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.
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