best koay teow th’ng in penang

ah sai’s! the best in penang… some say malaysia!

beside koay teow th’ng, there are also mee, bee hoon (normal), bee hoon (fat), bee tai bak, mee suah and porridge.

‘ah sai’ koay teow th’ng stall is run by a husband and wife team. the husband’s name is ah sai while his wife is ah kuan.

the stall is located inside a kopi tiam (coffee shop) known as ‘sin hoe peng’ at 1F king street. it is at the row of buildings near to light street end.

there is only another stall selling chai koay, or koay and chee cheong fun beside ah sai’s koay teow th’ng.

a picture of the interior of the kopi tiam. incidentally, this kopi tiam won the 3rd prize in the city council’s  cleanliness  contest in 2005. the winning plaque is proudly displayed in the kopi tiam for all to see.

here is a picture of ah sai posing at his stall.

he is a nice humble and friendly man. so willing to pose for me and answer my question though i didn’t ask much since he’s busy. i wanted to take a picture of him and his wife but his wife didn’t want to. i managed to snap one as she waved her hands no and walked away. well, since she is not a willing ‘model’ i am not going to post the picture here.

ah sai said they had been at this business for 28 years. wow! 28 years already and they still attract lots of customers.  and you know what is more interesting? i had been patronising his stall for over 10 years!

the first time i patronised his stall was in 1988 when i started working in beach street. a friend of mine who had been working in beach street for a long time introduced me to his stall. at that time, his stall was located at a kopi tiam at beach street (next to naina mohd pharmacy, which, together with the kopi tiam had been closed down already).

i was hooked the first time i gave it a try and so went back often. i remember many a times i had to wait so long for my order because there were always many people during lunch hour. a few times i waited for 1/2 hour! and there was some rare occasion he forgot my order too! (that was in the past when i was not a regular yet)i later found out that it was better for me to sit near his stall so that he can see me, thus he can remember my order.

as almost every once a week i patronised his stall, i became one of his regulars. he can remember what kind of order i wanted. most of the time i order bee tai bak, without the innards but plus egg.

then after a few years, ah sai had to move. do you know what? he printed name card with the address of his new location, and distributed the cards to his regular customers like me. knowing us to be regulars, he wanted to inform us where he will be moving to so that we can continued patronising his stall.

well, he moved to bishop street, which was nearby to his first location at beach street. of course while he was there, i still patronised his stall regularly. however, he was here for only a few months. had some problems with the kopi tiam owner, i think.

it was after bishop street that he moved to king street, his present location. now, all these roads – beach st, bishop st, king st,  and a few others – are enclaved within an area known as ‘the most busy commercial area’ in penang, where many banks are located, plus many business companies of course. thus, you see because of this, ah sai has many customers. oh, and since he caters for the office lunch hour crowd, he only open from 11.00am to 3.00pm.

when i was working in beach st, patronizing his stall at beach st, then bishops st and finally king st, i just walked over there. in 1998 when i worked in macalister rd, though i am far away from king st, i still faithfully patronise his stall! i went there on my chaly.

actually i haven’t notice i had been patronising ah sai’s koay teow th’ng stall for more than 10 years until ah sai himself told me so! yes, it was only several weeks back when he was commenting to his wife that i am a very old (as opposite of new) customer.

"how many years already eh? 10? more than 10? i think got at least 10."

as i was not sure, i just mumbled "er… yes… maybe."

so i began to think over and count… and suddenly realized it was 19 years! 19! can you believe that? you see what a faithful customer i am. everywhere ah sai goes, i go (3 different locations). and when i moved (when i change job) far away from his location, i still patronise his stall. indeed i am a faithful customer.

what is it about ah sai’s koay teow th’ng that attract people? maybe to some it is partly because of the innards… but not me as i don’t like innards.

what i like about it, is the soup. it is  very very  tasty indeed. it comes piping hot too. in fact in the beginning (that is many years back) i didn’t realized it was so hot that when i took a sip without stirring or blowing, it burned my lips! i really don’t know how to describe the soup except tasty.    i am not a food blogger so can’t describe it in colorful adjectives like how tonixe did it so creatively.

toni, next time when you and your bsg team are in penang, don’t you ever forget to visit ah sai’s koay teow th’ng stall and give me your verdict. oh, btw, this is my first ‘food jog’. remember you suggested it to me in comments in your blog?

here’s another view of the inside of the kopi tiam, showing the back portion. the lady behind the counter is the lady boss. she’s a friendly person, who by now knows my order of ‘kopi o khau cheah’ (thick iced coffee, less sugar). each time i walked in the kopi tiam, i don’t have to say what i want, but she (or the hubby or staff) will suddenly plonk a kopi o khau cheah on my table. oh the kopi tiam has 2 TV showing astro shows.

ok so far i have neglected to mention an important aspect – the price! it cost only RM3.30… that is the normal one with innards (most people go for this, that’s why it is under ‘normal’). well as i don’t take innards, i ask for egg and it cost RM3.30 too. if you want one without innards and egg, it will cost RM2.80. that’s mighty reasonable pricing, don’t you think so?

here’s what i get for my RM3.30 bowl… minus innards but with egg. of course there are also the usual chopped meat, meat balls, fish balls and vege. this picture was taken just 2 days ago when i was having my lunch there… the bowl as it just brought to me.

another look at the koay teow th’ng after i stir it a bit. now you see it….

now you don’t!!

whoa!! look at how i clean up the bowl – everything’s gone!! see, told ya, the koay teow th’ng is damn good!  really! everytime i eat it, i will polish up everything, to the last drop of the soup. my favourite though is bee tai bak and not koay teow. i like the ‘thick’ bee hoon too but never the normal ‘thin’ bee hoon. sometimes i will take mee suah. no matter which i take, for sure i will finish up ALL the soup!!

ok so this is my first ‘food jog’ – a term introduced by tonixe of back street gluttons food blog. (incidentally his blog and another food blogger are the only 2 food blogs i visits regularly). he mentioned about it in one of the comments in his blog. will there be more food jog to come? well, beat me… me not sure. maybe once in a long long while. my blog is suppose to let people come in and grumble at government policies and rulings not for people to smell food. haha. anyway i strive to be versatile… no doubt my blog is mainly socio-political but now and then i blog on personal stuffs too… so sometimes completely on food, is ok too i guess.

ok, coming up next – a food meme!