Loon was waiting for us when we arrived home. He complained of a gastric ailment, so he declined the hokkien noodles we brought home but with Mom's insistence, we allowed her to put some dumplings, and a pau in front of him. I joined him for a beer, as this is his favorite past time.
We talked about his wife Lilian, who recently joined the work-force working for a home for unwed mothers, after an absence of more then thirty years from the work-place. At sixty years (shh, this must be a secret), she is probably the oldest person to join the work-force and report to the EPF (Employees' Provident Fund - Malaysia's equivalent of SSN), She has to learn the Malay language while on the job, and gain some computer skills in the mean time, so it is not going to be easy for her.
Anyways, around 11:30AM, Theng2's tuition teacher showed up to tutor her on some subjects unbeknown to me. Loon did not want our conversations to affect her attention on this matter, so we decided to go out for a drive.
Our conversation turned to computer shopping, and Loon suggested we go to the Queensbay Mall, not far from Sungai Ara. This, I believe they advertised as "the World's Longest mall." is near the water (Queensbay?) and from there you can see the Penang Bridge (see picture.)
The Mall was huge, as advertised. We walked the five floors, and Loon was starting to get beer withdrawal. We stepped out of the mall, and found a TGI Friday's, In we went to the bar, and we shared a jug of Tiger Beer.
While we were drinking the beer, Loon noticed that the bar offers Genius Stout on draft. He told me, "Ah Piau (that is what he calls me), when I was in the merchant marines, I used to have this captain. When ever we make port, he would say "Mui, let us go shopping.", but we never make it more than a couple of blocks from the ship when we would spot a bar, and the captain would say, "Mui, never mind shopping. Let us have a beer.", and that is where they would end up for the rest of the day."
While at the bar, we had a conversation with the young bar-tender. He said he is going to start school at the local City College (not the NYC famous City College, but a local diploma mill.) He was going for a diploma in Business Administration. Loon told him, frankly, to forget this. Stop wasting his money on a piece of paper which is not going to get him a job. There are so many University graduates coming out every year with real degrees who cannot get jobs, why waste time and money on this venture? Better to go learn a trade, like plumbing or electrician. By the end, he has convinced the poor kid to change his career path to become a plumber. We look forward to seeing the name "Jhayan's Plumbers" on a truck someday.
Forget to tell you this. While walking in the Mall, Loon spotted a sign, and commented about the bad Malaysian English. Proudly displayed at a store was a sign that says "Buy 1, Free 1". Of course, it means buy 1 and get 1 free, but the context of the language is, you buy one, and bring the other one to the open and say "Ok, you are free to go.", so we had a good laugh about that.
Another one Seng later told me is "4000 menus", when they mean "4000 items in our menu."
Back to the house. Loon said he was not going to come in, because Lilian had lost her house keys, and so he has to rush home to open the door for her.
After a quick snooze, I woke up at 5 PM. It was time for dinner. Ann and Seng had cooked Curry Fish today, and a plate of steamed eggs.
The fish was dropped into the pot of steaming hot curry five minutes before being server. It was very tender and sweet. The fish was accompanied with string beans and small Japanese eggplants, cut up into cubes. The children loved the egg plants, while we adults also love the fish.
The steamed eyes, similar to egg custurds, but has some seafood in it, was very good. It was not over-steamed, but was soft. The slight salt flavor complemented the slight spiciness of the curry. Ann said the curry does not have any "santan" or coconut milk in it. Santan was known to bring on higher chloresterols. Plus with the vegetables in the curry, its makes it a healthy dish. I would heartily agree.
After dinner, we have to ferry Theng2 to her piano lessons. Since the music teacher lives not far from the Sunshine supemarket, and we know of a good Ban Chang Kueh (peanut pancakes) vendor nearby, we automatically steered the car towards the stall. This vendor serves the folded, small pancakes. Ann ordered 20 pancakes. While the vendor makes the order, we pick up the first couple of batches of the pancakes and started eating. The crusts around the edges were nicely crunchy. I peeled them out and munched on them. I had not had a chance to eat the large pancakes I bought this morning, so I cannot make a comparison between the two. This smaller sized pancake is my preferred one anyway, so I was quite contend with them.
The following is a url to the pancakes:
http://www.penangtuapui.com/2008/06/speedy-makan-makan-part-4-ban-cheang-koay-anson-road/
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