Penang snacks

When I was in Penang some time back (read about the waiter-in-training), we got some ti-kuey. It's actually ti-kuey (literally "sweet cake" in Hokkien, I think my Malay friends called it kuih bakul) sandwiched in between a layer of sweet potato and a layer of yam, then dipped in batter and fried. Only found in Penang, I believe.
[Edit: Okay, my mother said that we can find fried ti-kuey in KL as well, but I wouldn't know where]

Usually the ti-kuey stalls also sell other fried stuff (using the same batter). The other one I like is fried pisang raja. They use a whole banana, unlike those pisang goreng on the east coast where you only have thin slices of banana in each fritter. But I guess that's why the east coast's pisang goreng sells for 10 sen each whereas the one in Penang sells for at least RM1 each! (the price can be higher depending on the size of the banana)

Back to what we bought: there were no bananas there (the seller said they don't sell bananas any more, but they would fry them for us if we brought some). So we got our ti-kuey, together with some potato fritters and lek tau (kacang hijau...the ones we grow taugeh with (not the ones you can buy frozen lol)).

the ti-kuey and lek tau are cut in half

By the way, on the price-list, the ti-kuey was spelt T-kuih. Hmm...I wouldn't have thought to spell it that way, but why not? :P

[Edit (13th March 2011): I just discovered that I already posted photos of these fritters - including the banana fritters - more than two years earlier. You can see them here!]

On another occasion, we bought some apom from a roadside stall. We had to wait quite a bit, so I snapped some photos while waiting.

the apom tray...reminds me of the crêpe trays we used in Lyon

putting banana on the apom (only two slices of banana per apom)

putting corn on the apom (the cheapskate seller only put two seeds of corn on some of the apom! Some got three...and I think that's the maximum. Haha, I guess that's how he makes a profit.)

folding up the apom

done and waiting to be put into plastic bags for the customers
This may look like a lot, but since they're tiny, people buy then in fives or tens!

That's the stall, with the bananas hanging from the roof and plastic bags filled with apom

And from his rival Apom Guan (and brother, my mother says - she read about it in the paper) just a few metres away, we got chicken curry puffs instead. HUGE ones! (we were going to buy the apom from him, but he already had too many customers and we would have had to wait even longer)

eating curry puffs in the car :P

Well, the curry puffs weren't that special after all.