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This 9 days long celebration of the Festival of the Nine Emperor Gods is an annual event that fall on the 9th month of the Lunar Calendar. Celebrated mostly by devotees of the Jiu Wang Yeh sect, the usually quiet temple on Burma Road, Penang is a hive of activity.

Prior to the start of the nine day celebrations, devout worshippers already start on a vegetarian diet and will continue for the next nine days. The festival kicks off with the deities being received by temples elders and devout worshippers.

It is believed that the Gods have to be entertained during their visit thus traditional opera and dances are staged throughout the nine days. Therefore the roads to the temple would be lined with yellow coloured banner and stalls that sells food and tidbits that caters to the vegetarian diet that is being observed by the devotees.

All around Penang, many stalls would be set up at the roadside bearing yellow banners to sell food to the hundreds of devotees.

Many also take the opportunity to renew their faith and perform their religious devotion and piety during this nine day period so that the coming year would be favourable for them. Hundreds and thousand of worshippers throng the temple each day, lighting joss sticks both big and small.

The climax of the festival is on the ninth day where the Gods are entertained for the final time and worshippers made their final tribute before the entourage proceeded for the sent off to the sea where they first “arrived”.

The Goddess of Mercy Temple was founded around 1800. It features a beautiful roof with ornately decorated designs. It’s better known to the locals as the Kuan Yin Teng Temple. It’s located along Pitt Street, Georgetown.

It’s one of the most popular temple in Penang among Penangites. You can see Chinese devotees throng the temple all year round to pay homage and offer prayers to the Goddess of Mercy. It’s a well-known temple in Penang since the old days.

It was said by the old folks that during World War II, the Goddess of Mercy provided a safe shelter to many Penangites. A bomb was said to have dropped from the sky by one of the fighter jets right in front of the temple. Somehow, the bomb went dead when it touched the temple’s ground.

Perhaps it was due to that, you can see locals throng the temple during the Goddess of Mercy’s Celebration Day in the Chinese lunar calendar.

And in the front of the temple’s ground, you can usually see a lot of pigeons flying around as well as feeding on the grains which were given to them by the locals.

There are stalls located outside the temple that sell praying items like joss sticks, candles as well as praying papers for devotees who wish to offer prayers to the Goddess of Mercy. They are normally priced at about RM3.00 per set of praying items.

Curry noodles or better known as ‘curry mee’ which is similar to Lemak Laksa that is available is some other Peninsula state is another favourite local dish. A spicy dish consisting of yellow noodles and rice vermicelli, cubes of coagulated pig’s blood, dried tofu, prawns, cockles and mint leaves served in curry soup with thick coconut milk. For those who is into hot and spicy, you can add the special chilly paste to the soup for the extra ooOOMMPHH!

The chilly paste is what gives curry mee its special taste. In some stalls, they have a variety of chicken, curry squids, pork that can be added to make the dish tastier.

Pancake is one of the snacks available in Penang. It’s commonly available at roadside stalls as well as some hawkers centres.

Pancake are made from flour mixture with some sugar and salt added to the mixtures. It will then be pan-fried on a special flat pan. When the flour is partially cooked, the pancake will then be added with additional toppings which served as the inner fillings of the pancake.

Common standard fillings will be like peanuts, sweet corns and eggs. Certain stalls will also have more varieties of fillings like hams, cheese, peanut butter, bananas, strawberries jam just to name a few. Normally, a menu with combinations of fillings will be available for customers to choose from. Other fillings can also be added on customers’ request with additional cost.

Remember to get a bite on these pancakes when you are around Penang.

The Snake Temple, also known as the Temple of the Azure Cloud is probably one of its kind in the world.

Located at Sungai Kluang in Bayan Lepas near the Penang International Airport, the temple was built in 1850 in honour of a Buddhist monk Chor Soo Kong. Legend has it that this monk gave shelter to the snakes of the jungle when the temple was completed, thus the snakes have since then seek refuge there.

At the back of the temple is a snake pool which is filled with fruit trees instead of water. On closer examination you can see the snakes coiled around the branches of the trees.

Although poisonous, the snakes are not caged as they’ve not been known to bite. Devotees regard the snakes as holy and harmless. However in recent years, the rapid development around this area has caused the number of snakes to dwindle.

Snakes are now mostly kept in glass tanks to keep them from slithering out from the temple compound as what was once their natural habitat is now a concrete forest.

Every year thousands of tourist throng this temple as it is one the must see when you visit Penang island. If you are game enough and want to have your photo taken with snakes coiled on your arms or draped around your neck, there are photographers available to take your pictures for you.

At the back of the temple, there’s also an altar of the Goddess of Mercy where devotees can perform their prayers.

Another Penang’s delicious delicacy is fried oysters. Better known by the locals as ‘Oh Jian’.

Like it’s name sake, it’s main ingredient are oysters. Together with the oysters, other ingredients like starch(prepared using flour), eggs, a little soya sauce as well as some pepper. These ingredients are then mixed and fried together until the mixtures gives out a nice fragrance. The oysters are usually not overcooked to maintain it’s natural sweet taste. At different stalls, sometimes the sellers will also add in prawns as an additional ingredient.

The fried oysters dish is usually served together with some locally made chilly sauce. Having the fried oysters dipped with a little chilly sauce, it will further enhance the taste of the oysters.

This dish is widely available in most hawkers’ centres as well as local coffee shops. Be sure you give it a try if you spot one around when you are in Penang. It’s normally costs between RM6.00 to RM10.00 depending on the size of the dish that you desire.

One of Penang’s famous dish is fried kuey teow which also happened to be one of our favourite dish too.

Typically, it consist of mainly kuey teow(a flat and white type of noodle), prawns, cockles and beansprouts. All the ingredients are fried together with some chilli sauce. Certain stalls might add in additional ingredients like Chinese sausages or even squids.

You can find fried kuey teow commonly available in most coffee shops around Penang as it’s a popular dish among Penangites. It should cost between RM2.00 to RM3.50 which depends on the ingredients that the seller is putting into the dish.

When you are around Penang, this is definitely a MUST TRY dish in your list.

Gurney Drive is one of the more popular places in Penang to tourists coming to Penang. It’s also a popular spot to the locals as well.

One can find a wide selection of food along this stretch and a huge hawker center is at the end of the road, near the roundabout. All local favourites can be found in this stretch and it is very easy to see why Penang is also known as a food haven for food lovers.

During major festivals like the New Year countdown or Chap Goh Mei (meaning the 15th night of Chinese New Year in local Chinese dialect) celebrations, this stretch is usually decorated and well lighted to spice up the festive cheer. Located in Gurney Drive is one of the most happening shopping mall in Penang; The Gurney Plaza where you can shop for almost anything from the branded items to local goodies.

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