Duck Egg Char Koay Teow @ Jalan Pasar, Bukit Mertajam

I am back in Penang for the Chinese New Year celebrations! Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone. When you’re reading this I am either having some homemade pineapple tarts, cookies and cakes; or I am enjoying a can of Shandy haha. This alcoholic lemonade beverage is a must for us (at least for me) or the Chinese New Year will seem to be lacking lol. The weather is crazily hot at Penang currently so a can of chilled Shandy is so-oh-enjoying!
Anyway during the Chinese New Year I will surely have BM’s famous Duck Egg Char Koay Teow for supper, which has sorta became an annual habit for me. So either I have it with my friends after our annual CNY gathering, or I go alone.

This year, the Char Koay Teow stall that I frequent the most at Jalan Kulim did not open for reunion dinner eve. Then the one near the train station doesn’t taste the same anymore ever since the youngest brother took over. Which left me only to look for the other brother’s stall located next to the taxi station.

I has been a looong time since I last tried the Char Koay Teow fried by this uncle, maybe 5-6 years? But I am glad to say the quality seemed to be still maintained – good wok hei that oozed ‘warmth’ when you spread out the noodles, aromatic with lard, lots of bean sprouts and also generous amount of cockles and prawns. My concern with the Jalan Kulim branch is that the uncle is being too liberal with the lard recently. This no doubt improves the aroma but also making it feel too ‘lardy’, so much that you could feel it in almost every mouthful.

I got a feeling one of the secrets to their delicious Char Koay Teow is actually the mysterious black sauce contained in those Coke bottles. Hmm.

If you are planning to have your koay teow here, do know that parking is a problem especially during festive seasons like this, the tables are placed on very dark five foot ways and there are plenty of mosquitoes waiting to feed on your legs lol. These are also the reasons why I preferred to go to the stall at Jalan Kulim.. because only mosquito is the problem there. Conclusion is each stall got their own pros and cons so it’s really up to you to decide – will it be convenience or quality?

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