TacoCat’s Travels #201 (Penang): Delicious Dim Sum before Visiting the Biggest Temple! 😋

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our short getaway to Penang Island, Malaysia, back in July 2022! It was our first trip post-covid and since we weren't sure about the covid climate yet (and how effective our vaccines were), we decided to take a short 3 day trip there! It had been a good decade since either of us have visited Penang so this was a semi-new experience for both of us.

Last week, we took a stroll around the neighbourhood after dinner and found a really cool store called The Heritage Cat that sells exclusively cat merchandise!

After a walk where we found an impressive local temple where a whole crowd was gathered around watching a puppet show! We went for dessert and tried some authentic Italian gelato before finding a very cool hawker center with live music! We were too full to try the food here but promised ourselves we would come back!

25 July 2022. Monday.

We had a pretty early start after a nice restful sleep and got up at around 8 am. I found a pretty famous dim sum restaurant not too far away and it seemed pretty legit so we decided to head there for brunch! We waited in the lobby for a car to fetch us there since it was a little ways to walk but was only about 10 minutes away by car.

The restaurant is called Restoran Zim Sum and is a non-air conditioned one-storey building along the main road called Jalan Macalister.

We were hoping that the restaurant would be air-conditioned since it was a pretty warm day out. But at least they had plenty of ceiling fans in there. There were quite many tables but it was already pretty crowded at 9am.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with dim sum but if you're not, it's a type of Cantonese cuisine with small steamer baskets of buns, dumplings and some fried dishes.

So we took the time to look through the menu while waiting for a table to be available. Thankfully since we were only two people it didn't take long.

After about 10 minutes, we were shown to our table which had about 5 chairs. I think most of the tables were meant for families more than couples.

Instead of ordering dim sum from the waiters it was more like a self-service buffet! There was a dim sum corner with all the dishes they had available from steamed, to baked and fried dishes.

The other side of the restaurant was the Drink Corner where you could order various types of tea. It's common to have Chinese tea with dim sum and is known as "yum cha" and dim sum is also a very common teatime snack.

It was like a buffet with trays and you could take as much food as you wanted but instead of a blanket price it was calculated per dish. It was a very unique and efficient system compared to ordering from the waiters like other dim sum restaurants we've patronised.

I took some steamed dishes before moving onto the baked and fried goods which were kept in these display cupboards with heaters.

I took a tray of assorted dim sum for us to try a few things first before Sean went to get more food.

These were some of my favourites, like Har Gow (crystal shrimp dumpling):

The buns were Salted Egg Custard buns which were actually a little sweet although it's made with salted eggs. The buns were a different shape and colour compared to the buns we're used to but it was nice and soft and had plenty of egg custard in the middle!

We were pretty impressed with the quality of the dim sum since buffets tend to have lower quality but the dim sum here was top notch!

Sean went to get more dishes and we had more dumplings, fish paste in lady fingers, chee cheong fun (rice noodles with shrimp), and baked egg tarts!

The dumplings had fish and meat paste with mushrooms and roe on top. It was really good!

The egg tart was also delicious, with a crisp crust that wasn't overly crumbly with a slightly sweet egg custard. It wasn't too dry and the crust and custard had the perfect consistency.

We took a few extra dishes like this fried beancurd skin roll with fish paste and prawns, which is also another one of our favourites!

It was getting really warm despite us having a cold drink because of all the the hot steamed dishes so Sean ordered some melon sago with coconut milk which was really refreshing!

We ended up taking almost 3 trays of food and were so stuffed by the end of the meal! It was definitely one of the best dim sum I've ever had for sure! And the price was fairly reasonable too!

Sorry for the blurry photo but this was from Sean's instagram because we forgot to take a selfie there because we got too distracted by the food.

After we were stuffed, we headed to the counter beside the drinks corner to pay. I think our bill ended up being about 60RM or so, which is pretty reasonable for how much food we had.

The restaurant is also pretty nice and comfortable although it can be a little warm despite all the fans so a cold drink is a must. But I would definitely recommend Restoran Zim Sum for sure!

After a very filling breakfast we booked a car to drive us to our first major sight - the biggest temple in Malaysia!

I searched for the major sights to see in Penang that weren't too far away and found out about this one called Kek Lok Si Temple, which is actually the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia! Turns out it is also an important pilgrimage centre for Buddhists from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and other countries in Southeast Asia!

I'm personally not Buddhist, and neither of us are religious but it is still a very impressive sight and they do allow visitors so we thought we'd check it out.

The driver dropped us off at this entrance but there was some construction going on on this side. So we tried to find a way to the main part of the temple and avoid the construction areas.

It was also very loud because of the power tools so we wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

We found our way to the area I saw on Google and figured this was the path for tourists to go through.

There were quite a few pagodas and chambers inside the temple, and it looked like a huge complex. Given that the entire complex of temples was built over a period from 1890 to 1930, it makes sense that the complex be this huge!

We took a look in the new prayer hall which was near the construction area before heading inwards. We had to take our shoes off before entering but thankfully they did allow us in. It did look really new but traditional at the same time, with the marble floors and the individual Buddha statues along the walls.

I think these tables had the scriptures on them for the monks to come in and study. We didn't want to go too far in so as not to disrupt anything but the numerous Buddha statues were quite impressive.

The hall was also very spacious and the ceiling was so intricately designed! I'm not very familiar with the gods pictured here but the detail on this was amazing!

Just outside the prayer hall were these huge urns where you could offer joss sticks and prayer candles.

We saw one of the smaller pagodas behind the prayer hall and a path leading up to the main chambers of the temple behind.

It was a little too warm to go up close near the pagoda so we walked along the sheltered path next to it which leads up to the larger pagoda up top.

On the other side of the path there were rocks with Chinese characters that I think were people's names. I'm not sure who they were exactly though.

It was getting pretty sunny since it was nearing noon so we tried to stay in the shelter as much as possible. There were quite a few other visitors as well coming down from the main chamber.

Before we went through the main entrance, there was a disclaimer on the wall warning people to be careful since the temple won't be liable for damages or injury.

Just walking up the stairs we gained some height and could see the new prayer hall's building from here.

We saw the huge pagoda from the entrance that looked pretty impressive. We were actually quite high up that the clouds were obscuring the nearby mountains.

Just left from the entrance was a nice garden with many potted plants.

Then there was this very colourful archway with more Buddhas and related deity illustrations.

We just took a brief look at the garden before heading into the first building.

Just after this doorway was a little shrine with what seemed like an emperor.

There wasn't much in the first building other than that shrine and this urn. This was the other entrance to the same building from deeper inside the temple which looks a little fancier with these stone lion dog statues flanking the entrance.

Just after this area was another area for offerings with urns for joss sticks. The ceilings in here were very colourful and beautifully sculpted as well!

There was also a tree of Wishing Ribbons you could buy and attach them to, and of course the proceeds for the ribbons would be donated to the temple.

Then we passed through this walkway with these colourful beams and benches you could sit on. It was really warm though so we didn't stick around, but the bamboo trees did make it a little cooler at least.

There were some souvenir stalls along the walkway selling various products like mugs, bags, keychains and other stuff for tourists. But of course we didn't buy anything since we didn't see the need.

Just after that was a gift shop of sorts? They had all manner of Buddhism memorabilia like statues and beaded necklaces.

This was probably the main shop since they had so much stuff here, including some Chinese New Year decorations as well.

At the back of the souvenir shop was the teller for the inclined lift up to the biggest Guan Yin statue!

I think this might have been the biggest Guan Yin statue in the world! Guan Yin is synonymous with the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, the pinnacle of mercy, compassion, kindness and love. She is the goddess of mercy and considered to be the physical embodiment of compassion.

I didn't take a pic of the lift area since it was quite dark and too close to get a good pic but it was nicely sheltered and had some ventilation but here's a pic from the inside as went up!

We rode the elevator with some people and enjoyed the brief scenic ride up.

We came out to another gift shop but turned left to the outside where the statue was.

We came out of this building with a huge Guan Yin head on top. She looked a little creepy and I definitely wouldn't want to see when it's dark.

Just behind the building were some cute stone stools with Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and some zodiac animals!

But here's the giant bronze Guan Yin statue! It was definitely very impressive and they might have been doing some work on it or cleaning it with the scaffolding.

It was really warm but we took some time to enjoy the view as well because we were basically in one of the higher parts of Penang!

Unfortunately it was mostly unsheltered here so we had to endure the heat but for the view it was worth it!

There were also some stalls up here selling some roof slates for some reason. I'm not sure what they're for exactly but I guess you could buy and contribute part of the temple's roof?

We made sure to take loads of the Guan Yin statue since this is probably the first and last time we'd ever come up here!

There were also more urns and wishing ribbons here for more offerings.

I wanted to take more pics of the view but it was way too warm and I felt like I was getting burned despite the sunblock I applied earlier.

There was a pathway leading elsewhere from the bottom of the statue, which we will explore next time!

I think this post has gone on long enough, but there's so much more to the temple to explore so tune in next week for more!

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #200 (Penang): Feline Good Discovering Hidden Gems 😸

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