Street Art

One of the main reasons I decided to do this trip was to enjoy some of the famous street arts.  Penang is the perfect place to meander around with a street art map and hunting for these pieces of work.  There are quite a few different trails to go on and any hotel or tourist centre will provide you with different maps to follow.

Take one that shows art styles that you think you will enjoy and just get lost around town and get your cameras ready! Do be mindful of passing cars and try do this in the late afternoon where the sun is setting and the temperatures are a bit cooler.

It was all just so beautiful and so much fun trying to get involved in the artwork for photos! Schedule around a few hours for this at least!

Where to Eat

With such large influence to the people and culture of Penang, Peranakan cuisine was something we were looking forward to.  With flavours merging the tastes of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, the locals call it Nyonya cuisine.  We managed to try out Perut Rumah Nyonya Cuisine, which was a highly rated and highly recommended restaurant, even from our Grab drivers! The interiors were quite fancy looking and they definitely had very similar interior styles as the Mansion we visited previously.

The food included some delicious seafoods, vegetables, curries and pastry.  All with familiar flavours of Malaysia, Singapore and a bit of Chinese. The little starter bites of Nyonya Kuih Pie Tee was super crunchy and delicious!

For more of a local feel head to Moh Teng Pheow Nyonya Koay (莫定標娘惹粿廠).  Now this is not the usual place you get recommended online.  We were told about this by a Grab driver who claims it as the most authentic place for Nyonya food and Kuih.

Kuih is a Malay word for traditional cakes and are bite size sweets made mainly out of glutinous rice and comes in many flavours and colours.

This place is a very local restaurant where you fill in a piece of paper and pay at the cashier before they serve you the food.  Aside from kuih they also had laksa and deep fried seafood.  I also got to try Jiu Hu Char, which is a stir fry with cutttlefish and pork and is traditionally wrapped in lettuce.  All very delicious and yum!

Chendol

Probably the most famous dessert in Penang is Cendol.  This is an iced desert with worm like green rice flour jelly and is topped with coconut milk, red beans and palm sugar syrup.  Ask anyone in Penang and they will direct you to Lebuh Keng Kwee where there are two Chendol stores at the start of the street.

What you will notice is that out of the two stores that are literally opposite each other, one has a busy queue of people looking for some sweet snacks.  The other is more of a quieter stream of customers popping by.  On closer look you will notice how all the customers at the popular store are tourists and the other are genuine locals who come by.  Its funny how the two stores actually opened up at the same time and serve exactly the same thing! I would definitely go to the quieter one where the locals hang!

Local Dishes

Two local specialties worth trying are the oyster omelette and the Penang char kway teow!  The omelette is sticky and full of fresh oysters and the noodles is full of large shrimps and fried to perfection!  The best place for both is at the mini hawker store at Lorong Selamat.  For the noodles, you will notice an old man with a push cart on the road.

OME by Spacebar Cafe

All that food and you will probably need a good cup of coffee! The perfect place is Ome by Spacebar Coffee.  A nice contemporary spot with a small gallery on top!

All in All

What an incredible journey (which also included Ipoh).  There is so much to do and see in Penang and I didn’t even get a chance to go up Penang Hill!  The place is full of life, culture, history and just good food! Don’t forget the street art too!

Also published on Medium.