Kimberly Street Char Koay Teow
August 24, 2006 | Filed in: food,Penang,review

“This articicle was originally posted on Aug 24, 2005 (1 year aniversary) and was lost due to Host HDD crash. I reporduce it here from my original draft.”

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Being a Char Koey Teow (Fried Flat Rice Noodle) myself, I could not resist the temptation of trying out Lilian’s Favourite Char Koey Teow stall at Kimberley St. The stall was easy to find, mainly because I know where Kimberley and Cintra St is. Arriving there at 6pm, I was worried if the stall was open that early, and truly the guy was just getting ready and was frying the prawns. The sign at his stall suggest small plat @ RM2.20 and large @ RM2.80. I ordered a “koey teow mee without chilies’ for my wife and a regular “koey teow” for myself. He then asked if we want to “kar lieu” (add ingredients) and we figured why not.

We then settle ourself at the coffee shop where the stall is located infront of and ordered our drinks, a Milo Ice and a Coffee Ice. The drinks came to Rm2.50 and I thought to myself, boy, it was like yesterday where Milo ice was RM1 and Coffee Ice was just RM0.80, is this the result of the fuel price increase? Life will be tough ahead. The atmosphere of the location gives the urban living feeling. Everyone at the area seams to know each other and goes about gossiping the days news. There were also some tourist flooding the area, mainly because Kimberley St. is located a couple of blocks away from the “Backpacker’s lane” Chulia St. Within minutes, the Koey Teow came, first look was a little disappointing.

The one without chilies looked pale white and without life and mine looked reddish (normal). We immediately dig in and found nothing special about the taste. Different people loved different kind of Koey Teow and mainly because there are different kinds. I love the types that have lots of carbon in it (probably cancerous, but I loved it) and dislikes the ones that are wet and drenched with soya source. For this, the koey teow was drenched in chili source and there was nothing special to it. Maybe if the koey teow was left overnight in the refrigerator, it might taste better (my personal method to make dull fried koey teow taste good).

The Koey Teow mee was even worst, lacking of chili, which made the taste, the entire dish was blend and almost tasteless. It was the fried prawns and mantis that saved the dish from going into the gutter. The prawns were fresh and loaded. My first impression when the plates arrived was “Wow” that was a lot of prawns. Then I remembered oh ya, it was extra ingredients, no wonder the portion was so generous. When we were done, we were shock when the koey teow price was RM11.20 total. Wow, RM5.60 for each plate, and we did not enjoyed it at all. Well, I don’t have any regrets as Fried Koey Teow was my favorite hawker food. Trying out this place is just like exploring for hidden treasures, it is just that we did not found any. My wife commented that “the Fried Koey Teow in Malacca (where she is from) is the best, nothing in Penang has ever matched it yet” and I do agree with her. For me, Taiping (Where I am from) Fried Koey Teow is the best.

I heard there is another “Great” Fried Koey Teow at Mackalister Rd called “Sisters Fried Koey Teow”, not the one at Selamat Lane, and that would be my next destination to search for the “Best” Fried Koey Teow in town.

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