The Making of Soy Sauce pictures (1 of 6)
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During my recent trip back to Penang, I made a visit to my favorite soy sauce factory in Georgetown. Though soy sauce is largely produced and packed commercially now, in Penang, you can still find a few remaining soy sauce factories making their soy sauce the natural way, that is, by hand.
The traditional method–sadly a dying and fast disappearing trade–ferments soybeans contained in large urns under the sun and covered up with lids at night. The soybeans are left inside the urns to “break down” and brew to become soy sauce. An everyday commodity that we so take for granted, naturally made soy sauce takes months of hard work and dedication to produce, and the result is always pleasing with an unmistaken depth and soybean fragrance in the end product…
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Penang Hawker Food (Penang Street Food) pictures (1 of 40)
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Penang food, especially its legendary hawker food–also known as street food–is world famous and phenomenal one has to try it out to justify it. In my honest opinion, Penang offers the best street food, thanks to its people and state authorities who fiercely embrace, cultivate, and take great pride in Penang’s unique street food culture and living traditions.
Born and raised in Penang, I might be bias, but great press such as Time Asia’s Best of Asia for “Best Street Food,” The New York Times’s “44 Places to Go in 2009,” plus throngs of tourists and foodies alike who come to Penang in search of great street food don’t lie. The recent UNESCO world heritage listing is just an icing on the cake for Penang tourism…
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The many colors and sights of Penang, Malaysia
Voted as one of the places to go in 2009 by The New York Times, Penang is an up-and-coming and popular tourist destination in Asia. The good news: my family in Penang has started a new Penang private tour/Penang culinary tour service, catered specifically to foreign tourists and visitors.
Unlike other mass-market packaged tours and tour services with a van that loads and unloads visitors at various tourist traps in Penang, our Penang private tour and culinary tour services are completely customized, attentive, and intimately personal. We treat our clients as friends and that’s exactly what sets us apart from other hotel tour guides and packaged tour services…
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Penang Assam Laksa–commonly referred to as Laksa by Penangites–is one hawker food you don’t want to miss if you come to Penang. (Georgetown, Penang is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)
This Laksa is not to be confused with the other Laksa–a coconut-milk and curry-flavored noodle dish. Penang Laksa is a noodle dish in spicy fish broth topped with various shredded vegetables. Give me a choice of Penang Assam Laksa and Curry Laksa (which Penangites aptly call “Curry Mee“), I will always choose this tangy, spicy, sour, and appetizing dish. The reason is simple: nothing gives me a better satisfaction than a bowl of piping hot Laksa with cut bird’s-eye chilies and dollops of pungent heh ko (Penang-style prawn paste). All the ingredients used might seem odd and bizarre to many–please believe me when I say this–but they are perfect matches made in food heaven. Penang Laksa is really that good…
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It’s durian season here in Penang, Malaysia and there are durian stalls selling this thorny fruit every corner you turn.
While a lot of people consider the smell of durian as “stinky” and “repulsive”–so much so that they are banned in hotel rooms in Malaysia!–I love this king of fruits. (For those who enjoy durian, we [...]
One of the best things about eating in Malaysia is the different kuih available–literally means “cake” but comes in different shapes, forms, textures and could be sweet or savory. Sold by street vendors, hawkers, peddlers and also available in specialty kuih shops, kuih is very popular as a light snack and can be eaten anytime [...]
I have written about this famed street food/hawker food dish (known locally as Penang Hokkien Mee) a couple of times; you can check out my previous entries here and here.
This time I added extra toppings on my prawn noodles with fresh water prawns. In Malaysia, we call this “加料”/”Gar Liew”/”Keh Liao”–which means you pay extra [...]
Before I start writing this post, I have a confession to make. I have an Asian (Chinese/Malaysian) mouth. In my gastronomic dictionary, it simply means that I can’t live without rice and noodles, soy sauce, sambal belacan, spicy and pungent food–the foods of my Chinese-Malaysian root.
Just this past week, I had a massive Asian mouth [...]
