Upon arriving into Penang, we checked into our hotel. We opt to go budget this round for our accommodation as we want to spend more on food. We checked into Tune hotel in Penang. We manage to get the room at around RM 69++ / night (queen bed). Plus the usage of 12 hours air-con for like RM 13 ++? (don’t remember the exact figure). But, I recall the total (including tax) of the bill come up to about RM 99. So, it is not the dirt cheap type but for Penang standard, it is ok, i guess. Parking is at the cost of RM 5 per entry. So, if you are planning to go in and out of your hotel with the car, my advice is to park the car outside first. Only park inside when you are sure you are not going out anymore.

After much rounding along Jalan Burma(where the hotel is), we finally manage to locate Jalan Penang or better known as Penang Road. (even with our trusty GPS we had a tough time as we found out there’s 2 side of Jalan Penang… sigh). We parked our car at a open area behind the restaurant for about RM 2 / entry.

Restaurant Joo Hooi along Penang road and Lebuh Keng Kwee has been around for many years. It is always packed with people. The main reason many claim is because of the famous cendol (ice shaved dessert drenched with palm sugar and green jelly-like noodle soak with thick coconut milk) which is located outside this café. The stall is always pack with people.

Apart from that, it would be for the Assam Laksa / Penang Laksa which is also very famous here. I really like the slightly spicy thick fish broth of this laksa. The noodle is nice and translucent with a chewy texture. Yumm…not bad. The only thing which would make it better is they have chunks of fish meat. (Personally, I still think the best assam laksa is the one I get from the Taman Megah pasar Malam). Sorry, we already mix the noodle up before remembering to snap a picture. ;p

I couldn’t resist ordering the fried kueh teow. The aroma from the stall was so good. So, we ordered the Duck Egg version. A colleague of mine told me that when local Penangites order this, they will ask for half cook duck egg. When the noodle was placed in front of us, I took a deep breath to maximise the smelling sensation. Hahaha… the noodle was actually really thin and translucent. Each strand was nicely coated with the duck egg taste. The Wok-Hei was really good too. It was with a hint of wetness which I like (I know many people prefer it dry). We wallop up the plate really quickly and decided to order another plate. Love it !

The aunty taking our drink is really cool. Seeing that we were struggling to order in ‘hokkien’ (the pre dominant dialect spoke in Penang), she quickly changed to Mandarin, Cantonese and then English for us! (so, for those who are english speaking, no problem ordering here) Hehehe.. So, we manage to get our drinks sorted out .

Just a quick note, the cendol we ordered came in a orange bowl. A lot of people thinks that it came from the famous stall outside. But, it is actually from the stall opposite to the famous stall. It can be easily identified from the orange and blue bowls used by the different stall. The blue bowl you see below is ordered by our friend. She took the effort to line up and get a bowl, while the rest of us wolf in on her bowl. hehehe.. thanks for sharing J !

And the verdict? well – amongst the 6 oh us, some prefer the blue because the cendol (green noodle jelly) texture was softer. some of us prefer the orange bowl as the cendol taste more jelly. Oh well… i guess the trick is to split into 2 groups and order from both side. Then, taste both and see which you like. 🙂 The picture down here is from the blue bowl corner.