Street Food Heaven

Cumulative Miles Traveled: 32,074
Current Location: Penang, Malaysia
Current Mood: Melting/evaporating

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Penang is hot, muggy, steamy. I basically gave every article of clothing I had to the laundry service provided by my hotel/guesthouse here (after Mumbai I basically wanted to throw everything I had, including myself, into a washing machine and run two or three cycles...with bleach - that's how dirty I felt), so the only clothing option I had is a silk print summer dress and the silk keeps sticking to my back. Other than the unbearable humidity, I think I am going to like Malaysia because...it is street food heaven! You can't walk one block without passing hawker stalls selling char kway teo, fish or lamb curry, assam laksa, fried rice, various glutinous rice desserts, etc. However it is so damn hot that nothing except shaved ice looks appetizing at the moment. There are only two culinary items on my must-eat list during this trip: or chien, an oyster omelette made with egg and glutinous rice powder, and Singaporean chili crab. I walked around looking for or chien for about an hour to no avail so finally I just googled "best oyster omelette in Penang" and wrote down a couple of suggested locations. As for Singaporean chili crab, I've read about this dish many times and always wanted to try it but I think I'll have better luck finding it in Kuala Lumpur.

I'm looking forward to a few days of R&R, Malay and Nonya cuisine and catching up with L before heading to the final leg of my trip - 36 hours in Shanghai and 5 days in the motherland. Then...HOME to my favorite city in the world. Can't waaaaaaaaait.