Another Penang street food that you must try at Cecil Street Market is this Yam Cake. As we know, yam cake is one of the favorite snacks among Penangites especially during the afternoon. Best paired with a cup of Kopi-O as well According to the local here, this stall serves one of the best Yam Cake in town. This cake need to be steamed for some time and need years of experience in order to get a nice piece of cake steamed without any visible bubble on the top. It’s whitish in color and made of yam. The kueh is really smooth and occasionally you may bite on the chunky yam as well. As the cake itself is pretty plain but not till tasteless, it is accompanied with some chilly sauce which is not too spicy. Fried minced garlic are then added as well to enhance the flavor with some scallions and a little bit of chilly slices.

Yum yum!

This is the first time I stepped into Cititel in Penang. In comparison, I think that the hotel here looks much grandeur than to Cititel in KL which is located next to Mid Valley shopping mall. It could be due to its lavish décor of the many sparkling chandeliers.

So here we are, at the oriental restaurant which goes by the name, Zhonghua Gourmet. The dinner kicked off with the first plate served with morsels of bite-sized food with a dainty candle light in the middle. It consisted of jelly fish layered with ham on the top, some pandan leaves-wrapped meat, catchy fishcake and also pork cutlet. Of all the choices, I enjoyed the layered fishcake and the glazing pork meat. The yellowish layer in the fishcake did seem like cheese and some greenish layer wrapped in seaweed. It taste like ordinary fishcake but the outer layer was crispy. As for the latter, the meat was juicy and chewy, thoroughly infused with caramel which makes it a delectable one!Next to join us was Shark Fin soup. Upon arrival, the waiter poured in a certain amount of vinegar into the soup itself before asking any on our opinion. Luckily am still OK with it as some people would not keen on sourish soup. Even me,myself, more than often I would opt to go without it. The soup was a tad salty but not too extreme. There was also this big chunk of crabmeat found in my bowl and it’s fresh and sweet. The meal was later ensued by a plate of Roasted Duck and Fried Chicken fillet in Sweet and Sour Sauce. I enjoyed the latter very much as the fried chicken fillet was crispy albeit topped with savory gravy. The meat itself was juicy too and not too oily as well. Thumbs up! As for the duck meat, the meat seems bit bland; perhaps due to it’s of dry version, so no dipping sauce to accompany with.

Guess what? Am back to Penang again! This time round is meant for the celebration of my nearly half-jubilee best friend, who is getting married on the 8th day of the 8th month of Chinese calendar. Having said so, am still not letting any chance flew by without tasting the local food here before I fly back to KL again, hehe.

So this time we pay a visit to an historical street called Cecil Street or fondly known as 7th street to the local folks here. There is this market that only starts operating at the peak in the afternoon, with many hawkers food ready to tantalize your palette.

One of the favorites here is this Pasembur. It seem like rojak but of Indian version without any fruit, or so I call it, hehe It comes with few disks of prawn fritters which are fried till crispy. Then with slices of juicy cucumber and fried bean curd, they are good to go with savory gravy which looks orangey. It’s not spicy, just a bit starchy with mild sweetness. The ingredients used were fresh and delectable as well. Besides, you could also find a fried flour fritters which bears the taste of meaty –like. Am not too sure what it is made of, but it’s delish though it’s a no-frills thingy. See the smooth jelly fish glazingly dipped in the sauce? ^^Even the crackers are very addictive with fried floury paste Give it a try if you happen to drop by! ^^

Besides the myriad of dim sum selections, one gets to find scrumptious Yong Tau Fu at Town Steamboat Restaurant too. It reminds me of the same fare I had at Seri Kembangan in KL, and I think Penang’s one is taste better! Hehe.. Anyway, just my two cents ya! ^^The vegetables that you can choose from are like bitter gourd, brinjal, lady’s fingers, chilies and many more. They are stuffed with fresh fish paste which is chewy and sweet! I personally favor the stuffed bean curd as the gourd itself is not bitter^^. As for those with sweet tooth, they can have a hand at this Fried Mini Lotus Sesame. Not only it’s crispy on the outside and not oily, it also has the soft inner texture that goes along really well with the lotus paste. When eaten hot, the paste is like melting in your mouth but at the same time, having a different texture of munching the fragrant white sesame layer. It’s so aromatic then even a petite person can finish them all at one go! ^^Having sharing all the little morsels, one can ask for their noodles selection should you looking for something filling. For instance, you could have this Yi Fu Noodle. Am not sure how it’s called in English, but basically it’s a noodle dish woofed up in a combination of vermicelli and noodle. Trust me, this is real good! The different texture of noodle thickness gives out a various level of enjoyment. Springy as they are, and so flavorful since they are stir fried in thick savoury gravy, which is delectable to the taste bud. And I believe one of the best contributor was there were these fried mini lard cubes, which are crispy and aromatic. The accompanied side ingredients were great too! You can find fresh greens, cutlets of chicken, fish and pork topped with fried garlic as well.In addition, you may also love this Cantonese Fried Yee Mee. This dish is drier compared to Yi Fu noodle as the noodle has been deep fried beforehand and there tossed with some thick gravy on it. It comes with generous portion of seafood like fish, prawns and squids. The prawns were exceptionally fresh and succulent, and I just loving it! Slurps………….. ^^Feel guilty after some sinful but enjoyable meal? Fret not! Let’s cool it down with some Pu Er tea perhaps? ^^

In fact, Town Steamboat Restaurant offer guests a myriad of steamed Dim Sum as well. You may get you hand at this, for instance, Siu Mai quite convenient and abundantly available at the pick-and-choose corner. The Siu Mai was soft and hot from stove. Meaty filling was chewy with average fats to be noticed. And great to go with some chilly sauce to enhance the flavor. If this is not satisfying enough, you could then try their Steamed Sweet Turnip Dumpling. Usually they are known as Sengkuang, to the local folks here. This edible root tuber is already sweet by its nature. With some marinates like pepper and salt with some slices of carrot, it’s really savory and flavorful. Should you not get enough hang of it still, let’s get some fried Dim Sum then! ^^ Here we have the all time favorite Fried Yam. It’s crispy on the outside, and melts at the tip of your tongue! It comes with the filling of minced Char Siew in dark sauce wrapped with delicate yam paste. There is still other fried fritters like meat wrapped in Fu Chuk, a.k.a Soya Bean Skin. Personally I enjoyed dipping these fried fritters in mayonnaise! Hehe…