Penang - Old Friends and New Food

One of the big draws of Penang for us was not only that it is warm in February, but that our good friends, the Neiger Family, moved here just under two years ago. We knew PJ and Lizzy and their kids Naomi and Ezra when we lived in Nepal. Obviously, their kids have grown a lot since then, and we added two more to our crew. But as the great Michael J. Smith sang at roller rinks everywhere, “Friends are friends forever!” 

One of many fun things about PJ and Lizzy is that they love different kinds of food, and Penang seems to be a land of opportunity: night markets, hawker centers, Michelin starred road-side stalls and over 2000 restaurants just on the island. They started our Malaysian food education by inviting us to their local Tuesday night wet market. 

PJ and Lizzy picked out a spread of food from various stalls, and then we headed down to the local beach to have a picnic. 

Later that week, we invited them to join us on a chef-curated food tour through the Georgetown area.

Some of our favorite dishes while here were:

Nasi lemak

Malaysia coffee with a coconut toast

Prawn mee

making the rice wafers for the peanut candy

But, my top three dishes here are:

Char koay kay, a snack made from rice cakes fried with bean sprouts, egg, soy sauce and spices. So good!

Soup Dumplings - dumplings that you first drink and then cover with vinegar and minced ginger before you eat the rest. 

And finally for dessert is ice kacang. This is shaved ice with coconut milk (or condensed milk), topped with colored syrups, nipah palm seeds, kidney beans, jellies and candied creamed corn. Sounds awful, but is so delicious. 

It might be time to go on a diet.