An observation that people would immediately make about Penang is that food is uber-important and very diverse here. Penangites are well known for their love for food after all. One of the most amazing things here when it comes to food (apart from the bustling hawker centers and seafood stalls) is the biscuits. Penang is famous for a variety of biscuits like tau sar pneah, beh teh saw, phong pneah and hneoh pneah. In case I sound like I'm speaking an alien language, tau sar pneah translates to green bean paste biscuit. Phong pneah (or swollen biscuit, don't ask me why swollen) is made of white sugar and flour, hneoh pneah on the other hand is made of brown sugar and flour. Beh teh saw is a type of pastry with sesame seed molasses filling. Stalls selling these biscuits are aplenty all over the island. I'm happy to say that I managed to squeeze into my busy agenda a visit to the most famous of them all during my stay.
An impressive 150-year success story
The Billboard
The set up
Ghee Hiang is one of the more popular brands of biscuits in Penang...with an impressive 150-year history as well. I was very impressed with the set up to be honest. The new shop is whopping bungalow on a considerably big piece of land (which does not come cheap on the island). They grew from their humble beginnings at a shoplot to such an extent just selling ...biscuits and sesame oil, whaddaya know! Impressive, isn't it?
The emblem
With a very cute mascot to boot!
The female version of the mascot
The retail outlet
The on-going promo
The setting
The old bicycle lends a very traditional feel to the place, doesn't it?
Hmmh...the founder?
The counter
Very antique...with a new mascot - the baby! And that's a gigantic bottle of sesame oil sitting at the corner.
Reaching out to a new target market possibly ...googoo gaagaa...
Ahha - the goodies, finally!
My share of goodies *yum*yum*
Very friendly staff
Hneoh pneah - the one with the black sugar...even I have a problem distinguishing them!
The product list
My colleague and I gave them very good business before closing time! :P
I suppose the set up and tremendous success of this company would testify enough on how good these biscuits are, so much so that people from all over the country would pay a visit if they could when they're in the vicinity. I hear too the queue is madness during weekends, so thank God we were there on a fairly quiet Tuesday. Good news too, we were told that they would be opening a branch soon in KL, much closer to home!
Had to take one with the cutie before leaving - my, my, what big head you have!
With the sweet little Penang lass who brought us around - I couldn't recognize the roads well enough to save my own life, unfortunately!
Taking a pic with history hehe
Wanna find out what's all the fuss over Ghee Hiang biscuits, just head right over there! You'll never know it till you try it, and you just might catch the biscuit-crazy fever!
Direction to the old shop
Direction to the new shop (which I visited)
Direction to the old shop
Direction to the new shop (which I visited)
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