Monday, March 14, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Pulau Pinang
A wonderful past week spent in Penang, Malaysia. We spent a day motorbiking through small fishing towns down to Balik Pulau accompanied by beautiful greenery and winding roads. Another wandering the streets and exploring the Spice Garden before a relaxing massage and another stroll by the water. The colonial influenced architecture fronting Georgetown was very interesting, mixed in with new buisness high-rises sprawling across the panorama. Old and new, East meets West as we walked and breathed.
We ate, perhaps too much food, at the 'Nasi Kandar' Muslim Indian stalls spotted along the streets(there are even 24/7 restaurants)! The abundance of variety seemed endless; Chinese noodle broths and fried sesame balls, Malaysian keoy teow, regional Indian curries and of course plenty of roti or naan incorporated into most meals. Food is cheap and plentiful here with handfuls of sugar hidden in everything. Many fresh fruit juices available for only 1 or 2RM (approx 70cents) or otherwise Milo ice, kopi ice (coffee) or Horlicks are very popular. Aromatic 'teh tarik' and masala tea were my favourites and always came steaming and frothy, sweet with condensed milk. A highlight was discovering the 'Eu Beng Vegetarian Food' one morning. It's a small bustling place setup as self-service, with a variety of 30+ fresh vegetable, soup and bean curd dishes prepared by a team of cute old Chinese ladies. Very clean and both visits was full of locals dishing up meals into little take-away bags before they scooted off again.
As I sit back in KL eating my vegetable pizza, the last Western food I hope to eat for a while as we prepare to head off soon, I am reminiscent already of the warmth of colours and flavours of Penang, of salty air and temples poking out of hidden corners ... looking forward to whatever the journey has to offer next. :-)
<
We ate, perhaps too much food, at the 'Nasi Kandar' Muslim Indian stalls spotted along the streets(there are even 24/7 restaurants)! The abundance of variety seemed endless; Chinese noodle broths and fried sesame balls, Malaysian keoy teow, regional Indian curries and of course plenty of roti or naan incorporated into most meals. Food is cheap and plentiful here with handfuls of sugar hidden in everything. Many fresh fruit juices available for only 1 or 2RM (approx 70cents) or otherwise Milo ice, kopi ice (coffee) or Horlicks are very popular. Aromatic 'teh tarik' and masala tea were my favourites and always came steaming and frothy, sweet with condensed milk. A highlight was discovering the 'Eu Beng Vegetarian Food' one morning. It's a small bustling place setup as self-service, with a variety of 30+ fresh vegetable, soup and bean curd dishes prepared by a team of cute old Chinese ladies. Very clean and both visits was full of locals dishing up meals into little take-away bags before they scooted off again.
As I sit back in KL eating my vegetable pizza, the last Western food I hope to eat for a while as we prepare to head off soon, I am reminiscent already of the warmth of colours and flavours of Penang, of salty air and temples poking out of hidden corners ... looking forward to whatever the journey has to offer next. :-)
<
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)