Friday June 12 - day 2 in Penang

Food! Eating is the favorite past-time in Penang, as evidence by how people conduct their conversations here. The Chinese do not greet each other with "Hi" or "Hello". It is as if they think this is secondary. What is more so on their mind is - food. The Cantoneses and the Hokkiens in Penang start their greetings with "Have you eaten?" As in the West, the casual answer is always "I am well", "I am fine", "OK", the locals answer by "Yes", "Eaten until full". Nobody actually answers this by explicitly saying "I have not eaten." That would be considered rude, or face-losing, and the Chinese will do anything not to lose face.

Well, food was on our mind this morning. Mom told me to pick up some fried rice noodles, and some steamed meat buns. I am thinking of Hokkien noodles. So around 8:30, I woke up the kids (only Theng2 and Loong2 will come. Kean Ming decided to sleep in) and piled into the car - a Proton Wega (Malaysian assembled car) Ann was gracious enough to let me use for the day.

First stop was the local marketplace. There is a good stall that sells Hokkien noodles (RM 2.50 each) in a coffee shop. With Theng2 as my navigator, we careened down the hill from the house, and sailed into the parking lot next to the market place. We found the coffee shop with no problem, but ah yes, there was a problem. The shop was full. Every table taken. The two kids were ready to turn their backs and walk out. In fact, they did walk out. I walked around a little, and spotted a couple of ladies finishing up, and applying face wipes to clean up. I walked over, and asked them if they are all done, and they smiled and quickly rose to give us the table.

The waitress came very quickly. I ordered a coffee (although, Becky, I am not sure about the quality of this one. It is not quite as good as the one in the Singapore Kopitiam, and so you know what I must do.), and Loong2 ordered an iced drink (not sure what it was now.) Theng2 went to the stall and ordered three bowls of Hokken Mee. The workers said it will take a little while, because there are a few people standing in line waiting for their orders.

While we were waiting, I ordered a dry mixed Wonton noodles. This version has the noodles mixed in a dark sauce (dark and regular soy sauce mixture), and you still get a small bowl of soup on the side, with three wontons. We shared the noodles.

The Hokkien noodles came shortly after we finished the wonton noodles. We (mostly me) greeted the new arrival with gusto. I dove in to the spicy soup, and savored the meat and eggs in the noodle soup. I finished the bowl of soup in about three minutes.

While we were eating, we did not forget mom's orders, so we put in our order of five bags of Hokkien noodles to go. I was eyeing the steamer case behind Theng2, for the meat buns (meat paus). Theng2 insisted we should not buy the buns there. There is a better place for the dim sum somewhere else.

After we had finished eating, we trooped back to the car, and drove to another part of the town. In a coffee shop called "Tien Tien Lai" (Come Everyday), we found the Dim Sum vendor. We ordered two large meat paus, two BBQ port paus, three baskets of mean dumplings, and there may have been something else, but I cannot remember.

On the way to the car, Old Eagle-eyed Theng2 spotted a stall selling Ban Chang Kueh. This is a local favorite. It is loosely "peanut pancakes", but oh, very loosely. There are two types. One is a large pan pancake, about a foot and a half in diameter, about an inches thick. On top of the pancake, the vendor spread granulated sugar and crushed peanuts. There are two varieties of sugar: white sugar or brown sugar. When it is cooked, open faced, the vendor will cut the large pancake into smaller pieces, about three inches by three inches. This vendor sells them at 50 cents a piece. The second type of this pancake is a smaller version of the same thing. In a round pan or about five inch diameter, the vendors pours in the pancake batter, and scoop up the sides of it, so they burn into a crispy crush. On top of the batter, he spreads in the sugar and crushed peanuts. When the pancake is cooked, it is folded in half, and sold individually. This vendor we see here only sells the large open-faced type. We bought six pieces to take home.

On the way back, we stopped at a 711 and picked up some ice cream cones.

p.s. the pictures in today's blog came from the web site http://www.PenangTuaPui.com.