Food Galore

-My long overdue entry on my Penang trip-.
Our Penang trip this time around was to go for Chinese New Year Celebration and also to have a food quest trip. To eat all of our favorite authentic Penang dishes. Okay, 3am I got up awaken by a phone call by my brother who wanted to go home to Penang with us. He was on his way to my house that morning as H had this idea that in order to avoid traffic, we should leave early. Well…he and the other 1000 cars on the highway. We were stuck at Rawang and it was a crawling journey after that. It was an out of this world sight, having to be stuck in a jam at Rawang at 4.30 in the morning. It was like a secret pack made by these people and H and it said “You MUST leave at 4am!”. Anyway, I slept on an off through out the journey and Hannah slept on me. after the 1st hour, half of my body, had gone numb due to the weight. I had witnessed 4 accidents and 3 breakdowns along the way. We reached Ipoh at 8.30am and stopped for breakfast. What a journey! No more 4am ride and no more going home during festive seasons. Talking about home, Hannah asked me where we were going after breakfast in Ipoh and I told her “We are going to Penang.” Then she asked me “What is Penang, mummy?”. Without hesitation or thoughts, in a split second, I answered, “ Penang is home”. Hannah looked at me, smiled and hugged me. She didn’t ask anymore. It was understood. That is one of the magical moments. Great moments and it was ours! Mine and hers. The journey from Ipoh to Penang was smooth, no jams and we reached Penang at 11.30am. We dropped off my brother and his wife at their friend’s house and left but not after making him promised me not to tell dad that he had hitched a ride from us and let alone about us coming home. We wanted it to be a surprise. Our first quest was to go and find food. The original plan was to reach Penang at 9am and go for the police station curry mee and check out the ‘apom teloq’(Penang Pancake) at Pulau Tikus but since we had reached at 11.30am then we changed to plan B. We decided to go for an early lunch. So off we go to Bazaar (we call it ‘jual murah’) for my long awaited cravings of Taukua Rendang. We wanted to go for the first stall but it was closed. So I was praying silently to please let the second stall which is situated further into the Bazaar past the hat shops and it was opened! YippY! So we had two serving each of the delicious taukua rending. Hmm I can still taste the flavor on my tongue, hmmm…heaven. I was armed with a camera so I took lots of photos. The surprising thing was that it was the same mamaks that were managing the stalls. The mamak that fried the noodles looked extremely familiar and the one frying the taukua was new, it was the noodle mamak’s son but the one preparing the drink was the same mamak who still wears a kurta, it was white before and now it's blue and with a full beard and a ketayap(a prayer hat). The same mamak who prepares my sirap with biji selasih or when I was small I used to call them telur berudu (frog eggs because it looks it) when I visited the stall with mom some 20 years back. The same drink, the same mamaks and the same wooden benches and the same taste of taukua, the gravy (hmmm…gravy..), the same cendol. It was as if, time stood still there and they don’t age at all. They looked the same when I was there somewhat 20 years ago and they looked the same now. Amazingly surreal! After savouring the taukua rending, we took a walk along Campbell Street. Some buildings looked the same; some were refurbished to give them a newer look. It was like dejavu, relieving back memories. I should go home and do this more often. It was a good, liberating feeling being able to explore like a tourist in your own home. Having to look at things, buildings and people in a new light is so wonderful and refreshing that I didn’t want to leave. It was like falling in love all over again. We walked and then dropped by at Mydins (a supermarket) and I noticed that a lot of Bangladeshi cashiers. We bought some mineral waters because the island heat was getting to us. After that we took off to the Pragin Mall to go and join the other Chinese for a last minute shopping before the new year. When we reached Pragin mall, I glanced at my watch and was a bit surprised to see that it was only 1pm. Hmm…I found that peculiar enough on how time was a bit slower here as compared to KL where it flew faster than the jet plane. In KL,we will always be fighting for time and chasing it. But it Penang, it moves a little slower. I can live with this. I remembered of having a conversation with another penangite and we were comparing notes when we said that it wasn’t the same anymore. No matter how we love Penang, it was different when we go home during Raya, we would feel anxious after a couple days and we had come to the conclusion that , that was due to the fact that we had made KL our home. But now I felt different. Maybe during Raya, I was home most of the time, didn’t have time to explore. Now when I am exploring, the excitement was just so tremendous and it suffuses on my face, laughter and smiles. Maybe it’s true when they said that in order to find out who you really are, you need to go back where you came from. It was exactly it, rediscovering myself and the place of my origin. It was an excitement that I can’t explain. We were roaming through almost all the levels and seeing the excitement of Chinese New Year splattered everywhere in the mall, gave me a kind of joy and a welcoming feeling. I am home. One of the reasons we were there was to look for a Hindi movie DVDs for a colleague who has a penchant for Hunky hindi actors. It was history in the making because that was my first time buying a Hindi movie DVDs. We searched high and low for the DVDs but to no avail. Then H suggested that we go to Market street and maybe try our luck there. We went and it was a whole new world. The last time I was there was when Aunty and Uncle were still alive. It was a sad and happy feeling combined. It was as colorful as I left it 10 years ago. The Indians like colors and it reflected in the streets that bears their identity, culture and name. We went to this shop and they had everything from religious DVDs to children programs DVD in Hindi and Tamil. One of the shop owners talked to me in Tamil and I didn’t realize it and walked off to next aisle until H told me. It was a normal occurrence in Penang and in KL but more often in Penang. It was an interesting experience being in the store and seeing all the people there, the smell of prayers oil, spices and ground flours, all enlighten my senses and mind Our next destination was the beach and off we went to Batu Feringgi. It was a beautiful sight seeing the sea and listening to the waves calling me. It was a bit gloomy because it was drizzling and there were thick grey clouds that claimed their territories in the big sky. No more blue, just grey! We stopped at Parkroyal and walked for a while until the rain started to hit the ground with a vengeance. We continued our exploring by car because it wasn’t feasible to walk. We wanted to have dinner there but our usual lepak place was gone and the new ones do not open that early. We would have to wait till 8pm and it was 6pm then. So we bid goodbye to the sea and left for my old kampong. ‘Kampung Marine Polis’ they called it. Infront of the Marine Police HQ, there’s this small eating place which was literally situated on the rocks next to the sea. The sea that I used to fish with dad when I was 6 at the jetty. The jetty has disappeared.Aged due to time and harsh environments sorrounding it until it was deemed dangerously to go the rusty old jetty and they had demolished it. The sea I used to swim with my brothers, just below the Tengku Kudin’house. The untouched beaches, which are no longer in existence now. Instead you’d find concrete jungle replacing my childhood play ground. I remembered going for rides in one of the marine police boats to the Jerjak Island. Back then, all the Marine policemen were our neighbors that we can trust. Thank god, the island is still there, they have build a resort in there but nevertheless, it is still there.The restaurant is placed on the rocks where I used to go in search of belangkas (a sea creature that looked like Darth vader’s hat) and that ugly looking fish that looked like a slimy lizard that lived in the mud, I think it's called belacak or maybe it isnt, anyway it doesnt matter . No more belangkas or the slimy lizards, just rocks and sea. The restaurant offered a ray of seafood delicacies. We had our dinner there and the weather was a little envious of us when the wind was blowing so swiftly and it was raining heavily and we’ve got a little taste of what the fishermen are facing daily when riding on a stormy sea. Dinner was excellent. When we finished, it was only 8.30pm. See! I told you , here time drags itself. We decided to call it a day and go home and surprise dad. We reached home and according to sis, seconds after dad mentioned on how he missed Hannah dearly and wished that we had gone back, we appeared at the door. See, wishes do come true. It was heartbreaking but nice to see his smiling face when he saw us at the door. It was a long wonderful day. All that begins well, ends well.That is all there is, there isn’t anymore (you must be listening the Madeline’s theme song by now). The following day, we took Hannah to the beach nearby my parent’s house. The very one that was hit by the dreadful Tsunami. It was clean and still commercially untouched which is good. We had breakfast the penangites style-yep Nasi Kandar at the beach- a match made in heaven.We wanted to let Hannah play with the water because we didn’t bring her swimsuit but she ended up not only taking the plunge but refused to leave and she kept on saying “another 4 minutes mummy”. It was great memories in the making, where we collected sea shells and she kept on putting on my ear and asked me whether I could hear the waves or not. It was beautiful just like in the movies. It was my own blockbuster in the making.

There was one time, when a waves hit her and she accridently swollowed salt water. You should have seen her face. It was hillirious when she tried to spit all the water out and looked up at me and say "mummy i swollowed yucky water". I told her sea water is salty. It puts a smile on my face seeing her trying to deal with the situation. She's growing up so fast and it's scary. The trip to Penang, was a long over due one. I’m glad I went home because with all the chaos at work(Don’t get me wrong,I love it!I do) and the longing that I have sometimes for things and loveones, sometimes I just needed to get away from it all, see different life canvases, different background, go for something that I was familiar with once, and just go home and be me. The basic, simple me. Go back to the beginning, the first step and I realized that I have walked very very far indeed. Adios Amigos! GO home!