Penang Road Famous Laksa and Ais Kacang
June 19, 2008
Stumble it!
Penang Road is one of the streets in Penang where food stalls and coffee shops are concentrated at. Among the many great street food that you should never miss are the Penang Road Laksa and Cendol. Heck, your trip to Penang island won’t be even considered complete less you tried them. Try the laksa first for some hot and sour sensation, then indulge in some sweet, cool and refreshing ais kacang or cendol.
Pardon the blurry photo lol. The assam laksa here at Joo Hooi Coffee Shop @ Penang Road is really good, soup is thick with lots of fish meat. If it can be well received by me who’s not a big fan of laksa, it must be not bad right? Oh yeah, please do not confuse this laksa with Sarawak Laksa or KL’s curry laksa.. in Penang we call assam laksa simply as laksa only. Besides the name, there are almost no similarities among them. The ingredients, cooking method and even the noodles are different. So, you can’t compare their tastes.
The lady boss busy preparing laksa for the customers. As you can see, she has prepared all the noodles and stacked them up nicely. Which is why laksa can be prepared so fast, just pour the hot soup over the noodles a few times, garnish and it’s done.
Along the street you will find a lot of cendol stalls, all claiming themselves to be famous lol. But, it is very easy to spot the most famous one simply by looking at the number of customers. Seems like quite a number of celebrities have visited this “Teo Chew Chendul” stall like Phua Chu Kang and Mary all the way from Singapore. Their photos, with a big thumbs up sign are being displayed proudly in front of the stall.
This is their famous cendol, quite good actually. For me all cendol tastes almost the same. So, I can’t really tell the difference lol - it contains the usual green starch noodles, coconut milk, shaved ice and red beans. By the way, I noticed that the Malay version of cendol has brown sugar in it.. making it even sweeter. Most of the people would just stand around the stall to eat the cendol. And it can get pretty messy too. There’s no way your hands can be clean after eating, so be prepared and bring along some tissues ok.
Ah, for the ais kacang I don’t think you can stand by the road side and eat. Better go into Joo Hooi coffee shop and enjoy it slowly. Those green round jellies are certainly eye-catching, aren’t they? I have never seen other ais kacang stalls using this as one of the ingredients. Compared with Swatow Lane’s, this is a clear winner.
If you’re not a Penangite, coming here is quite tricky because it’s actually situated off Penang Road along Lebuh Keng Kwee.. refer to the map for direction lah.
Dang I don’t know where to find nice ABC in KL. Can anyone give some tips where to look for it?
Lastly, do check out the ais kacang stalls I have been to!
- Lorong Selamat Ais Kacang
- Swatow Lane New World Park Ais Kacang
- Taman Jaya, Bukit Mertajam Ais Kacang
- Penang Road Kek Seng Ais Kacang
Technorati Tags: Penang, laksa, ais kacang, cendol
Stumble it!
Man.. ur penang laksa and cendol make me drool.. only
Pmc | June 19, 2008 | 11:47 pmMan.. ur penang laksa and cendol make me drool.. only been to penang once.. I only remember i eat something at swatow lane and cendol + laksa penang near the komtar! it was nice!!
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vk: Ooo.. you should come to Penang more often hehe.. lots of nice food to eat here.. too bad my laksa photo blur :’(
Ooo...usually down two bowls of this whenever I there! wmw's last
wmw | June 20, 2008 | 12:28 amOoo…usually down two bowls of this whenever I there!
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The different of good and bad cendol is springy with
Gill gill | June 20, 2008 | 12:49 amThe different of good and bad cendol is springy with smooth texture or soggy like eating flour. And the good one should have pandan flavour. But so far i didnt find the good cendol from this “famous teochew cendol”. You know la, “famous” make things become crap!
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have you heard of penang chinese girls schoold assam laksa??
New Kid On The Blog | June 20, 2008 | 9:32 amhave you heard of penang chinese girls schoold assam laksa?? i was told pretty good too.
New Kid On The Blog’s last blog post..Wonderland Food Store, Langkawi
Although I am a Penangite, the ais kacang.... oooh...
ck lam @what2see | June 20, 2008 | 12:23 pmAlthough I am a Penangite, the ais kacang…. oooh… with those colouful green round jellies does sound alien to me too. Most of the time, people go there for its cendol and give the ice kacang a miss.
With your review, more people and even Penangites like me get to know about its ice kacang lo…
ck lam @what2see’s last blog post..The Sire Museum Restaurant, Penang (Revisited)
Is the shop in Penang Road called "Kek Seng" or
jesie | June 20, 2008 | 5:41 pmIs the shop in Penang Road called “Kek Seng” or sounds something like that? I love my ais kacang with ice cream topping. I miss Penang laksa too.
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vk: Kek Seng is one of the shops along Penang Road. But the one I went in this post is not.. this is from Joo Hooi
Kek Seng's ice kacang is good cz durian ice cream.
J2Kfm | June 20, 2008 | 7:40 pmKek Seng’s ice kacang is good cz durian ice cream.
the cendol here is the best I’ve tasted, compared to Melaka’s, Taiping’s and Ipoh’s.
but the laksa’s quality has dropped considerably. I’d rather sit in the Cendol’s new shop behind Joo Hooi, and enjoy the cendol without hassle.
J2Kfm’s last blog post..The Loaf “U hu! hu!” Cheesecakes @ Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur
I still think Sitiawan, Perak an indian uncle Cendol is
Richard | June 22, 2008 | 10:24 amI still think Sitiawan, Perak an indian uncle Cendol is the best. Got pulut rice somemore.
This Penang cendol so-so oni lo. Laksa is good I have to agree.
However the sad thing is…..my colleague and myself go there to eat, we were treated like some money-printer.
One of my colleague went into the toilet. The aunty of the drink store demanded her to pay 20cents if she is not a customer there!!!!!
HOW ABSURD!!! Last time when i went there, if you don’t get anything to drink or eat, you will be charged 50cents!!!! OMG, so commerciallized…..and that’s why people boycott that shop……I just went there last week, and the shop is like no business….
Wow.. you sure know how to hunt down good places
Criz Lai | June 23, 2008 | 12:02 pmWow.. you sure know how to hunt down good places for food in a foreign town.. haha. Well, you had just struck jackpot as the assam laksa and chendol are the best in Penang. By the way, they are using gula melaka instead of brown sugar there as well as in their many other branches in Penang.
http://crizfood.blogspot.com/
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I'm a huge laksa fan. however compared to the famous
Ling | June 23, 2008 | 9:47 pmI’m a huge laksa fan. however compared to the famous pg road laksa, i prefer the indian man motorbike laksa behind Penang Plaza… add that with few popiahs, drop them in the soup! comparatively, the laksa at pg road ( in my humble opinion) is slightly watery and more chilli oil ….
The green round jellys very attractive. It is a hot
Xinfang | June 28, 2008 | 2:29 pmThe green round jellys very attractive. It is a hot day now for me here while reading this.. i also want to have a bowl of ABC…
Oh Laksa... Laksa... Yummy. :D Jayce's last blog post..JayceOoi.com Alexa traffic
Jayce | June 28, 2008 | 5:07 pmOh Laksa… Laksa… Yummy.
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I didn't know that Malaysia has es cendol also. In
Jenifer | July 2, 2008 | 9:55 amI didn’t know that Malaysia has es cendol also. In several place of Indonesia it is also called es dawet. This is a very nice cuisine during the hot day like now.
vk: Jenifer, cendol is a popular dessert in Malaysia. You can get it almost every where
Penang Laksa~~ Miss it so much~~ I couldn't find a
jian aka miao | July 6, 2008 | 12:11 pmPenang Laksa~~ Miss it so much~~ I couldn’t find a decent one here in Melaka.. the same goes to Sarawak Laksa..
Oyah, did you try the one near the Girls School? That one is my favorite
Personally, I don’t quite like Cendol in West Malaysia.. as the cendol is different from where I came from.. they kinda lack of the Q’ness..
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sadly .. not as good as it use to be
loon | July 9, 2008 | 4:16 pmsadly .. not as good as it use to be liao