I researched this before I went -- not difficult, given the number of Malaysian food bloggers.

Highlights:

Pasembur -- this must be a member of the pecel/gado-gado family. It's all kinds of fishy bits, tofu, potatoes, and other things, which you choose from a big display, and put on a plate. They chop them up for you, add some veges, and then toss the whole lot in a spicy, peanutty sauce. Very nice.

Breakfast at the kopi tiam -- we had wan tan mee one day and kuay teow the next. You can get these in lots of other places, of course, but Penang is supposed to have particularly good versions.

Nasi kandar -- this is everywhere, too, but we'd not tried it yet, and Penang is its birthplace. It's the same idea as the Malaysian nasi campur (ie, it's rice plus lots of choices of meat and vegetables), but the flavours are different, much more Indian. I chose biriani rice, a vegetable gravy, squid roe (nice), and an absolutely delicious lamb shank.

Chee cheong fun -- definitely a Penang speciality. It's little noodle rolls, drizzled with a couple of sauces (I thought there were supposed to be three, but we could only detect two -- one salty, one spicy), and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Lobak -- as with the pasembur, there's a whole heap of tofu-skin-wrapped things to choose from, which they then fry and cut up.

Finally, two things that are not specifically Penang, but were thoroughly scrumptious all the same.

One was the chocolate we bought from the Cocoa Boutique. Especially recommendable are the chocolates with the tropical fruit centres. We bought a box of mango and a box of durian. But they give you tons to taste, and really, it's all good. Coconut... Chilli... Almond...

The other was the meal we got from the Xuan Xin Steamboat at the Gurney Mall. We had the most delicious bowl of roast pork and congee, plus a fiery dish of szechuan bean curd.

Ah, the pleasures of the palate in Malaysia...