Penang - So much food, so little time

When I lived at USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) I found cheap, but not memorable, food. Fortunately over the course of the semester friends went out of their way to introduce me to the food of Malaysia, especially Penang. On this trip we benefited from their generosity, we ate terrific food and still had items left on our "must eat" list.

Two well feed diners and the owner/cook

Our first stop was  Nyonya Baba Cuisine for dinner. We are fans of its thoughtful spicing and how well the dishes work together. Tracy was so taken with the food we ate there two nights. Almost as good as the food were the conversations with the owners. We talked about recent political events and a brother, who is a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins. He was in-town for a 3 week holiday, which he spent eating at hawker stalls. We learned the differences between Malacca and Penang's nyonya food; the former uses coconut milk and Penang relies more on herbs. When we asked about fish the owner/cook told us that her favorite fish was sting ray. When we asked for a recommendation where to find it she told us to go to a wet market - we didn't to tell her that we don't have a stove or grill.

The next day Lina took us out for fish. (I need to get the directions.) The fish stall is in a group of stalls far off the beaten path. We had snapper grilled in a coconut leaf - "yummy" is the only way to describe it. It was succulent and a bit sweeter than your typical fish. Best fish of the trip and we had a lot of fish.

Two spoons? Yes I shared it

Penang assam laska was on the agenda Friday. The taxi driver, the owner of Nyonya Baba and others agreed that  Air Hitam had the best assam laska - another outstanding food memory. Bad news we drove up and only then learned that "best place" was closed for renovations. We had to settle for a bowl at New World Park. (If you click on the link you will find foods we didn't get to eat this trip.) I was eager to dive in and I didn't stop to compare it with other laksas- I was satisfied. I was appalled at Tracy's suggestion that we share the laksa. I will share most foods but not laksa. A look at the picture shows two spoons - okay, I shared it. We ended our lunch/snack with ABC. In this case no need to compromise the ABC stall at New World is a favorite.