Many people claim to be thinking about their next meal once they’ve finished their latest, but we take it one step further by planning a whole day in advance. Because of that, we take breakfasting very seriously, especially when you only have so many meals in an eating city.

Sri Weld is a foodcourt located nearby some of the central tourist spots near the Clan Jetties, making it an ideal eatery for early risers who also want to tour some famous local sites. Opening early in the morning, Sri Weld offers your typical Malaysian fare, but two have stood out consistently as the most popular of the lot in many of the searches of what to eat: nasi lemak, and beef noodle soup, two very contrasting dishes.

Kwang Beef Noodle Soup

This long-running stall offers a variety of one dish: noodles in a clear beef broth. They offer a selection of beef cuts, of which we gave the thumbs up for them all. We chose the rice noodles, though they also offer egg noodles as an alternative. Upon ordering, the noodles are quickly blanched and the beef cuts cooked or reheated in the hot broth it is later served in. At RM8 per bowl, this isn’t exactly the cheapest item in your typical food court, but after tasting it, we understand how they do so well.

The beef broth is light, yet flavourful, well-steeped with all the beefy goodness that passed through it before. This was accompanied by the fresh greens they’re topped with, refreshing the broth further. The noodles did not only serve to fill you up; soaking in every bit of flavour from the soup, it carried all of the light broth with it, making for a great slurp.

The soup noodle came with tripe, beef balls, some tendon, and some slices muscle meat; all were surprisingly soft, though the beef slices to the point where it may have used tenderisers, as the fibres of the muscle were less distinguishable than, say, a steak. Some may prefer it like that. Either way, it made for a texture that was easy to eat, to accompany those soft, slurpy noodles.

This beef noodle was a retrospective food, in the way that we really only realised how good it was once we had no more of it left. After so long in favouring dry noodles over soup, this one changed the game for us, and it set a high standard for every soup noodle we had following.

Kwang Beef Noodle Soup (small rice noodle soup) RM8 (US$2)
Mon-Fri 9.30am-3pm
Closed weekends and public holidays

Ali Nasi Lemak

Nasi lemak is traditionally a dish of rice cooked in coconut milk, served with sambal and a few other toppings and wrapped in banana leaf. Ali Nasi Lemak, located right at the entrance of the food court, makes a very traditional version, adding only some dried anchovies and half a boiled egg. They also offer portions with prawn and squid for extra protein.

Being purists, we went with traditional, and it was a great first step; the rice was fluffy and flavourful with not just the coconut milk but also the banana leaves it was wrapped in. A difficult flavour to describe, it was fragrant with an almost sweet flavour that had seeped it right through. This was likely because they don’t use wax paper in addition to the banana leaves.

The sambal was sweet and onion-y, with a light spiciness that compelled you to keep eating without overpowering the flavour with unpleasant burning. The anchovies added texture and saltiness, the egg, some cheap but filling protein. It was overall a well-balanced dish which provided the typical Southeast Asian flavours of sweet, salty, savoury, and spicy, all in one neat little package that barely set us back anything.

Ali Nasi Lemak RM1.8 (US$0.45)
Mon-Fri 7am-4pm
Sat 7am-4pm

Easily the best breakfast we had in Penang, both dishes brought to the table their individual attractions. Still, they were even better together, the fragrant, punchy rice contrasting with the light yet deep broth of soft rice noodles. In Sri Weld, we’re sure that anything you get is bound to be good. But these two dishes were incredible. And eaten together – even better. It’s definitely a breakfast spot to bookmark if you’re on your way to the attractions on this side of town, such as the Jetties, or the Wonderfood Museum.

Sri Weld Food Court
Sri Weld Food Court, Beach St, George Town, 10300 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Mon-Sat 9am-3pm
Closed Sunday