I may be in Hanoi snacking on pomelo and digesting a street-side dinner of delicious fried rice with beef, slivers of sweet lap cheong and crisp sour pickled vegetable, but I still yearn for cendol. The grass is always greener.

For those who are yet to experience cendol, it is all about pandan flavoured rice flour noodles, toothsome red beans and shaved ice drenched in coconut milk with lashings of deep dark palm sugar syrup. Sago optional. Simple. Mix it, the ice will melt changing the texture and flavour all the way to the end of the bowl. Refreshing perfection for the Malaysian heat and humidity.

The makings of Cendol – shaved ice and gula melaka

For me the heart of a cendol is its gula melaka (palm sugar), the best being rich, fragrant with an almost bitter sweetness. Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul is disappointingly light on the gula melaka, but this subtelty makes it refreshing and light. Generous red beans, and kidney beans I think, are softened but still have some bite, providing the whole ensemble a reassuringly solid base. The squidgy noodles are wormlike, but the fragrant coconut milk makes up for this.

The production line here is quick, your cendol appears before you’ve even found the right change, ice already melting. It should be eaten at the same pace, standing up, in any scavenged piece of shade, making way for the gathering queue. Although this isn’t my favourite ever cendol the experience of eating here is the most novel, and the one I’ve eaten at the most thanks to its proximity to my hotel. One thing to love about Penangites is their love for food. I skipped the paltry ‘included in room price’ breakfast daily, in favour of deliciousness outside the grounds. After a few days the breakfast man asked me why I didn’t eat, his eyes lit up when I mentioned the kuik kak, coffee and wan than mee I’d eaten the previous day. He directed me to the best laksa and char kway teoh in town, but his opinion almost led to all out war amongst the hotel staff. But there was one thing they agreed upon and Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul was it, the daily crowd here confirms its popularity. My hotel manager reminisced about visiting Chowrasta Market with her mother thirty years ago and eating this cendol as a post-shopping treat.

There is something to be said for such staying power.

Penang Road Famous Chendul
21, Keng Kwee Street
( off Penang Road )
10000 Penang
West Malaysia

Cendol 1.70 MYR = $0.55AU

I’ve had a lifetime of bad sate luck. A history of fine bamboo sticks lumbered with giant cubes of gristley chicken inexpertly BBQ’d to charcoal, sauce too bland or sweet. Plus those 6 or so peanut-free years added up to the simple appeal of grilled, marinated meat on a stick with peanut sauce passing me by. Until now.

The lovely Hong Ching brought me to a branch of Sate Kajang Hj Samuri, a Sate restaurant that could only be cooler if it were called Samurai, under the guise of having a drink before heading back to town – read about it here. A drink turned into 15 of the best Chicken Sate’s I have ever tasted.

Kajang is a city nearby Kuala Lumpur known for its Sate which uses larger pieces of meat and pairs the peanut sauce with roasted sambal. Sate Kajang Hj Samuri started in Kajang and has now spread further afield with outlets dotted in KL and surrounds.

These large chicken sticks are tender, just charred and not overly tumeric-ey. The accompanying thick peanut sauce has a wonderful crunch and is just sweet enough with a hint of lemongrass. Roasted, spicy sambal is served separately so one can spice up their sauce to taste, get the balance right and you’re in for a few short minutes of meat-on-sticks ecstasy, because that is as long as they will last.

I welcome the contrast of complementary cucumber and nasi impit, a compressed cold rice cake which, although bland, serves as an admirable sauce conveyor. You could also order beef, tripe, fish, mutton, rabbit or venison sticks and I saw some towering pillars of ais kacang too, but I refrain as this mid afternoon snack has me stuffed. Plus I’m happy to stick with the simplicity of Chicken Sate, now that I’ve realised just how impressive it can be.

Sate Kajang HJ. Samurai
15 chicken Sate  7.5RM = $2.4AUD.

I love food, I’m a glutton, but I also have a strange mental response to some things edible. There are some things that I just cannot bring myself taste, mental block style.

In January F and I ate our way around Georgetown, Penang. One evening during a 2nd dinner of Tandoori Chicken and average Naan I noticed a cart outside, attached to the restaurant and selling hot milk drinks. Two pots bubbled on hobs, one with pure white milk, the other was more popular and full of a sickly thick yellow liquid. I don’t know, there was just something about the apparent viscosity of the drink and the skin forming on top that made my skin crawl. Maybe it is because it reminds me of baby sheep poo, sorry for the image. F suggested that I try it and I knew then that I just couldn’t. I imagined an overly fatty sour drink, potentially from my scary scarring Tea experiences.

Fast-forward to last week. I’m in Georgetown again, alone this time though I’m doing the eating of a small dinner party. After a ridiculous amount of cendol (more on that later) I decide to take the plunge, overcome my fear and try the yellow milk.

It turns out to be Badam (Almond) Milk. Mixed with sugar and ‘pulled’ from one cup to another to cool, mix and froth it this drink is so different to what I expected. Rich, creamy, hot and nutty it is a decadent pudding-like treat made complete wIth a few plump sultanas and soft cashews and almonds at the bottom. Flavoured with spices I detect an undertone of cardamom straight away, does anyone know what else is added? Badam Milk is delicious and so different to everything else I’ve been eating in Malaysia.

I found this drink very rich and the special baby sized portion was enough for one night, but I saw people downing huge mugs alongside their Tandoori chicken and curry. Now I am sad that I didn’t take the plunge sooner for Badam Milk really is delicious and tomorrow I leave Penang, heading south to Kuala Lumpur.

If you’re interested in my travels check out my other blog.

Badam Milk Seller, Georgetown
Off Lebuh Chulia in Little India.
Baby Sized portion, 1RM.

Miri, Sarawak. Hot, muggy, tropical. I’m only here as a gateway to Gunung Mulu National Park, and a place to catch up on some sleep. I fail to find impressive meals – though I did have some amazing roti – but I’m not looking terrible hard to be honest. Wandering the hot, sleepy streets I notice shops selling fruit and vegetables out the front. An electronics shop, tv’s in pieces, with a sweetcorn stand attached, jackfruit and small durians dot the paths in front of bathroom supply centres, clothes shops. But everywhere there are rambutans. I notice tree’s heavy with the spiny red fruit on my way into town, people sitting in eateries shaking ants off bunched specimens, attractive piles of the fruit for sale all over town. But rambutans are commonplace, I can buy them in ex-home Marrickville, not worth travelling to the jungle for.

These things, however, these things are different, so much so that I don’t even know that they’re called. The woman running the hardware store said she has a tree in her backyard, and they are cross between a lychee and a rambutan. Her companion opens one up for me to try, finding the magic pressure point that enables the easy opening of these inhospitable fruits. It is sweet but not as sickly as lychees, and somehow fragrant, better than any rambutan I’ve tasted. The tender flesh was plentiful and wonderfully string-free.

I wandered away, seeking out the air conditioning and cold water of a nearby supermarket, soon after wishing I’d bought a bag of these hybrid fruits.
Has anyone ever seen them before? What are they called?

We had been in Penang for a few days and were dealing with that age old no-plan travelling dilemma: should we stay here in this town that we like and eat some more, or do we leave early to spend more time at our next destination, but we don’t know if we will enjoy it as much. So many unknowns! We took a chance and booked bus tickets so we would have 3 days in Malacca. 

I had read about this great ramshackle breakfast spot which happened to be right near our guest house, so on our last day in Penang we breakfasted here. And right away we wished we hadn’t bought tickets south, I wanted at least one more breakfast here.

Toh Soon Cafe is a local institution, but to a foreigner it just looks like a jumble of tables in an alley packed with people. Until you get further in. Take a chance, sit down and get some attention. The menu is short, Kaya and Toast sets, half boiled eggs, drinks. But you wouldn’t want anything more than that. 

See, what seems simple at the outset becomes a rabbit warren of questions; What kind of bread: Chocolate, Coffee swirl, whole wheat, or more? Would you like Steamed or Toasted? Luckily, every combination ends up being an inspired twist on the old kaya sandwich

Toasted Chocolate Bread Set

Steamed Coffee Bread Set with a half boiled egg

Toasted Chocolate bread looks bland, like fake died wholemeal bread, but tastes amazingly chocolatey and rich, perfect with the subtly sweet kaya and salty butter. The bread is just lightly toasted, so the outside is crisp but the inside remains soft.

The steamed coffee swirl bread is soft and hot, a mix of earthy coffee and sweet coconut, again with salty butter, and luckily, Felix will share. I have never had a steamed sandwich before, I don’t know how they do it, but the bread is just lightly dampened, not soggy and penetrated with flavour. It is so moreish that Felix has been dreaming up ways to recreate this now we are home, in the bamboo steamer, maybe?

While we are waiting for our food, something very strange is happening. A group of people with cameras, video and still, get up from their table and start filming the cafe. There are a few different takes of the same thing, which makes us think it is for a TV show, but the TV camera are filming two people who are taking photographs of the food and drinks being made. Very strange, but exciting!

Unfortunately this would be our last day in Penang, definitely. So we order another round. Felix’s coffee swirl set is demolished before I can take a photo. My white bread set arrives toasted instead of steamed, but I am not too worried, plus I couldn’t make a fuss when they have been working under such strange circumstances. It doesn’t matter anyway, it is divine, placing more emphasis on texture, and the combination of sweet kaya and salty butter.

Toasted White Bread Set

That evening we leave Penang, but we will always have the memory of that simple, delicious breakfast, and the idea of steamed bread sandwiches. (What a mistake to make this post at breakfast time, now I have an insatiable craving for a Steamed Coffee Kaya Set, boohoo, I wish I could get it in Sydney!).

The food here is very inexpensive, the service is fast, though a little flustered on our visit. English is understood.

Toh Soon Cafe
Campbell Street (Penang Road end)
Penang

Mornings.