Soup or Fried? Why not both?

Two of Penang's Classic Hawker Dishes

I love eating koay teow noodles. These flat-white noodles are so versatile. They can be fried to produce a smokey, savoury noodle dish or stirred into soups for a comforting one-bowl meal.

Here are two of my favourite versions. The first one is beef noodles located at Cafe 2828 in Jalan Perak, George Town. The second one is char koay teow located at the BP Views coffee shop in Balik Pulau.

Beef Noodle Soup

This beef noodle stall is quite famous. There is always a lunch crowd there tucking into a bowl of beefy, savoury broth.

A triple treat of beef soup, beef balls and beef slices

I always order mine with yellow noodles. The eggy, slighty chewy noodles goes well the soft chew of koay teow. Balancing out the rich beefy bowl is a sprinkle of cilantro for freshness. A handful of crunchy bean sprouts is thrown in for texture and bite.

What is good about this stall is the cook is generous with the meat. In addition to two satisfyingly beefy balls 😁😇, there is a good amount of beef slices, still tender to the chew. My guess is they are added raw to the noodles and hot soup is then poured over to gently poach the meat to preserve the tenderness.

What about the soup? It's rich and fortifying as only beef can. Although cloudy, the taste is surprisingly clean and peppery. I like my broths a bit more salty so I added a couple of dashes of soy sauce provided table side.

The same coffee shop also has a stall selling Chinese-style economy rice. Pick out a couple of tender meatballs and crunchy prawn fritters (like I did) to go with the noodles and the world is a good place to be in.

Char Koay Teow

This dish of smokey, greasy (in a deliciously good way), fried noodles is synonymous with Penang. There are many versions, each stall having its own tweak and nuance. Some are smokey, some are wet and soupish, some have blood cockles, some don't. Everyone does it differently.

I stumbled unto this stall recently in Balik Pulau during breakfast with my family. The man manning the push-cart was frying the noodles over charcoal. A rare sight nowadays.

Sometimes the old way is better

A plate quickly arrived after the order was made. Was it good? Yes, it was good. Dark from the caramelized soy sauce and smoky from the charcoal, how could it not be good. Being a sucker for all things pig, I asked for helping of crunchy lard bits to be stirred into the noodles. The cook duly obliged, as a result every bite was a contrast of crunchy porky bits, charred noodles, and fresh beansprouts. Good stuff.

Charred noodles, crispy cake and hot tea, only in Penang

Pair the dish with a serving of fried radish cake from the dimsum stall and wash everything down with a cup of hot tea. Life may not be always good but a breakfast like this is definitely a good start to the day. #makanalls