Penang 2024 - Bukit Mertajam Day Trip

Taking a break from my global travel blogging to blog a few post on my hometown Penang. Just got back from a trip to Kyoto and Hiroshima, and life in Penang has been rather hectic, with hospital visits and friends' visits. Travel blogging takes up too much time to do in this hectic period, so I'm gonna do a few short ones on Penang instead. 

Although Penang is my hometown, there are surprisingly many places I've never been to before. For most part of my life, I've remained in my own little town. I used to tell people that I only know the area from Tanjung Bungah to Georgetown, and maybe up to Air Itam. Other parts of Penang is foreign to me! Luckily I have a cousin who loves road trip, and sometimes on her day off, she would bring me around Penang, or even over the seas to the mainland. And on this particular day, we were supposed to go to Bukit Mertajam, a small town in mainland Penang to eat some nice pork noodles and some nice cakes. Yeah, nothing went as planned, although somehow, cakes are always there :P Above is where we eventually ended up visiting, the St Anne Church. It was my first time visiting, and I'll blog separately about it in the coming post. 

So turns our, the pork noodle we were supposed to go to was closed. So we ended up in a Taiwanese shop where we had noodles. I ordered the spicy Chongqing noodles. Was expecting it to be spicy like mala, but it was below my expectation. But it was editable, although a tad expensive for me considering there weren't much ingredient that went into it. 

We also ordered a side of gyoza, and some pig ears. The pig ears were surprisingly delicious! I was expecting something crunchy, but it was soft and gummy. Love it!

Here is the menu and the price of things. As you can see, it's cafe pricing. I don't mean to sound cheap, but in Penang, I rather eat the local food which is cheaper and delicious. 

The side dishes. Cousin wanted to try the sticky tofu but was too afraid to do so :P

After our road trip exploration, we actually went back to the town center for cakes. This was the cake shop I selected, mainly cause they have houjicake cheesecake. But guess what, it was not on sale on that day :P

I ordered a matcha tiramisu instead, which was kinda bitter and 'jelak' to eat after a while. Cousin's rose lychee cake was a lot nicer, light and fragrant. Each cake cost around 15rm range. I wouldn't mind trying their other cakes, but I was kinda on a  budget this trip.

The cafe was retro in deco, but it had a kinda 'trying-too-hard' feel to it. Maybe cause every segment was a new themed, which kinda makes the whole place feels very rojak-ky.

Do Good Things Take Time? If so, how long is it going to take before I get my good things? 

Some section of the cafe, which looks pretty for instagram, but wasn't really practically. We tried sitting on those chairs but they creek and made so much noise that it was almost embarrassing to enjoy your time there. We shifted to a new seat. There wasn't anyone around since it was a weekday afternoon.

Another corner which I like the feel of food furnishing. If only the owner just kept to one uniform theme, perhaps it would feel more in balance. I just feel very disturb with the deco. But the cakes were nice, even if I did pick a so-so one. But if I had my pick, I'd rather go eat the white wantan mee and yam rice that BM is so famous for, lol.