Breakfast At Eng Loh Coffee Shop (Georgetown)

One of my all time favourite coffee shop in Georgetown has to be the Eng Loh coffee shop. WhenI was working in town, I use to frequent this coffee shop. It's located at the financial center where all the major banks are located ergo it's just convenient to pop by for lunch on the way to the banks. As for the exact location, Eng Loh is located at the end of Church Street. It's partly a budget hotel as well as a kopitiam (coffee shop) on the ground floor. While it has only a few stalls, all of them are really good. And I mean really good. I get to the juicy part later on.

This kopitiam probably serves one of the best teh peng and kopi peng in town. It definitely score points for presentation as it comes with quite an interesting contrast of colours. You can immediately see two distinctive layers. For example for the kopi peng, the milk sits on top of the thick coffee layer and gives it some life to the coffee. I normally have two rounds of the refreshing teh peng or kopi peng when ever I eat here. Just simply cannot resists it! You will also be quick to notice the uncle who serves the beverages - he has got a pony tail which is rather flamboyant for his age! Cool dude.

This is the kopi peng kau kau. Wa liou. I already gulped my own saliva while I'm writing this.

The wantan mee stall is the main attraction in the mornings. It offers an amazing variety of noodles with different add ons- chicken curry, mushroom chicken, drunken chicken, Hakka dried fungus, normal wantan and also dry hor fun.

The hor fun is quite a treat as it comes with not only the usual fried wantan but also some char siew and marinated pork. The hor fun is also delicate which makes it even more pleasant to eat.

This is the mushroom noodles with meat. Equally wonderful.

Another one of my other favourite stall has to be the chicken rice. You really have to try this as the aroma from the rice is simply tantalising. I believe some amount of butter is added in to give it a distinctive buttery fragrance. Additionally, the chicken is also well roasted and flavourful as butter is used to marinate it to give it and added dimension to the flavour. The uncle who operates usually don't start selling until after 11am so do make sure you time yourself well if you really want to try the chicken rice.

For those not wanting a heavy breakfast, the coffee shop operator also serves toasted bread and Western breakfast. There are 13 options for you to choose from so for those with an indecisive mind, this could spell delay in breakfast. We decided on the American breakfast set for the kids while we adults tried out the roti Taiwan. It's basically toasted bread cover in peanut butter and top up with peanuts. This roti Taiwan somehow didnt knock our socks off. We still prefer the roti bakar or toasted bread from Toh Soon along Kimberly Street.

Another good stall to try must is the one that sells home cook Indian food. This stall serves both vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes and they also do out door catering too. It's quite popular especially lunch time when you see a lot people stopping by either to dine in or ta pau.

Finally, the char koay teow is also quite good too but I decided that I wont push my stomach that day. Sadly, I have no pictures to show you but do take my word for it. It's also quite good in it's on way. I used to whack the chicken rice to be followed by the char koay teow but that's another story liau. For those of you interested to make a trip down there, please find the full address to Eng Loh below:

Name: Eng Loh
Address: Jalan Gereja / Church Street, Penang
Opening hours: 8am-3pm (close every Sundays)

Roti Bakar at Toh Soon Cafe (Georgetown)

I happened to discover a new place for good roti bakar recently. It was purely by chance. A few weeks back, I had to chaffeur my wife to look for locally designed T-shirts around Georgetown for her nieces and nephews. We stopped by at one of the shops at the entrance of Campbell Street which sold quite a variety of clothes. While waiting impatiently for her to select the designs of her choice, I noticed that not far from where I was, there was a crowd building up along one of the side lane. Upon closer inspection on what I thought was a dodgy alley, there's actually a shop inside the lane selling roti bakar. Its called Toh Soon Cafe.

From one glance, this place looks anything but dodgy. It triving and lively. There is a mix crowd of Ah Mahs, Ah Peks, Ah Bengs etc, sipping their tea and coffee away or reading the main headlines from their newspapers, all completely oblivious to their surrounding. I decided to join the crowd and ordered some roti bakar to blend in. They have got a few types of bread to order from. The bread selection consists of whole wheat, chocolate, coffee marble, Hainan, sandwich and even low calories bread for the health conscious folks.

I ordered the whole wheat and the chocolate bread. And of course, tea and coffee. The way the toasts are prepared is quite unique. Its toasted over charcoal fire. Now, that's not something you see everyday. These days not many coffee shops use this method anymore. They also serve half boiled eggs something which isnt too appealing to my taste.

I went for second round; this time the Hainan bread plus extra tea. The Hainan toast tasted the best among the three I ordered. The aroma which consisted of a blend of melted butter and grilled charcoal was just tantalising.

I recommend that if you are into roti bakar, do give Toh Soon Cafe a try. However, be prepared to wait as this place is popular and pack most of the time. Its no surprise that they sometimes miss out on your order so be warned. They forgot my change!