Pulau Mutiara. Pearl of the Orient. Pulau Pinang or simply, Penang Island.
This densely populated island is famous for being a
food paradise here in Malaysia.
It's a really nice well-balanced bowl of
wantan mee here. Delicious. Some of the richest broth I've ever
tasted in any soup in my life.
In this series, we will show you some of the best
dishes this island has to offer. First up, some of Penang's delicious noodles.
Char koay teow is possibly the most popular noodle dish here in Penang,
definitely one of our most famous dishes overall in Penang. So we did a lot of
research trying to find a spot we really wanted to come to and
we found this one. Siam Road - very famous. It's been in business by the family over
50 years. And what's special about this place they
use a charcoal fired wok. We love charcoal everything if you watch
us enough and that charcoal makes it get extra heat so let's see if it
makes a big difference in the flavor here.
So you have the rice noodles the flat
rice noodles, you have the lap cheong in here, you have these big juicy prawns
egg, scallion, bean sprouts. Oh it smells incredible
waiting on that line. There's always gonna be a line here it's that
popular. I can't even talk about it anymore, let's take a bite.
Get a big big pile right here.
I like this because it's got a little bit of smokiness from that wok, but it's also
got a slight oiliness to it too. And we got it with the chili sauce, it makes
a little bit of spicy kick. Now I'll try it with this prawn
Big juicy fresh prawn. Got this lap cheong.
Love how the lap cheong adds a little bit of sourness to it too.
This is an excellent char koay teow, definitely worth checking out.
Here we are at 888 Hokkien Mee. We're here for a famous
Penang specialty it's called Hokkien Mee. So the funny thing is that we spent a
lot of time in KL and Hokkien Mee in KL is something
totally different
This one actually they call it in other places Prawn Mee because
the broth here is a rich prawn flavored broth and that's the funny thing too the
hokkien mee in KL is like a dry noodle, this is a soup noodle.
Beautiful thing about this spot is when you come in, you can customize your bowl. So the basic
bowl comes with this rich red broth and you get a mix of rice
noodle and the yellow mee noodle and they give you there's the fried
shallots on here there's some pork lard there's egg
then you can add on some things. So of course we had to add on. We got the
roast pork and we got the pork intestines. There's a lot more, but that's
what we got.
If you want it spicy, they give you this red spoon full of chili sauce.
It looks absolutely incredible. It's just packed with ingredients in this bowl.
Try some of this broth. Oh just when you smell it, you get that rich
prawn aroma
Some of the richest broth I've ever tasted in any soup in my life.
This is that prawn flavor that just hits you in the face right away.
Can't get enough of that prawn broth. You could just give me a bowl this broth, no
noodles, I'll just drink it and I'll be a happy man but
the beauty of it is about 10 other ingredients in this bowl.
Big lift of this noodle. Take a big bite
I love how the mixture of the noodles are perfect for this soup
so that rice noodle really absorbs the broth then you have more of the
chewiness of the yellow noodle but it's still that that prawn flavor is
just dominant and just it's so rich. Take a spoonful here of the
broth with the fried shallots.
I love the flavor of the fried shallots. It just complements it so well.
because there's a slight bit of sweetness to it.
I'm gonna take a spoon with this intestine, this roast pork
a little broth
I'm gonna take a bite first of this intestine.
This one has no innard taste.
Yeah the roast pork has a little bit of like a five spice kind of anise flavor
to it. It just adds another dimension. There's even a little bit of bean
sprouts in here as well gives it a nice crunchiness.
Back to more noodles. This one we are at Hong Kee
Wan Thun Mee and here I have this shrimp roe
wantan mee, the dry version.
Smells very prawny. What's incredible at this spot is they make these noodles
fresh, so you gotta come here early to check out the - basically they put on a
show here. And you see that they put the layer of
dough down he's bouncing on top of the bamboo pole
It's really cool to see that. So we're going to see how it impacts the taste of
these noodles. And I can already tell a lot of
wantan mee we've had here in Malaysia, they give you the wonton on the side in
the soup. I like that this one they put it right there in the bowl.
And the char siu looks really nice, has a nice caramelized outside.
It's got that brown color which I really like and these nice juicy plump wontons
in here and we also have some greens. This is a
very nice bowl and i see these those chunks of that
wonderful crispy lard in there.
Bite of the noodles first.
I love the texture of these noodles. They're really bouncy, got a slight like
al dente type texture to it. So the funny thing is the way he bounces
up and down on that bamboo pole on the noodles
it results in a really bouncy noodle
I'm gonna try a bite of this wanton. So juicy. You see the skin is just
enough to cover it
It's got a nice sesame oil taste to the pork filling
and the sauces in here are not too overwhelming. It's got that slight sweet
It's a really nice well-balanced bowl of wantan mee here. Delicious
So the name of this place may be Hong Kee Wan Thun Mee, but it's really a full scale
restaurant and this is a perfect example of it right here.
This one is hor fun noodle with deer meat. I mean deer meat, come on how often
do you see deer meat on the menu anywhere? When you do, you gotta order it.
So it's these big big chunks of deer meat with the
saute flat rice noodle, the hor fun. You also have some
scallion green onion here, bean sprout and looks like there's big chunks of
ginger too. This looks absolutely delicious. Try a bite of
just the noodles before we try the deer.
Love that silky texture of the hor fun. It's got a nice little bit of wok hei
in there and it's got slight oil slick on there then you really taste
that ginger it's so sharp when it cuts in there.
You also get the crunchiness and the freshness of the bean sprouts. But
I really want to get down with this slice of deer meat right here.
Deer meat is very lean, but it's got a nice like sweet flavor. Feel a lot of these
like game meats whether it's like alpaca or
kangaroo or anything like that they have that really nice sweet flavor and
it's lean. So even though it's a leaner meat it's still like very rich and full of
flavor too. This is an awesome dish. I like how
they serve it on the banana leaf. You have this little sauce on the side,
hot sauce to go with it
We're here at Jelutong, a 10 minute ride away
from the island center. This place has a lot of food stalls
mostly food carts roadside street food.
We're having Mee Goreng Mamak and the gentleman he is really cooking it and firing it up
using charcoal and man it's so glorious and it's very mesmerizing watching him
making the mee goreng. This stall here is called
Hussain Mee Goreng. So it's the mee goreng Mamak and
Mamak is the phrase for the term for Indian Muslim. There's a big
community here in Penang. There's also the nasi kandar, which we're
going to cover in heavy detail. But we wanted to switch it up here and
get this noodle. And you love watching him
cooking on the wok and that charcoal. He grabs a pile of the noodles
blanches them real quick and basically like a quick boil, he throws it
in the wok, mix it in with the egg he's got some squid in here,
fried onions, bean sprouts aka tauge. It's just
tofu, fritters. I love it. And then at the end, they throw some fresh lettuce on top
and you have a lime you could squeeze on, which I did
and I'm ready for this. Nice spoonful and that's what's cool too
with these noodles they're kind of chopped up so
you're not going to have those long strands of noodles they're more chopped
up like this so let's take first bite of it
Really taste that squid in there it's got a nice little spiciness as well.
You got that crunchy from the bean sprouts and I like because it's not
too it's not too heavy of any one flavor. You get that
those different notes of the spicy, the squid flavor a slight bit of sweetness
it's definitely more on the savory side. I love when he cracks that egg in there
too so you have this big chunk of egg and I just love those
fried onions too.
And once you squeeze that lime in there it gives you that nice like kind of
tangy refreshing flavor to go with it. This is great. And that high heat
charcoal you can really taste the difference
That nice smoky tinge to this.
I gotta admire the skill that he's showing on that wok. He's just it's so
he's so swift for like taking the noodles that are being blanched throwing
them in the wok. The way he moves it just
that high heat of the charcoal you really taste the difference in this and I
love how well balanced this is. Definitely have to try mee goreng
Mamak when you're here in Penang - it's a must.