Penang, Malaysia Takes Delicious to a New Standard

Food courts of Penang / photo: McKay Savage

By Jason Rupp & Carla Marie Rupp

Malaysia’s historic island of Penang provides plenty of sensory pleasures, not only in sight and sound, but also in taste. In fact, if you mention visiting Penang to just about any Malaysian, you’ll begin to hear about food.

First they’ll ask you if you enjoyed the food before telling you that it’s famous all over Malaysia. Next they’ll begin peppering you with the obligatory questions. Did you try Cendol (an icy desert with green jelly and coconut milk)? “Yes we did.” Did you try the Roti (fried flat bread with curry)? “Yes, every day.” Did you try the Stingray with chili sauce? “Yes, of course – nightly. It was amazing.” Did you try the Laksa (curry noodle soup)? “Yes, daily, as well, and we loved it.”

In fact, we were full from morning until night on all of Penang’s local favorites. How we wished we could double our stomach capacity to accommodate even more Laksa.

We also discovered other dishes less-known to tourists, and which quickly became part of our daily Penang diet, such as Teh Halia (hot spicy ginger milk tea), and Tody (homemade coconut wine), which bought us coming back for more during our daily walking routine to taste more and more delights. There are so many little hidden-away gems to eat at, and most are very good.

There are three major ethnic cultures in Malaysia — Chinese, Indian and local Malaysian – which is why people always talk about the food of Malaysia when they visit. We like the mix of food because there is so much choice especially in the food courts. In fact, other tourists agreed that the Indian food in Penang tasted better than it did in India, something none of us could figure out. Most likely it has to do with the local restaurant competition for delicious food being fierce – and the standard of ‘delicious’ is set quite high.

The city of Georgetown is where you’ll find most of the historical sights, and so this is where most visitors stay.

You’ll find that most of the colorful sections of Georgetown overlap, but Little India is really a place of its own. Strolling through its streets is pure Penang delight but make time to sit down and have some Teh-Halia, a milk tea with spiked spicy fresh ginger. If you like it extra spicy, then say you want Teh-Halia kgow. Listen to the Indian music carried over loud speakers. You will smell spices in each street, different from the next street. Roti is always hot, since it is made-to-order, with extra toppings such as onions, eggs, bananas. Then top it with free curry, as much as you want. A plate of roti will cost no less than $1 USD.

A little known spot, that tourists won’t know about is the Tuak Shop, a non descript building, with a homemade sign that says “Kedai Tuak Lorong Pasar”, which has homemade coconut wine on offer. We discovered it while walking by, popped inside, and found locals sitting around chatting and smiling. We asked what they were drinking and they pointed to a sign, which said a glass of the homebrew Tody was just 2 MYR (less than $1 USD). This drink won’t get you drunk, and can’t be stored, but it spoils quickly so drink it right away, or at least the same day.

You’ll hear languages from all around the globe here. You’ll be able to eat tasty food from cultures you may not have tried before, namely the Indian, Chinese, and local Malay dishes. You may even become friendly and chatty with smiling, inquisitive people of different nationalities and faiths other than yours, as we did.

We loved it all and now that we know what joys await us in Penang, we’ll be happy to return. And we will – especially for the food.