses - all in different restaurants, cafes and street stalls - not to mention 3 desserts! It was a good job I hadn't eaten all day.

I learnt that the three main inhabitants of George town started with Chinese settlers from south China - one being the guides own great grandfather, who then married a Malay girl. The Chinese built most of the houses and buildings that still make up most of the town

When the British came they introduced a tax, based on the width of your house, so the Chinese built long narrow buildings to get around it

The British brought Indian settlers here - to build the roads - and hence, there is a large Indian community and little India. 

We began with some tastes of Indian food including Panipuri and a Michelin awarded samosa from a street cart

followed by a Malay Breakfast - a Roti Jala - a pancake shaped like a fishing net - with mutton curry and dal.

Here's him making the Roti Jala

The Pinang tree that gave its name

We stopped by a Chinese temple where people use joss sticks to prey and a system of sticks to ask God for guidance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kau_chim#:~:text=a%20fortune%20telling%20practice%20that,inscribed%20with%20text%20or%20numerals.

First Main course - Malay food - the third main inhabitants of George town (mostly Malayans originating from Java) - this was blue rice, dyed with the 'butterfly pea' flower, chicken and potato curry, fried aubergine and beans and a type of sambal (sauce)

We had another main dish and some chinese noodle dishes. She told us this noodle house gets its name from the sound of the man carrying the noodles on the ends of the bamboo sticks  - the 'tok tok' is the clicking sound of the bamboo sticks knocking together as he walks, so the people knew the noodles were coming

I don't know if this story is true but this is the best image I could find on the internet that was close to what was conjured in my mind

but they actually still use bamboo sticks to flatten out the dough for the noodles at this place, so I think that's where the name comes from as seen from this video...... I think the stories might have got a bit mixed up or lost in translation 😂

We didn't eat there but in another Chinese restaurant where we had two types of noodle dishes and chrysanthemum tea.

Then dessert was a lemon jelly made with a plant gelatin, and peanut Mochi - a kind of gelatinous doughnut of which I'm not keen on the texture.

I was so stuffed & had to wobble back to the hostel

Its funny that with all the variety and availability of food in George town, people still want to go to Mc Donalds - they have VIP stickers that if you display - through the drive through they'll give you free food!

Rachel, our guide ( I can't remember her Chinese name) told us that Penang is very rich now due to Malaysia's booming semiconductor industry being centred here - the 'Silicon Valley' of the East.

........so Penang is still a strategic centre point for world trade - the important goods like silk, spices and porcelain replaced by our need for technology and the silicon chip.