Rounding Up September II: Makan!

Prologue: Probably there are no afterlife of either kind but at times it sure does feels like we're currently living in one of either kind.

As the procrastinating grad student that overstayed his welcome a long time USMers who somewhat knows his way around Penang (thanks to RapidPenang, MyPublicTransport and now Google Maps for integrating RapidPenang's route information in its Get Direction.), I had been playing guides to my younger bro Tate and his pals in exploring the best of Penang especially about foods while making new discoveries and excursions I wouldn't have made if I were alone.

15 & 16 September (Saturday & Sunday) back to back Georgetown Excursion:  My younger bro and I went for a late morning-early afternoon spin around Georgetown with specific purpose of eating Penang Road Laksa and Penang Road Cendol. Food came reasonably fast so all well there. Hop on the CATbus to Padang Kota and checked out the famous Mee Sotong that I have heard quite often but in the end deterred by the long waiting line in front. Then quite sometime later on other occasion, my younger bro and his friends went back again to check out the mee sotong and it turns out the long line is for people who wish to takeaway and those who eat there will be served immediately (something like that). Dang. Anyway, my brother told his fellow Sarawakian friends about this so we went back for another trip of Penang Road laksa again, this time however during late noon because we went to BJ first for quick survey for gadgets for my younger bro. Imagine my horror looking at the snaking lines in front of Cendol stall and Char Kuey Teow with hordes of tourist unleashed from tour buses somewhere, each stalls with tens of backlogged order which will took hours to clear. I waited like an idjit under burning afternoon sun just for that measly plate of char kuey teow which I gave up in the end because I was hungry, thirsty and hungry. Another thing I learned from that trip: that kopitiam extracts a 50 cent surcharge for any bowl of cendols that was brought into their premise which makes it essentially a 25% tax for that bowl of RM2 cendol you ate within the kopitiam instead of standing outside. Will I go back again? Probably not in the closest time. In my own post-trip research, turns out that it's actually the lesser visited stall that has better cendol compared to the stall which has ridiculously long line. It's just that the tourist favourite just know how to do better marketing compared to the humbler rival. Definitely a mental note worth making.

20 September (Thursday): a dosage of home at Carpenter Street Cafe behind Sunshine Bayan Baru. Order my usual Tomato Mee because I am feeling a bit peckish, Tate ordered Angchao Meesua while Michelle ordered Laksa. Verdict: very close but still somewhat missing something, probably a taste of home perhaps. Meanwhile, learned an interesting reason why there are no Tomato Kuey Teow (Tate originally wanted to eat that): according to auntie, the commonly used kuey teow here is just not that suitable to be stirfried in order to make tomato kuey teow. Hmm, is it because the kuey teow that's widespread here is more of a thin, hor fun type of kuey teow?

23 September (Sunday): Pulau Tikus/Gurney Paragon dinner time exploration again with Tate and Michelle. My first time of going to Pulau Tikus Night Market on own effort by taking RapidPenang 304 bus from USM. Introduced them to lok-lok as dinner before moving on to TongPakFu for sweet glutinous rice dessert and then wrapping up the night with a bowl of Taiwanese Shaved Ice at Meetfresh Gurney Paragon. Meanwhile, the second phase of Gurney Paragon is growing smoothly while the forecourt is decked out with lanterns in time for Mid-Autumn Festival. Another interesting observation: the mall management has fenced up the rhythmic fountain area, probably because of all too many cases of idiots walking straight into the fountains without realising that it has be turned on, blending seamlessly to the open space.

Now talking about trips I wouldn't have done if I were alone:

28 September (Friday): Jelutong Night Market with Tate and fellow his newbie mates. Despite how famous it is among student community, through my five years here in Penang that I have only been there ONCE and it's only because I went along with Sistahs who drives hence this trip is also my first time going with my own effort. Turns out it was quite convenient to go there too being served with 301 and 303 for only RM1.40 fare. Jelutong Night Market basically half-encircled around a flat and follow the general layout of trinkets in the front and FOODS at the back. No pictures of food however because my hands are occupied with fingerfoods such as charsio paus, bishop's nose, gyozas, takoyaki, korokkes while Tate explored other local fares. We did have a proper dinner however over there at a Pan Mee shop in which Tate and Michelle engaged in superspicy pan mee chilli-belacan roulette in which just the mere sight of it is good enough to make you imagine the horror of shitting flame. Another thing I do notice however that there are some familiar stalls that usually appears in Sungai Dua Pasar Malam on Saturday which means they basically go around all pasar malams around the island every night.

30 September (Sunday): Inner City Excursion with Tate and Michelle. Looks like joining round island trip organized by clubs and societies does help in getting savvy with local fares and it was Tate and Michelle who became a guide to me! First stop: pork innards soup over a kopitiam located at Lorong Kampong Malabar off Penang Road which has contains almost every edible parts of pork from brain (!, very silky texture), meat (sliced meat and meat balls), liver, kidney (!, I think it does taste a little of wee) to intestines in a very rich broth. We ordered just bowls of soup without the rice because it's still early in the evening. Went to Love Lane (top right: the heartbreak phonebooth is forcibly chained together "happily ever after"), dropped by an art gallery (no pictures because they are afraid of copycat BOOO) in which you can sent a postcard to the future (OK not really, it's just that you can put the date way ahead in the future and they will help you sent it over by then and by the time you receive it, it's as if it has been sent from the long forgotten past when you are having a holiday in Penang.) before went for a pitstop at a cosy 50 Cafe/Corner which is located right Lebuh Muntri/Love Lane junction which is basically a backalley. Ordered mushroom soups and cheesecake which is quite flavourful. Dinner time and we head back to Chulia Street for Pasar Malam, famous for its wantan mee and curry mee. One downside of visiting favourite haunt for tourist and local: ridiculously long waiting time ESPECIALLY that wantan mee. The stall is manned by a grandma (which her only function is boil the noodle. She will not entertain anyone.) and her families, churning out plates after plates of wantan mee. Even though the curry mee stall uncle came later, the curry mee actually came first and when people who came later than us got their plate of wantan mee first, that's when it's obvious that THEY FORGOT OUR ORDERS. One reminder later and only then they quickly made our order. No doubt that Chulia Street Wantan mee with its extra pork crackling is delicious, sometimes it still made me wonder whether is it worth the one hour wai for it. Oh well, at least I have a seat to sit and wait unlike the Penang Road Char Kuay Teow wait.

Sometimes good things are just around a corner too with only requires walking outside from USM.

Such as 43 Cafe's Pork Burger including first try of their Egg Pecah Toast (runny eggs on toast) as well as their new menu item (bottom): Fork Pork Burger which is basically fork-shredded pork burger instead of the usual meat patties.

Or how about family stir fries of Gim Hin a.k.a. little wooden house. While I went there quite often for dinner during undergraduate days with the SISTAHood, lonely postgraduate life means that it has been quite a while since the last time I've been there. Luckily for me however when I tag along with Tate when he went for dinner with PUCS/XiaXiangTuan peeps as a part of their newbie welcoming activity. I am definitely the oldest people there. This collage is basically an showing how the dishes being chowed down as time goes by. Dinner that night: Stir fry cabbage, lemon and salad chicken, specialty hotplate egg tofu, egg omelette and stir fry fish fillet.

OK, the fries here is definitely the usual crinklecut fries available at cold storage anywhere but to go along with it, Khaleel Nasi Kandar has come up with a divine recipe of what they call a tartar sauce which is basically mayonaise, garlic and etc in it. I rarely had dinner at Khaleel and even if I did have, I usually ate alone. Fries will usually comes in when one goes out in group which is ridiculously long time ago for me. Their chilli sauce however is chemically disgusting.

Meanwhile, the USMers resident fast food outlets of KFC and McDonald have come up with new menu item as well just to tease the market during September. KFC had come up with Green Curry Rice which is basically two pieces of fried chicken, a scoop of rice and a side of green curry. Meh. As for McDonald's, they came up with Samurai Burger which is basically beef patties in teriyaki sauce which made it quite on a sweet side. McShaker made a comeback again for the occasion with order of large meal and this time is Katsu Curry powder which is not quite spicy just like typical Japanese Curry. Another item on the set meal which I didn't try however is their Sakura McFizz because it's basically Ribena Sprite, a drink way too common back in any self-respecting cafe in Kuching but a total novelty here. I wonder why.

That's all in the chapter about eating in the month of September I suppose. Stay tuned for future posts which may or may not be a backlog of September or new things in October.

Epilogue: I think it has become a recurring habit of some sort that I will only blog if I ever make that very little progress in my writing.