Continuing on my Penang food trip, we swiftly checked into hotel and gave my ex-roommate for a meet up which unfortunately too late for lunch and too early for dinner. Luckily, ZL’s aunt and uncle were very accommodating to our late visit to their coffee shop.

Toon Leong Coffee Shop

Although I am more of a lover for Arabica beans, once in a while I wouldn’t mind a taste of Robusta especially the rustic aroma in form of Hainanese coffee, thick and fragrant with hint of sourness.

We went further down the memory lane with a couple of bread toasts paired with not-too-sweet homemade kaya (coconut jam) and half boiled eggs.

Move over, half-boiled eggs from mamaks, these half boiled eggs are fresh and without the eggy stench.

These wooden partitions are something I have not found in Klang Valley nor Batu Pahat for a long time, unless you count the Mong Kok Char Chan Teng’s modern version in.

Night Food Market at Chulia Street

We had a satisfying dinner here in 2013, so no doubt that we returned to roam this street again. This is a place to come if you wish to sample different Penang delights at the same time, so bringing the more friends, the merrier it will be. Finding a seat can be a painful task so the catch here is, to come before 7 pm, the ‘official’ dinner time for most Malaysian. One thing to note that, this street is not your usual almost-considered-clean asian foodcourts. We were seated at a dark corridor with the risk of water from air compressor unit dripping on our heads.

Here are our picks:

Wanton Noodles

Unlike the version in Klang Valley, the noodles were less starchy taste and firmer, topped with reddish lean char siew and the ultimate sourish green chilies. Seriously, any wanton noodles is never complete without the green devils. The char siew were made red with, unfortunately, some colorings and then steamed instead of roasted. How do I know this? Because they look and taste exactly the same as Batu Pahat’s char siew.

Curry Mee

Curry mee is highly popular in Penang. Even though the curry was more toned down with lesser coconut milk, the accompanying fish balls, fishcakes, cockles and cuttlefish adds to its superb taste.

Char Koay Teow

This time, the char koay teow did not meet our expectation. It was salty, charred and simply lack the wok hei. Better luck next time.

Fried Pastries

We like to call it fate, but in reality, it’s the gluttony that made us attracted to a stall selling kinds of deep fried pastries. All the names of the pastries were my rough translation. The Yam Cake won our hearts with its char siew and carrot filings wrapped in fried mashed yam.

The Chulia Street intersects with Love Lane, a street where the rich Chinese men used to keep their mistresses. But that was a long time ago, I think?

Going down the Love Lane and you might meet a few coffee shops to cure your caffein addiction.

Or your alcohol need.

Our night, of course did not ended there but with a after meal coffee break. Between Wheelers and Mugshot, we chose the latter simply because we wanted to take our mug shots and ..

and a weird calm view like this:

and the bird fossil display

and the big spider which we can nonchalantly look at it without worrying it will jump on us.

The coffees proved to be less interesting than the spider because the milk foam were too dry. Yes, I am that particular about my latte.