Super Tanker - Lip Sin Hawker Centre, Penang

This year must be a good year for Penang. There was a perpetual line formed at Coffee Bean in Queensbay Mall. Mind you, these were not just young people. The entire spectrum of the demographics was represented. The Mall was jam-packed. Traffic were crawling and I packed far from the epicentre. The night scene was equally festive. The sliver of land between the mall and the sea has a long column of stalls selling a wide variety of food and stuffs. The Bayan Baru/Batu Maung seaside is devoid of traffic and is quite unappetising compared to yesteryear. The crowd, hawkers and tourists move on to better grounds.

Even at SuperTanker, the Char Koay Teow had customers crowding around the stall waiting for the orders. Sorry no service to the table. All disposable. Cash on delivery at the stall. At RM4.00 a plate during festive season is pretty reasonable after all the plate of noodles is comparable in size and substance with good ole KL servings. For the critique on the taste - read on.

My cuppa of milk tea. Ahh.. a bit too sweet, though taste-wise pretty good.

The CKT was average. I was happy that it was not oily. The ingredients were all there in sufficient quantities. But then my wife, a Penangnite, reported that it was mass-produced - a few plates at a time. That figured. I joked that we should ordered a plate that had to be done on its own - like a mixed noodles plate of beehoon, mee and koay teow!!!

The curry's lemongrass shined through. The fragrance tingled at my nostrils. I was won over. The curry paste was quickly stirred in and the milky soup turned fiery red. The onions, ginger, chili and garlic did their job and voila a small masterpiece. My grouses - the chicken was served in chopped up bits, not whole, and the serving was small.

But I was shocked at the small size pan mien at RM3.00. There was no meat, my son informed me. And I had to ordered another bowl of curry noodles for him. Moral of the story - be forgiving, after all its new year. They must have ran out of ingredients.