A Penang feast (and a bite of Ipoh)

Swatow Lane's New World Cafe
It's a food court-like place with ample carpark. D & I spent so much time driving around Georgetown in circles that when I missed the turning into the carpark, I couldn't be arsed to go another round on the one-way streets and risk getting lost again. So I parked next to the coffeeshop opposite (the 'old' New World coffeeshop). And got a parking ticket. EEESSSH! Nasib baik the food was good.


Otak-otak and Pasembor (with lots of sotong and that lovely sauce!)


Or Kuih (Yam Cake) and Mee Rebus (the sauce is almost like concentrated prawn mee soup, so gorgeous)


Penang Fruit Rojak and Or Chien (Oyster Omelette)


The aftermath. Followed by Ice Kacang at the 'old' New World coffeeshop opposite.


Dinner with Geekchic at Wong Kok, Queensbay Mall.
Thank you Geek!


Egg Tarts and Char Siew Soh


Pork Chop Noodles, Beef Brisket Rice, SzeChuan Noodles

Pulau Tikus Sin Hup Aun Coffeeshop and Kwai Lock Coffeeshop.
Don't ask why we went to two coffeeshops on Sunday morning alone. Hehehe. It took us one and a half hours, including our time going round and round Georgetown again, feeling very lost. If there's anything I learned on this trip, it's don't drive around Penang without a good map or a Penangite.

We were so hungry D & I ate enough to feed 5 people. And then we tapaued some food back to Geek's apartment, where there were asam laksa, popiah and chicken wings waiting for us. Wooohooo!


Sin Hup Aun *sigh*. Curry laksa.


Mushroom Wantan Mee. Penang Chee Cheong Fun.


Char koay teow. With DUCK EGG. Generous prawns and lapcheong!
So fragrant! ARRRGGHHHH!


Ban Chang Kueh from the famous uncle's stall and
apong from Kwai Lock coffeeshop behind Sin Hup Aun.


Roti Babi from Kwai Lock coffeeshop and asam laksa from a stall near Geek's apartment in Sg.Ara. Yummylicious!

Ipoh Wah Nam Coffee Shop
and Funny Mountain Soya Bean
We came here on our way back from Penang. The coffeeshop proper was closed so we had to go to the 'kopitiam' branch of theirs. The hor fun was so-so, but the dry curry noodles WAS THE BOMB! Downed with iced white coffee (not the 3-in-1 shit) and some roti bakar. On the way up to Penang, we stopped by in Ipoh as well, and Mr.Geekchic took us to Macy's coffeeshop near Jusco for hor fun and white coffee. Oh, the hor fun was good! And the best white coffee I've had so far. Slurrrpp... WHITE COFFEEE... slurp.


Dry curry noodles with lots of SEE HUM. Funny Mountain Drive-Thru Soya Bean Drinks /Taufufah.

He also took us to the drive thru soya bean place near the chicken and taugeh shops. They were out of taufafah but apparently it's really smooth here. So we settled for a soya bean drink before we set off for KL again. So happen there was a news article about them the next day in the Star. Click here. And read about them on this blog.

Although I ran in the Penang Bridge Run and have been exercising quite abit prior to this trip, I put on 1.5kg . This is ridiculous. I mean, how can this possibly happen? :P

Penang Bridge Run 2007

I was writing on and on about the food I had in Penang last weekend when I realised this was supposed to be a running post. So the foodie stuff, pictures and all will come later in another one. Hehe.

Anyway, the Penang Bridge Run was the most badly organised run I'd ever been to. Imagine lots of people lining up at Queensbay Mall, waiting for their t-shirts and running bibs only to be told they ran out of them. The organisers (Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia and MPPP) told everyone to return at 6pm for a new batch of T-shirts to arrive.



At 6pm, the t-shirts were still 'on their way'. Tempers were brewing as it was a hot day and some people had been waiting all afternoon. An angry runner got upset cos he had a movie to catch at 6.30pm. He almost got into a fight with a rude administrator at the counter, with threats flying. Wah, drama.

After awhile, I couldn't wait anymore, so I just collected my registration card and left. Good thing Fun Runners don't need bib numbers, or it'd be a longer wait. The t-shirt wasn't very nice anyway. Cheap, thin cotton, with an ugly design and a million sponsor logos on it. Bleh.

Geekchic took us for a nice dinner (I could go on about the food again but I'm restraining myself here) and then we went home for an early night. They all had Smirnoff and Sprite without me. Sniff sniff. Some more taunt me with "Aiyah, no need run la... wake up then have leisurely breakfast laaa..." :-P

When I woke up at 4am, the thought of a leisurely breakfast at a less ungodly hour was tempting. But I forced myself to wash up, ate an apple, drank some Gatorade, and drove out to RECSAM, the starting point and stipulated parking area. Parking area my arse. The roads were all blocked, so I had to drive around to see if I could find another way in. Didn't help that I got thoroughly lost. I was going to be late for registration, so I gave up and parked by the roadside about 5km away from the starting point. Half walked and half ran to the place, and arrived just in time to watch the Penang Minister flag off the 10k runners (high school kids and Fun Runners).

Great! I was late... but I wasn't the only one. So I ran in to hand in my registration card to get my identification wrist band, only to be told that they RAN OUT of them. There were over a hundred of us crowding around the organisers asking for the bands cos we weren't supposed to run on the bridge without one, according to the rules. We were finally told that we could. What a circus!

I hit the road at an easy pace, but the school kids flagged off earlier got in my way... they were walking, some hand in hand, forming human chains or walls here and there. Sure, it's a Fun Run. But it said Fun RUN, not Fun WALK. So I had to weave my way around them, which slowed me down. And it was so tiring to run, stop, excuse me, run, stop, excuse me, run, stop sorry, excuse me, run, stop for at least the first half of the run. Aaaaarrgh.

I really enjoyed running on the bridge though. It was quite nice to know that a few hours later, only cars would be allowed to pass. The sky was a dark shade of midnight blue, slowly turning bright as the sun came up. The water was still, and reflected the pretty lights from the shore.

The run felt relatively short compared to my previous 10ks in KL, and was over pretty quickly. I finished in 1:18. Slower than my KLIM 10k in March (1:12), but oh well. At least it's not my worst. So much for hoping to finish below 1:05. Sigh.

Crossed the finish line at the big USM field. Got my certificate. A pretty okay goodie bag (2 soft drinks, some vitamin samples, a bar of soap and a tube of analgesic cream. And walked another 5km back to my car. Gee. It's like doing a 20km man. Bwahahahaha!

After the run, I went back to the apartment for a nice shower while the rest were still asleep. Then D and I went out to Pulau Tikus to get breakfast. Which became brunch. We were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half (the roads around Penang were still closed for the run and caused a backlog in the backroads). Good thing the food in Pulau Tikus was worth the wait (yes, yes, foodie report to come soon).

So all in all, it was probably not the best run I've had, but I sure enjoyed this trip. Many thanks to Geekchic for having us. She was a lovely hostess, even as she hobbled along with a painful, red ass-cheek. Kekekeke. Now not only do I know where she lives, I also know where she works *evil laugh*. At least until this weekend anyway, when she leaves the island for good. Kam sia, Ah Geek!

Penang

I dare not step on the weighing scale.
It's been non-stop eating for the past 3 days.

The trip started innocently enoughly when D, his granny and I drove off to Penang at 7am.

Then we thought we might as well stop in Ipoh for breakfast (on the way wat). We had dimsum at this shop called Yoke Fook Moon or something like that, near Excelsior Hotel. It was so yummy. The prawns were huge, and the morsels of meat, tasty and juicy. Much cheaper than KL prices I might add.

Before this, the furtherst I'd driven my car was to Ipoh. So driving to Penang was new to me. I had to be super alert! I downed some Ipoh White Coffee and we went on our way.

When we arrived at D's aunt's place, we rested abit before our main agenda: pigging out!

We had pasembor, a Penang salad of shredded radish, cucumber, bean sprouts, prawn fritters, egg and peanut sauce, curry laksa, noodles in spicy, coconut curry, pig's blood jelly (I passed on this), chicken, tofu and long beans, char koay teow, fried flat rice noodles with duck egg, prawns, chives, cockles, garlic and chilli, and popiah, soft spring rolls with radish stew and dried cuttlefish stuffing. Really good stuff. Then we went around hunting for cheap DVDs (RM7 a pop, compared to RM10 in KL).

The next day we had a breakfast of koay chap, a twisty flat noodle in a dark earthy soup, with duck meat and some pig innards. This, is a rare find, even in Penang. And definitely not available in KL. I finished every drop of soup.

We also had ban chien kuih, a thick pancake with peanut and sugar filling, some local kuih (sweet pudding-like things), apom (a thin crispy coconutty crepe) and sugee cake. It was also Mak Ee's (D's aunt, Cheryl's mom) birthday, so there were lots of birthday cake in the house.





For her birthday dinner, we went to the Beach Front, at Batu Feringghi. The place served the best deep fried spring rolls I'd ever tasted. It's so good, they don't allow take-aways for fear of people copying their recipe.

It came in generous portions. Crispy on the outside, flavourful on the inside - finely shredded cabbage, radish, carrot, onion, shallots, crabmeat, mushroom, chicken mince, a hint 5-spice powder and goodness knows what else!

Other stuff we had were assam prawns, sambal belacan veges, seafood tofu and a fish curry. Pak Teow (D's uncle) and I washed them all down with icy cold beer in frosted mugs and toasted to Mak Ee's good health.

And finally, we had a last hit of Penang food in the afternoon before driving back to KL.

Oh my, oh my *rubs belly*.