Penang - Makan makan

ic Well, I 've heard a lot about Balik Pulau in Penang, especially the durians from Balik Pulau. When i was there a while ago, my friends pointed out to me the durian trees which are planted in almost every steep hill slopes in this still not so develope area of Penang ( no Starbucks here). But all i see then were bunch of trees in the forest, being a city boy, I can't really tell a durian tree from a rambutan tree so just say oh ya!!!.
But this time, since I have about a day free in this island, we thought of going to Balik Pulau for some laksa, yes laksa, Balik Pulau Laksa to be precise. We had tried the Laksa at the Balik Pulau marketplace, quite okay-la.But this time, some friends mention about another place, off the beaten track literally as you can see from the photo, it is not near to the Balik Pulau main road but about 30 minutes away without getting lost. And we know about this place thru word of mouth with only general directions. But the Penagites has thick skins, so no problem in stopping the people to ask for directions.
So when we finally reached the place, it was a village very near to the sea, you can tell when their longkang has sampans in it. At least the fish is fresh.Again you need to ask the locals for the place as it does not have any signboard and the shop/house is located away from the road. This place sells Laksa and Hokkien Mee. The Hokkien Mee looks delicious, but soldout, so we tried Laksa with bee hoon. Delicious with fresh ingredient but you have to endure the direct heat coming from the hot tin roof.
They only open twice a week as the notice says.

Along the way, now, its durian season, actually the start of the durian seasons. At Balik Pulau, 'the hills are alive with the smell of durians...'and they are everywhere, up on the tree, not so ripe yet maybe another 2 weeks. So we stop by a road side, at a durian collection point where some ah pek will come on their Honda cub with a load full of durians. We ask for some durians, and the ah pek ask, you want the normal or special ones, so we try the special ones, wallop 5 delicious yellowish, slightly bitter ones. Dunno the names la Dxxx , then we went to the back area, there was a number of durian trees with lots of durians and also rambutan trees with still green rambutan fruits. Something to really looks forward to next 2 weeks when i am back for more durians and maybe rambutans too.


Now Balik Pulau is full of durian trees with the fruits already close to full size, so can see the kampung people here already preparing the little shacks at the roadside for their customers with anticipation in their eyes for a boutiful harvest this year. In the next 4 weeks, the durians from the place can be found all over Penang and even in KL. This is the famous Balik Pulau durians, so try to make a point to be at the center to truly enjoy the king of fruits.




-SC