Penang, Malaysia

We spent the next three days touristing around Penang. We'd have breakfast, see some sights in the morning, have lunch, relax back in a/c in the mid afternoon, see some more sights in the evening, and then have dinner and drinks.

The first day we had lunch in Little India at Sri Ananda Bahwan, roti with a chicken curry and mutton curry. The mango lassies we had to start sort of filled me up. It was a good lunch, although pretty filling.

We had dinner at a random place just outside the UNESCO protected area, Hon Kei Food Corner. It was very busy with locals (or at least, non-western tourists). The laksa was pretty good, we also tried the deep fried specialties, and the hundred year egg (tasted like a boiled egg).

The second day we had lunch at the LP recommended Sky Hotel. There were only two options, siew bak (bbq'd pork belly) and roast duck. We ordered one of each. It took a while for the food to arrive as there was only one guy who does all the chopping up of the meats, and the restaurant was packed and there was plenty of takeout. Despite all the positive indications about the food, we found it just okay. Our lunch the day we arrived at the place next door was much better.

So we decided to change our approach to finding good restaurants, as our random picking and LP suggestions weren't always great. Instead, as it is 2013, we used google to search for food bloggers.

From a recommendation on travelfish we had dinner at Chuan Bee Cafe. We had to use the pic that was posted to find the place - it's not signed very well. We were a bit dubious about the place at first, as it was empty and didn't seem to be open for food. We ordered based on the blogger's recommendation (otherwise we would have got some interpretation of what locals think westerners want). We started with roti babi, and then had joo har char and kam heong (see the link for explanations and pics). It was amazing, the best food we've had so far.

Based on dinner, we tried a couple more of the same guy's recommendations on our third day. Lunch was at Joo Hooi Cafe, a Penang institution. We again ordered based on the blogger. All Penang staples: asam laksa, char koay teow and then cendol and ais kacang. All great, although the ais kacang is probably an acquired taste.

We had dinner at a touristy place just up the street, Muntri Mews. We had had a couple drinks mid-afternoon on their patio, and got lazy and decided to eat there too. (Our favourite Penang food blogger had also given it thumbs up so that helped convince us). It was really good, sort of a modern take on Malaysian classics.

In between the eating and surfing for the next place to eat, we did do some touristing. The Penang Museum was well presented, and at 1 ringgit a great deal. We also checked out the Camera Museum (recently opened, and very good), the Chocolate and Coffee Museum (more of a sales pitch for a chocolate company, but it was free and included lots of yummy sampling), Khoo Kongsi (an old clan house beautifully restored) and the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (apparently in the LP's top 20 mansions, but we didn't find it that special, except for the most excellent tour guide who reminded me of my Aunt Brille).

Overall a very relaxing (and filling) stay in Penang.