Announcement

Help support alivenotdead by inviting your friends and make sure that they add you as a friend. Post your photos/blogs frequently and help make this community ALIVE! Please don't friend request me if we've never met. I invite everyone to subscribe to my blog by clicking BECOME A FAN.

Albums

Previous Album |

Next Album |

All

Journey to Penang, Malaysia (Part 1) ... or how to gain five lbs. in 48 hours
Monday, Jun 15, 2009 8:45PM / Standard Album / travel / Members only
28 pictures / 285 views
I just got back from a much-needed weekend trip away from Hong Kong to the nearby island city of Penang, Malaysia. It's been over eight months since I last left China/HK/Macau to go anywhere, and it's been especially a long time since I've been able to take time off to just enjoy, relax, and , most importantly, EXPLORE what Asia has to offer for three days.

As a consequence, I took my one of my former co-worker's invitation to visit her family home in Penang. It's been four years since she last extended the invitation to visit her multi-cultural city, and due to extenuating circumstances, it was until now that I was finally able to follow-through on her invitation. The invite was enticing: Penang is probably the one of the most culturally diverse cities in Asia with nearly equal populations of Chinese (split into Hokkien and Cantonese populations), local Malay, and Indian (both Hindi and Punjab/Muslim varieties) living in relative harmony in a former British colony. The result of the century-and-a-half of intertwined history is a fascinating cultural stew -- each population still retains their distinctness so instead of a boring cultural homogeniety it's more like a diversity of food, language, and traditions. Nonetheless, the local population freely borrows and shares in the best that each of the other cultures have to offer. I found it really fascinating that you could walk down a single neighborhood and find thriving mosques, churches, Buddhist and Hindu temples side-by-side for decades.

Similarly, I mainly came by Penang to take up my friend's offer to check out what many people consider to be the richest and most diverse cuisine available in Asia. When people talk about "Malaysian" cuisine, they're really indicating the mix of traditional Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Indian food. Oh, and throw in some Taiwanese desserts and some English cuisine as a throwback to colonisation and you can basically sample about six or seven different types of food in one sitting.

Another distinctive thing about Penang cuisine: The street food. Like Taipei, Penang's street vendors are integral part of the Penang eating experience. In fact, during my three days and *ahem* 37 dishes of food, I never once stepped into an indoor-restaurant. Every place that we ate was a streetside vendor or an outdoor dapaidong. Despite it being extradinarily warm, the combination of the sea breeze and great variety of fresh fruit juices (coconut, starfruit, rambutan, long'an, durian etc... the variety is endless) made it livable and I'm absolutely sold on strictly eating street cuisine instead of eating inside of an air-conditioned restaurant.

In any case, thanks to my friend, I think I got a really good sampling of the best street food that Penang has to offer. For those of you who like eating and don't fear crowded street markets or tropical temperatures, I highly recommend that you try to make an excursion.

Check out the photo album below for more photos.

Album comments

ReneW
posted on Wednesday, Jun 17, 2009 2:50AM [Report]

oh..u make me so hungry now...
rottendoubt
posted on Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009 2:42PM [Report]

no way my stomach would have survived this...
Etchy
posted on Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009 9:09AM [Report]

did you do anything besides eat the whole time?
RenRen
posted on Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009 7:07AM [Report]

I knew I should've gone to Penang instead of KL the last time I was in Malaysia. I missed out on the food.
Phat Chan
posted on Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009 1:26AM [Report]

Malaysia food... the best!!!
Michele Lean
posted on Monday, Jun 15, 2009 11:59PM [Report]

I\'m gaining weight just looking at the pics! Total yum! Eat some kuey teow, prawn mee and hokkien mee (extra piggy fat)... to die for.
wendyyu
posted on Monday, Jun 15, 2009 9:03PM [Report]

Wow! That's a lot of food... you should post a "before" and "after" pic of you too!!
Wildorchid
posted on Monday, Jun 15, 2009 9:00PM [Report]

wow... u really ate a lot of Malaysian foods during ur stay in Penang... do u like the food? which 1 u like best?
MindyG
posted on Monday, Jun 15, 2009 8:53PM [Report]

I saw Penang Laksa! Yum!

stephen

Stats

I'm the official [alive not dead] nerd. Welcome everyone and feel free to drop a line in my guestbook!...
More

I'm the official [alive not dead] nerd. Welcome everyone and feel free to drop a line in my guestbook!

I'm online about 23 hours a day, do alot of computer programming, and watch alot of movies and anime. I'm lucky enough to have help create companies over the years that take advantage of all of these things. Some people might call m a bit anti-social while others think I'm very outgoing. It depends on what time of the day you reach me -- I can be super-focused on my work or I can be the life of the party when I'm happy. I try to be happy, level-headed, and I DO enjoy meeting new people if they're also nice, happy, interesting people.

Born in Ohio, grew up in Maryland and Los Angeles, then moved out to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend college at U.C. Berkeley. I was lucky enough to catch the dotcom boom after I graduated and, being already an online nerd, did a couple of online companies with friends. Eventually, my adventure led to China, Hong Kong, and now in Beijing...
More
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Total visits: 241,303