The next day I woke up super late and basically lazed around in bed all day. Nic the early bird woke up, got hungry, and decided to walk to the nearest coffee shop to see what local delicacies could be found there. She did find some interesting things and tapao’ed them back for our enjoyment, like some weird tasting banana pancake, a plate of lousy fried koay teow, some terrible ‘thong sui’ (sweet desserts?), ‘lobak kou’ (carrot cake) and wantan mee.
I was too blur to take photos too (mornings aren’t the best time for me…as most of my friends can attest to), so all I did was eat, veg out in front of the TV and snooze all day.
Yes, I am a lazy bugger.
Later that evening, we met up with one of our friends (and her girlfriend) who recently moved to Penang. The girlfriend opted to bring us out for dinner at a coffee shop which was just down the road from our hotel. I gotta admit, I was kinda disappointed at that. I thought we would at least go a little further away. However, our friend proceeded to order a multitude of different items for us to try and pay for our food, which was very sweet of her.
We had ‘oh chien’ (which was basically scrambled eggs with tiny oysters inside), chicken chop, Penang style hokkien mee @ har mee, pasembur (Penang style ‘rojak’) and yet another plate of fried ‘koay teow’. Surprisingly, my favourite dish was the ‘oh chien’, despite the fact that I’ve never been a big fan of seafood. The sauce for the chicken chop wasn’t too bad too, since it was tomato based and I love tomato based sauces. The pasembur was alright, I guess, but the fried koay teow was a another disappointment.
In fact, despite being infamous for fried koay teow, every single time we tried the fried koay teow, it proved to be an utter disappointment. I can find much better fried koay teow in KL.
After dinner, they brought us to Gurney Drive. We sat on the low wall along that famous walkway for about a half hour or so. Nic and her friend were chit chatting, I was reading an ebook on my phone while snacking on a fruit rojak (different from pasembur) that we’d bought earlier, and the other girl was just sitting there. Not sure what she was doing though, maybe people watching.
I didn’t take any photos the entire night, cuz I wasn’t very comfortable (I’m usually pretty quiet around strangers. Takes me several meetings at least to warm up and be my usual sarcastic self with them).
It was getting late, so they sent us back to the hotel where we crashed after watching some TV.
The next morning, Nic again went a-walking and got us breakfast. This round of food was more interesting and involved 'chu keok chou' (pig trotter in vinegar) that was delicious when eaten plain, 'kueh chap' (I dunno wtf that is), and one of my all-time favourites, 'ju hu char' (chopped carrot, mushrooms, turnip and several other veggies in a delicious sauce).
After a quick nap, we checked ourselves out of the hotel. Then came the most frustrating part of the whole trip. My mom had asked me to buy some ‘Heong Peah’ and ‘Tao Sar Peah’ (local sweet pastries) from a place called Him Heang or something. We then proceeded to waste 2 fucking hours of our life looking for the fucking place. We finally gave up and asked my aunt to buy it instead from another shop.
Then it was time to find our way to Nic’s friend’s house to drop off her stuff there because she was staying the weekend, whereas I had to get back to work. :`( While waiting for her friend to get off work, we passed by the famous Snake Temple, where they actually have live snakes. I swear that place looked much more interesting when I first visited it as a kid. It just looks so…small and run down now.
We were starving by then, so we decided to grab a bite to eat at one of the coffee shops directly facing the temple. And whaddya know…the only stall open at that hour was…the fried koay teow stall. Sigh. Instead of setting myself up for yet another disappointment, I decided to order the fried instant noodle instead. I mean, how can anyone fuck up simple instant noodles, right? Wrong. I shall not say more.
Anyway, after dropping off her stuff at her friend’s house and crashing there for awhile, it was time to get on the road again. This time, it was to pick up my aunt from work because she was joining us for dinner and accompanying me on the journey back to KL. We found our way to her office after getting lost only once (an achievement!) and decided to have dinner at a barbecue restaurant called Ribs because I was craving for Western food (I always am).
Unfortunately, they had moved and in our attempt to find the restaurant, we went to a street (can’t remember the name) that was right behind the New World Park shopping centre.
So we hunted high, and we hunted low, but no Ribs. We did, however, notice some very interesting looking restaurants along that street.
Lots of food.
Finally, we decided to check out New World Park. We thought that maybe the restaurant was inside there. However, still no luck and the restaurant was nowhere to be found. It was an interesting looking place though.
Lots of pretty lighting.
Bright neon. XD
A shop with lots of cool arts and crafts on display.
And even this…though I dunno wat the heck this actually is. I guess Penang people really like to sit together-gether.
Finally we were too hungry, and decided to go to this place called Mizi’s Bistro.
Where I managed to find my favourite food…lamb. :D
The atmosphere actually wasn’t too bad. This is the outside smoking area. We didn’t actually venture inside as we went directly to tables at the back of the restaurant (which connected to the mall).
All of us had the set meal, which was 1 drink, 1 soup, 1 main course and unlimited ice cream for dessert. I lurrrrve ice cream! XD
This was the grilled fish my aunt had...
My darling lambiekins…big portion for the price we paid.
And Nic’s Seafood Thermidor, cuz they didn't have the Lobster version.
Then began the long, dark drive home. I warned my aunt not to fall asleep cuz I had no intention of being the only person awake on that particular highway at that particular time of night! Fortunately, my aunt and I were chattering all the way home, which was a lifesaver because I was quite tired by then. By the time I got home after dropping off my aunt, it was well past 2am and my eyes were totally bloodshot.
Because it was such a short trip, it was nowhere near as relaxing as I thought it would be, and I went to work the next day more exhausted than I had been before I left. In addition, I didn’t get to see enough of the town and try enough of the food, which only left me craving for more. So I'm gonna visit the Pearl of the Orient again, for a much longer duration this time.
I leave in the morning, for a 10 day trip. Let’s hope I don’t gain too much weight.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Shout, shout, let it all out...