Seeing the World in a Plate of Mee Goreng

By Eugene Quah

October 2022 FEATURE
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Is cosmopolitan Penang best explained as a serving of mee goreng mamak? This eclectic street food is the coming together of ingredients and flavours from everywhere onto a small plate; cosmopolitan Penang is the coming together of peoples and cultures from everywhere into a small place. The accompanying drink is limau ais (iced calamansi juice). Photo by: Eugene Quah.
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MEE GORENG MAMAK is the perfect metaphor for cosmopolitan Penang, the undeniable love child of unfettered multiculturalism. Penang, as an entrepôt, had always been the meeting place where cultures not only met but mingled, marinated and merged, creating unique and surprising culinary delights. The journey of the ingredients of this dish to Penang tells a tale spanning continents and centuries; it is a story of discovery and conquest, and of chance encounters and unintended consequences.[1]As you walk along the north...

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Eugene Quah

is an independent researcher and writer who is working on a book tentatively called “Illustrated Guide to the North Coast of Penang”. He rediscovered the joys of writing after moving back to Penang from abroad.


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