One of the great mysteries of eating in Penang is the economics of the hawker center. A group of vendors cluster around a kedai kopi, a cafe serving drinks and work almost independently of the cafe. Some pay rent, others are owned by the cafe, some seem to have agglomerated
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Penang
Jan 11, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 2 Comments
The Wok Hei Economy
Jan 09, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments
Triangulating Gurney Drive
Searing satay at Gurney Drive Hawker Center. Gurney Drive’s Hawker Center is a roughly triangular lot encircled (entriangled?) by the most diverse set of street food vendors that you’ll find anywhere in Malaysia, alongside the mudflat-facing promenade. The road was named after Sir Henry Gurney, Malaya’s High Commissioner whose brief
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Dec 24, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 4 Comments
Assam Laksa: The power of sour
A few years in Southeast Asia has me captivated by sour. I literally can’t get enough tamarind paste. In Cambodia, I’d buy it by the kilo block from the Russian Market and suck the piquant pulp straight from the seeds whenever I felt like an overwhelming sour kick. Lunch without
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Dec 19, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments
Penang street life
Dec 17, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments
Three feet high and rising
Cook me a roti three feet high then slather it in honey and condensed milk. No, really. The above roti tisu (occasionally, “roti tissue”) is both the silliest and tallest thing that I’ve ever attempted to eat and succeeded. It came from the roti grill of Kayu Nasi Kandar, my
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Dec 15, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments
How to eat an island
Roti chanai and kopi (coffee) Sitting at a breakfast of roti canai and kopi, you start to wonder if the roti could be flakier, less oily. If a few more layers of the papery pastry was possible. If only you’d stopped at the neighbouring nasi kandar vendor who will give
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Dec 12, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 4 Comments
Jolly Shandy
“Brewer”: Carlsberg Before people had the option of deadening their palate while getting their booze on with a premixed wine cooler, there was shandy, half beer mixed with half lemonade. It is one of those drinks manages to ruin two otherwise perfect drinks when you make it. I’d first heard
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