Lorong Macalister STREET FOOD, PENANG

Everyone knows Penang is famed for their street food. My favourite place is Lorong Macalister. For quick location search, google for Sunway Hotel, Georgetown. This hotel's frontage is a food haven at dusk. This is where the locals & smart Malaysians eat. 

This was what 4 of us ate recently on our Penang/Ipoh food trail roadtrip from 12-14 April 2015. 

Popiah

Popiah as described by Wikipedia is commonly eaten in Fujian, China (Hokkien province) as well as in Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore. According to Wikipedia it is eaten during QingMing or tomb sweeping festival. However, times has change. Popiah is eaten daily nowadays.

Popiah is made up of a round piece of wafer thin pancake akin to crepe made from wheat flour. The ingredients normally consists of : (depending on makers)
1) Lots of finely grated turnip that has been stewed with finely minced meat (to add flavour) over slow fire for a long time. Key ingredient in making of popiah.
2) blanched bean sprouts
3) sautéed shallots
4) thin slices of Chinese sausages
5) thinly diced french beans
6) shredded / thinly sliced omelet
7) thinly sliced fried dried tofu pieces
8) lettuce
9) grounded peanuts (optional)
10) Bean paste (salty)
11) Chili paste (for spiciness)

This popiah only had items 1, 8, 10, 11 and lots of scrambled eggs. It did not taste at all like the popiah we are familiar with. One of the best popiah I've eaten is in Seremban. Now, that will be another blog for you to look out for. Hopefully, I can locate the stall as they have moved from their current premises as the place has been bought over.

Back to Penang, we also had "Or Chien" a typical Hokkien word. Loosely translated, it is "Or" mean Oyster. Chien simply means fried. So, it is fried Oyster. But the main 'partner' with the fresh oysters must be eggs!

Or Chien = Fried Fresh Oyster with eggs

We all relish and concur that this was one of the best Or Chien we have eaten. Lots of fresh oysters and lavish amount of eggs. The eggs weren't over cooked and the oyster was still 'watery', fresh and so tasty.

Next :

Grilled chicken wings

Penang Lobak & prawn fritters

Penang fruit Rojak 

The well marinated and timely grilled chicken wing was delectable. The chilli sauce complemented the dish well. We ate our share of 1 chicken wing each. Finger licking good.

Now, the Penang lobak or five spice roll. Loosely explained ~ it's a different kind of Chinese sausage with well seasoned pork meat and some add prawn in as well. The sausage or roll is deep fried and should be eaten hot. There will always be a special sauce to complement this roll and a special chili sauce to make the dish even more mouth watering good. The lobak was really good. However, the prawn fritters were disappointing as the batter was flat, tasteless and too moist. I much prefer it to be crunchy. Well, perhaps Penang does it differently or the particular stall serves it in that manner. Oh well....to each its own, I guess.

The Penang fruit rojak. Rojak by the way means mixed, in Bahasa Malaysia or the Malaysian national language. Suffice to say...it is mixed fruits with a special Penang rojak sauce. The Penang rojak sauce is made up of "Heh Koh" or a pungent prawn paste (for many, the aroma of the prawn paste can truly turn one off!!! Serious!). It tastes spicy, sweet, salty and sticky. 

The sauce is garnished with grounded peanuts & roasted sesame seeds to the fruits - mainly guava, pineapple, cucumber, green mango, papaya, rose apples or jambu air as we all know it here in Malaysia, water convolulus or kangkung, Chinese crullers or yau char kwai, wild ginger flower or bunga kantan & soaked dried cuttlefish. 

The rojak was mediocre. I have tasted better ones.

Hmmm....some regular Penangnites or travellers must be wondering that something is missing from the menu. Yes, the famed Penang Char Kueh Tiow or Stirred Fried Flat rice noodles is no where to be seen....??? For that...am afraid that you'll have to wait for the next blog to find out.

While you drool over this...I would have started on the Char Kueh Tiow or the many versions of it :
- Char Kuey Teow or
- Char Kway Teow or
- Char Koay Tiow....and the works..

Until we meet again....always fast a day before going to Penang for the awesome food there is so tantalising and tasty, you'll probably need a cow's stomach to savour all the great food in 24 hours. Trust me on this, I ain't lying. I almost burst a seam within 6 hours in Penang.