Quan Zhou Kopitiam, Penang

This was supposed to be just a random coffee shop where my FIL was going to meet his old-time friend but it was quite a find for us! Located at Jalan Sungai Pinang, it was quite obscure with all the hawkers and trees hiding it from view.

Apparently famed for their oyster-based fried products (which we ordered and more on that later), we were not disappointed with this fried noodles hokkien style. The fat noodles are also known as "moon noodles" and I love the fact that the ingredients were quite generous. Granted, the wait for the food was a little long but I guess that's expected when there's a heavy crowd. The "fragrance" from the wok or else known as the "wok hei" was obvious and very enjoyable. Succulent prawns and tender pork slices made this one of my new personal favourite!

The oyster fried beehoon was a good dish but did not make it anywhere near the first one. The oysters were aplenty and ranged from huge ones to medium sized ones so no complaints there. The flavours were a tad bland especially after the amazing first plate of noodles so I can't be sure if it was my not-too-hungry-self being too harsh or if it was actually so.

The oyster omelette came highly recommended. Again, the oysters were more than generous and a plate with less than a quarter the posters in KL would probably set you back about RM10-15, depending on the location (maybe even more in restaurants). I felt that it was a little under seasoned but with the chilli sauce, that could be swept under the carpet. The omelette was light and crispy with goey centres from the corn starch used. The pickled vegetables could use a little longer of a soak in the vinegar but all in all, this was a good dish.

The tofu with prawns and leeks is probably one of the best I have ever had and that in itself is saying something. I never knew plain tofu (beancurd) could taste this good and this dish definitely proved me wrong! The tofu was fragrant and soft with a little crispy edges, the leeks were fried well with just a little crisp left to them and the sauce was simply out of this world. Add the succulent prawns to the mix and you have an award-winning dish! I couldn't get enough of this and practically had most of it. Lol.

Give this lesser known shop a try if you are in the area and I am pretty sure you wouldn't regret it.