On the street, Indian men wear garlands shirtless, women wear saris, push floats, sing and dance, and the smell of burning spices wafts in the air. The Malay police, who are in charge of maintaining order, have a look of watching the excitement and not being too big, and watch the Indian brothers engage in witchcraft.
Across the street, there is a great hall for overseas Chinese. Chinese people walked into the hall in suits and ties one by one, and I followed them with curiosity: it turned out to be a gathering of Chaoshan countrymen, with more than 30 tables of banquets, and every chicken, duck and fish was left behind, which vividly interpreted the social culture of China people's diet.
Yes, Penang is such a land that can tolerate different cultures in a chaotic and orderly manner and grow harmoniously on a small land of several hundred square kilometers. Tolerance of different races, customs, religions and foods with different tastes.
If Hong Kong is regarded as the capital of food, it is because of its highly developed free economy that it attracts the presence of faces from all over the world, and here has grown English, French, American, Japanese, Korean and other cuisines different from the traditional Cantonese flavor. Then Penang is a blend of native foods from East Asia, South Asia, Indochina Peninsula and Nanyang Islands. And expressed by Chinese who love, know and know how to eat as the main nation. It is the real food capital of Asia.
No: 1 1 Reading menus is one of the biggest language barriers in transnational travel. It is different from formulaic guideposts and commodity labels. Menus often contain many special nouns from local specialties and rhetoric from local culture.
This is also the reason why most people go to France, Spain and Turkey, but they can't eat well: they can't read the menu, and the waiter can only explain in English that the material of this dish is beef, pork, fish or chicken. As for the practice, accessories, tradition and innovation, they don't know anything, such as betting, and they can't be revealed until the dishes are served. However, there is no such problem in Penang. The history of British colonization has made English very popular. A large number of Indian service personnel give Hindi and Tamil a place; Chinese brought Mandarin, Chaoshan dialect and Cantonese here. Coupled with Malay, which is commonly used in Southeast Asia, more than 70% of tourists around the world can find waiters who can communicate with themselves in high-end restaurants in Penang.
I'd like to order a salad made of fresh vegetables in the most famous "Nyonya Restaurant" in Penang. The Chinese waiter recommended the winged bean salad to me in proficient Chinese. He said, "This salad is based on the tender pods of a winged bean, a local specialty, with the combination of tiger shrimp, fried river fish and cashew nuts, and then seasoned with Nanyang-style sour oranges."
In a simple sentence or two, I immediately made up the appearance of this salad, asked for it without hesitation, and served it. Sure enough, I could taste the tenderness of vegetables, the sweetness of seafood and the oiliness of nuts in one bite. Delicious.
No:2 Actually, it is far more difficult to get people of different cultures and races to accept each other's food. In the stall in Penang, I watched Indians skillfully pick up greasy fried rice with their hands and wanted to try it. But after a long time, I asked the shopkeeper for a spoon. In swatow street Chinese Night Market, I saw a white girl traveling alone with a backpack, staring curiously at China people eating chicken feet and fried kway teow. But in the end, she sat in front of the frying stall and asked for a fried chicken sprinkled with Chili powder.
Generally speaking, the resident groups in Penang, as well as tourists from all over the world, watch each other's diet carefully so as to get the pleasure of watching. But if you wait and see for a long time, if you are not careful, you will also add the other person's diet to your own food pedigree.
For example, the landmark snack in Penang, fried core, is actually adding coconut milk, coconut sugar, red beans, vanilla juice and vermicelli to shaved ice, which is a typical Cantonese dessert transformed by Nanyang culture. However, the vermicelli of fried pistils is emerald green. The local Chinese told me that this is because vanilla leaves are added to the rice noodles, which are popular in Southeast Asia and India and have a fresh and sweet taste. Indians often hammer it with mint leaves into a dark green, suspicious paste and dip it in their scones. However, the clever Chinese added vanilla leaf sauce to the process of making vermicelli and finally applied it to dessert. Not only delicious, but also bright and beautiful.
Man fried cake is another example. In essence, it is an English cake improved by China people. It is a paste made of flour and eggs, with peanuts and sugar added. The cake crust and peanuts are crispy and delicious. However, Malaysia's diverse ethnic culture makes all kinds of ingredients added to Manjian cake: chicken with Indian flavor, pork floss with Cantonese flavor, tuna with Japanese flavor, raisins and shredded coconut with Southeast Asian flavor. Basically, there is no man-fried cake stall on the streets of Penang with exactly the same ingredients.
There are many such examples. For example, Lasha, which was improved from Satay Noodles, Fujian, has a refreshing taste and a distinctive taste; For example, the rice with a shoulder pole modified from Indian banana leaf curry rice is rich in sauce and mellow in flavor ...
And so on, and so on.
No:3 nostalgic style, which is the most exquisite and restrained flavor of Penang food.
Walking in Penang, every moment is like in the movie "First Love Red Bean Ice". The freshness of the old city, abundant sunshine, relaxed atmosphere, bags of red bean ice and drinks always remind people of their summer vacation life in the alley when they were young.
The streets and alleys of Penang are full of shops and houses known as the Strait eclectic style, that is, arcades in the south of China. Shops and houses are like a cell, which symbolizes the development form of the city. Penang has developed from simple shops and houses that integrate life and work, and then it has become a continuous street.
All kinds of graffiti, human tricycles full of Nanyang amorous feelings, and beautiful small houses of old overseas Chinese will appear in the streets and lanes inadvertently.
I asked a Chinese taxi driver, "Why did Singapore leave Malaysia independently, but Penang, which is also a colonial state in the English Channel and dominated by Chinese, stayed in Malaysia?" The driver first sighed, if Penang had been independent, would it be as developed as Singapore now, but after careful consideration, he corrected himself and said, "Is Penang not good now?" I feel that living here should be happier than Singapore. " This mentality should be shared by most overseas Chinese in Penang.
Therefore, in response, Penang also retains a large number of nostalgic Chinese diets, many of which are even more "archaic" than those on the streets of Fuzhou and Guangzhou.
For example, when I came to Penang, I realized that Baku Ku Teh was not just a sparerib soup with various herbs and peppers. Penang people called it "wet Baku Teh".
In contrast, there is also a kind of "dried meat and bone tea", which is fried with fast fire until the surface of the ribs is slightly crispy, then the delicious gravy is locked in it, and then the juice is collected, similar to the pot in Guangdong today, with thick oil and red sauce, which has a faint medicinal taste. The most amazing thing is that this kind of dried bak Kut teh even has a burst of squid fragrance in the hot meat fragrance, which is suitable for tea accompaniment. Or add black soy sauce and fried onion crisp, with rice is also a must.
Hainan chicken rice was actually invented by overseas Chinese in Nanyang. Later, it was exported to domestic market, and most people thought it was a specialty of Hainan. Compared with the domestic version, the Nanyang spices such as citronella and vanilla added in chicken soup are not the key; The key to achieving delicious food is that Penang still retains the basic processes of three soaking and three scalding, ice water and chicken oil cooking. A simple bowl of rice and a plate of chicken have good qualities that make people cry.
The most famous Hainan chicken rice restaurant in Penang is called Wenchang, which is the place where Wenchang chicken is abundant in Hainan. The chicken rice produced in this restaurant is smooth and tender, and the oily rice is super fragrant. I'm afraid it also proves the nostalgic plot of overseas Chinese in old Penang from one side.
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Liang Wendao said: In the whole Chinese world, Hongkong, Chengdu, Penang, Macau and Taipei are the five major cities of snack culture. These five cities are friendly, tolerant and nostalgic in the country of food.
But only Penang can capture all three qualities at once.