Food in Penang, Malaysia
Most Popular
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Penang asam laksa
Asam laksa is a sour, fish-based soup. It is listed at number 7 on World's 50 most delicious foods complied by CNN Go in 2011. Asam (or asam jawa) is the Malay word for tamarind, which is commonly used to give the stock its sour flavor. It is also common to use asam keping (also known as asam gelugor), dried slices of sour mangosteen, for added sourness. The modern Malay spelling is asam, though the spelling assam is still frequently used.
The main ingredients for asam laksa include shredded fish, normally kembung fish or mackerel, and finely sliced vegetables including cucumber, onions, red chillies, pineapple, lettuce, common mint, and pink bunga kantan (torch ginger). Asam laksa is normally served with either thick rice noodles or thin rice noodles (vermicelli). And topped off with "petis udang", a thick sweet prawn/shrimp paste.
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Hokkien mee
Hokkien mee refers to fried noodles cooked in Hokkien (Fujian) style. Hokkien mee is served in many Southeast Asian countries (mostly Malaysia and Singapore) and was brought there by immigrants from the Fujian province in southeastern China.
The Penang version is cooked in soup, using egg noodles and rice noodles with no dark soya sauce. Prawn is the main ingredient with slices of chicken or pork, squid and fish cake.
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Lorbak
Minced pork wrapped in tofu skin - very famous in Penang. Lorbak is similar to sausage (Lor means a kind of sauce whereas bak means meat in Hokkien). You can choose the accompanying servings of prawn fritters, tofu, fish cakes, Taiwan sausages, century egg (preserved duck egg, unique taste and texture. Usually eaten with pickled young ginger) and others.
Locals dip Lorbak in sweet sauce and chilli sauce. Can be found in rather consistent quality all over Penang.
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Curry mee
Curry Mee (Malay: Mee Kari) is a dish that is unique to Malaysia, usually made up of thin yellow egg noodles or/and string thin mee-hoon (rice vermicelli) with spicy curry soup, chilli/sambal, coconut milk, and a choice of dried tofu, prawns, cuttlefish, chicken, egg and mint leaves. In certain places in Southeast Asia, especially southern Malaysia and Singapore, it is called Curry Laksa if Cockles are used.
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Ais kacang
Ais kacang (known as ice kacang in Singapore) is a Malaysian dessert which is also common in Singapore and Brunei.
Traditionally, a special ice machine is used to churn out the shaved ice used in the dessert, originally hand cranked but now more often motorized. Many Southeast Asian coffee shops, hawker centres, and food courts offer this dessert.
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Char kway teow
Char kway teow, literally "stir-fried ricecake strips", is a popular noodle dish in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
It is made from flat rice noodles of approximately 1 cm or (in the north of Malaysia) about 0.5 cm in width, stir-fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, a small quantity of belachan, whole prawns, deshelled cockles, bean sprouts and chopped Chinese chives. The dish is commonly stir-fried with egg, slices of Chinese sausage and fishcake, and less commonly with other ingredients. Char kway teow is traditionally stir-fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, and commonly served on a piece of banana leaf on a plate.
