So the last couple of days we've hiked in a jungle, a bit of it way up high in a canopy walk, we've gone to some amazing temples, taken a funicular 3,000 feet above Georgetown, seen women in FULL black burkas with only a tiny slit for the eyes (while their stupid-ass husbands who force them into these bulls**t costumes run around in modern clothes), heard loud Indian music in one block and the Muslim call to prayer in the next block, and have been to a GINORMOUS temple to Quan Yin that I think was actually dedicated to the Goddess of Souvenir Stands, as there were literally hundreds of them on the approach to the temple and actually IN the temple!! But this blog isn't about those things...it's about FOOD!! I mean that's why we're here in the first place.
Last night we decided to take a little break from Penang hawker food and go to Little India for some authentic Indian food. Siew Pheng, our lovely host at Chew Jetty Homestay, told us about Ananda, a restaurant serving food from both north and south India. The menu had many things, but the dish that stood out was fish with Chettinad sauce. This is a rich, reddish brown sauce that we had over fish. Nice and rich and spicy! We also had mutton (what they call goat here) in a curry sauce. A couple types of nan and dosa and we were good to go.
Today we had our usual four meals. For breakfast we went back to Ananda and had this delicious roti bread that was stuffed with egg and onions. Also, we had dosa served with some different sauces and a potato dish. For drink we had Indian coffee with lots of milk and sugar. But the truly amazing meal we had was lunch and a fish head curry. There are several good places for folks to enjoy a fish head curry meal in Penang and the one we went to, thanks to an online article, was Chee Wah. Nestled amidst a row of small shops in Lebuh Melayu (Malay Street), it is a popular place among locals during lunch hour, as it is only open from 11am to 3pm. When it comes to fish head curry, Chee Wah has a fine version, with the fish head cooked in an Indian-style curry sauce with a generous dose of spiciness without the use of coconut milk. What's also different is they plop in a couple of prawns and some small squids into the clay pot the fish head is cooking in.
The fish head curry came piping hot in a big clay pot. Its steamy aroma wafted around the place when the lid was lifted. The medium size fish head had a good portion of flesh, although its a bit of an art to poke around the inner sanctum of the fish head and dig out all the fish bits. The semi-thick curry was garnished with toppings of fragrant mint leaves and raw pieces of onions which enhanced the flavor of the curry. There was plenty of rice to pour the sauce over and we sopped up every drop!
After we got to our new hotel, called the Coffee Atelier and located in a Heritage Building that was an old coffee roasting shop back in the 1920s, with the best rooms we've had so far, we headed up to the giant Koh Lok Si temple, a sprawling and gigantic temple to Quan Yin. The temple had more souvenir stands then I've ever seen in one place (and hope fully Quan Yin is getting a cut of the action). But at the base of the temple are hawker stands and one of them has what some people say is the best assam laksa in Penang. Laksa is a spicy and sour noodle soup with shredded bits of fish and various vegetables (mint, cucumber, red chilies, onion) in a fish broth that is reminiscent of soupe de poisson in France. This one is very popular, as there was a big crowd. But the owner seated us at a round table with three other people, a student from China and an older couple from Penang. The man from Penang, who spoke not a word of English, was drinking some kind of ice tea and he then went over to the drink stand and bought us two glasses! Not only that, but when the laksas came for us he bought us ours and the student's! Talk about a random act of kindness. The laksa was all it was cracked up to be and lived up to its reputation as one of the best in Penang
When we finally got back into town a few hours later, it was time for meal #4. We went to the Red Garden night market, which is a unique place. When you walk in you are blasted by a wall of sound, as rather lame singers are singing very loudly to canned music. We walked around the edge, checking out the stalls and finally landed on one making Curry Mee, a spicy noodle soup with curry as the broth. I also ordered what I though were fried chicken gizzards but turned out to be "Fried Bishop's Nose", which of course are chicken tails. The couple sitting next to us were eating fried tofu and just handed us the plate as they ordered another for themselves. Two acts of kindness in such a short time! Of course it was all washed down with Malaysia's fine Tiger beer, which is delicious.
All in all this will go down as one of the greatest food days in our lives.
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