Penang's street food are actually over hyped. I've tried their famous char-kuey-teow at Chulia Street before, which claimed to have legs and hands, but for my wife and me, they are not even of average quality. Many of their street hawkers along Gurney Drive are just average only, nothing fantastic. In KL, their Hokkien noodles are filled with so much pork lard that I was very much shocked. However, the locals like it this way and told me it tastes good, but will it be healthy? We'd once tried the fried chicken nasi lemak at a Malay restaurant in PJ where they had claimed that even Mamak Kutty had patronized them, with a photo of him giving a thumbs up with the boss on its walls. However, we find that the fried chickens are too dry and saltish to our taste.
As for the noodles, they use excessive alkaline water to make them, which if consumed in excessive amount will be bad for your body. They are doing so in order to make the noodles springy but at the expense of your health and longevity. From my interactions with many Malaysian Chinese, I'd realize that they only care to nourish/enrich their pockets and nothing else matters more. Since there is not much regulations governing their F&B trade, so, who cares? As long as good money comes in, that's all that is important.
