When Pinky and I visit Penang, it's mostly for the food.
However, there's a lot of cool stuff non-edible stuff to see and do in Georgetown as well. The old colonial town is quiet and laid-back, and it's nice to just walk around and explore.
Georgetown is the capital of Penang State and with a metro population of around 2.8 million, is Malaysia's second largest metropolitan area after Kuala Lumpur.
The center of Georgetown, however, certainly doesn't feel that busy. There's hardly any traffic, and everyone seems to be enjoying a quiet and slow way of life.
The town is famous for its street art as well. This time, we noticed some new works of wrought-iron art that had been welded up on walls around the town depicting humorous scenes from Malaysian life.
There are also lots and lots of paintings of cats! As cat people, we really liked that aspect of Georgetown.
One of my favorite places that we visited in Penang is the Cheah Kongsi, an old Chinese clan house built in 1810. This kongsi, a Hokkien Chinese term meaning "company", was built as a base of operations and sort of proto-embassy for the wealthy Hokkien merchants and traders who operated in Penang from their home base in Fujian, southern China.
The "company" isn't exactly what we think of as a company today and is more similar to something like the British or Dutch East India Companies. It was not just a trading conglomeration, but also a social organization dedicated to representing the interests of its members and its culture across its vast trade zone.
But... as I said, Penang is mostly about the food, and we had a few more amazing things to eat before heading back home to the Big Mango.
For our last dinner in Penang, we went out for nasi kandar, a popular northern Malaysian dish that evolved from the cuisine of Tamil Muslim traders who historically sailed back and forth to Penang from India. Nasi kandar is basically a big plate of rice topped with various meats, curries, and gravies.
It's a sort of cafeteria-style meal where you choose the dishes that you want to eat before the workers smother them in their secret blend of house curries.
The dish looks like a bit of a mess, but it's super delicious!
The next morning, before heading back to the airport to go back home, we went out for a very classic Malaysian breakfast at the Toh Soon Cafe, an old-style cafe in Penang that serves simple and hearty meals of charcoal-grilled toast, poached eggs, and cups of strong black Malaysian coffee. It's an excellent place to start your morning before a day of adventure and exploration in the historic colonial old town.
The menu is pretty simple. The little open-air cafe, which is tucked away down an unassuming alleyway in the old town of Georgetown, sells thick-cut slices of toast topped with poached eggs or a selection of toppings of your choice. The cafe is very popular with locals and is usually busy in the early morning with families, students, and retirees.
We ordered Toh Soon Cafe's classic eggs on toast, Hainanese toast with butter and kaya custard, and coffee.
Each piece of toast is grilled on a charcoal grill right in the middle of the shop, and arrives fresh, crispy, and hot. A serving of eggs on toast comes with two thick pieces of cubed white Hainanese bread, each one topped with a perfectly runny poached egg.
Our time in Malaysia was coming to an end, but it had been a few days full of adventure, and we had had a great time.
It was nice to go somewhere other than Phnom Penh on my visa run.
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