BEYOND GUIDEBOOKS: PENANG CULTURE- LOCAL HOMEMADE SWEETS

Chinese pastries in Penang

BEYOND GUIDEBOOKS: PENANG CULTURE- LOCAL HOMEMADE SWEETS

Because of its multi-cultural heritage, Penang offers an amazing variety of delicious, homemade local sweets: Indian, Malay, Chinese, and others. Most are made in little bakeries and pastry shops on Georgetown’s side roads.

Yet I rarely see any western tourists eating these delicious sweets! I suspect it’s simply because guidebooks don’t mention them. Apparently, not many travelers are curious enough or brave enough to discover them or try them without a guidebook ‘stamp of approval’ ? Pity, really, because these sweets are super tasty and they’re located right in the heart of Georgetown’s heritage district.

Malaysian sweets-kue- Georgetown Penang

Recently, I’ve been hanging out in Penang for two months, wandering down all its little alleys, searching for local culture, and observing daily street life. Not surprisingly, I’ve found loads of great stuff that’s not even mentioned in guidebooks. I’ve discovered so many little bakeries, sweets shops and stalls that I’ve written this: an entire article detailing the location of 8 shops around Georgetown.

Next time you visit Penang, dig into Georgetown’s real culture and try these out:

Malaysian sweets ‘kue’

Sweets stall- Jalan Chulia- Penang

Street stall 1–

location: among the famous Jalan Chulia street stalls near 7-11

opening hours: evenings from about 7 pm-11 pm

prices: 1-1.20 RM

Rice balls with red bean paste or peanuts- Penang

Glutinous rice balls filled with red bean paste or peanuts, then rolled in sesame seeds. This stall is so popular that there’s often a thick crowd patiently waiting for the next batch to roll out of the deep frying wok, while the owners try furiously to keep up with demand.

Despite this stall being located smack in the middle of Jalan Chulia’s famous evening street stalls, I never see any westerners buying or eating these delicious snacks. So odd!

Malaysian sweets stall- Penang

Street stall 2–

location: corner of Jalan Kimberly and Jalan Sungai Ujang

opening hours: evenings from about 7 pm

prices: 0.70-1 RM

Malaysian sweets-kue- Penang

Soft, moist glutinous rice cakes filled with either peanuts, yellow bean paste, or coconut. Glutinous rice balls filled with brown sugar mixture. And a variety of colorful Malaysian ‘cakes’ (something like firm pudding) We’re talking purple, yellow, green, and pink. Each has a different flavor.

This little stall rolls in at dusk and sets up right on the corner, beside the newspaper stall. The owner is noticeably unfriendly, but just ignore him and picked out your sweets. He speaks enough English to tell you want each item is.

Chinese pastries

Ng Kee Cake Shop- Penang

Ng Kee Cake Shop

location: on Jalan Sungai Ujang, halfway between Jalan Kimberly and Jalan Chulia.

Opening hours: early morning to late evening

Prices: 0.80-1.50 RM

This is a walk-in shop with baked pastries in large glass display cases. The outer shell of these pastries is like western pie pastry. Insides are filled with yellow bean paste, red bean paste, or coconut paste. Be warned that they are very dense, rich, and filling.

Leong Kee Tim Sum Restaurant- Pena

Leong Kee Tim Sum Restaurant

location: on the corner of Jalan Pintal Tali and Jalan Kimberly

opening hours: 5am- noon daily

prices: 0.70-1.50 RM

Dim Sum pastries- Penang

This is a fantastic Dim Sum restaurant that’s packed with local Chinese Malaysians every morning. In addition to the ‘main dish’ dim sum selections, they have an entire cart of Chinese pastries that is pushed around the restaurant for guests to select from. Pop in to Leong Kee one morning, sit down, order a pot of Chinese tea, and wait for the rectangular sweets cart to arrive at your table, then pick and choose at will. Staff might know enough English to tell you what each item is, or not. Fun!

Chinese pancake & steamed rice cake stall- Penang

Chinese ‘Pancake’ Stall 

location: on the corner of Lebuh Campbell and Jalan Sungei Ujang

opening hours: evenings from about 7-11 pm

prices: 0.70 RM

Chinese pancakes- Penang

This stall, beside a Chinese Medicinal Tea stall, sells what they call ‘pancakes’. In truth, these deep fried treats taste more like donuts. Three varieties include red bean paste filling, sticky rice filling, and salted. They also sell steamed glutinous rice cakes, which are rather favorless and spongy. Finally, they also have fried rice balls with red bean or peanut filling, rolled in sesame seeds.

Chinese donuts shop- Penang

Chinese ‘Donuts’ Shop

location: on Jalan Sungei Ujang, across from Ng Kee Cake Shop

opening hours: noon-7 pm

prices: 1.2o RM

Chinese crispy salty snacks- Penang

I haven’t tried these deep fried snack sticks yet, but the owner tells me they are crispy and salty. Oh, sounds more like a potato chips snack! She says customers eat them any time of day with coffee or rice porridge.

Indian sweets shop- Penang

Indian sweets

location: several Indian restaurants and one sweets-only shop along Lebuh Penang street, central Little India

opening hours: all day, many 24 hours

prices: 0.80-3 RM

Indian sweets- Penang

Most of the Indian restaurants in Little India serve a selection of sweets, usually displayed in big glass cases at the front. Just wander along Lebuh Penang street, find some sweets that looks good, go inside, and have a tasty snack of sweets and teh tarik (sweet Indian milk tea with foam on top). Be warned that Indian sweets are generally extremely sweet- could we say ‘cloying’? White ones are usually milk flavor.

sweets shop in Penang

Hong Kong specialties

location: corner of Jalan Carnavron and Lebuh Kimberly / close to Armenia St and Penang morning market.

opening hours: early mornings until about 5-6 pm

prices: 0.80-1.20 RM

Hong Kong pastries- Penang

Don’t let the look of this little shop put you off! Although it looks like a dirty, ramshackle ghetto shop, the sweets are so tasty that most mornings the place is crowded with customers waiting in line.

Steamed green tea cakes, fried glutinous rice balls with peanuts or red bean paste, and coconut tarts are among their daily selections. All are baked or fried right on the premises.

For more Penang culture, check out my posts on Pinang Peranakan Mansion,  Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion and 10 Free Things to do in Penang

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I hope you liked this round-up of Penang’s local sweets and, even more, I hope you try some when you visit Georgetown. cheers, Lash

QUESTIONS:

Have you had any local Asian sweets? If so, where and what? What are your favorites?

If not, would you like to try some? Which ones sound best to you?

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