Looking back on more than 3 weeks of exploring four countries, it's hard to pick an absolute favorite of the bunch. If there's such thing as a sleeper hit for travel destinations, though, I'd easily pick the aging town of George Town, in the province of Penang, Malaysia. Penang is known in Malaysia as the food capital of the country, and since we've rarely had a bad meal here, we've been hungry to try the best of the best.
Preparing a teh tarik by pouring the liquid into a second container
One of our most exciting discoveries was a joint teh tarik and roti stall on the side of the road, just down the street from Toon Leong coffee shop, a place we'd visited on recommendation from EatingAsia's excellent blog on eats in Southeast Asia. Teh tarik means literally, "pulled tea," and it's made by pouring a mixture of black tea, cream and sugar back and forth between two containers until the repetitive motion forms a frothy foam on top. You can order it either hot or iced, and it's particularly popular in the morning with a hot roti canai.
Foreground: the hot griddle where the roti dough, once pulled and tossed thin like a pizza crust, is folded over on itself and cooked until brown bubbles dot the surface
The roti is really one of my favorite breakfast treats in Malaysia, and there are many different kinds of roti from which to choose. The roti canai, or literally, "plain bread," is a flaky, almost pastry-like pancake made fresh at street stalls or local restaurants all over Malaysia, and it's considered a Malaysian Indian food. A good roti canai should be just a little bit oily and crispy from the hot griddle it cooks on, but fluffy and light at the same time due to the dough being stretched thin and then folded over itself while cooking. It usually comes accompanied with a curry sauce for dipping. Each stall seems to have its own signature flourish in its curry sauce -- some are yellow, some have lentils, and at this particular stall, the curry is an alluring deep amber and has a rich cinnamon flavor. It was so tasty that couldn't help smothering my roti canai with that sauce. So much for dipping.
Roti canai and teh tarik stall | Open mornings starting at 4:00 AM and ending around noon | Near the intersection of Jalan Argyll and Jalan Transfer on Jalan Transfer
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