Hawker Food at Gurney Drive Penang

Gurney Drive Penang is famous for hawker food, 'open air' style. Many locals and Penangites tell me this is not the place to go if you wish to sample genuine and delicious Penang food. I ended up at this place because earlier on my family and I had been enjoying ourselves basking in the beauty of the sunset along the promenade.  By sundown, the place was be very congested which would make it very difficult to find a parking space. The hawker center is just a walk away from where we parked our car.

As expected the place was already very crowded by the time we got there. There were so many stalls but all the tables were occupied. As we walked further in, we noticed that the stalls kind of 'repeat themselves, e.g. if you like asam laksa, there were a few of them, each at a certain distance from each other.

So many choices but what to eat? My SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)
1. Get a seat first.
2. Look around you, observe what others are having.
3. Look at the stalls, check which one has many customers.
4. Select local favourites.
5. If you have a weak stomach, order bottled/canned drinks.

I ordered O-Chien (oyster omelette) which was served on a styrofoam plate. Actually it was self-service style where I had to go to the respective stalls to order, wait for my turn, pay and deliver my own food! There were many people and the seller had no time to deliver the food. It was snatched up by those who stood nearby as soon as it was ready. The O-Chien actually tasted good and we had a second helping.

“Hawker Food at Gurney Drive Penang”, a copyrighted post, was written for Klang, Malaysia Daily Photo blog by Autumn Belle @ http://mymalaysiadailyphoto.blogspot.com/ on Jan 20th, 2011.

This asam laksa with rice noodles was garnished with mint leaves, sliced red onions, cut pineapples, cucumber and best of all were the finely chopped bunga kantan (raw ginger flower buds). Now, Penang laksa will never taste authentic without the bunga kantan. The mackerel fish broth was tasty and tantalising to the taste buds. It was sweet, sour and fiery hot! A spoonful of tasty shrimp paste (hae ko) provided the extra 'oomph'. All of us ordered the Penang laksa and we were already sweating and panting halfway into the dish but don't worry, this is just a normal body reaction to the heat of the bird's eye chili.

This Leng Chee Kang dessert drink has some colourful jelly and floating basil seeds. Oooh, a saviour to my 'injured' tongue.

My son just love this shell fish. Some people like to suck out the flesh but it is also easy to dig it out with a toothpick or dessert fork. Here we were provided with satay sticks to extract the flesh. The dipping sauce should be good in order to enjoy the dish but this one was quite average.

Grilled squids, okra and red onions in hot and spicy sauce. The squids were fresh, hence it tasted good.

Now for some fresh air by the seaside.

And some night views from the promenade.

Rob and Mandy of Barcelona Daily Photo is hosting the Food for Thoughts meme every Thursdays, do join them here.

For more Skywatch Friday Season 4 Episode 28 pictures and to participate, please visit the Skywatch site.