Chew Jetties and more Chinese New Year

I woke up early today, not on purpose but because that is what I do. I used the opportunity to chat with a friend back home about future travel (13 hours difference).

I read somewhere to go watch sunrise at the Clan jetties of Penang is a thing to do and since I am already awake I head down there. The Clan Jetties are this 19th century Chinese immigrant community that build their homes on stilts over the water. It is pretty unique. They open their community to visitors during the day (and sometimes nights since there is supposed to be a large Chinese New Year Party there Sunday night).

The jetty area does not open until 9 am to visitors so I am still too early. Luckily the char koay teow place that my tour guide recommended is open (Xen Teck) so seems like a good time to get breakfast and some of that extra strong coffee. There is a whole way to order coffee in Malaysia, kopi or kopi O or ??. I can’t remember the correct way. The default way comes with sweetened condensed milk that I was happy to try the first time (Do like the locals). But now I want it my way with unsweetened with just milk over ice. I thought I ordered it correctly but I got the sweetened one again. Good thing I do lots of walking to walk off all this sugar. The char koay teow is good; it is different from the one I had before since this has thinly sliced pork sausage in it (you don’t see it in pork in the other tourists areas out of respect of the Muslim community). It also had these little button like things that were slimy. I first thought they were mushrooms but they could be oysters? Sometimes it is better to not know. Anyway, the dish is good and satisfying, It is the breakfast I never knew I wanted.

It is still too early for the jetty so I do a tour of the street art nearby. One I believe is a Dutch artist and the others are local artists. The famous ones are from the Dutch artist.

Clan jetty

It is 9 am so I head over to the Jetties. I am glad I am there early before the crowds. Not everything is open yet but it is pretty in the morning light. It feels a little weird walking close to people’s houses. It feels intrusive seeing laundry hanging and watching people inside their houses (many doors were wide open to the outside). This is open to tourists so they expect this I guess, still feels weird. There seems to be a boat tour at the end of the pier but is not running. Not sure if it no longer runs or if I’m just too early. It is a small pier so not sure how there will be a big party here tomorrow.

Mansion

I tour the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, the 19th century mansion that is a good example of the Peranakan lifestyle. Peranakan are a distinct type of Malay. When Chinese immigrants, mostly rich, arrived in Penang they were often offered a bride of native Malay heritage, often very young. The resulting offspring are the Nyonyas (women) and Babas that you still see to referred to in the culture today. The marriages were almost always arranged and the groom could not see the bride (and vice versa) until they are to be married. The brides often wore this very heavy metal thing on their head that masked their appearance. I am glad I made it time for the tour because the guide was very descriptive on how life was back then. He even commented that polygamy was common a while ago because often the groom would not be happy with the bride chosen for him. Many native Malays are of this heritage.

One very interesting piece from this museum is a piece of blue jewelry. It is actually created from someone painstakingly attaching blue bird feathers. Birds were not killed for it but I am sure it was painful for them. It is not allowed anymore.

Thought about visiting another mansion, blue mansion, but I was tired and hot – big surprise. Besides I think it is pretty similar to the mansion I just visited. I go back to rest and cleanup for the night celebration.

Street party

They are still celebrating the Chinese New Year and there is a large street party in Chinatown. There are dragons, dancing, music, crafts and food. I brave it out for a little bit. I get some snacks and watch some entertainment. Eventually the crowd is too much for me so I search out a bar.

Speak Easy

I don’t like to drink much lately but for some reason I decide I want to visit all the speak easies I can in town due to my recently discovered sweet tooth. The tour guide from the other day suggests two in town. One he suggests never seems to be open when I try (or I don’t know the secret password). The other speakeasy he suggests is further away so it takes me a while to get up the motivation to go visit. Backdoor Bodega, hidden behind a store, requires reservations but I arrived around opening so they took me as a walk in. They have very inventive drinks and the staff at the bar took the time to converse with me.

Another night I happen upon a newer speak easy when I was trying to the other place suggested by my tour. Birds Nest is in a residential neighborhood. In fact you would never know it is a bar. The only reason I found it is because I followed some people who appeared to be going into someone’s house. Come to find out it sort of is. The owners, a couple, live upstairs. They’ve converted, and are still converting, the downstairs into a craft cocktail bar. They were very nice and offered me an orange and some new years crackers.

Nasi Kandar

I finally try Nasi Kandar at the very popular Hameediyah Restaurant. It has an odd setup where you order your food from one store front but then you go a couple store fronts over to eat. I had a nice gentleman help me with the process except I almost walked out of the first building without paying. This Malay/Indian fusion cuisine is a a signature dish of Penang: a plate of hot rice, some fried chicken, beef curry, some turmeric-laced cabbage, or what you choose. There is a short line but I went shortly after opening time in the mid-morning.

It wouldn’t be Chinese New Year without fireworks. I skip the evening celebrations at the the jetty but I get to participate anyway via the fireworks that are going most of the night. Good thing I have a long bus ride tomorrow because no sleep is happening tonight.

At some point I ended up by this McDonald’s that looked very interesting. I didn’t go inside but I caught a grab around here.

Penang Heritage food tour

As usual I started my visit of Penang with a food tour. This particular tour is given by a Boston native that moved to Penang and married a local. He used to be a chef and loves sharing his knowledge of food with others. We meet in little India at 10:30 am in the UNESCO heritage zone – George Town. This part of Penang, an island, is named after King George III. You guessed it, it was part of the British empire at one point of time. Penang was strategically important for spice trade. It is culturally diverse here now; you will see Chinese, Indians, Malay, and others. As expected there are parts of town with concentrated restaurants and businesses that represent different ethnic groups such as Chinatown and little India.

We start with a dish eaten by locals all hours of the day (but mostly breakfast) Char Kway Teow (also spelled different ways). This style is Hokkien dish of stir fried rice noodles with sausage, prawns, egg, chili paste, fish cake, chives, and bean sprouts. I can see how this is a comfort food for locals. I crave it now. At the hawker cart (Hock Poh Lye Kopitiam) we sampled this and I also tried the local iced coffee – Kopi coffee with condensed milk. It is sweet so something I probably would only occasionally drink.

Next stop is at stall for Indian-Malaysian Chicken Curry Samosas, at Penang Special Samosa . I am not usually a fan of Samosas but this one was good. Not too spicy and you don’t get the heavy feeling like most fried foods.

It is a Friday and we end up at a Muslim restaurant. Luckily we arrived early enough because it will be closing in an hour for prayers. We sample Muslim-Indian Malaysian food at Tajuddin Hussain: nasi biryani (spiced rice) with ayam rose (“rose” chicken), kambing kurma (lamb kurma), dalca (veg curry with meat stock). I love curry so much. We also try some teh halia ais (iced ginger tea) which reminds me of a chai.

We stop next at Moh Teng Pheow kueh factory, we tried some of Penang’s signature assam laksa—mackerel based broth with noodles, lemongrass, tamarind, chili, polygonum leaf, and torch ginger flower, topped with cucumber, chili, pineapple, and mint—and a spoonful of heh koh (prawn molasses). I really wanted to try the pandan tea on the menu but they were out for the day .We also tried some sweets here.

We tried some classic Penang Peranakan dishes, prepared by Girlie and Joey Chua @Bibik’s Kitchen: her signature fried chicken (inche kabin), the rose apple kerabu (refreshing rose apple salad with mint, torch flower ginger, chili, and shallots), as well as her telur belanda (sweet and sour “Dutch egg”), and sambal kacang botol (wing bean sambal) in a spicy sambal, over a portion of 4-colored rice (pandan, blue pea flower, turmeric, and white). I got to try another nice refreshing tea – I am starting to love sweetened teas; you would never catch me ordering cold tea in the USA. This tea is partially colored with a blue flower, I think I’ve seen it before in Thailand – Butterfly Pea.

A couple things I learned today….

Gula melaka or Palm sugar in Malaysia is popular. You will find a myriad of things made of this. Stores will sell the sugar in chunks for tourists to buy and take home. Palm sugar is supposed to have a lower glycemic index and has all these health benefits. I am not convinced it is healthy but I am trying a large amount of it in Malaysia.

I learned there is a three day holiday starting today. I guess at some point i need to check out the street action here and down by the Chinese Jetties (more about them later).

Next week there is a Hindu holiday that I need to read up on for my visit to Kuala Lumpur.

I learned what a torch flower is and that it is a staple in many southeast Asian dishes.

My tour guide mentions nutmeg genocide but doesn’t go into specifics so I have to google it. Side note, I am obsessed with anything flavored with nutmeg lately. The history is that nutmeg originated from this island called Banda. The Dutch got ahold of the island in the 1600’s. Apparently the local people wanted free trade agreements but the Dutch were not having it so they basically massacred a great number of the local people. There is more to it but read up on it yourself. It is sad to hear of the origins of some of your favorite things.

I am full and I read somewhere that you go watch the sunrise at the Jetties so back to my room for the day to relax for tomorrow.

Arrived in Penang

I end up calling the airline in the morning to make sure I am on today’s flight to Penang. They confirm I am. I am still charged double for the internet mishap. She can only see one transaction but my credit card shows two. I’ll wait a couple days to see if the problem resolves itself (At time of posting the transaction has been refunded with no intervention from me). Fun fact – even though I am using my USA phone in Malaysia with a daily international plan I need to call the Malaysian number not the international number when I make calls in Malaysia. I am confused but I’ve learned something new.

Now that I have the flight thing settled I let myself leave an hour later to the airport. The airport is crowded but I could have probably left even later because I spend time sitting around and reading waiting for my flight. I guess downtime reading is good since I don’t do it much lately. When I have downtime I either nap or do research for upcoming travels.

Walking around town yesterday I saw signs for ferries to Penang. I don’t bother to stop because I had already purchased a flight. I ask my grab driver to the airport about it. He says what I read is correct, that they no longer run ferries to Penang from Langkawi. The ferries are a casualty of covid. The effects from this illness stretch far and wide. I believe there are still ferries to Thailand running.

When I arrive in Penang my grab driver there tells me more about how hard covid has hit the city, It seems like tourism is ramping up again, hopefully enough to give locals some sort of normalcy since their livelihoods are so dependent on the tourism industry.

I am staying in Georgetown Penang, the historic district. I check into my hotel that is basically a room in an old Mughal mansion. The name of the hotel Jawi Peranakan Mansion is named after a specific type of Malay. I’ll talk about Peranakans in more detail later but Jawi Peranakan represents a Muslim of mixed Indian and Malay. They were prominent in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

It’s a little musty inside but that comes with the territory. There is always some trade offs when staying at a place with a little character.

Soon its time to eat dinner. I get the impression that things close early and open early around here, a stark contrast from where I just came from. I need to make sure I plan my meals accordingly. Or perhaps things stay open later on the weekend? The sidewalk situation is mostly non-existent as well as crossroads. I spend a good deal of time walking the side of the road in Penang avoiding falling into the sewage drain.

I find a covered outdoor area that looks like a large food court. There are so many different foods to try that I have decision indecision. I find a cart with different types of proteins that are fried. I pick some and that is my meal for the evening; probably not the healthiest food so far. I also order ice kacang with cendol (pandan noodles). It has beans. The whole dish is semi-sweet. It is probably much healthier than my dinner choice.

Penang is where I really can tell I am in a Muslim country. I hear call to prayer multiple times a day, women typically dress conservatively and cover their hair and you will rarely find pork anywhere (beef is sometimes scarce to due to the large Hindu population).

Tomorrow I have a food tour scheduled so I can start my eating adventure of Malaysia.