Foodie Start (Batu Ferengi and Georgetown ~ Penang)

August 2019

In order to wind down properly from work we like to start our long trips with a beachy break - in this case Penang in Malaysia. Plus if we are being honest we no longer have the stamina to handle a straight through flight from New Zealand to England.

Malaysia has always been one of our favourite places to visit (having lived there for a couple of years we have acquired a taste for the food and the culture). This time we opted for Penang - primarily due to it's  reputation of being the foodie capital of Malaysia.

The first week there we stayed in Batu Ferengi and it involved a reasonable amount of time on the sunbeds, swimming and checking out of the local food centers - of which there were numerous.

One dish in particular we were after was the Penang version of the Laksa. This version is a hot and sour soup with noodles and flaked mackerel (very different from the Sarawak style that we used to eat).

Laksa Penang

A short bus ride from Batu Ferengi are some spice gardens. Tend to visit these whenever we are ravelling in hot countries as there is always something new and interesting to see (and taste). The first such plant was the Bat-Lilly (ok hands up everybody who just thought "Na na nana na Bat-Lilly!").

Bat-Lilly

Also interesting, but not edible, was the fruit of the fish killer plant. So called as the locals used mash up the fruit and dump it into the streams. The result was dead fish ready to be harvested.

Fish Killer Fruit

And definitely not edible was this particular flower in the medicinal section. 

^

The sign beside was 

From Batu Ferengi we headed into the historic heart of Georgetown - the capital of Penang. The historic heart as lots of buildings date back a 100+ years (and a lot have been renovated as upmarket hotels,  restaurants  and shops). The only downside is that the streets are very narrow and it is not very pedestrian friendly.

Street art in various forms is a major feature of Georgetown with some local artists working along recurring styles/themes I. E. Steel work, local life and cats. A few of our favourites:

On side of stilt house along the clan piers.

Best laksa spot in town

Coffee culture has come along way since when we lived in Kuching

Lastly one of the things Penang was famous for, in the past, was nutmeg. It was once the major source of nutmeg world wide. Nowadays not so much but we did find a new tasty treat -  Nutmeg Syrup made from the concentrated juice of the fruit of the nutmeg tree.

Nutmeg Syrup

From here we headed to Dubai for a couple of nights where the temperature ranged from a low of 37 to a high of 45 (didn't stray far from the hotel swimming pool) and then onto the UK.