Penang's #1 Street Food...

Char Koay Teow

Before I continue writing what I want to write, I have something to say. Creating a list of delicious food is up to the individual. For example, CNN's World's 50 Most Delicious Foods list created an uproar in our newspaper. Malaysia and Singapore were fighting over why Singapore's chicken rice was listed at the 45th position. If it was Penang's Chicken Rice then definitely we will score higher. But I guess those in the team doing this survey has a sour tastebud. Therefore, I choose not to fight over which food is the best. Penang street food is the best and McJu's burger line comes first. Thus, I have come out with my own list of food, up to my liking... not open for condemnation because it's silly to argue with another soul over which food tasted the best. I like what I like, you like what you like... we have a world of preference.

Let me give you a clear view of how tedious it is to prepare street food. It's dirt cheap. Seriously, a bowl of prawn noodles for the amount of RM3 is so cheap. If I'm the one selling to you, I won't know how much I'm going to sell to you as I've worked like a buffalo in the paddy field ploughing through the soil. It's really hard work, if you don't believe me try it out yourself. Cockles. Blanch them in hot water and then use another cockle shell to open the rest. It's like using diamond to cut diamond. I'm blessed because the hypermarkets sell cockles that have been removed off their shells. That made my day easier. You'll need the prawns. You can't by the frozen de-shelled prawns and plese de-vein your prawns. It's kinda disgusting looking at those black intestines on the prawns. You can't get the frozen pre-packed prawns because you need to blanch them in hot water and the sweet prawny water will be used to make the sauce. I pounded my own chilli boh with so many dried chillies. Dried chillies don't come expensive. Then, I need another hand to blanch the ricecake strips in hot water so that they won't stuck into a ball. By the way, I kept the prawn shells for another dish that I will write about later in Penang's #2 Street Food. I have no liking for Char Koay Teow so it's good enough that I took the effort to fry plate by plate and I made at least 12 plates and I lose all appetite after seeing so much koay teow in one day. This is the Malay style char koay teow. It's wet and I prefer it that way. I've never enjoy the Chinese-style chokingly dry and oily koay teow. I get Lindt in exchange of a plate of char koay teow. Thank for those pieces of chocolate.