After spending my time in the mainland, I went to Penang Island. In the morning we went to the Jelutong Morning market. This is a typical morning market where there are stalls selling food, like vegetables, meat, fish, poultry and everyday essentials. There are also shops selling all sorts of goods and coffee shops selling breakfast as well. Penang is well known for its hawker food. Anywhere that you go , you will come across many hawkers. These are independently run businesses. Usually a pop and mom sort of set up.
Since it was still the Chinese New Year period, the market was full of new year’s things like fruits for the new year and for the Hokkien Chinese new year which falls on Sunday. This day is the day offerings are made to the Heavenly God. This God is the supreme god of all the gods ( which I think are deities. See, this is complicated). So in the morning we left for the market very early. I can confidently say that this is a typical market in Penang or anywhere else in Malaysia, except that some markets might have a different goods due to the different consumer tastes and demand. Further, the 3 different races influence the type of goods sold in the market.
Here are some of the foods you can find in any market in Penang.
Chinese pastry for praying
Special Pineapples for prayers. The fruit is small and the crown is large.
Pineapples, or ‘Ong Lai’ in the Hokkien dialect means Prosperity comes my way. So it is very auspicious to offer this as a prayer item. People also put the pineapples on the altar after their prayers. So the pineapples that you see above is specially for offerings.
Food for gods. Special foods to offer the Heavenly god and other gods.
Organic bananas and home grown fruits. And wild honey, too.
Man busy with prayer paraphernalia.
The papers are offerings of gold to the gods and deities . These are pre-folded. When I was young I remember we had to fold a lot of these. Sometimes, if there was a festival, we took a few days to do it at our free time.
Street vendor pancake or Ham Chim Peng. Thick pancake filled with sugar, peanuts and sesame and other ingredients.
16th May 2017 – Correction
My Apologies, the above is called Ban Chien Koay, not Ham Chim Peng, with is another type of snack. Thanks to my sister who pointed it out.
Beads and necklaces, key chains for massaging and lots of interesting products, amulets and prayer beads, too.
Apom, or pancake. This is Indian style pancake made of fermented rice and cooked in small woks and the middle is heavy and the sides are crispy. I used to have it for breakfast.
After all the food, we managed to squeeze in a trip to SGM, Soka Gakkai Malaysia Penang Cultural centre.
Soka Gakkai Malaysia Cultural Centre in Penang. This is a new one.
In the evening, we went to Sungai Pinang Food Paradise which is a hawker centre where one can get all sorts of food. Chinese food, Malay food, Indian food, Japanese, Korean, Philippines, Taiwanese, etc, etc.
The Sungei Pinang Hawker Centre or food court.
This store specialises in crabs-soft shell crabs, crab claws, and shell-fish like scallops and large prawns.
Stalls selling all sorts of Oriental food . Fancy Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, ..?
Fancy having clay pot frog porridge? I am not having it!!
Lok-Lok is a type of steam boat where the food is served in skewers like satay. The skewers are then popped into a pot of hot water and when cooked, dipped in the sauces provided.
Lor Bak is a typical Penang delicacy. Well, almost an everyday food now. A highly flavourful meat roll with 5 spice power, deep-fried and served with a sweet dipping sauce. Of course, chili sauce is a must.
Pipa Duck or ‘guitar duck’ as pipa is a type of classical Chinese musical instrument. The flat duck, compared to the normal round duck, represents the shape of the pipa.
Satay, the Malaysian favourite food among all the races. It is meat marinated in spices and grilled over hot charcoal and served in a peanut sauce. A must have if you go to Malaysia. There are Chicken, beef, pork, prawn, duck and whatever meat the vendors sell. But is is usually chicken or beef.
The Famous Penang Char Kway Teow. Or Fried rice noodles with beansprouts, eggs, prawns, cockles, etc. A famous Penang hawker favourite. Can be found in hotels, too.
Mordern version of pie tee. Pie tee is a traditional snack comprising a crispy cup filled with fried jicama and vegetables, topped with bits of crispy onions or garlic and at times eggs, and if you feel luxurious, fresh crab meat. This version is filled with cole-slaw or a western type of salad. I prefer the traditional one.
Chee Cheong Fun or Pig intestine noodles ( in Cantonese). It is steamed rice noodles served with a sweet sauce and chili and topped with sesame seeds. The noodle rolls can be filled with prawns or char siew or you can have it plain. The Penang style is served with prawn paste.
Jiu Hu Eng Chye, or cuttle fish with water convolvulus. The cuttle fish is actually the dry typed, soaked and rehydrated, cooked and serve with blanched vegetable. It is served with a sweet sauce and chili sauce.
Chicken skin dipped in chili sauce.
Crispy fried chicken skin. hot and crunchy.
Well, if you are in Penang, don’ forget to try them out. If you are a Penangite living overseas, just drool.. or cook your own. Alternatively, fly home.
I will share with you more food from Penang. Until the next post….,
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