Penang street foods – Ham chim peng, yau char kwai & hua chee

I have seen this stall doing brisk business every afternoon in Pulau Tikus.  Curiousity got the better of me and I decided to check it out.  Business is still very good as you can see.

They have many types of deep fried stuffs like yau char kwai, ham chim peng and many other types of oily things.

I bought one hua chee which is made of flour, coated with a bit of sugar and sesame seeds.  Overall, nothing very great.  So, I am not sure what draws the crowd there.  In Penang, the best hua chee comes from Bayan Baru market (night) and the ham chim peng comes from Cintra Street (night).  I still haven’t find a yau char kwai that I like.  I like my yau char kway extremely hard (LOL), crispy, saltish and have some smell of the ammonia powder without oil bubbles stucked to it.

Post Author: lilian

Used to be PenangFaces, now known as Food Haven, for all oink-oink foods

7 thoughts on “Penang street foods – Ham chim peng, yau char kwai & hua chee

    Rasa Malaysia

    (November 29, 2006 - 3:06 pm)

    They are all my favorites but don’t know how to make them and can’t find them here in the States. Cry cry.

    QuaVadis

    (November 30, 2006 - 11:40 am)

    In Sibu, they have this local kuih called “Mangi” which has the taste and flavour of yau char kwai and donuts but the shape…ooh hahaha..the shape has resulted that my Melanau grandmother, who doesn’t speak chinese, dubbing it “Lampah” kueh and its stuck in our mind that we actually don’t recall what its called in foochow anymore and we just point to it when we wanted to buy it.

    Am now imagining putting a yau char kwai and the lampah kwai together!! I shld do that the next time I go sibu and take a pic of it and email it to you or ask Wuching to do it!! hahahaha

    Penang Lang

    (December 3, 2006 - 10:46 am)

    I am lucky enough to have Ham Chim Peng and Yau Char Kwai in Toronto. Haha.

    Jian

    (December 8, 2006 - 3:26 pm)

    Whenever I wanna get yau char kuai, I will go to the shop (below the old flats) behind ur fav Tai Tong. There is a ju char stall at night too. Both of the shops have operated more than 20 years liao…The yau char kuai fulfills all ur requirement : ) U can see them frying the whitish dough in super huge oil filled woks.

    Samantha

    (September 27, 2007 - 11:21 am)

    Hey Rasa Malaysia,
    I’m not sure if your place in the states has an asian mart called Ranch 99. When i was studying in LA, i used to go to this mart for the yau char kwai…taste wise ok…oily…haha…needless to say…Malaysia still has the best YCK~

    Emkay

    (April 27, 2008 - 11:29 am)

    I love Hua Chee and normally buy this at the kuih stall outside the Pulau Tikus market. This is without sesame seeds, authentic Penang style, unlike in PJ. Cannot get the Penang style in PJ. Does anyone have the recipe to make this? Also love steamed Mor Hor (not to be confused with Mee Ku) slathered with butter..yummm..anyone has the recipe to make this? Can’t find it anywhere in PJ!*Sigh*

    Lawrence

    (April 28, 2008 - 11:48 am)

    Went back to Penang twice in the last 3 months. Ate all the local food and gained 10 lbs.:)Love all the local food. My favourite is char koay teow at my brother’s restaurant in Sitiawan. Can’t get good char koay teow in Toronto. I also had mua chee near the banking street (don’t know the name of the street)for the first time in 25 years since I left Penang. I must have eaten at the hawkers heaven at Gurney so many times that I lost count.

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