Palatable Pleasures In Penang: Part 2

Getting Around

Penang was such an easy place to get around, and we were privy to a whole host of very gregarious, chatty taxi drivers who were highly enthusiastic in sharing tourist information about their hometown, and even more eager to book us for the whole day as sight-seeing tourists, which we usually politely declined.

The public bus system was highly efficient as well, and we were lucky to have a bus-stop right outside the hotel with an air-conditioned bus (101) that could transport us in comfort right into Georgetown in 30 minutes. We took this bus to Gurney Drive for dinner one night and it was certainly fuss-free.

Attractions

We selected a few attractions that would interest us as a family, and they were:

Toy Museum

There was a mind-boggling array of toys in all sorts of categories, ranging from an extensive collection of small and life-sized Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings which got Hubby and I really excited - to an all-encompassing range of Barbie dolls that got Little Bee jumping in delight, and even a whole shelf of Disney’s Lion King that Big Bee loved. 

We spent a good hour meandering through the narrow aisles and examining the entire collection of fascinating toys. This toy museum was started by a private collector and all these toys are his! Amazing!

Georgetown

This is a UNESCO World Heritage city, but to us, it looks immensely like Singapore in the 70s and 80s. I bet it would be really charming to be lost in the little alleys of Chinatown or Little India, but the weather was sweltering and it would be hard to drag 2 girls on long scorching walking tours around the city. So, we selected parts of the city that we wanted to visit instead.

Fort Cornwallis

With Hubby’s and my interest in all things wartime, we traipsed to Fort Cornwallis with much zeal. This antiquated fort was built in 1786, and has a star-shaped structure. Apparently, it is the largest standing fort in Malaysia now, but being rather compact with no sprawling land, we were able to complete our rounds in 45 minutes!

We explored little dank rooms that resembled dungeons, and brave Big Bee and I went into a dim gun magazine building with a tiny window that reminded us of prison cells. 

The chapel of Fort Cornwallis

More enchantingly, we trooped to the highest point of the fort and posed beside a cannon pointing right at the quiescent sea adjacent to it – I love how this fort was perched just beside the sparkling azure sea.

Pasar malam

Hubby loves pasar malams in Singapore, so on the second evening of arrival, he immediately dragged the entire brood to the famous Batu Ferringhi pasar malam. 

Alas, the weather was not fair to us and dark broiling storm clouds prevented us from ambling around the narrow tentages of the pasar malam, pushing us instead into an excellent Lebanese restaurant. 

He persevered after dinner, and with an umbrella, he set forth alone to purchase a huge nautical yacht to be placed in our living room – for a steal, of course!

The FOOD

What can I say – Penang is truly a food paradise! Our main purpose in Penang was to gorge ourselves silly with all kinds of hawker food, and we truly indulged in all varieties of food.

The hotel’s restaurants

We tried everything in the hotel from room service on the first night of our arrival to Hard Rock Café to the morning buffet breakfasts to the pizzeria on the beach. 

While Hard Rock Café’s food is the typical robust American food, the rest of the meals taken in the hotel paled in comparison to the (much) cheaper hawker food outside! Certainly, it was definitely much more comfy relaxing in the hotel eating, but Hubby and I would rather fester in the heat of hawker centres with yummy albeit sinful food! We attained a food map of Penang which was a magnificent guide in leading us to the right places with famous hawker fare that we craved.

Lorong Selamat (Georgetown)

The very famous char koay teow (Penang spelling) in Kafe Heng Huat along Lorong Selamat was the first pit stop for us. Kafe Heng Huat was like a 70s/80s Singaporean shophouse kopitiam (like those in Joo Chiat), and it was really blisteringly hot as we went there at noon for lunch. The Bees were grouchy initially, preferring instead to dine in the hotel (oh, how pampered Singaporean kids are!). But after the first juicy char koay teow was slurped in their little mouths, you could see their eyes brightening and their pace of eating quickening! Thereafter, we did not hear any complains from the Bees whenever we brought them along in our food hunt!

We also ordered rojak from a roadside stall at Lorong Selamat, as well as the popular Penang ice-kachang with a scoop of ice-cream atop the flavourful ice mountain. Needless to say, Big Bee wiped out the entire plate of char koay teow whereas Little Bee was beside herself when the ice-kachang appeared!

Verdict: Immensely satisfying! Slurp!

Old City Food Court (Georgetown)

Their food court is not like Singapore’s sterile, air-conditioned food courts – resembling more like our open-air, single-storey hawker centres instead. I like this food court concept as we could order a sampling of many hawker foods!

Hubby and I ate wanton mee (the dark-sauce type), whereas the Bees each devour an entire plate of chicken and char siew rice all by themselves in record time – including Little Bee! This was certainly a big testament to the chicken and char siew rice!

We tried their Penang white coffee here, but I still prefer my cafe latte anytime :P Their kalamansi lime drink was truly addictive though! In addition, we had a little plate of chee cheong fun but I did not really relish their dark, oyster-tasting sauce, preferring the Hong Kong dimsum chee cheong fun instead.

After our lunch here, we strolled around the sleepy neighbourhood shops and I was really enchanted by the leisurely pace of living here. We bought a few 80s-style pastries from an open-air bakery (remember those bakery shops that peppered all over our HDB areas, way before the arrival of commercialized Breadtalk?) – coconut tarts for Hubby and me, and chocolate muffins for the Bees.

Hubby also made a dash at mee jiam kuey (peanut pancake) at a roadside stall, and we were both bowled over by its crispy thin pancake skin! YUMS!

Verdict: Slightly above average hawker food, but wonderful pastries and peanut cake as well as a lovely walk around that area!

Gurney Drive

We took a bus ride back into Georgetown that same evening to experience dining in an alfresco hawker centre – under the stars and beside the sea! Gurney Drive is famous for its wide array of excellent trademark hawker fare, resembling Newton Circus and Satay Club in the 70s/80s.

Little Bee fell asleep in the bus, so I had to carry her from the bus-stop to Gurney Drive food centre which was a distance away. With a snoozing child in my arms, I could not walk around to explore the plethora of yummy hawker stalls, so I left Hubby to choose our gourmet delights for the evening. We managed to wake Little Bee up when the table was overflowing with Hubby’s selections, and that little foodie was munching the moment her eyes opened!

What was a little frantic for us was when ominous and sinisterly dark storm clouds gathered right above us, just as we were starting to eat. Hubby had the quick wit to swap all our food to a table with a huge umbrella – just before it started pouring heavily! As we observed all the crowds around us dashing for cover in the downpour, it was pretty romantic to be huddled beneath the umbrella, eating our hawker dinner. As Hubby and Big Bee quipped, “If the rain doesn’t stop, we will just have to spend the whole night here, having a romantic time chatting with each other!” Haha!

Thankfully, the rain stopped just as we finished our dinner, in order to let us make our way back to the hotel!

Here were what we ordered:

Penang assam laksa (Hubby and I were not fans of this sour-tasting laksa, preferring the nonya Singaporean laksa)

Poh piah (I loved the soft poh piah skin and plentiful ingredients inside – really crunchy and scrumptious)

Chinese satays for the Bees (they feasted on 20 sticks of chicken satays and claimed those were utterly delicious!)

Fried rice for the Bees (the Bees and I were fans of this sinfully tasty fried rice)

Grilled cuttlefish (Hubby and the Bees loved this lightly grilled delight)

3 boxes of muah chees and 2 big sweet coconuts for desserts (they actually had muah chee hawker stalls and the muah chees were so soft and succulent with little bits of chopped peanuts – blissful!)

Verdict: Perfect combination of ambience and mouthwatering food! We all enjoyed Gurney Drive a whole lot (except for the famous Penang laksa!).

Relaxation

We had a couple of indulgent massage sessions, once in the Rock Spa and another time at a spa along Batu Ferringhi. The massages were divine for me, and the Bees thoroughly loved their pedicure and light foot massages in the spa! 

We also had the good opportunity to relax in the hotel lobby one night, where they were playing a movie (Night At The Museum 2). It was truly lulling to lounge in the big comfy seats and enjoying a restful evening as a family - away from home, where the daily stresses of everyday life are a distant memory. 

The Bees also bought 2 gigantic floats from a nearby provision shop - a friendly killer whale float for Big Bee, and a cute Hello Kitty float for Little Bee. 

As they busied themselves with exploring the floats in the pool one late morning, Hubby and I beamed broadly when we saw how much they relished the floats and we truly savoured these indelible memories. 

In all, this was a surprisingly alluring holiday destination, which truly enabled us to rejuvenate ourselves. We will be back for sure...!