Saturday, third day in Penang

I was up at 5AM again. Mom was already up and about. She made me a cup of black coffee and we sat down to talk
about today's plan. After a while, I decided to give Sarah, Tim, and Lena a call. Tim took the call, and agreed to
get on Skype.

Lena was running in circles, between the kitchen and the dining room. She would run by the camera, smiles at the
camera, and goes on for another circle. Finally, when Tim was able to put her into her chair for dinner, I snapped
a few pictures of her eating dinner - her favorite of Anne's Penne? or Mac and Cheese?


Mom warmed up yesterday's Hokkien Mee and a Ban Chang Kueh. I greedily swallowed both. Next thing I know, Seng
came downstairs and pronounced he is ready to take me out for Curry Mee. Now you know curry mee is my weakness. I
will, of course, go for that bowl of noodles. Ann, Seng and I piled into the car, and we went to the coffee shop
near Batu Lanchang Lane.

I think what distinguishes this stall from others is the "liau" or accompaniments they put into the noodle soup.
This vendor puts in shrimp (very rarely seen in curry mee), pie's blood, octopus, and cockle Shell. ls (blood clam,
increasingly rare in food because of its tie to Hepatitis C occurrences). The soup in this version is good, with
a clean coconut milk taste. The noodles (both wheat and rice noodles) are good, but not special. The liau, I
heartily enjoyed.

Seng ordered seven more orders to go. From here, since we are not too far from Loon, we went to Loon's house for a
short visit. Loon accepted the curry noodles with delight, and proceeded to regale us with stories of his visits to
the doctor's office for his gastric problems. He threw in a few stories about his wife's workplace, but he was
very nervous that Lilian may turn up anytime. He kept a close eye on the front door as he told us the stories.

After we left Loon, we travelled back to Sungai Ara. Along the way, we passed by a stall that sold "Apong", a local small pancakes made with egg batters. We decide to get some, plus buy some Dim Sum for Mom.

The apong is a light pancake made with egg batter. In the traditional way, the apong is made usng three clay pots stacked one on top of the other. The top and bottom clay pots contains hot burning charcoal. The egg batter is pour into the middle pot, and swirled around a bit to create a lip over the middle thick area, and the top clay pot is then put on top to cover the batter. Thus covered, the batter is baked between the two pots of charcoal, and very quickly, the cake is done. It is peeled off the pot and put on a banana leaf (in the old days. Nowadays, the vendor just use a plastic plate.)

The apong is sometimes eaten as is. It has a naturally sweet taste. The crispy edges are very nice to munch on. Some times it is eaten with a small amount of curry chicken. When we were kids, it would be a great day when we find a small piece of chicken in the curry.

When we arrived home, the children were being tutored. Ann graciously offered the apongs to the children and teacher for a mid-morning snack. I did not get to try this version, so I cannot comment on the quality of the apong. Since I did not hav a chance to take a picture of the apong, I downloaded one from the penangtuapui.com website.