Perhaps the setting, a roadside stall catering to customers on the go, contributed to the appearance of Penang's most famous ice kacang (rm 1.50, or about 43 cents at the time). This combination of shaved ice with sweet corn, red beans, and attap chee (the pale, unripe seeds of the nipah palm), dressed with rosewater-bright syrup and evaporated milk, proved to be rather slushy and low-slung. Compare this firmer, towering ice kacang, from Singapore, meant to be consumed while seated in the relative tranquility of a food court.
The hawkers along Swatow Lane have since been moved to New World Park, the neighboring building that was under construction when I snapped the photo at bottom, and where all traffic is foot traffic. I haven't returned, but by some accounts the ice kacang has grown in stature.
Swatow Lane Ice Kacang
102-E-1,New World Park, Burma Road, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
+60 16-497 0136
www.Facebook.com/ILoveIceKacang
(From a December 2006 visit)
