Kedai Kopi Bee Hwa, Penang

Looking for a good plate of Penang Char Kuey Teow in George Town? Well look no further.

Kedai Kopi Bee Hwa or Bee Hwa Cafe is a chinese cafe that has all the penang favourites such as Char Kuey Teow, Curry Mee and Mee Udang.

Located on a side road just off Penang Road called Lebuh Dickens, Bee Hwa is pretty easy to locate. Look for the huge Police Headquarters on Penang Road, Lebuh Dickens is one of the side roads facing the Police HQ.

Bee Hwa is very Malaysian, you will find people of all three major races eating here. It has even been featured in an article in The Star newspaper dated 4th August 2012.

With no lard or pork, and fried using vegetable oil, the Char Kuey Teow here is perhaps a healthier version but it doesn't lack for taste. The portions are generous with crabstick, prawns, fish ball and crunchy bean sprouts stir fried with the flat noodles to perfection. You can even have it with a fried egg if you want.

The Mee Goreng or fried noodles is also good stuff to fill the tummy with. Indian muslim mamak restaurants are the best at frying mee goreng, but Bee Hwa makes a pretty decent version.

 

We found the curry mee to be also good, with prawns, slice egg, cockles, squid and tofu in a light broth and noodles.

We didn't really have time to try the other dishes, but we definitely will be back to try the what else they have on offer.

Kedai Kopi Bee Hwa

Address: No.10, Lebuh Dickens, 10050 Pulau Pinang
Telephone: +(604) 2636092
Business Hours: Monday - Friday 7:00am to 5:30pm
                          Saturday 7:00am to 3:30pm
                          Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays 

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Pinang Peranakan Mansion, Penang

The Peranakan Chinese is the term used to describe the descendents of Chinese immigrants to the Malay archipelago in the late 15th and 16th century. Over the centuries, the Peranakan assimilated and adopted many of the local Malay culture and customs, whilst maintaining much of their Chinese heritage, creating an interesting blend and fusion of customs and lifestyle unique to the region.

In the Malay peninsula, the Peranakan mainly settled in Malacca, and later in the British Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore. Hence their other common name of the "Straits Chinese". The Peranakan are also known as the Baba and Nyonyas. "Baba" probably originates from Persian traders and was used as a honorific to address your grandfather. Whereas "Nyonya" was probably from the Javanese word "Nona" which means lady. Whatever the origin, the word "Baba" eventually became used to describe the Peranakan male, and "Nyonya", the Peranakan female.

In the Straits Settlements, many of the Peranakan later took to also adopting selected ways of the colonial British on top of their unique blend of chinese-malay culture. The influence of the Peranakan on food, culture and language can be felt until today, as well as rich legacy of antiques and architecture.

In George Town, Penang it is possible to view how the Peranakan must have lived in the past, at the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. Located in the heart of the heritage zone of the city, the Mansion is right on Church Street and is easy to get to.

The mansion is a turn-of the 19th century house that once belonged to the Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee. After falling in to ruin and neglect, it has now been lovingly restored in the style of a typical Baba and Nyonya house with various antiques and furniture of the period.

The mansion is in the Straits Eclectic architectural style.

You enter into a lobby facing into a central courtyard.

There is a small entrance fee (Adult RM10, Children RM5) for entering the mansion which you pay upon entry into the lobby. You are immediately greeted by an airy and naturally lit central courtyard reminiscent of a Chinese Courtyard home.

Chinese wood carvings, english floor tiles and scottish ironworks

A spectacular staircase leads upwards from the Courtyard.

In typical eclectic fashion, the Mansion is a combination of Chinese influences as well as Western. Chinese wood panels and carvings combine with English floor tiles and balusters made of cast iron from Glasgow, Scotland.

 

The rooms of the mansion have been lovingly restored and decorated with european style teak furniture, victorian ceramics and peranakan antiques. A beautiful restoration that gives you a glimpse into the opulent lifestyle of the affluent Peranakans of Penang in a bygone era.

Walk through here to the rear of the mansion for a surprise.

After wandering through the mansion, do not leave. Walk around to the rear of the mansion and through a narrow corridor and portal and emerge into a hidden surprise - a small ancestral temple.

Before leaving, treat yourself to some nyonya kuih and cendol at the attached cafe. Pinang Peranakan Mansion is a must-do on a visit to Penang.

Pinang Peranakan Mansion

Address: 29, Church Street, 10200 Penang, Malaysia.

Telephone:  +(604) 2642929 
Opening Hours: 9:30am - 5:00pm

Teochew Cendol, Penang

Now Cendol is one of my all time favourite desserts. Made from a combination of coconut milk (santan), a worm-like jelly made from rice flour with green food colouring (usually derived from the pandan leaf), shaved ice and palm sugar (gula melaka); cendol is perfect for that hot sweltering day.

In Penang, if you ask the locals where to get the best cendol, you would be inevitably be told that the best cendol is sold from a push-cart located on a side lane called Lebuh Keng Kwee, off Penang Road.

Apparently its been around since 1945 and it has become quite an institution in Penang. Every one knows of the Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul.

The pushcart is pretty easy to find. As you walk down Penang Road from the large Penang Police Headquarters towards the KOMTAR building, you will come across a small side lane to your left. The side lane is of course called Lebuh Keng Kwee.

You will see two Cendol stalls opposite each other. One will have a queue of people milling around the stall, the other less people. No prizes for guessing which one is the famous cendol one.

Make your order, pay your cash, grab the bowl of cendol and stand in the middle of the road as you slurp down the cendol. You can't really beat the atmosphere of eating cendol standing in the middle of a grimy street; really the experience cannot be replicated sitting down in a modern clean soul-less kopitiam. Personally, there isn't anything too spectacular about the cendol itself, but the authenticity cannot be denied.

Its no wonder that despite the fact that the owners have branched out and opened proper modern kopitiams bearing the "Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul" name (one just round the corner at the KOMTAR intersection), they still chose to maintain this humble pushcart in a sidelane where it all began.

Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul   

Address: Lebuh Keng Kwee, Off Penang Road 
Opening Hours : Mon – Fri 10:30 am - 7:00 pm
                         Sat – Sun 10:00 am - 7:30 pm

Hameediyah Restaurant, Penang

Hameediyah Restaurant is a veritable Penang institution. Established in 1907, the restaurant has been around for more than a 100 years, so it must be doing something right!

Located in Campbell Street, you cannot miss its yellow and green facade. It is not a flash restaurant, but more of a hole-in-the-wall place. Looking at it from the outside, you might not be tempted to go in, but persevere and you will be rewarded.

Hameediyah is famed for its South Indian inspired cuisine. Among some of the favourites include that Penang specialty Nasi Kandar, or rice and curry, served with a variety of side dishes. The name comes from a time when street vendors would go around carrying the rice and side dishes in two buckets balanced ("kandar") at the end of a pole carried across the shoulder.

Alternatively instead of the white rice, you can also have briyani rice here. The beef rendang is especially recommended by most who come here.

But for me, the main reason to come here is for their signature Murtabak. Murtabak is basically a spicy meat indian style pancake which is eaten with curry and pickled red onions.

The Murtabak here in Hameediyah is certainly one of the best, if not THE best, that I have eaten anywhere in Malaysia. A visit to Penang for me is incomplete without eating the Murtabak in Hameediyah. Highly recommended.

The owner has opened a cleaner air-conditioned more modern looking outlet a couple of lots further down the road. You can order food from the original outlet and eat at the new shop.


Hameediyah Restaurant

Address: 164A Campbell Street, Penang
Tel: +(604) 2611095
Business Hours: 11am – 10.30pm
                          Closed on Friday