If anyone post the question of "Where is the best char koay teow in Penang?" My answer never fails to be at Kedai Kopi Sin Hwa. In fact, every time I come back to Penang, I would definitely make this place my first morning/noon stop. Actually, I never really knew this is the actual name of the kopitiam till today when I decided to write a review about it and starting googling it. I always tell people it is in the middle kopitiam opposite the Pulau Tikus police station. 

The char koay teow here is just nice and not too oily. There were octopus and average sized prawns. The smell is fragrant enough yet the char koay teow is not dark coloured like what people normally fry in KL which usually disappoints me. 

I saw many newspaper cuttings of how the char koay teow hawker won awards in char koay teow cooking contests too. 

Every time any visitor or guest comes, we definitely bring them to Shanghai Ding as the dim sum is the best, especially the Xiao Long Pao.

I ordered the Scallop (Special Xiao Long Pao, RM 12.80) that were served in small aluminium cups. The soup was amazingly sweet.

We also ordered the Meat and also Crabmeat Xiao Long Paos (4 pieces each) which cost RM 8.80 for each. Each was very sweet and juicy.

This time round I ordered the Pockey Mouse Pao which had lotus cheesy filling. It was quite cute to take pics with.

I also ordered the Chee Cheong Fan but it was not that great and a bit too much flour and lacked filling.

The Fish Lamian is handmade was tasty as we like it. Smooth and clear. Nice for a heaty body.

The Prawn Dumplings were as tasty as I remember every time I frequent here whenever I am back in Penang.

I wanted to try the Le Paris Crepe at Hammer Bay but the French chef went back to his country. So I was disappointed as I planned to eat the cheapest and most original crepe in the world! Anyway, just when I was turning back, I noticed the crayfish swimming alive and bomb, I knew I had to have that! They said it costs RM 18 per 100 gram and mine was about RM 27 for 1 small crayfish. 

I had it steamed and it only arrived at 9.40 pm, which meant the cooking took almost 30 minutes! Alright, I might have exaggerated but then as the Spanish said, it is 'mas or menos 30 minutos!' When the crayfish or Udang Lipan finally came, it was steamed perfectly with lime, small chopped cili padi and it was lying on a bed of raw cabbage. The flesh was so succulent and juicy and fresh. After all, at Hammer Bay, all the freshest seafood are sourced directly from the ocean. One can sit facing the ocean and this is what I call pure enjoyment of life. There were not much flesh inside so I sucked most of it with my mouth. Then I drank the entire soup till it was dry! I am a big fan of anything sour and spicy so the soup was done just the way I liked it. It was sweet from the eggs of the crayfish too. I love the sourish sambal belacan too and the best thing was that it was blended smoothly. 

Any seafood by the sea is never complete without drinking coconut juice and they served me a Thai Coconut without me asking as though they knew I liked that type of coconut. The drink was very sweet and fragrant. 

But a note for you, please do ensure you do not come on an empty stomach because the cooking takes a very long time. You can pretend you are on an island relaxing (not a city island like Penang). 

Can you believe it that, being a local Penangite, I have never been to Pulau Tikus Market at night hawker stalls for food? I guess I am too health conscious when I was living in Penang to do that. Anyway, not many Penangites will go hunting for hawker food and would usually settle for normal food near our homes unless we 'lepak' a lot. As for me, I hang out in the tuition centres more than anything! 

Anyway, let's get to business. The first item I ordered when I set foot here was the Deer Satay! I mean, it is not everywhere that you see people selling this! 

The verdict? Extraordinary! The venison meat was awesome! The meat was so succulent, juicy and sweet and not rubbery. 

The chicken meat satay was also delicious. It was my first time eating satay whereby the meat was not oily at all and they have excluded the fats from the stick! 

People say that the best satay can be eaten without the sauce and this stall has lived up to this standard. 

This stall also used paper plate made from environmentally friendly sources instead of the 

In essence, I am not really a satay fan but this stall has succeeded in making me its fan! Bravo! 

I really like Siamese laksa and I have been coming here to eat Siamese laksa every Saturday after my extra curricular activities during my school years. I see the same old auntie serving drinks till today and found out that she is 80 years old. After over 20 years, I find out that this coffee shop belongs to her. 

Eating here is amazing and brings one back a few decades. The tables are old and the kopitiam is inside an old shop lot. The food is also very cheap at RM 3.50 for a char koay teow. 

There were a lot of ingredients inside the laksa like thinly shredded cucumber, fish, onions, pineapples. The soup is thick enough. One can even opt to mix the 'lemak' (what we call siamese laksa soup) with assam laksa soup. I usually like to eat laksa with crispy fried popiah. Here, the popiah has the crisp to the highest degree. Sometimes, there are crispy prawn fritters to be eaten together too. I notice that they also sell delicious looking nasi lemak with a small assam fried fish and lots of other ingredients too.