Penang is a street food paradise where gaining
weight is mandatory, but breaking the bank isn't.
Char koay teow with duck egg costs five ringgit and 30 cents. In this episode,
we are going to showcase 10 iconic street foods in Penang
highlighting what this island is famous for and
contrasting the flavors. You got the nice crunchy bits of the coconut and the
crunchy palm sugar in there too. That makes these foods stand out. We are so
hooked on this nutmeg. It's a very light great snack. Spotlighting the incredible
diversity of Malaysia
What is a food crawl cheap eats style in Malaysia without the classic national
dish. It literally translates to fatty rice.
We're here at the Sri Weld Food Court here in Georgetown. It's a very popular spot
especially for the office workers that work nearby for lunch.
and we got this nasi lemak, very famous from a spot called Ali Nasi Lemak right
in the front. You can't miss it. You just see them
building all these nasi lemak in the bungkus, the wrap with the banana leaf.
The sambal does have a kick.
Rice is cooked perfectly. Just a slight coconut flavor, not overwhelming on it.
You really taste that sambal. That sambal hits you in the mouth
right away
Can you believe this char koay teow with duck egg
cost five ringgit and thirty cents? We are at Pasar Lebuh Cecil
There's so many different stalls you can get food here for under six ringgit
but we keep coming back to this char koay teow stall because a big
thing about it he's using charcoal on the wok, which we love.
If you saw our video on noodles here in Penang, you know we love that. And it's a
nice portion you get for the 5 ringgit 30 cents.
You get two prawns, you get your lap cheong sausage in here,
the big big amount of the duck egg, you get the cockles, you get it all.
Take a nice big bite here
The wok hei on this char koay teow is insane!
Uncle's got so much skill there on the wok. This is one of the best
char koay teow we've had in all of Penang and we've had some of the
best. It ranks right up there with it. Definitely under the radar come and
check him out.
We have loh bak. If you are not familiar with what loh bak is,
I think you can describe this as sausage in a spring roll, but this one is very
different. We love lor back, we just can't get enough.
When you smell that aroma when it's frying up. These are such a staple here in Penang.
So it has Hokkien roots to it and they use
five spice powder in here.
You see the actual strips of pork here inside and they wrap it in tofu skin and
fry it. The cool thing with this stall even if the lor bak is already made and
ready, she puts it in the oil again and fries
it again.
So it's going to be extra crispy. This stall is very famous because it's gone
through for generations since the 1930s the original owner. It's been
passed through for four generations in the family.
So that's why we really wanted to try this one. And each lor bak is only two
ringgits, so we got two orders only four ringgit. You really
can't go wrong at that price. I'm gonna try a bite first by itself
before trying with the sauce
These are just so addictive. You have that really strong
five-spice flavor in the meat, then you have that nice
tofu skin wrapping on the outside that's just enough to keep it together.
Like Jumi was saying, it does remind you kind of a cross between a sausage
and a spring roll but much much much thinner than a spring roll.
And we got here - you can get a sweet dipping sauce or spicy and
mix it together.
Dipping sauce is nice, but I gotta tell you, there's so much flavor in this lor
bak. It tastes so good by itself, I'd rather
just eat it just like this.
The stall is like in the middle of all these hawker
stalls on the side of the road. I think you can call it street food
This cheap eats edition won't be complete without Malaysia's favorite snack, kuih. The different
varieties of kuih that they have. So from here
to down here. And the people here are very nice. We have different kuihs
here. There's kuih lapis, pulut tai tai, chai tow kuih,
this one is sri muka. Bingka ubi
So this spot is a classic. This place dates back to 1933 it's called Moh Teng
Pheow it's in just off of Chulia Street here and they
specialize in Nyonya kuih. So it's a family-owned business been in here for
generations. They're not the cheapest kuih you can
find in Penang, but you can get a whole plate like this for under six ringgit.
which is what we have. So they range from about 60 cents 80 cents
some are a little more if you get the bigger ones.
But we got some of our favorites here, especially this beauty right here
the pulut tai tai, by far my favorite. Blue and white color
the blue comes from the natural coloring from the butterfly pea flower
topped with that lovely kaya jam right here.
That pandan coconut egg jam right here. I'm gonna take a bite of this one right here.
Glutinous rice texture, perfect level of
sweetness, just a slight salty. Then you get that strong pandan flavor from
that kaya. Man
You have the sri muka right here. It's a layer of pandan and then you have the
layer of the glutinous rice
There's a great contrast of that chewy glutinous rice then you get that
really luscious creamy layer of the pandan on top.
Definitely a place you want to come check out because they're making everything
fresh in the front. It's a cool cafe it's a very old
building too, so you really feel like you step back in
time when you come here.
You can't come to Penang and not have the Famous Teochew Cendol
It's so refreshing and normally this block is going to be full of people
we're here at an off hour. This spot's so legendary that they even have a mural
right there of the cendol. The cendol you have the gula melaka,
right here it's actually mixed with the ice
the fresh santan, coconut milk, green pandan noodle
and the red bean
Three point three ringgit for a bowl like this.
Three ringgit thirty cents - so refreshing can't go wrong. Classic.
First cendol we ever had in our lives was from right here. That was in 2017.
We've heard that nutmeg is a big thing - drink here in Penang. It's so hot today
auntie just makes it right there fresh
and they have this in this humble store you can't even tell
Their best seller might be ice kapal. We haven't tried, I don't know if we're
going to try the ice kapal because we are so hooked
on this nutmeg.
Every part of the fruit has its purpose.
You can make it spice, the skin for spice through food
coloring, you can make it into a juice like what we're having now and
apparently nutmeg is rich in antioxidants and vitamin c
You may know nutmeg the spice, but there's nutmeg the juice here too. This
is a thing in Penang. You could smell that kind of spice aroma
like the nutmeg spice you may be used to but
I'm gonna take a sip of this
One of the most refreshing drinks I think I've ever had. So it's got a little
sweetness to it it's got a little bit of sourness too
because she also puts asam the sour plum in here, but it has that
underlying spice aroma like and spiced flavor like
you get from nutmeg spice you would grind up. And you know this is not the cheapest
drink in the world, it's like four ringgit but if you think about it, this is fresh
nutmeg juice and we're actually on the really touristy street,
Armenian Street where all the street art is but it's a great buy actually for
four ringgit, under one dollar for this fresh
nutmeg juice you could only get here in Penang. You have to have this
multiple times we suggest. Ultimate thirst quencher here
We are at Padang Kota Lama. It's a medan selera
with a beautiful view. Unfortunately we can't sit outside it's quite drizzling
today and we're having rojak
101 Rojak. First time trying it. We've always seen
it on menus in Malaysian restaurants even in New York City, we just never
tried it and it's definitely got a funky look to
it. Unripe fruit, so it's the sour fruits and it's covered in this really
interesting looking black sauce it's made with a shrimp paste,
there's palm sugar in here, there's crushed peanuts, but finely crushed
and I actually added the sotong, the squid.
You get different portion sizes here so it's definitely a great cheap eats
because you can get the small for only three ringgit.
This one we got it for five ringgit and actually when I asked for sotong, I
thought it'd cost more, but it was actually still five ringgit.
Give this a try. I'm not sure what fruit this is about to find out but
Slight bit of spiciness in there, sweet, you definitely taste that funk of the
shrimp paste in there. Definitely reminds me of like petis that I've had before
like Indonesian fermented shrimp paste and you
definitely taste that peanut flavor. Even the texture of this
sauce is very kind of gloopy and I got really
got a nice bite of that peanut flavor just there
but i'm gonna take a couple pieces of the sotong the squid and give that a try.
Yeah the squid's got a nice clean flavor to it. Yes it's one of these like strangely
like more and more delicious as you eat it
kind of dishes. Definitely an ugly delicious
kind of thing.
So I love this spot right here in the middle of like the business district
here in Penang it's called Kareem Pasembur Rojak so it's like right in
the center of everything. It's been here about 75 years it's been doing it a very
long time. And I love it because you could get
anything you want. You have the campur, the mix, for six ringgit and it's
up to the guys there to mix it up for you. They put whatever they want in there,
chop it up and they douse it in the sauce.
Different fritters in here. There's cucumber, there's
squid and we also got our teh halia, or ginger tea
First time trying this. I'm really excited. A bunch of different fritters, it
looks like shrimp fritters, there's potato
there's egg, there's cucumber that's been freshly grated, there's squid in here
all types
I like it. You do taste a little of that peanut, but it's also sweet.
Chewy squid, crispy shrimp fritter. The beauty is when you mix in all the
other ingredients, you start getting all these different textures like
that fresh crisp cucumber in there.
But also when you come here, you can
can really ball out if you like. You could get like squid and shrimp, you can
make this like a really massive plate. But for six ringgit, a
plate this size of food that's tasty like this, it's a great buy.
Definitely recommend when you're in Georgetown.
All right got ourselves a nice midday snack right here it's called putu mayong.
So it has Indian roots here. You see it's made with
rice flour, they put some gula melaka, the palm sugar
here and grated coconut look at that it looks beautiful it's
all and they wrap it up here it's all mixed together.
Looks almost like vermicelli noodles. Take a big big bite of this.
Not too sweet. It's got a nice coconut aroma.
And you get the nice crunchy bits of the coconut and the crunchy palm sugar in
there too. They also sell a green one made with
pandan which I'm really excited for. Really nice
natural pandan color and it makes sense because they actually had a whole bucket of
fresh pandan leaves here. This looks really good
About to take a nice big bite with the grated coconut and palm sugar.
Get that nice bite right here
Such a nice light sweet snack for the middle of the day. It makes sense they
only open up at three o'clock they run until about 10 pm and right
here on the roadside. Each pack is only two ringgits, really
cheap, really delicious, freshly made. Really can't go wrong.
Right outside Penang City Stadium and right there is
the medan selera.
Next stop on our cheap eats tour here in Penang is for another Penang specialty
called popiah. Popiah is the fresh spring roll here, so
the outside of it is kind of like a crepe.
It's like a very thin dough layer and inside is filled with veggies.
Really excited for this and it's only 1.5 ringgit.
per roll so we got two of them three ringgits here.
Take a bite
So also chopped up long beans here too, so you get that little bit of
sweetness and earthiness from the turnips and then you that sambal has got
a very slight bit of spiciness, but it's more sweet. And
again it's just that nice fresh flavor from the lettuce
the long beans this is great. This is great for
well pescetarians, there is that little bit of shrimp, maybe you can ask for no
shrimp. But it's a very light great snack