Penang Street Food: Peanut Pancakes

When I'm wandering George Town and taking in the sights, I start craving a little snack. Luckily, street side food carts are everywhere. One of my favorite treats is Peanut Pancakes or Apam Balik as it's known in Malaysia. A crisp, crepe-like pancake is folded in half around a sweet, crunchy filling of chopped roasted peanuts tossed with sugar.

There's a delightful crinkly-crunch when you bite into this treat.

The pancake man usually has a batter of flour, eggs, milk, and sugar mixed up and ready to cook. He oils each dessert plate-sized pan and spoons batter into it, spreading the mixture up the sides.

After sprinkling in the filling, he places a lid on top while it finishes cooking. When the pancake is done, he quickly runs a knife around the edges and folds it in half. Then, it's off to a rack for cooling and display or directly into your hands wrapped in paper for you to enjoy.

These pancakes come with other fillings such as sweetened corn or bananas. My least favorite is the corn because my American brain still can't understand corn as a snack. The bananas offer up a nice cool creaminess, but straight up peanut is still my top choice.

Getting in a serving of fruit with my pancake

This post is part of Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox.