eating my way through Georgetown, Pulau Penang

Travel guides all sing the praises of Malaysia’s food culture and Georgetown, the main city on Pulau Penang, a large island off the west coast of the country, is the pride of this countries culinary diversity. Heavily influenced by Indonesian, Thai, Chinese and Indian cuisine the food in Georgetown is flavorful and unique. Food carts line the busiest streets and many small shops serve their own versions of delicious local favorites. As a proud lover of all things food this was very exciting and upon my arrival in Georgetown the thing I was most excited to do.


Georgetown is a large city and finding the best places to eat and explore food from allover Asia is not easy but well worth the effort. I walked around the city for hours searching for the places with the longest lines to eat, the most locals and the freshest ingredients. I finally decided to give the world famous food a try and began with a dim sum style dumpling cart parked on one of the main roads in the city. I had six different styles of dumpling ($2.50) which were all delicious(although I have no idea what was inside most of them). My hunger satisfied, but my curiosity still peaked, I went to search for more. I found another food cart, the owner called out to me, “hey you, you want whore fun?” I turned a looked at him confused, thinking massage shops where the only place in Penang with that kind of “fun“. He then said, “I have many kinds of whore fun, you choose.” Again confused as to how I had found a food cart/pimp, I looked at him bewildered. He continued, “have chicken, prawn, beef all kind”. Turns out hor fun is a very popular Malay dish that comes in many variations. I decided to try the mixed hor fun($2), delicious! The noodles were handmade and in a lovely brown sauce, it was the most hor fun I’ve ever had!

The next morning(ok I was out late, afternoon) I went out in search of Indian food. What I found was a cafeteria style restaurant with dishes from all over the Indian sub-continent, popular with locals and packed at 3:00pm, I went in and ordered an iced chai tea and a vegetarian masala thosai ($1.25) and enjoyed some of the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten at a price that was unbelievable! Tikka chicken, parathas, roti canai, mushroom masala, biryani, naan and every yummy thing I could find. I was officially obsessed with the food in Georgetown, but had the chance to meet up with an old friend and choose to move onward.





Meeting up with my friend and her travel buddies was great (more on that in my next post) but, the food in Langkawi was a let down. A major beach destination food was uncreative, poorly prepared and very expensive. I decided the next step in my travels would be to return to Georgetown for more food and this time, I brought my new travel gang along for the ride. The night we arrived, I took them to the Indian restaurant and my favorite food market, the Paradise Food Garden. It was fun to be the expert on the food in Georgetown and they loved the food and the price as much as I did. We all spent the next 8 days eating and very little else. Malay, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese; I tried it all. I probably gained a few pounds from all of the delicious food but it was worth it, to have the chance to try so many Asian dishes for so little money.






learn more: http://georgetown-penang.com/penang-food/