GEORGE TOWN, Aug 14 — Fluffy pau with a delicious char siew filling, fragrant sticky glutinous rice cooked with chicken, mushroom and Chinese sausage, succulent bite-size morsels of minced meat and shrimps wrapped in thin, rice flour skin, flakey egg tarts and tasty braised chicken feet.
A meal of dim sum is as varied as it is delicious and utterly satisfying with a choice of steamed, braised, deep-fried and baked items of all types, from the savoury to the sweet.
Believed to have originated from Canton and Hong Kong, dim sum is similar to the Spanish tapas where portions are small, almost like snacks, except dim sum is usually served for breakfast, not as appetisers or snacks.
A majority of the ethnic Chinese in Penang may be Hokkiens but dim sum restaurants and yes, even roadside dim sum stalls, are common.
Cantonese fare such as dim sum and sar hor fun (typically called char hor fun in Hokkien) adds another dimension to the predominantly Nyonya flavours of Penang food, especially when some of these have evolved over time, the flavours changing to reflect the cultural mix that makes up the island state.
One of these has to be the dim sum stalls at hawker centres, pasar malam (night markets) and during festivals.
One no longer needs to go to a dim sum restaurant in the mornings for some siew mai, char siu pau, har gao or lor mai kai as these stalls can be found in the evenings; so now dim sum can be eaten at supper or as a late night snack.
Here are some of our favourite places to get dim sum in Penang:
Hawker stalls, Padang Brown, Johor Road
GPS: 5.414654, 100.318154
Time: 3pm-11pm
This stall only sells the few basic types of dim sum: char siew pau, har gao, hoo uan (fish balls), lor mai kai (glutinous rice with chicken) and several types of siew mai. The stall sets up at the afternoon portion of hawker stalls near the junction with Jalan Datuk Keramat before moving to the night stalls at the other end of the road near the junction with Anson Road at night.
Roadside stall, Presgrave Street
GPS: 5.411141, 100.330528
Time: 7pm-11pm
This stall is located right outside the coffee shops, by the roadside and it is very easy to spot due to the large bamboo steamers. This stall also offers the most basic types of dim sum and the best part is, you can order some of these as appetisers and enjoy the other hawker fare offered at the coffee shops and along the road.
Wednesday night market, Medan Angsana, Bandar Baru Air Itam
GPS: 5.390056, 100.283139
Time: 7pm-10pm
This is another stall offering only a few types of dim sum: pau, siew mai, har gao, fish balls and ma lai ko (steamed brown sugar cake). Their specialty is their fluffy soft and fragrant ma lai ko and instead of selling mass-produced siew mai, har gao and fish balls, they make theirs from scratch.
Zai Hui Lai Restaurant, Fortune Court, Thean Teik Road
GPS: 5.398291, 100.287559
Time: 5.30am-2.30pm
Located within the residential area of Bandar Baru Air Itam or Farlim, this restaurant is one of the popular ones frequented by local dim sum connoisseurs. This is the place for your yum cha sessions with a whole range of reasonably priced dim sum from the basic pau to the likes of braised pork ribs, salted egg porridge and Hong Kong-style chee cheong fun.
Yee Heong Restaurant, Campbell Street
GPS: 5.417101, 100.335628
Time: 6am-2.30pm, 5.30pm-9.30pm
This restaurant, located within the Heritage Zone, has been around for at least three generations and it is one of the old-style typical Cantonese restaurants that sells dim sum in the morning and chu char (rice with custom order dishes) for lunch and dinner. Here, their dim sum is more traditional with more pork dishes and they are also open to other orders such as fried noodles, sang mee (crispy noodles), to go along with the dim sum.
