Chai koay is something well known for up north here in the Penang-Kedah region, but if you ever had a chance, try the chai koay at Sg. Bakap on Penang’s mainland. If you are heading to Penang from the south, just before existing at Juru toll, you will notice the signboard of a toll exit to Jawi & Sg Bakap.
In Sg. Bakap, the most popular and origin place for chai koay is Restoran Soon Lee Hou located along Jalan Besar Sg Bakap. I visited this place during breakfast time and it seems to be very popular with the local as the place is very busy and packed.
Here, the chai koay are served as part of the their dim sum choices. So you order your usual dim sum you fancy, then the different type of chai koay. They have the usual chai koay with mangkuang inside or kuchai but also another type with pumpkin in it. The difference of the chai koay here is that the skin are soft, and I mean so soft that it sticks to the plate. You technically have to scoop it up to eat, doesn’t looks very appetizing but taste wise is ok. The way to enjoy it (by observing the way the locals take it) is to have a plate of chai koay to yourself, squeeze chili sauce all over it and dig in
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One of the highlight of their dim sum here are their stuffed crab dim sum and steamed yam. In plate you get 2 small crab shells stuffed with crab and pork meat steamed together, this is my favourite here, very nice! The steamed yam is ok, not too sweet and not too oily. The other one is their fried prawns cake, very nice and crispy too!
[flickr]photo:3057629565[/flickr][flickr]photo:3057629661[/flickr]You can also order soup, as we see many tables doing it and some even take the soup with noodles or rice in the morning. So we tried their fish with salted vege soup, its quite good. We also ordered a plate of fried glass noodles which is nice as well. The cooking here are teochew style which chai koay is part of and many of these can be found in this region as well.
[flickr]photo:3058466790[/flickr]Overall, we spent about RM50 for 5 of us for breakfast here. Its quite a unique experience, but I still prefer the normal chai koay I am used to
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Restoran Soon Lee Hou
No.34 Mukim 12, Jalan Besar, Sg Bakap
Sg Jawi, 14200 Seberang Perai Selantan, Penang
GPS: N5 13.473 E100 29.714






November 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
i have tested the food here. i find the environment very dirty.
November 28th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Dim sum! My fav!
Many thks for the GPS on every post, made my food hunting so much easier!
Also, I have passed on some cool awards and meme-ed you. Hope you can participate..
November 28th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
benson… so how’s the food? i think i too bz eating, never notice dirty but msia standard you know la… give it sometime to improve la
thenomadgourman… you’re welcome! because when i do my food trips, first thing i hunt for GPS so i know how to get there, so whenever i can i try to take down the coordinates and share them. But sometimes, its a lot of work, people all sitting liao i am still standing outside waiting for a fix… then people eat liao i am still bz taking photos… well, life of a food blogger ;P
April 8th, 2010 at 11:47 am
YUP VERY DIRTY THAT AREA…HOW COM WE EAT LIKE THAT