I had slept really well and was awake just after 06:30. I read for a bit. Graham woke up just before 07:00. We got up and took turns using the very nice rainfall shower. Then we headed downstairs to breakfast. The breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium had been perfectly nice, but the breakfast buffet at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel was in a different league. It was also a beautiful space. We checked in at the podium outside and were seated. As soon as we had sat down, we were offered hot drinks. We both had a latte. Then it was time to explore the buffet. I have to admit; I found this slightly overwhelming. There was just so much choice. I went to get some juice. To my delight, they had pink guava juice. I had some of this and got some orange juice for Graham. Graham had some cold cuts with salad, fruit, fried egg on toast, oatmeal, and some mini pastries. I was happy to see that they had tinned longans. I also had chicken congee with roasted peanuts, fried shallots, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Then it was time to mix things up a little. I had some dim sum consisting of siu mai and a barbecue chicken bun. Then I checked out the Indian section. I developed a taste for some thin, crispy, and slightly sweet crepes that were supposed to be eaten with coconut chutney, pickles, and vegetable curry. I passed on the chutney and pickles but had a little bit of the curry. I have tried to find out what they actually were but drew a blank. The closest I could get was dosa, which also works in terms of what it is usually served with. However, dosa is described as savoury and slightly tangy and that does not describe what I had at all. I also had some sweet stuff. To my delight, they had a big bowl of kaya with the spreads and jams. I made some toast from a thin slice of baguette and put some butter and kaya on. I tried some kueh, which is a traditional rice cake with a coconut base that comes with all kinds of flavourings. The one I chose was flavoured with pandan leaf. This was not for me. I tasted quite bland and the texture was not to my liking. I finished off my breakfast with a scoop of mango ice cream.
On the way back to our room, I took a photo of the display outside the restaurant that celebrated the 140th anniversary of the Eastern and Oriental Hotel. I also took a photo of our reception. Then we headed back to the room to get changed into our swimwear. I took my iPad as I wanted to read while I was digesting my breakfast. I found a lounger that was underneath the roof and settled down. Graham went straight in the pool. I never made it in the pool that day. Still, I enjoyed just relaxing and reading my book. I also realised that the pool area was the prime spot to watch cruise ships come into port. Once Graham had enough of the pool and had drip dried, we headed back to the room. We both had another shower, got changed and then we headed out exploring.
We had a food tour booked for that afternoon and figured we may as well check out where we needed to go to meet our guide. Graham was hoping to get some sandals. We did not need to walk very far until we spotted the road that would lead us to our meeting spot. There were a lot of the traditional shop houses along this road. It did not take us long to find our meeting point, which was a 7-Eleven convenience store. Once we had found this, we explored the local area a little. Graham was hoping to get some sandals as his Crocs had started to rub. We thought we may be in luck as there were a few shops and also a small market, but it turned out that only hardware was sold in this area. We had previously come across this kind of thing in Hong Kong where only certain goods were sold in a specific neighbourhood. We gave up on this idea for the time being. Graham asked our tour guide later in the day where the best place for getting some sandals would be and she gave us some pointers. In the meantime, we carried on exploring. We came across a shop selling tea and ice cream. We figured some refreshment was in order. We both had some milk and green tea swirl soft serve ice cream. This was delicious and refreshing. At 1 Ringgit (20 Pence) per person, it was also ridiculously cheap.
Once we had finished our ice cream, we decided to take to some of the side streets. We came across some traditional shophouses. I took some photos and then we carried on exploring. We ended up in front of a Chinese temple. I decided that I wanted to check this out. We actually had come across a bit of a gem. The temple in question was Kong Hock Keong, which is also known as the Goddess of Mercy Temple. It was built in 1800, making it the oldest Chinese temple in the state of Penang. Like Thian Hock Keng in Singapore, the temple is dedicated to various Taoist deities and the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Mercy, Guan Yin. Another parallel to Thian Hock Keng is that the temple was originally dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu. The Goddess of Mercy Temple is smaller, but it is still very beautiful. The temple also had a nice courtyard area. We sat down for a while. On the way out, we looked at some displays about the history of the temple, which was very interesting.
Close to the temple was a beautiful mosque, which was open for visiting. I had packed a pashmina just for this kind of reason as I needed a head covering to visit a mosque. Unfortunately, I had left this at the hotel. We never made it back there. Maybe we will manage this when we go back later this year. Something else on the to do list for this year is St. George’s Church, which is a 19th-century Anglican church which is a little bit further up the road from the mosque. Unfortunately, St. George’s Church has really short opening times and was already closed when we got there. We then headed back to the hotel.
We entered the hotel through the Heritage Wing. I showed Graham the little museum I had found the day before by accident. He liked this as much as I did. When we were going past the ballroom, I noticed that the doors were partially open. I had a quick peek as I had read that this is spectacular. A member of staff noticed that I was showing an interest. He invited us to come in to have a proper look. We took him up on the kind offer. Then we headed back to the room where we had some downtime. I had set an alarm just in case, but I managed to stay awake and read. Graham had a nap though. Once the alarm went off, we headed out.
We had booked a food tour through a company called With Locals that matches up customers with local tour guides. One tour they offer in a lot of different places around the world is called 10 Tastings. We have done this in other places and always enjoyed it. As Penang has a reputation for being the street food capital of the world, this seemed to be an obvious choice. Our meeting point was the 7-Eleven convenience store that we had found earlier in the day. We got there a little early. At the advertised meeting time, our guide Lisa joined us. Lisa is originally from Germany, but came to Penang as a backpacker, met her now husband who is from Penang and ended up staying. I could definitely see certain parallels. In the end we decided to do the tour in German. Graham understands quite a lot of German and when we got the sense that Graham was not following then either Lisa, or I explained it in English. This worked pretty well.
Our first stop was a restaurant specialising in Nasi Kandar. This is a bit of local speciality in Penang. It was originally introduced by Tamil Muslim spice traders from India. Lisa explained that the spice trade was not doing as well as the traders had hoped. To supplement their income, they started to cook food using those spices. They were not allowed to open restaurants at the time but cooked the food at home and then sold it on the street and particularly at the port. The meal consists of steamed rice combined with different curries, side dishes, and gravies. At some stage, the restriction on immigrants having restaurants was lifted. Indeed, the restaurant we were visiting was the oldest continuously operating Nasi Kandar restaurant in Penang. It has traded since 1907. It was also decidedly quirky. The area where we went to first was essentially just a takeaway. Near the entrance, somebody cooked a kind of pancake with minced beef, onions, garlic and spices, which is called Murtabah. Lisa told us about the preparation, and I was looking forward to trying this. It turned out this was not what we were there for. Inside the shop was a counter with the ingredients for Nasi Kandar. Lisa had asked ahead of time for food restrictions and preferences, and she picked two different types of rice, beef curry, chicken curry, three different gravies and a cabbage dish, okra, a salad and a green bean dish. When this place started, it was strictly a takeaway operation. However, they realised very soon that people would like to sit down to enjoy their food. Unfortunately, there was no space to expand and the shops on either side where all occupied. They managed to get a shop a few doors down and this is now the seating area. Lisa paid for our food and then we headed to the seating area. She said the food would be brought over. When we got there, our food was already waiting for us. Apart from the food, we also each got a glass of homemade limeade which was made from a local lime, which is smaller than the limes we are used to. This was delicious. I passed on the salad, but I had a bit of everything else. Everything was delicious. I was very surprised that I loved the okra. I had never tried this before and was never tempted.
Once we had finished our food, we headed on to our next destination. Lisa pointed out a few places of interest on the way. This included a husky café. I absolutely love huskies and initially I told Graham that I wanted to go there for my birthday. However, I had a change of heart later on. The climate in Malaysia is not really suitable for huskies, and I did feel sorry for the dogs. When it came down to it, I could not square it with my conscience to support this. Lisa also pointed out various historical landmarks like the old fire station and various different places of worship.
Our next destination was Little India. Their proper street food was on the menu. We stopped at a stall selling samosas, different fritters as well as Indian sweets. Lisa pointed out that they are featured in the Michelin guide. She got a huge samosa, different types of vegetable fritters and two types of Indian sweets for us to share. Then we headed to the stall next door where she got some very delicate pancakes that look like lace and some chicken curry and some dhal for us. This stall had some tables, and we were able to sit down to enjoy our goodies. The samosa was my favourite.
After our visit to Little India, some Chinese food was on the menu. Lisa described where we were going as a night market. We had experienced a night market in Hong Kong in 2019, and I knew that they are very common in Southeast Asia. However, this was an entirely different proposition from what we had experienced in Hong Kong. The setup here was similar to Satay Street in Singapore. A section of street was closed down for the evening and various food stalls appear along with seating. The stalls offer a wide range of Chinese food. We got a plate of Char Kway Teow to share. Lisa was going to get us one each, but by this time we started to feel stuffed and opted to share. Char Kway Teow consists of flat rice noodles that are stir-fried over high heat with prawns, egg, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, and soy sauce. This creates a rich smoky flavour. As Lisa knew that I do not eat seafood, she asked for the prawns to be left out. Prawns would have been OK, but I figured it was easier to just say no seafood. It was really delicious. She also got two different juices for Graham and me to share. She warned us that the first one was an acquired taste. This was made from ambarella fruit, which is known as kedongdong locally, and sour plum. The resulting juice has a flavour that is both sweet and sour with a slight saltiness. I loved this, but Graham was not too keen. He however loved the nutmeg juice that I could take or leave. After we both had a sip of each juice, Graham stuck with the nutmeg juice, and I had the ambarella juice. Penang is a significant producer of nutmeg. However, their local cuisine does not use the seed that we refer to as nutmeg, but only the fruit that is around the seed which is used for a wide variety of sweet and savoury dishes. The juice was made from this fruit.
We had one more stop. We went to cafe that specialises in desserts. There we shared a bowl of cendol. I have seen this around Singapore a lot and was never tempted to try this. It does not look very appetising. I fully expected to have one spoon to be polite and leave it at this. Well, I got a big surprise. This was delicious. Cendol can be found all over Southeast Asia, but each country has its own take on this. The key ingredient is a rice flour jelly that looks like noodles and is flavoured with pandan leaves. Other common ingredients are shaved ice and coconut milk. In Penang, red kidney beans and palm syrup are added. The combination of flavours and textures makes this indulgent and refreshing.
Once we had finished our dessert, it was time to say goodbye to Lisa. She offered to walk us back to the starting point, but Graham said that he knew where we were going. It turned out that we were not far from where we started our tour and from there even, I could have found my way back. I had a quick look at a shop that specialises in handmade gifts in the hope that I would find some gifts for my colleagues, but there was nothing that caught my eye. We then headed back to the hotel where he got ready for bed and soon, we were fast asleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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