2/23/2014 - Valentines Day on the Fly

There’s a tradition in our household of two – on a rotational basis the other person is responsible for selecting a surprise restaurant for a Valentine’s night out.  We had some memorable meals in snowy St. Paul, dinners in houses converted to restaurants, old brownstone buildings and even some good home-cooking Southern food.  Sometimes you just need to get your hands on some mid-winter catfish.  Work and classroom schedules caused a hiatus last year, but we were lucky enough to be in a position to resume the tradition in 2014.  This of course resulted in yet another one of our endless parade of fish out of water experiences.

The evening got off to a bit of a rough start – the 3 mile taxi ride from work to home took about an hour and 15 minutes.  The same ride took me 5 minutes the following morning.  Needless to say, the traffic in Penang can be a little infuriating.  When I did get back, it was decision time.  Did we want to brave the gridlock I had just extricated myself from and drive up to Georgetown?  Or did we want to hit up one of the restaurants in the normal rotation in the Queensbay area?  Georgetown meant Campbell House – the Italian home away from home that will be sorely missed when move back to the States.   However, we didn’t have a reservation and this was probably one night they could not squeeze us in.  So would it be worth it to choke on exhaust fumes for an hour and a half, for what should be a 30 minute car ride, only to wind up eating street food on the sidewalk while wistfully looking at the Campbell House?  Needless to say, we chose door #2.

OK – so were hanging out in the QB for the night, but what did that mean?  The list of options was not great, chain restaurants that were a facsimile of their counterparts in the US.  A rib joint that was hit or miss, more often miss than hit.  It would be tough to even call it the Mendoza line of rib joints, its goal in life should be to reach the Mendoza line.   They were also having a “set menu” which is always the scourge to avoid on Valentine’s Day and seems to be even more popular in Asia than the States. 

And really, what type of set menu are you going to get at a rib place?  Old reliable was always there, dumplings and noodles, but we had been there the night before and I eat enough meals there that I’m 5 dinners or 30 dumplings away from getting my photo on the wall and a partial ownership stake. 

So after much mental debate the decision was made to “surprise” each other, cross the street and sit in a parking lot at our favorite German/European Bistro.   Imagine our surprise when we arrived to see every single table covered with reserved signs.  Who, other than the lazy, expat duo, decides to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a cramped shophouse/bar with a view of traffic and the strip mall across the street?  Apparently their set-menu for 131.40 Ringgit was a selling point.  The waiters were nice enough to set up another table for us, not in the parking lot but on a raised portion of the curb and didn't bat an eye when we politely declined the set-menu.  Much nicer than the Silkair girls are when I say I do not want the egg mayo sandwich for breakfast at 8 AM.  We could only laugh as we enjoyed some cool German beers and real potato skins, not the TGIFridays frozen version, but actual hollowed out potatoes with fresh peppers and onion (no bacon of course) and only slightly suspect cheese.  It may not have been the best Valentine’s dinner ever, but surely it will be one of the most memorable.

Speaking of TGIFridays..... their set menu must have been the best amongst the competitors.  We had ventured into the mall to buy donuts for me to take into work on Saturday, because of course the donut shop does not open until 10 AM, and at 9:30 PM the line to eat at the red and white striped establishment was still out the door.  Decision for the evening officially validated, we finished the night off with some frozen yogurt and Winter Olympics.  The irony of ice and snow events were not lost on us as the 85 degree hot and humid air blew in the window from the sea, but served to remind us of Valentine's past.  

2/19/2014 - Chinese New Year on 2 Islands

Lets be honest, we were pretty lame on New Year’s eve.  A “Mexican” dinner followed by some champagne on the porch that resulted in some early bedtimes.  If not for the crazy loud fireworks show a few miles away, we may have not even known it was midnight.  How do you make up for a showing like this?  Celebrate Chinese New Year not once, but twice.

The weekend before the official Chinese New Year holiday we found ourselves, naturally, in Chinatown.  Some friends had been nice enough to organize a dinner for anyone that was still around at a hawker stall in the heart of Chinatown.  This is how we found ourselves on the second floor of a hot, sweaty, cramped building with row upon row of food stalls.  It was like trying to navigate a maze or a labyrinth.  At least in this case, the maze had “street numbers” on each end so you could attempt to not get lost.  Eventually, we looped around enough to reach our destination, even though I could have sworn we passed the same fish head curry stall at least 3 times.

Now, we have been in our fair share of hawker centers since we arrived on the island, but in this case we were way out of our league.  If we hadn't had some sherpas to get us through the ordering process on this one, I’m not sure what we would have done.  Probably would have gone home hungry.  By far and away the most authentic, local food experience we have had.  Before you knew it, a variety of large plates of meat in interesting sauces was showing up and being placed in front of us.  The chicken in salted fish sauce – not my favorite.  The cuttlefish balls that looked like miniature porcupines, surprisingly good.  We capped dinner off by again wandering down the “roads” to suddenly stumble about a stall selling microbrews from around the world.  How was this even possible?  I started to question it, but instead purchased my first Black Butte Porter in 18 months and decided I didn't care.  Hooray beer as the man in the Red Stripe commercials used to say.

One week later it actually was Chinese New Year and we found ourselves on a different island, 373 miles north of Singapore.  Without local guides to provide advice, we did what most Americans do when the weather is nice out and its a holiday – BBQ! This involved my first real grocery shopping experience in Malaysia.  Buying granola bars, water and strawberry wafer snacks in the basement of the mall across from where I stay does not really count as real grocery shopping.  That’s the type of statement that college kids try to make to convince themselves they are capable of buying something other than frozen pizzas and Doritos at the store.

Walking into Tesco the day before the holiday, yikes.  Red signs everywhere, buy this, buy that.  I now know promosi means promotion, didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  Tracking down peppers and onions was relatively easy.  Lots of other vegetables and spices around that smelled interesting, but were passed on.  Next stop was trying to find the non-halal section.  Usually hidden in some corner somewhere, sure enough, beer on the outside, meat on the inside.  The Italian sausages looked great, but we had erred on that assumption before.  Luckily, someone from Australia saw us eyeing them up and said they were good.  With that vote of confidence, we bought all they had.  The guy working behind the counter was a little taken aback, but what are you going to do?  When you find something legit here, you buy in bulk.

An hour later the stars were out, smoke was coming from the grill, the sausages were smelling good and I was cooling my heals in the pool.  It wouldn't be long before fireworks were going off around the island.  It may have been Chinese New Year, but it sure felt like the 4^th of July.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend in early February instead of early July.  Now if only I could find a way to water ski in the Strait of Malacca.....

2/6/2014 - Meandering Through Chiang Mai

Where were we?  Ah yes, safely in Chiang Mai and not having the air con on in our room at night in what seemed like ages.  The cool evening air and the miracle of screens on your windows, not your average Asian luxury, meant that we could actually sleep with a ceiling fan on and the windows open.  Again, something we hadn't experienced since we were back in the States.  With a cool breeze coming in through the window, we got ready quickly to start the exploring before it warmed up too much.

Our still jet-lagged friends were up before us and after some Thai coffee and banana pancakes we were out the door.  About 10 minutes later we found ourselves crossing the river into the older part of the city, wandering past a variety of trinkety shops on the way.  Chaing Mai was clearly different than other Asian cities we have explored in the past year and a half.  A brick wall surrounds the oldest part of town, almost like an Asian Medieval Wall.  If not for the temples and rapidly warming air, it would almost be possible to confuse your continents.

After another 10 minutes or so we happened across a gong that was taller than I was.  I can't remember if it was considered good luck to ring it or not, but lets just pretend it was.  After ringing it with what looked like a giant turban wrapped around a baseball bat, you could feel the reverberations deep in your chest.  Too much fun, we need one of these things outside our house so visitors can announce themselves in style.  We continued on to temples and shopping with lunch on the second floor of a shophouse overlooking the main street.  Next was drinks overlooking the river in one of the bars/restaurants on the caramel colored riverfront.  Spring rolls, Singha, our usual, predictable Thailand treats.

After resting up for a few hours and changing into jeans and a long sleeve shirt (it was 68 degrees, it was cold!) we made our way back to the riverfront for dinner.  Now this, we could not have been more excited about. We love our spring rolls and Singha, but its always nice to check another item off the travel list.  The 2nd Hangover movie made sky lanterns more accessible back home, but where else can you send one off for $3?  Once we had finished our dinner and drinks, which to be perfectly honest was one of the better Phad Thai dishes I had ever had (thanks River Market restaurant) it was outside to send some mini hot air balloons to infinity and beyond.  Much easier than expected, soon enough the 4 foot tall lantern was filling up with hot air from the flaming, donut shaped fuel "device" that was burning underneath it.  Eventually it was airborne and time for the second set of amateur pilots to send their contraption skyward.  Our necks started to get tired from staring up at the sky and at some point, much longer than expected, the light went out and you sure hoped it was plummeting earthwards over a lake or rice paddy and not someone's thatched roof home.

Next stop was the night bazaar as we were still on a mission for elephant end tables.  Apparently, a large majority of the wood carvings you buy in Thailand come from Chiang Mai, so we had hopes that returning to the mother territory would yield some good luck.  Unfortunately, luck was not with us tonight.... at least not yet.  If you were in the market for some illegal movies, knock-off sun glasses or designer handbags you were in the right place.  Variety of woodcarvings, not so much.  Bangkok, you will be seeing us soon to rectify one of the last souvenirs we have not tracked down yet.

We had of course gotten lost finding the night bazaar and after wearing ourselves out walking and shopping we needed to find a place to cool our heels for the rest of the evening.  As we walked back towards the hotel, we noticed what appeared to be a bus parked by the river and multiple picnic tables set-up around it.  As we had all dressed appropriately, the expats in fall clothes because we are cold weather wimps and the visitors out for a summer day because they came from the frozen tundra, we prepared to settle in for a fun outdoor evening.  Before we had even sat down though, we noticed we may have officially wandered off the beaten path.  All day long it had been mostly tourists strolling the streets, having drinks, eating meals.  Suddenly, the tables had been completely flipped on us.  Not to worry, one of the "waitresses" stopped over to take our order and we spent the next two hours having drinks under the stars.  The music flipped between American Top 40 and what we could all only presume was its Thai equivalent.  I may be overusing this statement, but what a uniquely Thai/Asian experience.

Sadly, the weekend had to end.  My voice was rapidly leaving me, I sounded like an off key Louis Armstrong, so I'm blaming the cold air for that one. After lunch, we went back to the airport for a flight south to Singapore while the Whittingtons flew south to Phuket for the beaches and diving.  Final, obvious conclusion after multiple visitors in the past month or so.... we need more!  Better hurry though, the time for cheap, knowledgeable tour guides is dwindling rapidly.