SPICE PISA Cafe (GPS: 5.32959, 100.27848), formerly known as Pisa Corner Cafe, is a large hawker centre in Relau, Penang. It is located beside Jalan Tun Dr Awang, but enter from Jalan Dato Ismail Hashim via Medan Relau. The hawker centre has a lot of hawker stalls. Among those that I noticed include the Char Koay Teow, Chee Cheong Fun, Claypot Chicken Rice, Claypot Frog Porridge, Curry Mee, Duck Rice, Economy Rice, Fish Head Bee Hoon, Fried Rice, Grilled Fish, Hokkien Mee, Hong Kong Shark Fin, Hot Plate Noodle, Japanese Food, Laksa, Lor Bak, Oriental Express Set Meal, Pizza, Roasted Chicken Wings, Sabah Pan Mee, Sar Hor Fun, Seafood, Sio Bak, Taiwanese Food, Tang Hoon Fish Ball, Teluk Kumbar Mee Udang, Thai Fried Rice, Wan Than Mee, Western Food and Yong Tau Foo.
To be honest, when this hawker centre opened a few years back, I came here to try out the food a couple of times, but never did like any. We particularly could recall the koay kak which we felt was served to us in an almost uncooked state.
The outer court of Pisa Corner Cafe, before dinner time goes into full swing. (7 March 2014)
When night falls, the outer court of Pisa Corner Cafe fills up with diners (13 June 2015)
Stalls at Pisa Corner Cafe (7 March 2014)
Stalls at Pisa Corner Cafe (13 June 2015)
28 June, 2014: We returned to Pisa Corner Cafe after a lapse of three months. This time we tried the dry mee udang. It is not too bad, though I prefer the wet one we tried on the previous visit.
Dry mee udang, Pisa Corner Cafe (28 June 2014)
We also tried the "Chinese pancake". It is something rather different, and I still can't decide how much I like it. We ordered two types, one with pork and another with chives. This is how they look like.
Chinese pancakes, Pisa Corner Cafe (28 June 2014)
7 March, 2014: I have never returned to Pisa Corner Cafe again, until today, 7 March, 2014, when I was recommended by Bekay Chew, one of the members of my Penang Hawker Food Facebook Group to try the Teluk Kumbar Mee Udang. As usual, I would rather trust people's recommendation than randomly try the food myself.
The Mee Udang comes in three sizes, small for RM9.00, medium for RM11.00 and large for RM15.00. We straightahead ordered two large ones. (It is our common practise to order the top-of-the-line item, as a means to telling the hawker to "give us your best shot").
When the plate arrived, we thought that the portion looked small. Then we realised that it only appeared small because the plate was big. And then we also realised that the prawns were huge. They might have shrunk a little after they were cooked, but before that, when the seller pointed them to us at the stall, they were the size of my palm.
Teluk Kumbar Mee Udang stall at Pisa Corner (7 March 2014)
Yes, my wife and I both agree that the Teluk Kumbar Mee Udang at Pisa Corner Cafe is delicious. The price of RM15.00 per plate might put off some people, but we felt it is a reasonable price to pay for the size of prawns we are getting. (As we often cook and go to the market to buy prawns, we are quite aware of the price of large prawns.) I am glad that Bekay Chew recommended this place to me, otherwise I would have dismissed Pisa Corner Cafe as not worthy of a visit.
I understand that one may also order other seafood at the stall including fish, flower crabs, mantis prawns and squid, but the likelihood is quite high that on my future visit, I may return for the mee udang once again. As we have tried the rebus style today, we probably will try out the goreng style on a future visit.
Timothy Tye at Pisa Corner (7 March 2014)
Mee Udang at Pisa Corner (7 March 2014)
Ai Yi Ping and Ice Kacang at Pisa Corner (25 January 2013)
In addition to the Mee Udang, we also ordered the ice kacang and the ai yee ping. The total price of these two is RM6.50. The taste is okay only, not so outstanding that I would rave about them.
Other Stalls
I can't help noticing the long queue forming at the stall selling roast pork, or sio3bak3. Although I have never eaten the sio bak here, it must be very good. The seller can demolish an entire pig.
If you're going to be in George Town, Penang, and you are looking for food, get the recommendations from food lovers who are members of the Hawker Food Planet Facebook Group! Listed here are all their recommendations.
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About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
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