Yesterday I went to my first Chinese Malaysian wedding dinner. It was one of my cousin's wife's eldest brothers getting married. There was a 7 course meal that lasted 2 hours. There were probably 20 tables of 10 people each, a front stage where guests could go up and sing a song to the couple, and otherwise blasting Chinese music. The couple wore western clothing (tuxedo and white dress), popped a champagne bottle and cut the cake together. The more ceremonial parts had happened earlier in the day - with them serving tea to their elders and them being served tea by their 'youngers'.
I also had my first Malaysian facial. My previous facial was in Thailand around the same time last year (with Angie, Frenchy, and Amanda). But this one was quite different, lasting 2 hours long and me not being able to communicate (in Chinese) to my facialist. It started out very relaxing with rubbing of my face, neck and upper chest area and lotions being rubbed into my skin. They used some machine to peel off a layer of skin. But when she proceeded to poke my skin (at least I'm guessing, my eyes were closed the whole time) with a sharp needle and pinch out my pores - OUCH! Luckily it didn't last too long and then it was back to the soothing rubbing and an oxygenation machine. Then it felt like I was under ice for half an hour as I think she put an icy mud pack on my face. In the end, my skin was left incredibly soft and cool.
Nearby there was a shop that sold satay only. We ordered the chicken and pork satays (yes, Chewy, finally!) - and then I noticed the liver and intestine options - so we got one stick of each to try. The dish came with cucumbers, a packed rice (rice is packed in bamboo and cooked in a compressed way), and the most delicious spicy peanut sauce (that had chunks of pineapple in it). Next door there was a bakery that sold "Mille Crepe" cakes - we ordered a slice to take home. Everything is handmade in the store, and I believe each cake has 50 layers, and they can only make 9 cakes in a day. Incredibly delicious.
My cousin also had some snow jelly in the freezer and prepared it in the afternoon - it takes 6 hours to soak before you combine it with other ingredients (rock sugar, red dates, other items we couldn't translate into english) and make a dessert soup. Apparently my mom should know where to find it.
Lunch was home made and I helped to prepare the noodles - which was a simple flour-water mixture that is spread very thin and then torn into a clay pot, that has water, veggies and meat (fishballs, fish wrapped veggies, etc) - very little salt is added because the flavor comes primarily from these very small fish that I forget the name of - but I should have a picture. My cousins weren't sure if I could find it in the US, but I'm hoping Uwajimaya will pull through.
So delicious!
Breakfast was roti chennai (not sure of the spelling), which to me seems a Malaysian twist on an Indian bread. The roti is cooked either 'plain' with sugar, or wrapped around sliced banana or egg, and then served with different sauces. I had the banana and it was delicious - a sort of malaysian crepe. I also had a cup of tea, which tasted like chai but a little different and came in a more American size than Indian.
My cousins also served me tea from a traditional chinese set - having never been a tea drinker until this trip, this was yet another first. This made me think of Yoko and how I could ever get her one from China - perhaps another trip.
Those are all of the firsts I can think of, but there may have been more. It's 8:30 am now and I am off to see family for the last time for breakfast before catching a bus to Penang (an island off the northwest coast).
My Aunt and her first grandson (and first granddaughter in the corner)
Pineapple! I've never seen it growing before. Imagine that.
An interesting way to decorate your plant. Reminds me of a xmas decoration.
Bananas - another first
My first traditional Muslim house, and first time in a Muslim scarf.
Wow, I never really blogged about anything in Singapore. We were only there a short time. Enough to see some of the fireworks. But my view of the prep in the water was better than that of them in the air going off. Christina and I probably spent more time preparing for Australia than we did seeing Singapore.
Last night, two of Laly's college mates picked me up for dinner. We drove down Gurney and went to a huge seafood restaurant and sat by the water. The dinner was delicious and their company was wonderful. They have both traveled around the area and were giving me lots of advice on Cambodia, China, as well as living abroad (everyone seems to recommend Singapore).
Afterwards, we got some dessert (rojak) and sugar cane juice. I was too full to finish either, but shared the dessert with my hostel mates on return. We also drove over to Batu Feringhi, where I couldn't see the beach b/c it was so late out, but the night life was hopping with plenty of street vendors and restaurants still serving people.
I caught a local bus for $1.20 RM to Penang Hill, and the tram round trip for $4RM up the hill. I walked over to the Canopy Walk (which is closed) just to get some exercise. I had considered walking up the hill (5.5 km) but in this heat and humidity I thought it better just to walk around at top. There are quite a few trails where I'll have to explore next time I go back.
I stayed at 100 Cintra Street, which is an antique shop on the bottom, a museum on the third floor, and recently converted hostel on the second floor. I made the mistake of choosing the dorm section (the attendant gave me a mosquito coil, but it didn't last long enough and I was thoroughly eaten all night long - perhaps losing weight in blood what I've gained in fat from eating), which is the closest one to a neighboring disco that pumps until 3 or 4 am. I hardly got any sleep, and left the place to walk around town once it got light out. I happened on a quite a few morning markets, where Chinese were selling fresh made fish balls, tofu drinks, bamboo wrapped goodies, baked breads, and lots of meat and seafood. I had breakfast at a yummy dim sum place with a bottle of xian-dou-jiang (sweet soy milk), chilled. I also hit the Penang Museum ($1RM = 0.25 $USD) - and learned a lot about the history of Penang and the different make up of the Malaysian people - Malay, Chinese, Tamils, Sikhs, Javanese, British/Dutch/Portuguese, Thai, etc. I walked along the eastern side of Georgetown for a while along the piers - not a very interesting area, then came back to the hostel to switch my room to a single (which comes with a mosquito net I look forward to testing out tonight).
...is building up from more incredible food. Crispy peanut pancake, rice dumplings in peanut sauce, steamboat dinner, durian, mangosteens, fried bananas and sweet potatos, soy milk, black milk, etc. I need to post pictures of the baba nonya house, the night market, and most importantly my family - cousins, aunt, uncle and extended family. Laly's 2 daughters are adorable, but I haven't been able to break the ice with them since I can't speak Mandarin. One more reason for me to learn chinese!
So I ended up taking a 2 hour Colonial Tour of Singapore, which was nice. The guide was highly entertaining and informative. Basically showing some historical aspects of the city center around the river and encouraging us to shop shop shop, as there are quite a few malls, all interconnected underground, so if it does end up raining, you don't have to know it. It included a short boat ride on the river, just before it started to drizzle. He pointed out some statues (the famous lion-fish and some kids jumping in), private housing vs government housing, and gave us tips on our short stays in the city.
I flew on to Kuala Lumpur - I managed to sleep briefly on the short flight. The KLIA Ekspres from the airport directly to KL Sentral was amazingly fast and convenient (for 35 RM). I got a budget taxi to Christina's roomate's (Indhu)'s grandparents (further hereby known as grandpa and grandma). I'm not sure where they live relative to the city, but according to one other friend it was 'old posh' - as in, they moved there in the 60's and it was now an extremely nice and expensive place to be. Grandpa absolutely amazed me. He was born in Tamil Nadu but raised in Malaysia. Indhu's dad was born in Bangalore and met her mom (Grandpa's daughter) and they raised Indhu in the states. It was an interesting mixture of culture and countries. It was an easy transition into the household having just come from South India - I had some sambar for dinner, along with pickled mangos. The change was in a bread-upma - an invention of grandma's that was one of Indhu's favorites as a kid. Grandpa shared a lot of his thoughts on religion, politics, healthy living as well as a healthy dose of his sense of humor. Grandma was very caring and thoughtful. At the age of 84, they were surprisingly active and still able to drive around the city. Christina found Grandpa's driving a bit rash, but coming from India buses and auto rickshaws, it seemed fine to me.
I also met Christina's high school friend, Hani, who is Muslim. She and Tarik shared their wedding album - a mostly traditional Muslim wedding. Quite different from the albums I saw of the Hindu weddings from India. Everything was beautiful and they explained the traditions and where they broke from tradition (Hani sat in to watch her to-be accept her father's giving of the daughter). Hani's mother had also just recently gotten a new job and therefore at the last minute had to invite quite a few more guests, including a sultan. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it but sent his son instead. Given his importance, when he was present, he was sitting between Hani and Tarik in all the pictures taking on center attention. I shared a nice dinner with them at Little Penang in the Petronas Towers mall - I forget the name of my dish but it was a traditional Malaysian dish - with noodles and spicy fish sauce.