Tuesday, April 14, 2009

New World Park, Penang




This is a place that has remained closed for decades (used to be an amusement park) and was just recently reopened as a place mainly for food and some shopping. The front is dominated by upper scale restaurants and some shops while behind it, is a huge and clean food court that serves a wide varieties of hawker food.



I like how I don't find myself shoulder brushing anyone while walking and all tables are at a distance with another. The music played in the background are good, and the ventilation of the place is great. No smoke from the kitchen and there's fan all around the place. In other words, it's a revolutionary way of eating hawker food. ;p



When I knew that the hotel I was going to stay in was just beside New World Park, I surf around the Internet to see what the place is famous for. Almost every blog wrote about the Ais Kacang and I found out later from a book I bought, this is the stall that invented the Penang version of Ais Kacang and they are currently in their third generation of business.

Ais Kacang (with banana) RM 2.50


Looks tempting eh? Truth is , it really does taste as good as it looks. I suspect the grass jelly is home made because it tasted really different from what the market has. There was generous slices of banana (there's other choices of fruits or you can opt to have it without any fruits) and somehow they manage to make the sweetness of the ais kacang maintained even after the ice has melted. This is no doubt the best ais kacang i've ever tasted.

Curry Mee RM 4


The Penang Curry Mee is basically a bowl of yellow noodles with spicy coconut-milk based broth garnished with cockles, bean sprout, bean curd puffs, cuttlefish and top with mint leaves. What differs the Penang version of curry mee from the rest of the states is that they usually include coagulated pig's blood. This is my first time trying curry mee and I liked it. It's quite filling tho' so if you intend to try lots of food, try to have this shared.

Loh Bak RM 7


The name Loh Bak is derived from the starchy brown sauce (on the left), Loh while Bak is literally meat in hokkien Almost everywhere in Penang sells loh bak but I have to say this one takes the cream. The chilli sauce goes well with the fried bak and to top that up, it is reasonably priced for the portion.

Oyster Omelette RM 5


My visit to Penang is never complete without eating or chien. The one I had it here is good and crispy- something not many stalls can do but I thought they could work out more on the chilli sauce. Plus, there was too little oysters.

Popiah RM 3


I was quite surprised to see it coming in a pool of gravy (from the yambean) as I've never seen popiah served this way. The popiah was delicious and the chilli sauce spread on the crepe was the bomb. Highly recommended and this is coming from someone who doesn't fancy popiah.

This is certainly going to be the place for me to fix my temptation for good local Penang food.

I walked back to my hotel, happy and satisfied. When i reach the hotel , i took a good three hours nap. This, i call is , A life of a foodchoholic. ;p

Related Post :
Gurney Drive
Red Garden Night Market
Penang Famous Chendol

8 comments:

Unknown said...

the popiah looks nice! missed it

David said...

Aww~ Penang food always look nice and yummy!

*sigh* Haven't been to Penang for years although I'm only 1 hour ++ away from Penang. (T.T)

Jess said...

vampire mee!

Anonymous said...

wow nice food! =D

Venkat S Murthy said...

OMG!,\What a food
sOUNDS Completely wierd to me!

CRIZ LAI said...

The Place most tourists will visit :P

p/s: I saw that you have related links below each post. Why don't you use linkwithin dot com with photo links instead. It will liven up your blog. :)

http://crizfood.com/

Melanie said...

Irvine : Yeah, it is.

David : Thought you're from Taiping >? Or is it another David here? Then you must be in Kedah! Hehe

Jess : Didn't know it was you coz i didn't read the name of the commentator. First thought was like " ehh, like what jess commented!" LOL. then i see .. "Jess".. cheyyy Haha. Pork Blood *grin*

Kenwooi : Yesh!

Venkat : You're not Malaysian ey?

Crizlai : Haha, been to Penang like more than 10 times in two years. Still feel like a tourists. Love Penang. We should meet up. :)

OH yeah, checked out the Link Within. i think i will add the feature in my blog during my sem break. Appreciate it by the way. :)

David said...

I'm from Taiping indeed. Well, if you drive fast, you can reach the mainland (Juru, Bukit Mertajam, or Butterworth) in less than or about an hour. Will take about 1.5-2 hours to reach the island though. Depends on the traffic on the bridge too, might take longer if it's jammed. =)