Apong Guan Pancake at Burmah Road Penang.
Photo by Wuan.
Apom, apong or pancake is a delicious savoury that can be enjoyed in between meal times. It is made with a batter of flour and eggs with banana slices and corn added while it is cooking. My first taste of it was more than three decades ago. At that time, I was staying in Ayer Itam. There was a hawker selling it at the market in the evenings. It was my parents’ favourite. Every now and then when my parents were still around, they would buy ten pieces on their way home from work.
Ah Guan, the famous pancake man busy at work at his stall.
Photo by Wuan.
When I had a motorcycle, I would sometimes detour from my usual route home after school to buy a few pieces from a stall located just before Union Primary School at Burmah Road. On my last two trips to Penang, I took Wuan down a memory lane of sorts. We stopped at the stall for a few pieces of my favourite pancake. It is amazing this stall is still around after so many years – twenty five at least. We had to wait for thirty minutes as there was a queue of people buying ten or twenty pieces each at one go.
Ah Guan adding sweet corn to his pancakes.
Photo by Wuan.
It now costs 30 sen per piece. If I remember correctly, it was only RM1 for five pieces during my schooling days. Nevertheless, it still tasted as good as I had remembered it, especially when it is fresh out from the pan, moist and piping hot. It is not too sweet also. This suits me just fine as I do not have a sweet tooth. The banana slices and sweet corn made biting into it a pleasure to the senses – the banana with its fragrance and the sweet corn kernels with its chewiness. The 30 minute wait was worth it. You can be sure that I will drop in again for a few of the pancakes on my next trip to Penang.
Apong Guan’s absolutely mouthwatering pancakes.
Photo by Wuan.