The culture and food of Penang in Malaysia has been heavily influenced by immigrants. Inputs from mainland China, and more recently India and Sri Lanka have blended with local Malay flavours to make up this unique and world famous cuisine.
For immigrants life here opening a street food stand is an accessible, low-investment way to make a living. However life is tough – many work from 6am to 10am to earn enough to keep themselves and save some money for their families.
The first episode in the street food series from Al Jazeera explains the story of Penang street food (to watch online follow the link from the article).
Future programmes will look at tapas traditions in the Basque country of Spain, London’s famous Brick Lane, New York, Nairobi, Beijing, Cairo and Jerusalem. If the first programme is anything to go by the rest will definitely be worth watching.
