Continuing from Part 1, here are my top 2 die-die-must-try street food in Penang:
4. Orh Lua
Doesn’t matter if you call it orh lua, orh jian or fried oyster omelette. They all mean the same thing – an oily, calorie and cholesterol-ladden dish that is bound to clog your arteries. And yet, at Seng Thor Coffee Shop, that plate of omelette will call to you. And conflicting responses will arise. Your head will say How can you even think about eating that?! OMG, look at all that oil!! But the rest of you will be drawn by the fragrant smell of the sizzling egg omelette, spring onions, chilli and the sight of fresh, plump oysters. And when you dig into the creamy, delicious omelette infused with the flavours of the wok and the glorious oysters, your entire being will sigh in pleasure and say This is so worth every single cholesterol-ladden mouthful.
Here’s a tip if you’re thinking of heading down to Seng Thor. Bring a book, your iPhone, a board game, whatever. Because you’re in for a long wait. The uncle takes his business very seriously, and each batch takes at least 20 minutes as he lovingly stands over his wok and patiently fries up the flour batter then the eggs and oysters. This is probably why his omelette is so good. Unlike the Singapore version where the you sometimes find gooey blobs of starch, everything melds together at Seng Thor with an omelette is crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
Address: Kedai Kopi Seng Thor, 160, Lebuh Carnarvon,
10100 Georgetown, Penang
5. Char Kway Teow
This is an all-time favourite – smooth flat rice noodles fried with eggs, chives, fresh prawns and sometimes cockles in black sauce. It looks like an easy dish where you just toss everything together but it is near impossible to replicate this at home. This is why people are willing to queue up to an hour for good char kway teow.
The secret lies in the wok hei of the dish. This gives the qi necessary to set the exceptional char kway teow apart from the other mediocre ones.
The char kway teow at Ho Ping passed the test. Fried over a traditional charcoal fire, the noodles were not too oily, flavourful and had a wonderful texture. Bonus points too for the fresh succulent prawns that came with the dish. Highly recommended.
Address: Kedai Ho Ping, 1-25 Lorong Kampung Malabar, Georgetown, Penang
Bullfrogs Symposium 