Penang - Balik Pulau - Asam Laksa

Food: Asam Laksa
Type: Non-Halal
Location: Balik Pulau
Price: RM2.50 (small) | RM3.00 (big)

Stall Owner: Kim Laksa - Mr. John (012 428 6235)
Address: 67, Main Road, 11000 Balik Pulau, Penang
Stall Operation: 1100 - 1700 (Closed on Wednesday except on public holiday)

Direction: -
Strong recommendation - You hardly get lost direction if you take the Paya Terubong and Relau junctions. You just follow the road and it will lead you to the Kopitiam (coffee shop) pretty straight forward. The Kopitiam is exactly facing the T-junction.

The reason why I don't recommend you take the route from Batu Ferringi, main reason is the road is in zig-zag. This prevents you from severe car-sick. So far, the wider road and more straight way are built in progress. Personally I have no idea when it will be done. Unless you head to Batu Feringgi to hunt something interesting, then I won't treat you like a fool to come back to Relau via Jelutong Expressway. At least me and you are not that dumb until unaccepted level :-P



Pass-Down





Surprisingly when I checked with John, he is not the original owner. His sifu is that Aunty passed down this Laksa secret ingredients and cooking methods to him. I had short schedule to find out the details. Please forgive me. Reason - I was become part-time tourist guide cum driver (free to eat and free to test drive new MPV Cherry Eastar, I was damn happy indeed though only slept for 3 hours after night shift!!!) Ok ok, stop your intention to shoot me for not digging out the details. I promise to re-visit there to find out other traditional foods for compensation.

Asam Laksa



Advise to those people have gastric - please do not try this stunt. The Laksa taste sour and darn good. I love the soup base with lots of fish meat. The springy Laksa noodle taste and feel perfectly with crunchy sliced cucumbers and raw chopped onions. It's a stimulating meal that probably make you sweat enough with added red chilly or the extreme one - chilly paddy (cabai burung in Malay).



If you love the strong combined smell of raw onions, fish meat, mint leaves and dark prawn paste, you find the joy of having Laksa. According to doctor, onion able to kill virus. But according to me, you better beware of farting after eating so many raw onion. I bet you loose if you wish to challenge me this! I'm sorry? I didn't say I fart ok! :-P

Superb Drink



You must try out the Penang famous freshly nutmeg drink with plum. It's totally different from what you may try or had tried before in maroon-coloured or brown Nutmeg extracted juice. The latter one is sweeter taste. This one is freshly blended nutmeg - in white colour juice with tangy taste.

Clock Ticks Slower

Other than interesting foods, I suggest you can walk around if possible. Find the time ticks slower when you are in Balik Pulau. Good place to hang around if you have time. Kampung (village) environment. Walk around lar, probably you will have surprise on food hunting, who knows. Yeah, I'm talking to myself again. Have great day then :-)

Penang - Rifle Range Flats - Chee Cheong Fun & Lam Mee

Direction:
From Greenlands tunnel, there are 4 traffic lights to pass. Once 4th traffic light - Esso petrol station is on your left. Before 5th traffic light, Convent Green Land high school is on your right. Turn left and take the Air Itam route. You will pass by Chinese graveyard area on your left. Keep right lane. After the traffic light, follow the road until you encounter there's a signboard - take Jalan Padang Tembak and turn right. Chung Ling High School is on your left now. After the traffic light, keep left. Drive about 10m distant, turn left. Follow the road until you see Rifle Range Flat. When you see the SRK Padang Tembak (primary school), ready to turn left. Park beside the road. You can walk straight to the food court. On your left - you should see the wet market.

Parking convenience: Fair (Suggestion: Try park beside the school and walk to there)
Hygiene: Fair

Part 1
Food: Curry Chee Cheong Fun / Chee Cheong Fun
Type: Non-Halal
Location: Rifle Range Flats / 打枪铺组屋
Price: RM1.60 (2 pieces - Chee Cheong Fun)

Stall Owner: Mr. Neoh Soo Guan (016 463 6594)
Stall Operation: 0730 - About noon (depends on customer volume - may rest earlier if finishes)



My Childhood Place
Ask any old generation or 70s born Penangnites - they should know Rifle Range Flats. Lots of memories over here. In 1970, Mr. Neoh already started his business, I was not even born. I left this question about where am I for you to imagine :-P Damn, just realise - I'm becoming old biscuit (in Cantonese; in Chinese - 老饼). Let's not talk about my age - it's secret!





Too Late - should blame CS!
Brought my shift partner cum 鸟人 (someone able to crack dirty jokes spontaneously) - Chuan Sing (CS in short. Hey, not Counter-Strike!). It was 1030 in the morning, when I met the stall owner - Mr. Neoh - he immediately smiled at me and shake his head. Oh no, no more curry Chee Cheong Fun. We only able to try out the normal Chee Cheong Fun with sauces.

Spy-shot from far


Mr. & Mrs. Neoh


Old Taste
Have a plate of normal Chee Cheong Fun (2 pieces) - the old taste never change - I can still recall the taste vividly. Steamed Chee Cheong Fun feels ”solid" and fresh to crunch. The heat is equally distributed and maintained. To justify this, put it in your mouth - you can immediately justify whether it is fresh or not. Unfreshed Chee Cheong Fun is too soft and sticky.

Preparation Tools


The sweet sauce and salty prawn paste are equally balanced. The oil that dances with the Chee Cheong Fun make it more springy to put in your mouth. Sesame (this is not the code to open door over here!) sprinkled on top of it to make it more fragant and unique. I particularly love this simple type of traditional Chee Cheong Fun! I purposely asked Mr. Neoh to add chilly. Blended chilly is not that spicy. Only my sweat system still out-of-control to sweat like after-bath. CS kept on saying - wah lao - I'm worse than him.



I Will Be Back
Mr. Neoh reminded me to visit the stall at about 0800 - curry Chee Cheong Fun is definitely available to order. No specific time to say how long will it finish - it's totally depending on the customer volume. Before I go for another hunt - I repeated myself to Mr. Neoh - No Problemo! I WILL BE BACK ~~~ to eat the curry Chee Cheong Fun! (sounds like Arnold's Terminator movie)

Part 2
Food: Lam Mee / 淋面
Type: Non-Halal
Location: Rifle Range Flats / 打枪铺组屋
Price: RM2.20 (Small) | RM2.70 (Big)

Stall Owner: Mdm Ang (04 828 3804)
Stall Operation: Morning until Noon



Another Target
In fact, we sat beside this stall. Mdm Ang is quite shy to speak about the Lam Mee. After certain while, I only came to know she actually inherited from the previous old aunty who unable to sell anymore. 30 over years experience to pass down. Luckily I can still taste this Lam Mee. Mdm Ang started about 1 year ago to continue this Lam Mee business with her daughter's help.



Check out how the noodles and "bee hun" enjoying SPA!


The Powerful of Sambal Chilly
You may choose to eat Lam Mee without sambal chilly. The taste is still good. With added "Sambal", I bet you will get "high"! (hey, there is no ectasy applied here!)



Having Lam Mee, I suggest you add in "Sambal" - I hardly give a valid WHY. You have to try it yourself.

Discovery
All this while, I only know garlic oil added but never expect lark oil also mixed in to add fragant for the soup. Heavy taste of spring onion and fresh springy bean sprouts. There is nicely sliced omelette and small shrimp sprinkled on top of the Lam Mee. Thin-sliced pork also included.



The soup based has little bit of prawn taste. Mdm Ang is pretty busy - thus I avoid to disturb her to dig this out specifically.

Overall, the old taste still there. I always love old taste because I'm old biscuit enough! :-P

Penang - Jalan Tengah - Roti Canai

Food: Roti Canai
Type: Halal
Location: Jalan Tengah, Bayan Baru
Price: Normal – RM0.80 | Egg – RM1.50

Stall Owner: Mr. Narayanan (012 488 0258)
Stall Operation: 0630 - 1130 (normally will off bi-weekly on Tuesday)

Parking convenience: Fair (this depends on residential parking space available - one warning - small drain do not cover up - you may aware with tyre gone into small drain accidentally – too bad, I had this bad experience)
Hygiene: Fair

Direction:

If you are coming from Penang International Airport, right after the famous snake temple, take left turn, then drive for 20-30 meters distant, turn left into residential area. Further down to T-junction, right turn, then left turn and search for parking space.

Camera-Shy Family
I tried to stay low profile to hide my camera, however, when I took out camera to explain my intention, immediately the stall owner and his son were laughing in shy mode. Instructed them to make it natural, they were bursting into loud laugh when another two stall owners cracked jokes in Tamil language (sorry, I couldn't understand what had they cracked the jokes, just see them laugh until cannot see their eyes)



There are totally 4 persons working in a team.
1) Mr. Narayanan - Operation
2) His father - Raw material & QC
3) His mother - Chef
4) His sister - Logistic



Simple always GREAT
There are only two choices - Roti Canai (Plain) and Roti Telur (with egg). Another name for Roti Canai is called Paratha if I'm not mistaken.



Please end this reading immediately if you are looking for the below following "version": -
1) Roti Tissue (thin and large, topped with sweetener milk),
2) Roti Sardin (with Sardin in tomato sauce)
3) Roti Bomb (honestly I never tried before - embarrassed indeed)
4) Roti
... so on and so forth.





Secret Ingredients
I bluff! The stall owner did not tell me the secret. Common-sense - I fully understand Roti Canai is consists of wheat flour, water, margarine (Palm Oil based), sugar, salt & baking powder



Panfry Orchestra
One thing you will notice this stall frypan - it's always ON and HOT. I can jot down briefly on how the Roti Canai fried. Press the Roti Canai gently and turn it over. Panfry for 1-1.5 minutes, until both sides are golden brown.

When both sides are ready, remove the Roti Canai from the pan. Using both hands, pat it gently by the edge to make it light and fluffy. Dang, you can eat now!~

My Preference
I prefer Roti Canai, thin and crispy - like what the abovementioned golden brown. No burnt taste and smell. Just in time and just good. I like simple bean curry mixed little with "Ikan Bilis" sweet "sambal". The curry is mixed with little sweet and salty taste.



I Eat It My Way
You may have another way of eating, don't limit yourself. Of course I still use fork (the only tool provided). Once Roti Canai is ready, smell its aroma - don't smell like red wine lar please. I rinse a part of it for about 1-2 seconds, let the Roti Canai absorb the curry aroma and taste, then put into your mouth. Hmmm... you will feel both Roti Canai and curry taste flow in your lung via teeth gap. This time - I don't bluff - I only over-describe. Don't imagine the taste. Go and try it. Who knows this alternative option may become your primary choice :-)

Have your adventurous moment. Adiós!~