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* Published in HungryGoWhere Malaysia Food Guide: HUONG QUE VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT @ Penang

With lots of factories in Penang employing Vietnamese workers, more and more Vietnamese restaurants are popping up on the little food paradise island. The latest would be Huong Que Vietnamese Food located a stone throw away from the Penang Times Square. Quietly tucked within one of the colonial-style houses along Lebuh Melaka, Penang, you could find the humble restaurant bustling with regulars. As it’s quite a normal practice in Penang that if you see crowds, the food must be good. Well indeed, the dishes served here are very homely style and at times you could find some exotic choices too. The menu here could be quite simple. However, there would be a photo album menu for you to choose your meal since most of the items are labeled in the Vietnamese language. All prices are nett.

The first thing to check out at any of the Vietnamese restaurants would be the quality of their signature Huong Que Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodles – RM8.70). I’m impressed with their rich stock which has obviously gone through many hours of simmering. It had sweet and flavor spices-spiked boney rich flavors with some magical touches of their fish sauce. The noodles’ texture was silky smooth with the right al dente. The portion served was also quite huge with generous amount of beef slices for the price paid. Each set would come with a basket of fresh basils, bean sprouts and a slice of lime. This is the far best pho I had taken in Penang.

Alternatively, for those non-beef takers, you can always opt for their Hu Tieu Gio Heo (Vietnamese Pork Noodles – RM8.70). The taste is almost similar to that of the local Koay Teow Th’ng but with the extra fragrant from their added fish sauce. The big bowl of noodles would come with some minced meat balls, bean sprouts, prawns and some innards. You can always request to omit the innards since most Vietnamese dishes would surely have them.

Another item in their menu would be quite exotic for the palate of major diners but it could be the staple food of another. That would be the Hot Vit Lon (Boiled Fertilized Developing Embryo Duck Egg – RM3.00 each) or also known as Balut. These commonly found street food of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Philippines are quite rare in Penang. I was having the phobia of consuming something not in my daily diet. However, being a food writer, it’s a must to try out anything that’s edible. I would say, the outlook could be quite deceiving as the taste was something like a boiled hard-boiled egg with distinctive duck flavors, though some parts could have a bit of oozy raw aftertaste. Basically, it’s more like chewing the cartilage of a stingray, which was not too bad. The duck egg came with a condiment of pounded chilies, some spiced salt and lime. My advice would be to consume the Balut while it’s warm plus the provided condiments to prevent the strong flavors of rawness from emitting further. For those courageous newbies, quickly pop it into your mouth with as much sauce as you could, give it a few fast chews before swallowing the mass and do ignore the sneaking suspicion that your tongue might detect faintly the fibrous tickle of feathers. Try not adding in the basil leaves as it would require more chews. To the natives of those countries, Balut can be considered a natural source of Viagra to prove your manliness. Is it? LOL~

Huong Que Vietnamese Food | Address: 37 Lebuh Melaka, 10400 Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. | Tel: 604-228 8727 | Opening hours: 12.00pm-11.00pm (Closed on Tuesdays) | GPS Coordinates: 5.413001, 100.323058 | Non-Halal

HungryGoWhere (HGW), Singapore’s most popular food website and mobile app, with the support of SingTel Digital Media Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), which had made their grand entry into Malaysia by setting a new record of “The Longest Line of Nasi Lemak Bungkus” in the Guinness Book of World Records on 24 August 2013, had organized their first ever food trail in Penang yesterday. A group of HungryGoWhere Malaysia mobile application users and bloggers were privileged enough to be invited to join in the fully sponsored eating trip to discover some of the best eateries in Penang. Moreover, everyone was also blessed to have the best weather throughout the whole week for the excursion during this wet season.

The event started with the invited participants gathering at the lobby of Traders Hotel Penang as early as 8.30am. Thereafter, everyone was briefed on the social media sharing procedures by the two beautiful HGW community managers, Shing and Hanis.

We were then directed into two comfortable 12-14 seaters chattered vans to start out our new adventure.

The first eatery we visited for some delicious snacks was the Tan Jetty Fried Fritters, hidden within the vicinity of the Tan Jetty along the historic stretch of Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay). You can check out the video on the history of the clan jetties here. Basically, the little shed along a small lane into the Tan Jetty here served 3 types of delicious fritters namely Loh Bak (Pork Roll), Prawn Fritters and Bean Curd Fritters. Their homemade chili sauce which consisted of blended red chilies, lime juice, sugar and salt was the perfect condiment to enhance more flavors.

The next stop was for breakfast. Hidden below a government flat was a small eatery named I Mum Mum, managed by a husband & wife team. Their pan mee noodles have the al dente that excels above others of the same trade. Notably, their Crispy Pork Pan Mee, Spicy Pan Mee and dumplings are the most sought after dishes by the locals. We had our options of Dry Pan Mee, Pan Mee Soup, Crispy Pork Pan Mee and Spicy Pan Mee here.

After some basic starters, the real adventure began. We continued our journey for lunch over to Mainland Penang towards Pulau Aman, a 288 acres island, 25 nautical miles away from the mainland, to savor more goodies. At the Batu Musang Jetty prior to embarking onto a sampan ride to the island, the participants had an awesome panoramic view of Pulau Aman as well as the some nice views of the two Penang bridges. The sampan ride to the island was the first experience for many of the participants. Upon arrival on the island, we were directed to the Pulau Aman Floating Restaurant, a much sought after restaurant on the island, notably for its fresh seafood. We had Mee Udang Goreng, Mee Udang Kuah and Nasi Goreng Udang with a number of succulent fresh white prawns. After lunch, we had a nice stroll around the island to experience the lifestyle of the fishing villagers. Some of us managed to savor some deep fried breadfruit fritters (Buah Sukun Goreng) as the plant is quite in abundance on the island. The fruit has the texture of tapioca with a hint of jack fruit flavor.

After some rest on Pulau Aman, we adjourned back to Penang Island for tea time. This time, we went over to savor the much acclaimed Assam Laksa at the Farlim Shell Station Laksa Café, in the heart of Farlim, Penang. Each bowl of the Assam Laksa would come with a whole boneless Ikan Kembong (Indian Mackerel), so fresh that you could still see the glitters on its body. On top of that, we also did try out their famous Spring Rolls, Fish Crackers, Steamed Buns with BBQ Meat, Ice Kacang, Cendul and a mix & match dessert called See Koh Th’ng.

Well, it’s always the best for last when we ended up at Zi Zai Restaurant for our dinner. Their signature dish would be their Poon Choi aka Basin Feast, a basin filled with 14 ingredients such as meat (Nam Joo Pork Belly, Hainan Chicken, Roasted Duck) seafood (Abalone, Prawns, Hock Chew Fish Balls, Fish Maw, Sea Cucumber, Fish Fillet) and vegetables (Cabbages, Yam, Jicama, Broccoli, Chinese Mushroom) on a stove to be shared amongst 10-12 pax. What we had was a small sized Poon Choi with additional add ons which cost about RM328nett. All the participants were eagerly digging into the Poon Choi for more hidden treasures. LOL! It was also the first time experience for most of the participants to try out this “basin” of scrumptious delicacy. On top of that, we were also served with old days’ favorite dishes where they were at their simplest best. The dishes included Assam Prawns, Stir Fry Sambal Lala, Deep Fried Belacan Chicken, Stir Fry Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish and Stir Fry Yao Mak (Baby Romaine Lettuce). It was so far the best experience the participants had to rekindle old memories.

The fun and joyful moments of the whole Penang Food Trail did not stop there. Everyone went home with some souvenirs, namely a notepad and a multi-usage pen courtesy of HungryGoWhere Malaysia.

In fact, two lucky winners went home with a unit of imported 12000mah Powerbank each, another surprise lucky draw session held by HGW Malaysia. Both the prizes were presented by the two HGW Community Managers, Shing and Hanis respectively.

The whole event ended after more than 11 hours of fun-filled eating. 😛 This food trail was organized by HungryGoWhere Malaysia – Discover, Eat, Share today!

About HungryGoWhere Malaysia: You can download the HungryGoWhere Malaysia mobile app through IOS (version 5+) or Android (version 4.0+) or pay a visit to their website at www.hungrygowhere.my. Being a nation with rich and diverse food culture, HGW Malaysia users would get to gain new experiences in searching, discovering and locating the best dishes and eateries within a 10-30km radius. It would even be greater if you were to register yourself as one of the many users, a smart move to leave your tracks behind to recommend more new eateries to other users. After all, HGW Malaysia is a platform by users, for users, to archive pure and unbiased recommendations.

Here’s a short video of the 11 hours plus excursion in 110s~ 🙂

If you ask any of the Malaysians what would be their most frequently consumed dish throughout any time of the day, it would always be the Nasi Lemak Bungkus, a packing of coconut milk steamed rice, with egg and nicely spiced up chili gravy.

HungryGoWhere (HGW), Singapore’s most popular food website and mobile app, with the support of SingTel Digital Media Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), made a grand entry into Malaysia by using Nasi Lemak Bungkus in an attempt to set a record in the Guinness Book of World Records at Sunway Pyramid Ice (Skating Rink) yesterday.

HungryGoWhere Malaysia managed to seal the record by arranging 11,315 packets of Nasi Lemak Bungkus in their attempt to set “The Longest Line of Nasi Lemak Bungkus”, verified by Guinness World Records adjudicator, Ms. Carim Valerio.

The official certificate was handed by Guinness World Records adjudicator, Ms. Carim Valerio to Singtel’s CEO, Mr. Allen Lew, who represented HungryGoWhere Malaysia, witnessed by local celebrity actress, Ms. Nora Danish.

Here’s a peep on the certificate.

You can download the HungryGoWhere Malaysia mobile app through IOS (version 5+) or Android (version 4.0+) or pay a visit to their website at www.hungrygowhere.my. Being a nation with rich and diverse food culture, HGW Malaysia users would get to gain new experiences in searching, discovering and locating the best dishes and eateries within a 10-30km radius. It would even be greater if you were to register yourself as one of the many users, a smart move to leave your tracks behind to recommend more new eateries to other users. After all, HGW Malaysia is a platform by users, for users, to archive pure and unbiased recommendations.

It’s time for us to paint the whole town red with HGW recommendations. Why not your finger nails too with the HGW Malaysia logo? LOL~

The record breaking packs of Nasi Lemak Bungkus did not go to waste after achieving the feat. Two thirds of the delicious all-time favorite packets were distributed to various surrounding charitable homes while the balance packets were handed out to the mall’s shoppers. It was a great event having to witness the record breaking feat and at the same time taking home some of the delicious Nasi Lemak Bungkus.