Exploring Nibong Tebal Food

Although Nibong Tebal, Penang was a stone throw away from Georgetown, we had never been there. So, this was our first trip there. There will be four write-ups on Nibong Tebal, namely:

1. Exploring Nibong Tebal Food
2. Pulau Burung Landfill and Byram Estate
3. Changkat Village and Firefly Jetty 
4. Bukit Panchor State Park

A glimpse of Nibong Tebal town

We heard that there was a special soy sauce chicken rice stall somewhere in town. So, we planned to eat our lunch there. After driving two rounds passed Jalan Atas, we finally found the coffee shop. The place was crowded as expected as it was a Sunday. 

The coffee shop that sells the chicken rice

This is the chicken rice stall

We managed to find a table and ordered our chicken rice with homemade sausages. We also needed to wait for a while as there were many customers eating in and waiting to take-away.The thick sauce was sweet and the chicken rice was different from the usual. I thought the chicken rice was just average and the chicken portion was little too but we loved the homemade sausages very much. They tasted authentic. A plate cost RM 3.70.

The popular chicken rice with dark sweet soy sauce, chicken and homemade sausages

Next, a few shops away, there was another eating place. There were two rows of roadside stalls selling hawker food and economy rice. There were two laksa and ice-kacang stalls. We just took our pick and chose Laksa V 2020.

Laksa V 2020 stall

Since we just ate the chicken rice, we could only manage to eat a bowl of laksa (noodle in sour and spicy fish soup with some ingredients) and ice-kacang (a dessert made of shaved ice with mostly sweet ingredients). 

The laksa topped with a big piece of cracker

Dunk the cracker in the laksa' s sour and spicy soup

The laksa here was a little different from other Penang laksa because it was topped with a piece of crunchy cracker. We liked the taste of the laksa as it was not too sour. Besides, the sour and spicy fish soup was quite thick. It was only RM 2.50.

The ice-kacang topped with two scoops of chocolate chip ice-cream

The same laksa stall also sold ice-kacang. Ice-kacang with two scoops of chocolate chip ice-cream was only RM 2.50. They did not emphasize on the presentation of the food but overall, the ice-kacang was a thumbs up.

Cheng Hwa crab porridge restaurant is only opened in the evenings

We also spotted this seafood porridge restaurant along the same road (Jalan Atas). We had not tried before the famous crab porridge in Nibong Tebal but it was only opened in the evenings until midnight.

The crowd at Cheng Hwa Restaurant

To satisfy our craving, we had to come back to Cheng Hwa Restaurant the next night. It was packed with customers. The shop was new and all the furniture and fittings looked new too.

The interior of the restaurant

Without any doubt, we ordered two bowls of crab porridge. Each bowl had a crab together with its shell. However, the shell had been cracked for our convenience. 

My crab porridge

The porridge tasted very smooth unlike some porridge which was actually made of rice with soup. I found that porridge was really sweet (but not artificial) and tasty compared with any porridge that I had ever eaten. The tricky part was eating the crab with a pair of chopsticks. In the end, I gave up eating the crab with chopsticks. I just used my fingers and the job was done. 

The green vegetable sprinkled with meat floss and Chinese wolfberries

Overall, the two bowls of crab porridge and a plate of green vegetable cost us roughly RM 40 plus (which was not too expensive for our crab indulgence). By the way, the crab was weighed first before cooked.

Direction to Nibong Tebal from Penang Bridge:

Use the North-South Highway and head towards Ipoh. Exit at Jawi interchange. Follow signboard to Nibong Tebal. You need to make a U turn when you go down the golden brown steel bridge.

The golden brown steel bridge

Coming up...post on Pulau Burung Landfill and Byram Estate.