For the last day in Penang, the office crew took me to Ang Huay Loh, a little makkan place next door to the State Chinese Association. My awesome co-workers (can I say again how much fun they were?) took me there, only to find out that members of Esther's family are the owners of this little gem. Her Aunt and Uncle have created one of my most memorable meals in Penang.

First we started off with some prawn fritters. How awesome do these look? They were breaded in a very nice, sort of sweet breading and deep fried right into my heart.

Deep Fried Yum.

And Tofu

Last September I went back to Taiwan on a "company" trip. Part of our meetings involved a team building trip to Ruifang, the gold museum and some fresh seafood. Some of the highlights of the meal included knowing that these funny looking Squid (actually cuttlefish)were soon to be my dinner. (I really don't care for live squid/cuttlefish at all thank you very much.)

The cuttlefish sashimi was about as good as it gets. And fresh... forget about it!

We also had shrimp, fresh fish and some super tasting clams. The bamboo with mayonnaise, well trust me you just have to try it. And fresh morning glory. I can't even begin to describe fresh veggies in Asia. Back in the States, we kill veg. I am just sayin'

we had some grubbing crab and rather than be behind the camera here I am eating!

I can't give a detailed description of the meal, but I just found these shots and thought you might enjoy them anyway!

My third day in Penang, I was still not sated, but starting to get full. On the advice of another co-worker Margaret, who like almost every Penangite I have met is a true foodie...(oh by the way is it Penangite, Penangian, Penanger????), I went to dinner at Song River on Gurney. Originally I had in mind a bit of the Kung Pao I crave, but saw a bowl of Mee Suah, with crab and the simple soupy dish won the day.















The noodles were great, a nice chicken flavored broth with good size hunks of crab. I tend to shy away from crab in many places because growing up in Oregon, there is little in my mind that can beat the freshness and taste of Dungeness Crab. Besides, crab improperly kept in tropical countries, not pretty for the digestive system. But, Song River is a busy place, lots of turn over and this is Penang where seafood is part of the culture. So, crab it was. And I was happy. Big hunks of crab, fresh and briny, a very light crab flavor not so much as to overpower the noodles or the broth. A perfect dish before a early night to bed.








Also on Margaret's recommendation was the BBQ wings. The uncle cooking the wings was as nice a guy as I have seen. He let me sit and watch him do his thing, and when the thunderstorm started rolling in he helped me move inside out of the rain and wind.

I am not sure what kind of a sauce was used on the wings, maybe a soy marinade, but they were perfect. I could have eaten many of these little wings and I see a need to get Jeff up here to taste these so we can replicate them at home!















I only had one more day of food (oh yeah and work in Penang) so it was off for a quick massage at the hotel and to bed early in order to head into work and an early breakfast of Mee Suah (a different type) with Esther the next day.

Sushi-Tei, Singapore-Holland Village. Peruse the international magazine/newspaper stands nearby, then, good sushi, decent price, LOBSTER TANK IN YOUR FACE. Very soothing.

Here, we ordered the Dragon Roll, a huge elongated tenpura prawn (head and tail also on plate), wrapped with avacodo, rice, and a touch of mayonaise. Sorry we scarfed it before we could take pix of whole thing. After some house cold sake, I decided to examine the insides of the head for potential Nirvana - possibly the Curt Cobain variety. Most Asians lock their lips over the head/carcass and vacum out anything that comes out - while I've usually dismissed this.





Today, was a "when in Rome" day. Per pix, looking down into the huge head, I saw some appealing bits of white meat, plus some very orange viscous soft bits, that I assume were the lungs(?). I picked out everything plausible I could with chopstick, took a courage boosting sake shot, and onto the tongue. The white meat was especially tender and delicious, and the orange globs were sublime, very rich fresh intense prawny flavor - I'll never skip this Nirvana again!




A word about the house cold sake. Its only $6.80 per mini-jar and quite good. You MUST insist on this expertly crafted very Japanese handy wooden icewater bath chiller for your investment. You deserve NO LESS!

Stay tuned for picture of Lobster Tank.

It all started with this post on Eating Asia. Now I had to try it. Eating Asia is one of my favorite food blogs, great pictures and compelling stories. It is more than a simple food blog, it is a celebration.

So, knowing I was going to be in Penang, I set a mission to try this Chicken Rice. Now after living in Singapore for 5 years I have become a fan of the simple dish of Chicken Rice, it is the soup, it is the rice cooking in chicken broth, it is the simple juicy tender chicken. Nothing fancy, simple honest food.


When I got to the office we started talking about food and I mentioned the site that I had seen and mentioned the Chicken Rice stall. At first my co-workers were skeptical, there were a lot of good Chicken Rice places in town, what made this one special? So we opened the website, they recognized the Aunty running the stall and a date for lunch was set.




So the next day, after a morning of trainings, we all packed into the car for the short drive down the Kafe Khen Ping (80-82 Jalan Penang, Georgetown). There were lots of other dishes I need to do posts about, the Chicken Rice was the reason we were there however. So, to report. The Chicken was excellent, tender and juicy full of real chickeny flavor. The rice was very good, but frankly I have had better and the soup was simple, clean and delicious. I loved the whole experience, the chicken was the star of the show and I will be back next time I am in Penang. I would give it a 4 out of 5 stars if I was a ranking kind of gal.

The best Kung Pao Chicken in the world (or at least that I found) was served in a little cafe off a side street in Beijing. It was sweet and spicy, filled with a perfect blend of ginger, dried peppers, sichuan peppercorns, garlic and ginger, and good fresh chicken. The restaurant was near the dorm of the language school I studied at, just of the third ring road, next door to the 21st century hotel. I need to dig through my photos to see if I have a picture of that lovely wonderful dish.

Jeff came and visited me when I studied, and he recalls the same. My roommates Mark&Ingela and I ate there at least 2 times a week, along with a varied group of friends. Was it the fact we were all foreigners in a foreign land, or was it simply very good food.