I did not go vegetarian these 9 days, but I sure did had a lot of vegetarian food… cos it’s the easiest way for me to buy food and go home right after work and gym… Well, it has been the same for years now… I will usually buy home instead of eating there cos I’m not practicing the full force vegetarian, and would not want to affect other people with me not being “clean” enough… Vegetarians for the 9 Emperor God’s Festival will only eat food out from pots and woks that is only meant for vegetarian food. They will change all their utensils, cups and plates to new ones, since others have already been used for meat before. Even tooth brush and towels are changed to a new one during the festival. So it starts from the day before, and throughout the next 9 days.
So I always buy my food and eat it home at my own comfort… in front of the TV :P The place is also packed and narrow with people and the economy rice stalls will have long lines surrounding the tables cos it’s basically stalls and seats all together on the sidewalk!
At my place, we have many stalls, it’s like a food court on the road side… with many to offer… I did not manage to try everything though… even those that I’ve seen them for years but never managed too… Cos the economy rice stalls is somehow or rather more tempting… I ended up eating a lot of rice within these 9 days!
One of the economy rice stalls….. There’s another one with more people and more choices of dishes too…
Economy rice I’ve had which are with pretty standard dishes. Most of it has got the mangkuang char (stir fried turnips with carrots and mushrooms) and also vegetable curry. Price are averagely MYR4 each. Cheapest was MYR3.50 and most expensive is at MYR4.50. I was practically spoilt with choices! But I usually avoid taking the mock meat/fish/chicken.
Simplest, cheapest and fastest option would be the economy fried bee hoon (vermicelli), noodles (both yellow and maggi) and koay teow.
Also available is char hor fun/char cintan-maggi noodles and hokkien char…Char simply means stir fried. This is the cintan noodles with mock char siu and, vegetables and curd sheets… MYR 3.50.
Also available is the char hor fun, also at MYR3.50.
Nasi lemak MYR 1.20, which has mock ikan bilis, peanuts and sambal. Pretty pricey though for a small pack… but taste wise not bad also…
Then there’s burger! I’ve seen this stall at the same spot every year but never tried it. Cos to me it serves no purpose being a vegan when you still think of meat and wanting to eat them. This year however, I gave in to my curiosity as I saw many patrons waiting for their orders at the stall. It’s black pepper burger (chicken/lamb). What’s with the chicken and lamb, I’m not sure… but it’s basically more of like curd/curd sheet or tofu burger. So I ordered one MYR3.50. It does look like chicken burger though. With some vegetables and chilli sauce, th burger is good to go, with a nice hint of black pepper.
I could not really taste the burger though cos it blended in the bread, and the patty is thin. So it’s more of like eating bread with vege and dome curd sheets and chilli sauce :P
Then they have this huge pack of crackers, potato and mushroom crackers, MYR 3.50 each.
For the sweet tooth, there’s muar chee and also I’m not very sure what it is called. But it tastes just like snow skin moon cakes without the filling. So I’ve not tried a lot of things this year… Mook’s Pizza it one of them, then there’s jawa mee, lam mee, lor mee, koay kark, savoury cakes, poh piah, hot dogs, sweet corn and many many more… There are a lot of stalls all over Penang and I have to say the ones here offer extensive choices. I’m gonna miss them and have to wait for next year then.
