So this is Allie and Anton's place (and that's Allie on the left). Not the best shot...they have an absolutely beautiful house and are the most laid back wonderful hosts you can imagine. We cannot wait to spend more time with them, and actually feel quite bad that we took off to Redang as soon as we did (scheduling change). The kids spent the entire day in the pool, before we headed out to dinner at night with Ali's family. (That's Ali, not Allie.)
Muhibbah Restaurant, where we had delicious whole fried fish, clams, squid, greens and rice. All fantastic. The boy next to Jordan is his cousin, Amir. His Mum is Ali's older sister, Husniah, who did not come to dinner.
Before we headed out for dinner, we dropped by Ali's Mum's house (where his younger brother and sister also live). The lovely little girl on the left is Sara, the newest member of the family, daughter of Ali's brother Zaim. There are only the 2 cousins: Amir and Sarah. So I think Ali's Mum is quite happy that Ali has 3 children...
Night market that we dropped by at on our way home from dinner. What you see here is an incredible selection of dried fish (ikan bilis) and anchovies.
Word of the day: Sedap. (tasty)
Shopping with Allie is a blast. Whizzing off to the local supermarket in a swish mall turns out to be a riot. Lots of goodies to be had as there is tons and tons of both local and imported foods. We visit Italian pastry shops and Balinese lace shops, and everything else in between, including a shop beside the grocery store we end up going into that, as Allie points out, is for heathens. Hysterical, when I see it is full of bacon, sausages, ham, pork and all sorts of non-Halal meat. Too funny. However, it also has some amazing stuff at the back, including venison chorizo imported from Spain. (I know, I promised there would be more talk of Malaysian food...but VENISON chorizo, come on. Wouldn’t you be tempted?) So I pick up the oddest concoction of things for a picnic lunch for our road trip to Merang: garlic crackers that look like ginormous croutons, Norwegian smoked salmon, pears, bananas, freshly squeezed orange juice from Australia (?!), sushi, tandoori chicken pastries and tuna puffs (similar to Ali’s sardine puffs, for those of you who’ve had them), Tazmanian yoghurt and of course, the venison chorizo. And I also throw in a local KL Time-Out magazine. Why not. I still am not finished Emma Donahue’s Room nor Michael Pollan’s Food Rules...but I DID read Gary Barwin’s latest book of superbly wacky poetry. Allie picks up chocolate Easter eggs for their family’s monthly Hash House run-walk up some mountain that they are doing this afternoon, and where apparently they are hiding eggs for the kids. It is a brutally hot day, even by Malaysian standards, and all I can think is (a) race-climbing a mountain with kids sounds like a brutal challenge and (b) I have visions of chocolate puddles dotting the jungle, because how could there possibly be any egg shape left to the chocolate?
We head out, both heavily laden with crazy-delicious food-of-many-cultures and inevitably decide to stop off at Ipoh Chicken Rice for, you guessed it, more food. We need lunch after all. Allie proceeds to order what I fear is way too much food – alas it is not, we seem to all be eating tons, despite the heat – for a crazy low price.
Oh, how could I forget? We never told you about breakfast. We wake up early, as usual (who knows why), as do our hosts, and Allie makes us all delicious smoothies to last us until we go out for roti canai. For those of you unfamiliar with this heavenly treat, first off it is pronounced ‘roe-tee chan-eye’ and is the best thing since sliced bread. Actually, that is a terrible expression. Sliced bread is a Western embarrassment in comparison to this gem. Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, so we all head out (minus the other 3 kids – River and Kaelen, who belong to Allie and Anton, and a sleepover friend named Alistair, because they are still asleep). As a sidebar here, all the kids find it hysterical that the household now contains an Ali, 2 Alisons, an Alistair and an Anton. So we all illegally pack into one car, with Allie, me, Jordan, Taz and Hannah all in the back, and Anton and Ali in front. We head to a place called Raju’s which is packed, even at 9:30 in the morning. I wish we had taken photographs (hopefully we’ll go again), because the kids are fascinated with the roti canai guy who is flinging phyllo-thin roti in the air the way an experienced pizza maker would fling pizza dough...only more impressively. The whole place is outdoors, under a series of canopies and as soon as you sit, banana leaf mats are placed in front of you. Allie and Anton order a bunch of stuff and we all dig in. Jordan is a bit apprehensive at this dinner-for-breakfast, but Hannah, our resident omnivore, digs in (something she continues to do throughout our trip here, regardless of shape, smell or taste of things...she tries it all). We eat the most delicious roti canai – some plain, some with egg mixed in, squid, whole fried fish, beef rendang and dosai -- these are placed on our mats as 6-inch high cones, ready to be ripped apart and swept into some delicious dahl or curry sauce. Holy crap, it is all so good. We are stuffing our faces and I think, there is no way we will need lunch. Nosiree.
Of course, all our food from Ipoh Chicken Rice is just as crazy good. We bring it back home, after our late morning shopping, spread it out all over the table and...um...devour it all. All ten of us.
The kids spend the afternoon swimming, and the next thing we know, Ali is shouting at us to get ready, his sister is coming to pick us up for dinner. Oh boy, here we go. I think I am going to explode, but this is the important family dinner. I won’t dwell on it. Suffice to say it all went well, even though only Ali’s younger sister and Mum were able to come. The food was divine (are you surprised?) and the restaurant was set high up within the city, so afforded a fascinating view. And it was an early dinner, allowing for prayers for the family afterwards. They would normally eat after prayers around 8:30 or 9, but Ali had thought this would be too late for the kids. A good decision, as our kids were absolute toast by this point. Evenings were hard for them, and this was a particularly hot one. The restaurant was outdoors, on a massive platform, covered with a roof, mind you, but hot all the same. On the drive home, all 3 of them fell asleep, flopped on top of each other. We dropped off Ali’s sister and Mum, and then Ali drove the van back to Allie and Anton’s place, as we would be borrowing it for our road trip up the east coast the next day.
So, a busy Sunday, full of dining out, a dose of excitement and a soupcon of stress. But we all survived.
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