“Penang is well known for food. My parents would take me to some of these places so this brings the external food culture into the hotel,” Chan shared. Tip: ask for his favourite dishes from Foong Wei Heong Restaurant, which he took us to on another day. Highly recommended is “a special dish of pomfret, where the fillet is cooked with stir-fried vegetables, and the fin and bones are deep-fried to a crunchy, crispy finish, served with century eggs and ginger,” Chan described with gusto. “It’s very unexpected but amazing.”
CURATED EXPERIENCES
Of course, guests can head out to these places on their own. But after gallivanting around Penang during the day, it feels truly relaxing to enjoy local food in the comfort of the hotel. “We’re making it easier for foreigners to, in two or three nights, get deep into being a temporary local through my lens and the lens of others in Penang. We’re not necessarily taking you to the most posh restaurants, but experiencing what I feel is quintessentially Penang,” said Chan.
Guests can enjoy Mediterranean-inspired cuisine using many local ingredients dreamt up by executive chef Mathijs Nanne at the hotel. I tried a clean-tasting menu, which was a welcome break from the rich local food and included a prettily plated seared tuna and chickpea salad with nori and local herbs. At turndown in the suites, there is more food – guests receive a rattan container of local delicacies from bakeries like Min Xiang Tai, along with a flask of comforting, hot, non-caffeinated tea. On the first night, it was kaya puffs filled with house-made coconut jam – I finished both, even though I was full from dinner.
