GEORGE TOWN, June 7 — Crunchy and deep fried to a golden brown, the Chinese style variety of deep-fried crullers is great for an afternoon snack or perfect with coffee in the mornings.

The most common is the yu char kuih, Hokkien for deep-fried crullers; plain with just the slightest tinge of saltiness, they go perfectly in a bowl of plain porridge or even on its own.

Locally, it is quite normal for the yu char kuih, also known as yau char kwai or deep-fried devils in Cantonese, to be eaten with a cup of local kopi o (black coffee) or even as it is.

Stalls selling these crunchy snacks often offer a variety of other deep-fried snacks, namely the ham chin peng, hua chni and tho tau kuih.

These deep fried snacks are a testament of a snack born from our intermingling society and different clans.

Ham chin peng, translated to mean salty fried biscuit in Cantonese, are round and puffy which usually come in three differerent variants; plain and salty, with a red bean paste filling or with sweet sticky glutinous rice.

The hua chni, which is Teochew for deep-fried snack, is also known as the butterfly crullers due to its shape. It is two pieces joined together to form a butterfly shape.

The butterfly crullers are almost like the smaller, shorter version of yu char kuih but that’s where the similarities end as it is sweet where the yu char kuih is salty and savoury.

As for the tho tau kuih, which means peanut snack in Hokkien, this is not as commonly found as the yu char kuih or ham chin peng.

Shaped like a small round hat with roasted peanuts sprinkled on top, this is another deep-fried crunchy snack that is savoury and best eaten with some chilli sauce.

These deep-fried snacks are quite easy to find as there are many hawker stalls all around the island frying these up from morning till evening.

Sink your teeth into these crunchy snacks at these stalls in Penang:

Hup Kee Restaurant, Jalan Burmah GPS: 5.432526,100.31057 Time: 2pm-5pm

Jalan Paya Terubong Roadside GPS: 5.400032,100.277973 Time: 5am-11am

Lebuh Cecil Market GPS: 5.407677,100.328779 Time: 12pm-5pm

Jalan Perak Roadside GPS: 5.398309,100.314853 Time: 1pm-6pm

Kedai Kopi Lau Yu, Jalan Tembikai, Bukit Mertajam GPS: 5.365034,100.444863 Time: 1pm-5pm