Early the next morning, jetlag made its presence known and dragged us out of bed at 6 am. Being hungry and eager to see whats in store for us, we made our way to Chinatown in search of breakfast. As we walked around, we noticed that most places were still closed. So when we spotted a dim sum cafe with lots of people who to us looked like locals, we knew it couldn’t be a bad place to start the day.
Some of the items we ordered: shrimp cheong-fun with soy sauce, topped with fried garlic and fried shallots I think (awesome! I plan to eat it this way at home from now on!); salted pork and thousand year egg congee which had good flavor; something they called “dai wong bao” which contained sticky rice, bbq pork and chicken on the inside- a different waitress totally upsold us on but it was pretty good so I forgive her!; and my obligatory siu mai which was smaller and less juicy than what I was used to.
There were cooked items for sale at the market as well as fresh fruit. But being full from our breakfast, we only “window shopped” the various offerings. In the middle of the market, there was a couple selling freshly peeled jackfruit. The fragrant smell given off from the ripened fruit stopped us mid-track. Back in Chicago, it is difficult to find fresh jackfruit. Most of the time you find them canned with syrup at asian markets. Not to pass up this opportunity, we bought a bag and snacked on it along the way. The couple selling it also spoke Cantonese and ensured us that many other Hong Kong folks liked jackfruit and this was a good buy. (huh, ok)We walked around for a bit and finally out of the corner of our eyes, we saw signs for cendol. The only problem was that it was across a busy street. I’m not sure if you readers have been to Penang, but traffic laws do not seem to apply or give the right of way to pedestrians. I would venture to guess that there about 10 street lights and perhaps 5 stop signs in the entire city (jk!) You either walk what seemed like a mile to the next stop light or stop sign or you took your chance jaywalking. So, we took a deep breath, mustered up some courage and froggered our way across the street. Phew! We sat down at a 2 person table next to the stall, pointed at the picture poster on the wall and seconds later we were presented with refreshing goodness.
we heart cendol!By this time, the sun was glaringly hot, so the shaved ice with coconut milk really hit the spot. Along with the ice were green jelly noodles and stewed red beans and sweeten with palm sugar. We had cendol every chance we got after this, but none seemed as good as this first stall.
De Tai Tong Cafe
45 Lebuh Cintra
10100 Georgetown
Malaysia
- http://www.blogger.com/profile/12137107546394236989 Cary
- Susan
- http://www.edibleperspective.com Ashley
- Rasa Malaysia
- http://www.what2seeonline.com ck lam