Penang Food Series, Part 2
As mentioned in “Part One: Background”, the UNESCO World Heritage city of George Town on Malaysia’s Penang Island, aka the Pearl of the Orient, stands as the world’s “Foodie Paradise Central” in our view. Since that first installment, we have learned that top travel guide Lonely Planet named Penang as the world’s Number One Food Destination, beating out other culinary hotspots in Europe and the Americas.
Even with Penang’s stunning natural beauty, rich “crossroads” history, friendly and diverse residents, top-notch infrastructure, widespread use of English and, of course, THE FOOD, Americans like us make up relatively few of the over ten million tourists who have visited the island over the last year. We lovingly exhort our fellow Americans to visit Penang the next time you get a hankering for travel. You’ll be glad you did. You will learn so much here and you will EAT WELL. (We realize that many of you who follow our posts are citizens of many other countries, and you have visited Penang or plan to in the future.)
And here’s the best part of the whole food scene in Penang: It can be cheaper to eat out than to cook at home. Yes! The keys to this foodie paradise are the ubiquitous gatherings of food vendors known as hawker centers, food courts, night markets, and the like. Consider these hawkers centers as little “food communities” scattered around everywhere.
Our church back in Austin, Texas holds to the motto: “No one stands alone.” Likewise, there are no food stalls that stand alone here in Penang. Even brick-and-mortar restaurants in George Town will share common walls with neighboring eating establishments. Back in the States, one finds stand-alone restaurants with multi-rowed parking lots ringing the perimeter. No such thing exists here in Penang.
Eateries beget more eateries. A restaurateur's top competitor is literally within arm’s reach of their working space. Every vendor is into every other vendor’s ‘business’. One can’t pull the wool over their competitors’ (or customers’) eyes here in this foodie haven. This competitive transparency drives the quest for excellence in these food communities. Everyone is a food critic in Penang. And no one eats alone here, either. Organic critical reviews are constant and ongoing around the tables and in the digital food-verse. The presentation, the price and the palate must be spot on.
PLACE
These hawker centers are typically open-air mini-arenas, elliptical or rectangular in shape, with free access on all sides. Most of the time these food courts have a rain cover, usually corrugated plastic or metal, over a concrete slab. Floor fans and ceiling fans abound unless the food court is situated to welcome a reliable sea breeze. Round tables ringed with cheap, worn chairs fill the middle of the court.
On arrival at a hawker center, a group (i.e. a couple, a family, friends, colleagues, aunties, grannies, old guys, etc.) will select a table. Each table has a number affixed to it. Workers from seemingly out of nowhere appear at the table to take your beverage order since individual food stalls usually don’t sell drinks. All the beverages are handled from a single location, usually off to the side or sometimes right in the middle of the court.
You can wait for your drinks to arrive or you may go and check out all the food vendors. Either way, you will directly pay the worker who shows up back at your table with drinks in hand. There are a few food courts that require you to go to the “beverages center”, stand in line, order your drink and pay for it there.
PROCESS
A cornucopia of food stalls line the perimeter inviting hungry customers on a “food pilgrimage” to order their favorite wares. It’s a relatively quiet affair. The dominant noise arising from any food court in Penang are fun conversations around the tables, not vendors shouting out for customers as one finds in other parts of Asia. Nor are there any shouting of names or order numbers over a microphone as is common in the States. No buzzers or beepers are given and no text numbers collected.
Menus are clearly displayed at each little vendor’s space, often with colorful pictures of that owner’s specialties. Customers simply tell the vendor what they want to order. (Very seldom is an order written down when given.) Customers state their table number to the vendor. Then they walk away and go order more food from other vendors as they please.
The vendors carry orders directly to the tables where the cash transaction finally takes place. A typical meal at any table will have amazing items ordered from several different food stalls. One is not obligated to order exclusively from their “first choice” food expert. At any table you might see Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Syrian, Peranakan (local Penangite), and western foods laid out.
POINTERS
Have small bills in your purse/wallet, - Malaysian ringgit only. The person who brings your order to your table will not be carrying change for larger bank notes, so make sure you have plenty of “small money” with you.
Although Islam is not the majority religious faith on Penang Island, it is the majority faith in mainland Malaysia and also in the national government. Therefore, many hawker centers in Penang have a halal (“permitted”) and a non-halal section out of deference to the national majority. If you find yourself in a food court with a halal demarcation and you want pork or pork products to be included in your eating adventure, please don’t sit at a table in the halal section. Malaysian Muslims are the kindest, gentlest people on this island. Avoid the embarrassment of a major food faux pas. Pass the pork in the non-halal section, please.
A row of open-air wash basins with hand soap can usually be found in the area and may be adjacent to the hawker center or “just around the corner” somewhere else. If you can’t find the sinks, just ask someone. You’ll want to wash up before and after.
Prepare for “sticker shock” of a different sort. You will spend so little and eat so much, that you will think that something must be truly messed up. But it’s all good. Expect to spend $3 to $5 (U.S.) total and loosen your belt a notch by the time you get up to walk (or waddle) out. You may think you’ve accessed an alternate universe and, in a sense, you have. Penang hawker centers are the very definition of “more for less”.
Short on time? Or just want to stay home? Pull up the “Grab” app (think Uber) on your mobile device for delivery. Many vendors will gladly pass their wares into the hands of a reliable, speedy motorcyclist who will arrive at your front step shortly with piping hot goodies from a nearby hawker center.
American short story writer extraordinaire and former citizen of our hometown, Austin, William Sydney Porter (1862 - 1910), better known by his pen name, O. Henry, once wrote:
“By nature and doctrines I am addicted to the habit of discovering choice places wherein to feed.”
O. Henry’s palate would’ve had a party here in Penang.
Consider yourselves invited to the party!
