George Town - Nasi Lemak at McDonald's

Every once in a while, it's fun to stop into a familiar fast food joint overseas and see what different items they might have. Finding ourselves a bit hungry at the Penang airport with time to kill and limited options, we checked out the local McDonald's.

We ordered nasi lemak, which turned out to actually be pretty good. The chicken was moist, and deliciously seasoned. The rice was also good, and it came with the requisite egg, cucumber and ikan bilis. Not too shabby at all.

George Town - Hutton Lane Roti Bakar

We'd been passing this roti bakar ("grilled bread") spot for days now, and they always seemed to be doing a good business.

On our last morning before flying out, we finally stopped in for breakfast.

We each got roti bakar with half-boiled eggs and a teh tarik.

One we got with the addition of cheese (which they blowtorched to melt).

Roti bakar definitely falls into the "simple, but great" category.

We also got a roti canai to share, and I'm glad we did because it was very good and the accompanying dal with sambal was terrific.

A lovely way to spend our last morning in George Town!

George Town - Pasar Lebuh Cecil

One day we trekked in the heat of midday to Pasar Lebuh Cecil - a market and hawker center - to have lunch.

The place was very busy, which is always a good sign.

We got a bowl of Prawn Mee. It wasn't as spicy as it looks, with the only heat coming from a fairly mild sambal, but the stock was packed with prawn shell flavor.

The noodles were a mix of mee and bee hoon.

Popiah was a dish that had been on our list of things to try, so we took the opportunity to have some here.

We'll leave our opinions open as I think popiah varies a lot, but we weren't big fans of this. Overly sweet, and without much texture.

As we were getting up to leave, we heard a motorcycle rev up and this guy zipped by - angling his stall into his slot in the market.

George Town - Hameediyah Restaurant

It had been a while since we'd had nasi kandar, so we had dinner one night at Hameediyah Restaurant - supposedly Penang's oldest nasi kandar spot.

They are obviously popular, as they have expanded into another storefront a few doors down. You order at one place, and then sit at the other.

We got one place with beef rendang, and another with grilled chicken and an omelette with okra and some other veggies in it.

Nothing revelatory, but a very tasty dinner.

George Town - Sister Yao's Char Koay Kak

Char Koay Kak - stir-fried rice cake - was a dish that we'd been wanting to try. It turned out that one of the more famous sellers was on the same street as our hotel. We went by her spot a few times, but she only sells on certain days. Finally, she was there.

We each got an order, one with extra egg, and enjoyed it at a table in the restaurant she was operating in front of (they were serving up some pretty good looking char koay teow - a similar dish, but with rice noodles instead of rice cake).

Smoky and savory, with both crispy and soft textures. A great way to start the day.

Goerge Town - Belacan Fried Chicken and Hai Koay Teow Soup

Doing my research on George Town, I'd read that Kimberly Street was *the* food street. While that may have once been the case, it now is fairly subdued - with more active street food areas in other parts of the city. Still, there was good food to be found there, and one evening we stopped in to try a few things.

First we got some fried chicken from the "Belacan Fried Chicken" stand. "Belacan" means "shrimp paste" - not sure if that was supposed to indicate a flavoring for the chicken? I didn't taste shrimp, but the seasoning was super good, and the chicken was moist and piping hot out of the fryer.

Right across the street, Hai Koay Teow Soup was doing brisk business.

We snagged one of the last free tables and put an order in. Looking around there were lots of others sitting waiting for food. They meticulously put out bowl after bowl and we were finally rewarded with ours.

Well worth the wait. Full of goodies. Rice noodles, fish balls, fish cakes, pork slices, liver slices, minced pork...

Great bowl of noodles.

George Town - Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul

We passed this alley a number of times before stopping in, noticing the two cendol stands across from each other. Doing a bit of research, it turns out one of them is quite famous - you can even tell from their name: Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul.

On a hot afternoon, we finally stopped in to try it. We got ours "less sweet", and that was perfect for us.

You can customize cendol in various ways, but the default version here is coconut milk and ice, sweetened with palm sugar - with the additions of pandan-flavored rice "noodles" and some red beans.

The stall also has a cool mural on the wall behind it.

George Town - Air Itam Food Court Laksa Bisu

One morning, we traveled the short distance from George Town proper to the suburb of Air Itam.

Our primary destination was the Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple.

But after doing some sightseeing, we stopped into the local hawker market for some lunch. The place was bustling and full of good looking food.

We hadn't yet had asam laksa, so we took the opportunity to try some here.

This laksa has fish base with a slight sourness from tamarind, fairly large round rice noodles, and is run through with thinly-sliced vegetables and herbs.

Refreshing on a hot (34C!) day - particularly with the addition of a big coconut to drink from.

The other food in the court looked very good as well. The stall next to us was putting out nice-looking roti canai, and a gentleman sitting next to us sang the praises of the koay teow ting (fish ball noodle soup).

George Town - Nasi Melayu Kak Ema

This is a familiar sight all across Malaysia - banana-leaf wrapped cones pre-made and ready to be purchased to take away.

Nasi Melayu Kak Ema was tucked along the side of a street we frequently took when walking to and from our hotel. Needing something for breakfast one morning, we stopped in.

The contents of these parcels are almost always very similar to this:

Nasi lemak with sambal, ikan bilis, and a bit of hard-cooked egg.

We could eat this on a regular basis - and it's no wonder that many Malaysians do.

We also got some sweets to go.

The green ones were pandan-flavored, both with sweet fillings. The other had custard inside.

George Town - Wan Tan Mee and Apom on Chulia Street

We'd really enjoyed our first visit to Chulia Street, so we came back another night.

This time we got a plate of wonton mee. Simple, savory, delicious.

Looking for something fresh, we ordered some spring rolls from a passing vendor. Not very good - you can't win them all.

We had better luck with the apom vendor.

Apom (more commonly known as "apam") are little, light pancakes made of a coconut-flavored batter.

Often they are filled, but these were just plain. Warm and lightly sweet. A bit crispy on the outside. A perfect little snack to end the meal.