Si budak hitam gemuk kembali lagi...aka post Penang trip ( part1)

Yea, I'm back...after a long holiday to the Pearl of the Orient...Penang la, mana lagi? Pic on top aptly shows me on holiday mode...feet up ( pedicured, mind you), on the dashboard, with BH driving and me taking pics of the scenery.

Something about this state that makes me wonder...in English we call the state Penang, and the island, Penang Island, i.e mainland is mainland Penang. But in Malay, the island is Pulau Pinang, so shouldn't the mainland and the state be called Pinang instead of Pulau Pinang? Also history tells us that the island got its name from the pokok Pinang...funnily enough, I saw more pokok Pinang on the drive home in Kedah rather than in Penang....must have missed the stray tree or two over in Balik Pulau...also must have missed those damn nutmeg's too, though I brought home some of the pickled stuff. As for that darn Pinang or better known as betelnut or areca nut, apparently the Maldivians appreciate it more than the Penangites. Haven't seen a single Maldivian patient who doesn't have red stained teeth from chewing the stuff. Good on you Penang flers, cos the oral cancer ( it's a potent carcinogen) rate in the Maldives must be sky high. Maybe thats why la no pokok Pinang...all sudah kena tebang!

Anyway, we drove up on the 26th, traffic was good, much to our surprise.Was expecting like massive jam in Penang itself.I guess everyone in Penang went to Mid Valley. Heard the jam was unthinkably bad. The started early for me as I had to drive my folks to the airport at 6 in the aye-am. They were catching a flight to India, for a holiday, without me. ( Hence my trip was to PENANG). After dropping them off and making sure they found their tour guide I was off. Drove over to BH's place to pick him up and look for breakfast. So why the hitam and gemuk part? Well, the gemuk part is because the eating didn't stop at breakfast...the hitam part, cos we jalan-jalan cari makan, which also contributed again, to the gemuk part la.

We had breakie at Taman Midah and then stopped at Giant for snacks ( jeruk...suddenly had a craving).After that, drove up lor. Lunch was in Ipoh, BH wanted to try their Keuy Teow soup. Something about their noodles ( and girls..hmmph!) being smooth and white.Here's BH with a bowl of taufoofa at a stall we found in Ipoh which seemed very busy. Notice the eager anticipation in his face? The taufoofa also white and smooth......hhhmph.
For full details of food review, please see BH's blog. We got into Penang at about 5 plus 6, decided to go look for food, got lost, but somehow found our way to McAllister....after Crazy attack Fler's excellent directions of turning right at the Pakistan Masjid. Found some stalls and wasted no time...we ordered Char Keuy Teow ( CKT) and Prawn aka Hokkien Mee ( HM), with a side order of satay babi and the most horrible lin chee kang ever!.The satay was good though...but we still ventured further down the road and found yet other HM and CKT to try. We were on a mission to try what these Penang flers call "good food", which to them means either CKT, HM or assam laksa (AL).So we had CKT and fried oysters as seen here...By the time we got back to the hotel, we were zonked out from the driving and jumping on the bed. So zzzzzz...la