Throw me a friendly stone

Mention Penang to your friends - especially those that are not Penangites - and two things will generally come to their minds; food and island. Cannot blame them I guess, since most of the hype about Penang's salivating hawker's cuisine are focused to those on the island itself... and do not even get me started on friends who were under the impression that Seberang Perai is a province under the Kedah Darul Aman state *facepalm*

Unfortunately, the same cannot be applied for Penangites who reside on the island. After years of gobbling down the same food, over and over again, our taste buds have grown numb. I cannot help rolling my eyes whenever I have enthusiastic friends from other states asking for my recommendations on what are the must-eats whenever they come over for short holidays.

Gurney Drive hawker centre? Lorong Selamat char koay teow? Bah, all these famous food stalls are nothing but overrated due to some cheap publicity they garnered when the state was trying to promote Penang as a food haven. While non-locals throng these food joints like crows to carcasses, we Penangites are always on the hunt for authentic, succulent, traditionally-passed-down-secret-recipe food stalls that have somehow remained hidden from public eyes all these while.

-sigh-

Okay, I might be exaggerating, but the point is, all that is gold does not glitter. It is not always necessary to cross the Penang Bridge over to the island side in order for you to enjoy a good meal. Last Sunday, I tagged along with a few colleagues to Seberang Perai for dinner and since Alan took his DSLR there, I shall take advantage of his photos to make glimpsing much more convenient for those who are lazy - but faithful - to read; you know who you are. :P

Our destination was Ah Yan Seafood Restaurant in Batu Kawan, somewhere near Bukit Tambun. We ordered ten dishes but the photographer did not manage to snap a photo on all of them as his mouth had intermittently taken control over his hands after the third dish was served.


Fried noodle to warm up our growling stomachs.


Spicy balitong to improve your kissing skill.


Calamari tentacles.


Edible frogs pronounced as water chicken in Hokkien.


Lala-chais and lala-muis.


Cut the CRABs!


Barry demonstrating methods to masturbate penis easily peel off the mantis shrimp's shell.


Three innocent souls having a hard time mast... removing the mantis shrimps' shell.


FORKing fried ice creams.

Altough I would not rate all the dishes 10 out of 10, I would still recommend this restaurant since the price was pretty affordable. As we were done with our dinner pretty fast and early, we decided to hit Wai Sek Gai in Chai Leng Park for a few bowls of Chinese dessert (糖水).


Spot the odd one out.

There are many food stalls here with lots of variety to choose from. If you think Gurney Drive hawker centre is heaven, then I guess Wai Sek Gai must be heaven's rooftop... unless you are the type that require lala-chais with bombastic hairstyle or lala-muis in revealing dress to gawk at in between each bite.

I do not intend to turn this into a food blog so I shall stop here before I get myself hungry at this ungodly hour.