Penang Recap

I’m back! Sorry, I didn’t get the chance to continue blogging in Penang like I had hoped to, but I did sort of blog each day, except lacked the wireless service to post it online. Thus, super, super long post today. It’s six-days-all-in-one post, so brace yourselves.

**Just to clear things up, this trip to Penang is not really a vacation. It’s a mission trip with just my church pastor (yes, awkward, but he’s a super cool guy). Our trip is an early embarkment to set up a church in Penang, where we would have daily night sermons. Remember my friend from Penang, Kristine, whom I mentioned in several earlier posts? Well, she and her family would be hosting us at their bungalow home.

The rough daily schedule is: breakfast (by myself, since I’m the only person who wakes up early enough), early lunch out together, whatever social activity planned for the day, rushed “dinner”, then daily sermon at 8pm, which usually ends around 11pm.

03/02/2009: Day One

Man, oh man! First day and it’s already off to a pretty rocky start. I really can’t see myself enjoying this trip much. Call me spoiled, but I’m already aching to fly back to my taken-for-granted daily comforts in Singapore!

But let’s hold off the whines and complaints for a while. First, the good news. I challenged myself and faced my aversion to white rice! We had lunch on the plane, and you guys all know how plane fare is like. Mushy, unidentifiable objects squished and reheated together in a flimsy, environment-polluting aluminum tray. If there are even any veggies at all, they are all cooked to death until soft and brown and devoid of any nutrients. Well, the food I was served on the plane was no different. What’s more, we weren’t even given an option! We were seated at the end of the plane, and this is what the steward said to us in broken English by the time he reached us : “Hello, so sorry ah, we have chicken and beef but no more chicken. Is beef okay for you?”

Um, do I have any other choice? Of course I would have preferred something else, but these were the circumstances and I accepted it. Here’s a quick shot of my charming meal on the plane:

3 sticks of beef satay, peanut sauce, on top of a bed of nasi goreng, which is a sort of Indonesian fried rice.

Those who have been reading my earlier posts would know that I. HATE.white.rice. With a passion. So much that just the sight of a bowl of white rice makes me want to hurl. I’m not exaggerating, I just hate white rice so much, probably due to all those years my parents tried to force-feed me that vile refined grain. Stupid, immature, I know, but can’t help how I feel.

Anyway, this made it all the worse because not only is it white rice, it is fried in oil (and not even the “healthy” oils like olive or canola) and overcooked to boot. Plus, not a speck of vegetable to be seen anywhere. Oh wait, strike that, there was one teeny weensy bit of greasy onion. Boy, way to hit my daily recommended servings of vegetables.

Despite all this, I decided that I was not going to start off my first meal into the Penang trip in failure. So I picked up my fork and ate. Every scrap of it. Yup, even the damn rice. Here’s the proof:

The beef satay was actually quite good. The rice was just, eh. But I didn’t die, so I’m okay. Though I was a bit turned off by the remaining coat of orange grease left from the fried rice.

I’m not really a glass-half-full person. It’s one of the things I’ve always been trying to change about myself, but am still a long way off. So when I reached Kristine’s house, all the negative points stuck out like a sore thumb:

1) There is NO hot water! How the hell am I supposed to take a shower? What’s more, the water is from the mountains, so it’s extra freezing cold! Guess I’m gonna have to go without a bath for six days?!!

2) NO wireless service! AAAAAAHHHH! The blogger in me was gasping in anguish.

3) Very, very minimal cooking appliances and equipment. Like, there’s not even a microwave. You need a lighter to set fire to the “stove.” The knives are blunt and frankly, useless. The fridge is well…perfect for an alcoholic bachelor.

4) And on the subject of fridges…The contents in the fridge? Hotdogs. White rice. White bread. Freezer-burned cake. Frozen fish left open on a plate, stinking up the whole fridge. Instant noodle packages (I have no idea why they store that in the fridge?). And…that’s about it. Not even a miserable leaf of vegetables or a fruit!

5) There is NO grocery store at a reasonable distance. As a girl who goes grocery shopping nearly everyday for fresh produce, this is a total nightmare.

6) There is like a permanent stink in the house. A disgusting mingle of rotting fish, bloody meat, and mildew. And there is no air ventilation in the bathroom. I feel like I’m underwater, having to hold my breath all the time.

7) Hello, moth. Hello, wasp. Hello, fire-ant. Hello, cockroaches and non-identifiable insects and tiny worms. Yes, I am literally sleeping with the bugs.

8) The dogs here are left out in the open, unleashed by irresponsible, inconsiderate owners. And they’re not those cute little adorable puppies that wag their tails and look up upon you with doleful, adoring eyes. No, these are vicious, ugly creatures that bark and snarl at you just because you had the guts to walk pass them. I have 3-5 of these irritating dogs yapping and growling and following me all the way to the end of the street each time I walk pass.

On the bright side, thank God, Hallelujah, I had the wisdom to bring along a big packet of rolled oats. Dinner was a rushed affair because we had church service. I had a big bowl of oatmeal while the others chowed down a couple of fried hotdogs with white bread. After service, they went out for “supper” but it was already midnight and I wasn’t ready for deep-fried street foods that late into the night, so I stayed in and had another 2 bowls of oatmeal. I may be having oatmeal quite a lot the next few days. Not that I’ll ever get sick of oatmeal, but I just feel…so damn guilty that I can’t just eat what the others eat.

So that’s how the first day went. A bit of success, a bit of failures. One day down, 5 more to go.

Damn, I miss my comfortable, pampered life in Singapore and the States.

03/03/2009: Day Two

Wow. Today actually wasn’t that bad at all. The discomforts were still there, but maybe…I’m getting used to it? I’m starting to learn to deal with the fact that I can’t always manipulate things to fit my eating schedule and regimens. The fishy stink in the house and having all sort of insects as my playmates still bother me, but not as much…

But the best part of it is that I’m starting to really warm up to the family. I’ve known Kristine for a while, but this is the first time I've had more than a polite greeting with her family. I like them, and they seem to like me, too. Especially the youngest kid, Jireh, who maybe like me a bit too much. He follows me around constantly, asking millions of questions: “What are you doing? Why is your gum pink? Why did you pop your gum? How do you pop it? Why are you reading?” A cute kid, but drives me mad sometimes.

Anyway, for lunch today Kristine and I went to a Japanese restaurant! She knows how much I like Japanese food in Singapore, so she took me to town, where there are a lot of different, “classier” restaurants. I treated her to lunch this time, since her family was housing me and I was using her room.

I ordered the ishiyaki hanitama (yikes, say that three times fast!). Haha, of course I had to ask what that was first, since there were no descriptions in English, but as soon as they said “eggs” and “crabmeat”, I knew instantly that that was what I wanted. It came piping hot to me in a claypot, and they poured a thick, sweet sauce all over. Here’s a quick pic:

Basically fried egg-omelette with mushrooms and crabmeat, but cooked into a shape of a dome. The sauce was some kind of sticky, red mixture, and I’m pretty sure honey and soy sauce were the main ingredients.

This was really very good, especially since they had all my favorite components: eggs, sweet, savory. The eggs were really well-cooked, so creamy but not runny! Though I could have done with less sweet sauce. It got a bit overbearing by the end, so if there ever is a next time I would order the sauce on the side.

Kristine ordered the pork mayonnaise and a chawanmushi:

I stole several bites of both. The pork mayonnaise was quite tasty! It was cooked teppanyaki-style and served on a sizzling plate, with onions, ginger, and thin slices of pork in a tangy mayonnaise dressing. Yum.

The chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) was delicious too, of course. It is really like a savory dessert, with the rich consistency of a pudding, but with all the umami taste of dashi broth and steamed egg. Inside was nested some crabmeat and fish cake.

When we came back home I took a 3-hour nap! The hot humid weather really makes you feel dull and stupid. The bad thing was, it was 7:30 pm when I got up and the church service starts at 8! I panicked about whether I would have enough time to prepare something for myself. I had planned on oatmeal, but obviously would not have enough time. I rummaged the fridge and decided to soft-boil two super-large eggs. I was just done with peeling them when people started arriving for the meeting…bringing food! Damn, if only I’d waited just a few more minutes! They brought pizza, so I had a piece of the seafood pizza with my 2 soft-boiled eggs and soy sauce:

Yes, pizza is a fear food, but I made myself eat it because I knew dinner had to be more substantial than 2 eggs and coffee. The pizza wasn’t that good…not enough cheese and toppings in my opinion, but I was happy that I got to conquer a fear food today again.

After the meeting it was almost midnight again. I had two heaping bowl of oats (gotta have my oatmeal fix), some gingerbread men cookies, some white bread with peanut butter and kaya. I sort of lost count on how many I ate; I was just trying to shove in some calories as I felt I didn’t have enough today.

03/04/2009: Day Three

I am damn proud of myself today. I believe my head has swelled up to the size of a giant inflated balloon out of pride and triumph.

The pastor and our host family and I planned to hike up the Air Itam hill this afternoon. It’s a small hill leading up to the Air Itam dam and overlooks the whole of Penang in one captivating scenery. But before that, we had to fuel ourselves with lunch.

Right up to half-way the drive to lunch, I had no idea where we were going. I was a bit antsy, but then Jim (the host father) suddenly informed us that he was taking us to somewhere famous for char kway teow called the Two Sisters*. My anxiety level shot up! For those of you unfamiliar with Southeast Asian cuisine, char kway teow is a greasy dish of fried flat rice noodles with different seafood items. It is both carb and fat-laden, and is considered a “trash dish”: chock-full of calories with very little nutrients. Seriously, search up that dish in Google with “calories” and “nutrition” and it’s one of the number one dish doctors do not recommend for healthy eating.

As panic swarmed in, I quickly consoled myself that I did not need to order char kway teow; I could always order something less scary…but then Jim went on to add that since this place was so famous for its fabulous heart-attack inducing dish, that was the only dish they sold in the damn place!

I realized I had no way out. I was being forced to face a major fear food, whether I liked it or not. At first I felt anger and animosity towards them. What the hell? Did they not understand that I was an-o-rexic? Did they not care how difficult and scary this was for me? Then I woke up. What the double hell? I told myself. You’re being freaking selfish. You’re a visitor in Penang, so of course they would want to introduce you to a Penang specialty. And isn’t this trip all about challenging yourself and conquering your food fears? Besides, if this place is that famous, this char kway teow oughta be damn good…

And it was good. Them two sisters really know how to fry up some great char kway teow. Here’s a snapshot of my dish:

It had two succulent prawns, some strong-tasting cockles, a bit of crabmeat, some beaten egg, and also some bean sprouts for extra crunch. The noodles were oily, but not dripping with grease. It was just perfectly fried over high heat for a bit of a crispy exterior while remaining firm and chewy inside. I actually finished the entire dish, save for one small mouthful.

Jim the liar. Turns out they do serve a few other things besides char kway teow. We ordered some appetizers:

Yam cake. A sticky, dense cake of rice flour and taro, topped with fried onions and shallots. I had several bites of this. Wish there were more taro in there, as I barely tasted the yam.

We also ordered otah:

This was freaking delicious! It is ground fish with coconut milk and lots of different kind of spices cooked in banana leaf. You might recall me eating this in Singapore, but this one was much larger, more fragrant, and the spice was much more complex. I sort of monopolized this one, and ate half of it! Heh, heh.

After that we climbed the Air Itam hill. The view over Penang was magnificent, but the weather was too freaking hot to enjoy it as much. I was all sweaty and sticky and felt uber-gross. So when we got home…I finally gave in and hopped into an icy cold shower. Yup, me, Sophia Lee the skinny girl terrified of the cold, actually enjoyed a freezing cold shower. I gave a scream at the first blast, but then…as the people here say, it was damn shiok! (Singlish for “cool” or “good” or “refreshing”)

So here’s a victory toast to a damn shiok day!

* The Two Sisters is named that because the char kway teow is fried by twin sisters. One of them fries them up in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Apparently their business is so good, they own three houses from their prosperous char kway teow business! So if you’re ever in the area, be sure to stop by to visit these sisters’ place!

03/05/2009: Day Four

Okay. Today was not a good day eating-wise. I kind of slipped, and I’m not proud of myself.

Lunch was just Kristine and I together in town because we needed to pick some stuff up at the plaza. We decided to try out this restaurant/cafe called Dome after perusing the menu they displayed outside. I was at first excited about this restaurant because of their all-day breakfast. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm ebbed away quickly enough.

First off, Dome neglected to include their prices on the displayed menu, and with good reason, too. R8.50 for a small cup of coffee? I could almost feel a hole burning in my wallet as I stared flabbergasted at these outrageous prices. But we’d already been seated and greeted by our waitress, so we couldn’t well just get up and bloody leave. But oh, how I wish we had.

The service was pretty horrible. The waitress’ answer to my question about what beef ranchers were was, “Two strips of beef.” And when I asked her if they had whole-grain options to their toasts, she shrugged and said, “I don’t think so.” Um, ok.

Anyway, I ended up ordering poached eggs and beef ranchers on toast. All for a hefty R15.50. Look at this miserable picture and tell me if it was worth it:

Straight away, I knew I was set out for a bad lunch. The eggs were tiny, the beef was marbled with fat and tendons, and the toast just looked dry and unappetizing. But the worst part? The eggs were completely overcooked! Now God knows I love egg yolks, but only if they are nice and runny. These were cooked all the way into dry crumbly orange cakes! I thought poached eggs are supposed to have runny yolks? What’s more, these eggs were totally unseasoned and tasteless.

I was majorly pissed off. One of my biggest pet peeve is having to pay big bucks for a crappy meal in a pretentious restaurant. I ended up eating just one and a half of the eggs and none of the toasts. I did finish the beef ranchers, though. They were the only thing that had some flavor, albeit a bit too salty.

Kristine ordered the chicken pot pie:

It came with a fat puff pastry on top of a pretty soupy creamy stew. I tried a bite. It was definitely better than mine, but just mediocre and definitely not worth the R18.00 she paid for it.

Now here is when the ED waters get a bit murky. I wonder if I should have forced myself to eat all of that even if I didn’t like it. Was it ED of me to get so upset over a bad meal and eating so poorly? I know if it had been my brother, he would have still finished the dish even if it wasn’t good just because he was hungry. If my parents were there with me, they would have lectured me and called this eating disordered, saying that I shouldn’t care about the taste so much as my main objective is to recover from ED and gain weight anyway. What do you think? What would you have done in my situation?

Anyway, the rest of my eats that day in brief form: yogurt, apples, and a banana at home to make up for the bad lunch. Vegetables, 3 extra-large soft-boiled eggs, and Thai fish soup before church service, then 2 bowls of oats, 3 soft-boiled eggs, tiny bite of donut after. God, I hate cramming in calories late at night.

03/06/2009: Day Five (Last day!)

Lunch today was at a Japanese restaurant again! After that disastrous lunch yesterday, we wanted to make sure we would have a great lunch today, so Japanese it was! I’ve decided that you just can’t have a bad meal in a Japanese restaurant, because I haven’t had one yet. We wanted to dine at Swensen’s at first, but the prices were outrageous so we decided on a more reasonably priced Junid Express.

I ordered the tori cheese:

I think tori means “chicken” in Japanese, because this was some grilled marinated chicken baked with a fat layer of mozzarella cheese on top.

The chicken was really juicy and tender, since it also soaked up the fat from the cheese.

Kristine ordered the chicken teppanyaki:

This was a set meal, with marinated chicken and vegetables done teppanyaki-style, along with white rice, miso soup, ocha, and some watermelon. I “stole” two pieces of chicken from her dish ^___^

Oh and you know what? I am totally liking the cold shower. So much, in fact, that I’m taking up to 3 showers a day. This blast of freezing water really refreshes me and rejuvenates my spirit, especially since this crazy humid and sweltering Malaysian weather is making me feel so slow and languid and sticky all the time.

And…I don’t mind the stink anymore. Nor having bugs as playmates. I’m learning to deal with the irregular eating schedules. And I’m really enjoying the company. My host family are terrific people and you know what? I think I’m really gonna miss them.

03/07/2009: Leaving day

Wow. Who knew I’d actually be kind of sad to leave Penang? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not planning for permanent stay at all, but still…as I said goodbye to the family in the morning, there was a bit of ache inside of me as I realized it would probably be years before I saw them again. Kind of funny because I recall that I was absolutely itching to hop on the plane back on the first day.

We took the 1:15 pm plane flight back to Singapore, so lunch was served on the plane. This time I actually had a choice of what I wanted: pizza or chicken with fried noodles. Both are major fear foods, but I chose chicken with fried noodles because for some crazy reason I thought noodles would probably be more nutritious than pizza. How was I to know that when they said “noodles,” they meant instant ramen noodles? And that by “chicken,” they meant some kind of processed deli chicken meatballs? Just take a look at this sleazy meal!

This was a double whammy on fear foods! I instantly wished I had chosen pizza instead. But then I remembered that this was the last day. I would be going back home, where I could cook nutritious, healthy foods for myself again. One meal of crappy MSG-laden, fried foods will not kill me.

So I picked up my crappy plastic fork and choked down my crappy meal. And guess what? I enjoyed every scrap of that crappy noodles and crappy chicken. The food snob in me was actually ashamed to have relished this ultimate junk food so much, but there was just something about the sheer crappiness of this meal that made the entire experience quite…sinfully tasty and pleasurable. Don’t laugh. But years of extremely health-conscious eating will do that to you.

Anyway, when I got home I immediately made something I’ve been craving in Penang:

My oh-so-simple but oh-so-delicious toasts of jam, cheese, and smoked ham.

And for dinner, I’m planning to have my all-time favorite comfort meal, Eggplasta Pudding. Damn, I’m pooped, and I have missed almost a whole week of internet, so I’m gonna indulge in some major blog-reading now. I’ll see ya tomorrow, when I’ll share a bit more on what I learnt from my Penang trip.

Oh, and today’s question of the day: What was the crappiest meal you’ve had in a restaurant? Did you still eat it and pay for it, or did you complain to the server?

P.S. Thank you to every one of you who left all these great, sweet, encouraging comments on my last post!!!