Shaved ice over pandan rice-flour noodles, coconut milk and dark gula melaka, often with red beans, eaten standing in the street heat before it melts.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Cendol crossed the strait with Teochew and Peranakan traders and became a Penang street ritual in the 1930s, when Tan Teik Fuang set up on Lebuh Keng Kwee in 1936. The stall, now branded Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul, still shaves ice over the same green pandan noodles, and the standing crowd on the lane is a George Town landmark in itself. The dish is a heat-management device as much as a dessert: coconut fat, palm sugar and ice against a 33-degree afternoon.
Common allergens: None typical; contains coconut
Tip from the editors. Buy real gula melaka blocks, not brown sugar; the smoky palm caramel is the entire flavour and white sugar substitutes collapse the dish.
Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul has shaved ice over pandan noodles since 1936, the Keng Kwee Street stall that defines cendol for all of Penang.
Try: Cendol
Tip: Eat standing at the lane stall like the locals rather than the air-conditioned shop; the ice melts into the gula faster.
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