The Missing Ingredient: Notes from the Streets of Southeast Asia: Penang, Malaysia

After a very bumpy and hot 28 days in Burma I left with great memories and my dreams of Southeast Asia fulfilled. Its hard to put into words the beauty of seeing a place that time has forgotten. Where things run like they did when Orwell was living there, and maybe even before his time. A quick week in Chiang Mai and I was off by plane to the south of Thailand into Krabi. Unlike most the people getting squished on the bus to be carted to their resort, I got off at the bus station and bought my ticket to the border town between Thailand and Malaysia. The bus ride was about nine hours on smooth and wide roads. I got dropped off at a grungey hotel and spent the night from where I would leave to go to Penang by bus.

Penang is probably one of the best places to eat in the world. People are serious about preparing and eating food. The mix of Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese has created a wonderland of flavor and fusion. I will say right now all of the images that Malaysia tries to convey about being a country of racial harmony are slightly misguided. For me there seems to be a social contract about keeping the communities separate. Maybe they people keep themselves separate but the food has certainly commingled. I tried a lot of food in my four days in the city. Walking as much as possible so that by the next time I spotted something delicious I could fill up. I really enjoyed eating the Chinese Malay food. A potent mix of more spices than typical Chinese food, sweet soy sauce, and Sambal. Read the captions to learn about some of the great foods I ate. The real revelation came when I had nutmeg juice at the best fresh juice place I have ever tried. No sugar just pure apple/nutmeg flavor!

Sambal with egg and coconut rice

Laksa the national dish, sweet and sour mixed together; a dish of thick round rice noodles in a spicy and sour tamarind-based (or assam fruit-based) fish soup. The dish is garnished with mint, cucumber, onions, shreadded lettuce and pineapple (wiki)

This mans very busy restaurant makes Char koay teow (Chinese: 炒粿条) - fried flat rice noodles with chili spices with seafood typically prawns and cockles (and typically with fried eggs). This man was a ninja, his movements methodical and precise, he was turning plates of this great dish out in about a min to hungry customers behind him. Impressive and good.

Another great part of Penang is Dim Sum in the morning, at the Aik Hoe Restaurant I enjoyed great Dim Sum with all the older generation of people from Penang. I was surprised that I did not see other foreigners in here.

Famous Curry spot, the fish head curry is the thing to get, I had that and this piece of curry chicken.

Do you see the famous face?

Go to this place if you have the chance really good.

The best meal in Malaysia pork belly salty and sweet and spicy.

Chili soup with fish

The best dish, eggplant with chili and pork

A great drink of fresh nutmeg. This is not the actual nut that we all grind to flavor our food but the fruit around it, it kind of looks like a yellow pear from the outside, its really refreshing and good for you.