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RASA RASA PENANG: A VISITOR FRIENDLY GUIDE TO ITS FOOD
Edited by Lim Siang Jin
(Briolinks Sdn Bhd, 208 pages)

IT is a well-known fact that all Malaysians are mad about eating; and just as equally well known that Penangites are the most obsessed of the lot.

Just mention some dish within the hearing range of a native and he (or she) will instantly jump in and start waxing lyrical about how the tastiest can only be found in the betelnut State - much to everyone else's annoyance, as my colleagues so often remind me.

The trouble, for the casual visitor, is not so much getting the locals to reveal their favourite haunts as it is locating them.

Penang's aged labyrinthine streets are a challenge to navigate, which explains why visitors and even prodigal islanders inevitably end up at the infamous glutton square in Gurney Drive - it being the best charted avenue on the island.

Now thanks to the compassion of one Lim Siang Jin, his uncles and aunties (in particular one Madam Saw Lay Wah), visitors will no longer be driving around in circles looking for the illusive plate of famed char koay teow.

The local boy and his family have put together a slim and handy volume, Rasa Rasa Penang, to guide clueless foreign gourmands around the most popular eateries in and outside of Georgetown.

The small size of the book makes it an easy reference. Each glossy page contains rudimentary descriptions of the dishes and places to go, plus coloured photos of coffee shops and street stalls.

The most helpful part, even for locals, would be the little sidebar detailing the business hours of these itinerant hawkers and the map depicting the exact location of the goodies, although you still need to know your road names and the general location for it to be useful.

On the downside, the pictures really don't do justice to the food. They could have been better photographed instead of the overexposed shots they ended up becoming.

It would have been better too if the pictures of the dishes were enlarged as not all "tourists" (domestic and otherwise) are familiar with the cuisine.

Hokkien mee, as it is sold in Penang, does not smell as sweet in the Klang Valley where it is a plate of thick, black fried noodles instead of a bowl of noodles in a thin, spicy prawn soup.

Now, the question which many readers are dying to know: how trustworthy are Lim and co's recommendations?

As one who considers herself a true blue Penangite who has sampled at least 80 per cent or thereabouts of the places named in the guide, I would say that his list certainly can be trusted... to a certain extent.

Many are old and well established joints, passed down from generation to generation to generation, still favoured by the local population.

Quite a number now look quite different, having undergone renovation works following booming business. Where food quality is concerned though, some have deteriorated; they are no longer as tasty as they used to be.

The biggest failing of the guide is that it leaves out a high number of eateries that have sprung up in the central and southern sections of the island in recent years, namely, Farlim, Paya Terubong, Bayan Baru and Bayan Lepas.

When the Rent Control Act was repealed, many of the hawkers shifted house and business to the outskirts where rent is cheaper.

In his introduction to the guide, the editor noted that "there will be dissenters, but few would argue with the core of the list". He's right. To be fair, I cannot.

Lim and friends have done a good job in putting this list together.

In addition, they have created a website (www.rasarasa.net) in a genuine effort to keep the list updated for the benefit of the visitors and prodigals.

More than 100 places are named in this book; can you imagine the amount of legwork, not to mention the strain to the stomach each time the quality checkers go to work?

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