Confessions of a City Slicker

It was a humbling experience indeed to meet my Swiss Piew Jie Foo, R, especially when I see how well my cousin trained him in terms of our local tongue.

R can speak Malay when out at the Mamak stall, Cantonese with my aunt and Hokkien with my Grandmother.

I speak Cantonese with a heavy accent that people asked me if I came back from overseas (chaaaayyyyy) and Bahasa Pasar rather than Malay due to lack of use.

Worst of all, I don’t know what the Hokkien word is for most everday terms because I had always used English for these things.  It was a big eye opener when I was transferred to the operations section of the bank and I don’t know what most of the customers were talking about.

Yeah, R is a real charmer, alright, especially to his in-laws.

It would be really pleasant too to bring him around for food, especially in Penang, seeing how much he loves Penang food.

My cousin told us during his last trip to Penang, he went to a Mamak stall for nasi kandar, then looked for chendol and after that, went to look for something else to eat, all in one morning.  Needless to say, he ended up with an upset stomach by noon.

Look forward to our next makan session, R, and enjoy your trip to the durian orchard today.  Yeah, he loves durians!

Which brings me to my next question - who’s the Malaysian here?

I had dinner at this quaint little place last night with a cousin who is back visiting for the summer holidays with her family.  For those who don’t know where it is (I’m sure you are a rare breed), it’s that little colonial building next to QEII by the pier.

Since we were a large group, they gave us the private room.  Sweet!  Each of the chairs come with a cushion.

Upon looking at the menu, my Piew Jie Foo told the waiter, "Everything on the menu!", much to our shock.

The portions that came were just right.  Not too much that we end up being too full.

Here’s our appetizer - spring rolls.  I love the sauce they gave us for dipping.  It’s a good thing for me that the spring rolls contain mostly turnips, carrots and mushrooms.

Here are our main course.

Asam prawns on the left and their Hainanese Gulai Tumis with stingray on the right.  My aunt couldn’t stop gushing about how fine the stringray’s flesh was.

Notice how big the prawns’ heads were?  They were all bursting with beautiful, fragrant orange roe too.  Oh boy!  I’ll worry about the cholesterol later on.

These are the alien dishes comprised of mix vegetables, beansprouts with salted fish, sambal petai and sambal kacang botol.  Of course, I didn’t touch them.

This one, Inchi Kabin, seemed to be an absolute favorite.  I took the picture, put the camera away and when I looked up, the plate was empty

For dessert, Bee Koe Moi saturated with coconut milk.  There was already lots of coconut milk in there when it was served, but I requested for more.

For those health conscious peeps, I suggest you skip this because you are gonna get a coronary when you see their coconut milk.  It was so thick, I would call it coconut paste.

My aunt’s eyes nearly popped out when she saw me adding dollop after dollop into my dessert.

Hey, I’ll deal with the cholesterol later on.

They have ice cream too which my niece and nephew ordered.

And of course, this beautiful chandelier illuminated us while we caught up and shared stories with each other.

I’ve always loved chandeliers.  They are a bitch to clean, but they sure are pretty.

Since we were secluded in the private room, I didn’t really get a feel of what the place was like.  Plus, it was raining so there wasn’t that much patrons.