I was a bit wary of trying the Salted Egg Yolk Loaded Fries after the almost comically anemic “loaded” fries I had at McDonald’s in Hong Kong. But I couldn’t resist. Salted egg yolk fries? At McDonald’s? I’ve gotta.
You’re probably familiar with chicken rice, a local specialty in Malaysia and Singapore, in which boiled or roasted chicken is served with chicken-infused rice, typically with chili sauce on the side.
You might not be familiar with chicken rice balls, however (I certainly wasn’t until I came to Melaka); it’s basically the same dish, but with the rice rolled up into Timbit-sized balls.
St. Paul’s Church is the oldest church in Southeast Asia, having originally been built all the way back in 1521.
Here’s one of the nice things about almost everyone being able to speak English in Malaysia: I walked into Goh Signature Centre completely at random (it looked busy, which was good enough for me). I had no idea what to order, but I was able to ask the woman in the restaurant what their specialty is.
I kinda felt like having chicken rice for my last meal in Malaysia, but I wasn’t particularly keen on walking in the sweltering heat to a restaurant that probably would have been closed thanks to Chinese New Year.
I happened to be passing by a hawker centre in Penang while a special ceremony for Chinese New Year was happening. It involved dancing and drums; when one of the proprietors noticed my interest, he came over and explained it to me.
Chinese New Year threw a huge monkey wrench into my Penang plans; something like 75 percent of the restaurants I tried to go to turned out to be closed.
But in the case of Tong Lek 8 Cafe, I’m not even mad. I randomly found it after the place I wanted to go to turned out to be closed; I’m so glad I got to try out their amazing food.
Yes, it’s fairly grim, but checking out cemeteries while travelling is oddly compelling.
I wasn’t planning on going to Kafe Ping Hooi, but the restaurant I wanted to go to turned out to be closed (thanks again, Chinese New Year!), and it was right there. I figured I’d give it a shot.
When I had the chendol from Penang Road Famous Chendol, the vendor across from it was closed because of Chinese New Year (Thanks, Chinese New Year, for making sure basically everything was closed during the bulk of my trip to Penang. Thanks. I was hoping that most of the places I wanted to try would be closed. You know, just to spice things up).