During October, Sarah and I spent just over a week in Penang and Singapore.
While I visited Singapore (ahem) about a dozen times and Penang a few times, it would be Sarah’s first trip to either as an adult.
As we do, we began talking about the food we were looking forward to on this trip months ago—googling lists of the “10 Foods You Must Try In Penang” and the “Best Hawker Markets In Singapore” to refresh our memories. Grant, who wasn’t going and was incredibly jelly, chimed in with his suggestions and “remember whens” or ‘Where did we have that…?”.
Both places are fantastic foodie destinations. Penang is super affordable, and while Singapore has become very expensive over the years, it is still cheap to eat at the hawker markets.
Another great thing? Both Georgetown and Singapore are fantastic walking cities – even with the ever-present heat and humidity. Both of us nailed our step goals each day – probably a good thing when you see what was on offer food-wise!
Anyways, without any further faffing about, let’s eat!
Penang
Breakfast
We stayed at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Georgetown (or the E&O as they call it). Despite the massive array of everything (see below), Sarah and I began each day with a bowl of chicken congee. We giggled like schoolgirls the day we saw one kid with a massive grin on his face hit up the ice cream bar for breakfast.
If you haven’t had congee before, it’s essentially a rice porridge. To that we add soy, sesame oil and spring onions. It’s comforting, gentle on the tum and one of my favourite things to eat.
Food Walking Tour with Simply Enak
Penang is all about street food so we began our time in Penang with a walking food tour through Georgetown. While a few companies offer these, we went with one we’ve used before—Simply Enak. You can find them here.
Designed as a taster of what is available, food tours like this are a great introduction to not just the food and the ingredients used to make it but also the history and culture of the place. Last time we did the tour during the day, but this time scheduled an evening walk around Georgetown. It was raining, but that didn’t dampen our spirits or the appetites of the group we were with.
The three major cultural groups in Malaysia are the Malays, Indians and Chinese – and this tour took in all of them.
Our first stop was for Malaysian… (don’t you just love the hopefulness in the sign below?)…
Michelin-rated samosas at Penang Famous Samosa at a road-side stall in Little India… (sorry, no pic of the samosas, but they were the best we’ve ever had #anotherbigcall.
Another Michelin-rated Indian restaurant for dosai, biryani and puffed puri/poori…
…and a street market down near the clan jetties. By now we were all so full we barely touched what Gary had bought for us all to share.
Our final stop was for a “cocktail”. To be honest I can’t be doing with sugary cocktails or cocktails with fruit and bits and pieces in them, and this was a sangria made with sake that I was “meh” about.
The art in the venue was pretty cool though.
Other than that…
The thing is, not only are Hawker Markets and small street restaurants the cheapest places to eat, but they also have the best local food—and we love them.
In Georgetown we ate at New World Park…
and enjoyed a couple of evenings at Red Garden…
Dumplings at Din Tai Fung – because, well, dumplings …
and amazing Biryani just a block or so away from the hotel.
Singapore
There was no breakfast included in our hotel, so we skipped it each day and went for an early-ish lunch instead. Again, we mostly chose hawker markets and food halls for lunch and dinner. We ate at Maxwell Centre, La Pau Sat, Hawker Chan, and stalls in Chinatown – and because we stayed in Chinatown, we were within walking distance of everything.
We did, however, splurge on a ridiculously expensive cocktail – the ubiquitous Singapore Sling at the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. Why? Because Sarah had never done it before and I last did it in 1992 on my first trip to Singapore with Grant.
The remodelled Long Bar doesn’t have the same feel as the original – even though the original was also a remodelled one – although I was glad to see the peanut shells on the floor are still a thing.
On our final night we also splurged on dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s Bread St Kitchen. I had a go at replicating my meal – onion and cider soup and duck with red curry sauce – for Grant when we got home.
Linking up with Min from Write of the Middle for Wednesday Whimsy and Donna from Retirement Reflections and her co-host Deb The Widow Badass Blog in their #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge.
And Anyways... 
Yum! The photos of the food are making me hungry!!
Ooops sorry… lol…
Jo this post is the perfect advertisement for Singapore. I haven’t been there but you have made me want to jump on a plane right now. Your food photos are amazing.
Thanks – that’s the best sort of comment.
Your pics have me drooling! You and Sarah are living the (my?!) dream! Everything looks so good. Pleased to hear the Long Bar and the peanut shell carpet is still going strong!
Lol, I say the same about your travel pics.
Okay, I just gained 5 pounds just looking at your pictures. We recently visited Vancouver, Canada and enjoyed the abundance of Asian restaurants there. They were fabulous but I’d love to try the real thing in the real place.
We have some great Asian restaurants in Aus – especially in Sydney and Melbourne, but there’s something about eating a cuisine at the source.
It all looks so incredible! I tend to get very overwhelmed when visiting new places and in my hesitation to pick what to try I tend to go without… but that would be a real shame here. Everything looks so darn good!
We do heaps of research beforehand and just go for it!
Wowsers! Phenomenal amount of interesting looking food. You’ve made me want to go to both places despite the fact they aren’t on my list (that many people make me claustrophobic) just to eat food like that! And dumplings!! Ice cream for breakfast? I’d have to walk 50,000 steps to eat all that food!
You should have seen the grin on that kid’s face. Sarah and I felt positively saintly with our congee…
Oh, and our step total for the 8 days away (including 2 days travelling) was over 100,000 steps. We still managed pool time too, so that was an extra win!
Hi, Jo – I absolutely love Singapore and Penang and have been fortunate to have visited Singapore several times (Creighton used to live there). Thank you for taking me back.
Your food photos are descriptions are absolutely amazing.
Thanks so much for linking up to #WOYP. Deb and I greatly appreciate it! ❤
You’re welcome.
Hi Jo, OMG the food!! I am salivating. Your photo’s are so good! I’ve not been to Penang but I have been to Singapore just once. I’ve been to Raffles and had the Singapore Sling. I was visiting my sister who was living as an expat over there at the time. So nice to have you linking up with us at #WWWhimsy – my marinated & butterflied chicken and roast veggies don’t seem so great for dinner tonight all of a sudden! lol xo
Penang is so interesting. Plenty of history and culture.
Ah Jo, you’ve done it again. Travel and Food = blog post extraordinaire.
You make a great case for doing this kind of travel and I can see why you love it.
Denyse #TeamWWWhimsy
Walking and eating – the best way to experience a place…
Oh it all looks so love!y!
Jo your photos showcase the delicious food and I love the idea of the Food tour. Unfortunately, I would have to go solo to Singapore as both times Mike and I have visited he found the humidity stifling. As Jennifer Jones said your post was a great advertisement to travel to both Malaysia and Singapore. Perhaps another writing string to your bow as a food/travel writer on the side. LOL 🙂 #WWWhimsy
The humidity is feral!
Hi Jo, I love the food in Penang and Singapore. I was fortunate to have visited Penang and Singapore a few times. Singapore is my favourite stop when I travel in South East Asia. Your food photos are amazing. Now I’m dreaming of food at a hawker market for dinner. #TeamWWWhimsy
It’s a city to keep coming back to for sure.
I was thrilled when I saw this would be a foodie post, Jo. Your photos are always mouth-watering! Now I want dumplings though!
A foodie’s paradise! And “probably the best satay”? 😂 Thanks for putting a smile on my face on an otherwise gloom-filled day of terrible news from the USA.
Deb
You’re welcome…
You have a way of capturing the essence of both Penang and Singapore with your words and photos Jo. Loved it all – and you really could add this travel/food writing to your bow!!
#TeamWWWhimsy
you are the official expert on Asian food. I would have no idea where to start, especially in the hawker markets