Skip to main content

Old town food


Our Penang quest for food starts at the resort with another buffet breakfast. This one caters to a range of visitor tastes. There are local guests, Malay, Indian and Chinese, those from China itself, from Western countries and from the Middle East. Lots of ladies in chadors and men in designer sunglasses.


The buffet is good, the roti canai much better than yesterday's and some really tasty beef rendang, full of spices.

We follow food with a swim, joining the few out early.

The hotel shuttle bus drives us along the winding coastal road and past the condominiums of Gurney Drive back down to Georgetown, terminating at the Jen Hotel. Adjacent to the hotel are a couple of shopping malls, welcome for their air-conditioning rather than their goods.



They have floors selling electronics and IT goods and it is interesting to see the penetration of Chinese mobile phone brands in the Malaysian market.

Leaving the cool comfort of the malls we continue towards the old town. B spots some eating houses selling bak kuh teh, a pork stew strongly flavoured with herbs. The owner encourages Alex to try and he decides he likes it too.

Not me.





That's okay, I’ve got my own stuff to eat. Shortly afterwards we come across my favourite apom balik cart selling small pancakes (apom balik) filled with peanuts and corn. My number one Malaysian dish.


They direct us back to Lebuh Keng Kwee, for more lunch, or post lunch given the time. It's the same road that the Joo Hoi Cafe is located along, but this time we try a different delicious Assam laksa and chendol, this time with ordinary sugar syrup for me.


Then back past the cart (I have to stop to buy more) and onwards to Lebuh Campbell to a Chinese herbal medicine shop to buy the ingredients for B to make bak kut teh back at home.

It's hot, we’re tired, but we still haven't eaten nonya food. I locate online somewhere reasonably close by and we set out to find it.






Past the mosque and down to the heavily touristed but historic Armenian Road, somewhere new for us.




Eventually we locate the Nonya Delights Cafe. It's attractive, but the dishes on offer are mostly local standards and we are a bit disappointed.

Alex, who says he is hungry again, orders nasi lemak with sambal prawns, B and I pick at lor bak, bean curd wrapped pork rolls.


We are now so full that there is no hope of a seafood restaurant dinner. We catch a taxi back to the Jen Hotel and book a ride on the bus back to the resort. Alex is delighted with this.

We head out for another swim and get wet, but a big storm cloud approaches and the pools closed due to the danger of lightning.


Meanwhile I've been having thoughts of catching the train to Singapore rather than flying. By the time the bookings are done it's after 8pm. Alex says he is too tired for dinner.

We only go as far as the Long Beach food centre, but the quality is awful. Then Alex throws up on the way back, all the nasi lemak from earlier because he hasn't touched dinner. A very disappointing end to a day of eating.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Down the Oito Line

Riding the length of the Oito Line from Itoigawa to Shinjuku (well, Matsumoto, really, but you might as well go the whole way) has long been a dream of mine. It suddenly gained urgency when I read that the last length of it between Itoigawa to Minami-Otari would be closed once the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa and Toyama opens by next year. Now, as mentioned last time, B and Alex are among those that would much rather catch the very fast Shinkansen, but in the end she decided to follow me, despite the very early morning. We rode the Hokuetsu Express from Toyama to Itoigawa, completing a little more of that West Coast for me. Though the coastal stretch was short there were some nice views at times. I should like to see more of Itoigawa one day, explore its geology. But now we had to quickly cross over the platform bridge to catch our train to Minami-Otari. To my great delight it was a KiHa 120 railcar, my favourite. I felt a degree of sadness standing up at the front...

The Kamioka mines: from silver to supernovas

Part of the Kamioka zinc mining and smelter complex Just after posting about the Kamioka Railway another photo from that 2006 set piqued my interest. Up there in the mountains the landscape looked blasted not just by winter but by something more. It was the kind of lonely place where you would not expect to find major industry, so this sight was quite surprising. Even more surprising is the history associated with this photo. According to some sources mining and refining of ores in Kamioka dates back to 710 AD  and only closed in 2001. Undoubtedly the mine was a major reason for the existence of the Kamioka Railway. Refining of zinc still continues to this day under the parent Mitsui Kenzoku zaibatsu . Gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were all dug out of the rock here. Unfortunately, the process released cadmium into the river, which, when taken up by the rice that was grown in the river, caused the terrible itai-itai disease  - meaning "It hurts! It hurts". Cadm...

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but  my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...