Thursday, June 14, 2012

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

14 comments:

  1. Yum! As much as I like peanut sauce these sound pretty amazing, nice to add some bananas as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I forgot to mention that each pancake only costs about US$0.35. Cheap!

      Delete
  2. Mmmm, that looks delicious. I love seeing how other countries get their snack on. Yes to the peanut or banana ones!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Compared to other Malaysian street food, these are on the sweeter side (but not very). I think that's why I like them so much.

      Delete
  3. That sounds delicious! Is it possible to crave something you have never tasted?

    ReplyDelete
  4. oh yes i miss those with banana when i were in penang! :) sadly, around KL, i dont see such creation at all

    Latest: Summer Splash from Paris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I need to figure out how to make these so I can still enjoy them after I move.

      Delete
  5. This is right up my alley - I love peanuts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first time I had one, I didn't realize it had peanuts inside and was pleasantly surprised.

      Delete
  6. Yum! How did I miss these when I was in Penang?!

    ReplyDelete
  7. These look delicious. Any chance for Nutella there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some carts offer a chocolate version but no Nutella. However, I was thinking of your comment today in South Austin where one of the food trailers I was at had Bananas and Nutella on Pita Bread on the menu.

      Delete

I read each and every comment. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Comment moderation is on, so your comment may not appear immediately.

Web Analytics