Pearl of the Orient : Diet Buster

I had a great weekend in Penang, aka Pearl of the Orient. Short as it was, the visit was well spent with good friends and good food! And that, my friends, was the end of my very short-lived diet. Nobody goes to Penang and goes on a diet. 
Do you hear a complaint? Heck, no.
I'm blissfully contented, and I shall just have to start another diet soon.... did I say soon? I meant, now.


In the meantime, may I tickle your tastebuds with pics of some of the popular local dishes on the island? 
These are some of the stuff I crave for. I live in the big city now, where things are modern, fancy, expensive, the city where you can get cuisines from all over the world. Great chefs have graced our 5-star hotel kitchens. Well known celebrity chefs have bothered to visit our not-so-humble country and cooked for the country's rich and famous. And yet, nobody here can make a decent plate of fried koay teow (fried rice noodles), mee goreng (indian fried noodles), just to name a couple. Yes, of course, there are those who claim they come from Penang and that the dishes are authentic. You can't fool a real Penangite's tastebuds. Pffft.


I can't believe I've only 6 dishes to show you. I know we ate more than that in one sitting. (Told you my diet's busted). We must have eaten them so quickly there wasn't even time to take a pic. 


Anyway, ogle and drool time .... (I'm speaking for myself)

Top row, left to right:
charcoal baked crab with roe, salt baked prawns and baked crabs before they got massacred (peeking out from top right corner: stir fried littleneck clams)


These were from a ramshackled restaurant, very old but famous for the Chinese temple next to it. (You think it's good feng shui?). It's also by the beach. Sitting in the outdoors, praying hard that the grey clouds above don't decide to turn on their faucets. There was a lovely cool breeze blowing, was there a good sunset? Too busy eating, laughing and chatting to notice. 
There were also grilled fish, chicken and mutton satay, fried noodles ... pictures we forgot to take.  


Bottom row, left to right:
fried oysters omelet, fried koay teow and kerabu meehoon (nyonya rice vermicelli salad)


These were from another old but popular place where the locals like to hang out and load up on their favorite hawker fare. A place we Penangites fondly call "padang", which means "field". Aptly named, as there is a huge padang beyond these stalls, where kids and adults from around come to have their walkies and whatever form of exercise and play. And as usual, we were so engrossed in stuffing our faces, we forgot to take photographs of some of the things we had ..... pasembur (Chinese style salad, consisting of shredded jicama and cucumber, crispy fritters and tofu, all drenched in a sweet potato sauce), nyonya kuihs and fresh coconut to drink.


And this is where I hibernated after each meal.

sigh ...... definition of Contentment: Ping.