"Wherever We Move Next... We Bowl"

Last Saturday, we spent an evening at Penang Bowl!

My main man in action. By the way... yes, bowling shoes are still as geeky in Malaysia as they are in the USA.




Looking at this shot, you'd actually think I was good. Don't be deceived.

This is my good buddy, Jocelyn. She's from Boston! She's happy with the frame she just played, so she's kissing her pipes. We all do that, right?

She and her husband Mike were in a bowling league back in Beantown. Halfway through the night, she announced to her hubby in no uncertain terms - "Wherever we move next, we BOWL."

Mike won the pool. He was the first to bowl a strike, so he cleaned up the dough!

There's nothing like the feeling of a job well done. If you look closely, you'll see I'm celebrating because I was able to knock over 4 pins.

High Buildings & Halloween

I received the below questions from my friend Jill’s daughters- Shea, 7, to the left, and Sloan, 5, to the right. Stella,3, is their younger sister, and she will only whisper her question into my ear. So, I’ll get that one when I return home for the holidays.

Miss Dana,I would like to know if there are tall building there or neighborhoods with lots of houses like there are here.

Love,Shea

Dear Shea,

There are both. What you see depends where you are on Penang island. The area where we live has many supertall buildings. Here’s a picture outside my window. If you look closely, you’ll see a rainbow!

This is the view out my bedroom window – the buildings aren’t as tall this way.

There’s lots of development going on right now, so I expect more tall buildings will appear in Penang over the next few years. Some people think all the new building should stop so that we can preserve the history and old feel of the island. We’ll see how that turns out. Only time will tell!

I also have friends that live in neighborhoods with houses like the one you live in.

Miss you! I want to order more Girl Scout cookies. - Miss Dana

Dear Miss Dana,
I would like to know if they have Halloween there, and what you are going to dress up as. Love, Sloan

Hi Sloan!

Halloween is not a holiday that the people of Malaysia celebrate. However, lots of families live here who are from places like the US and Europe. Here’s a picture of some of my friends.

Their kids go to international schools that often hold Halloween parties, so you’d still get a chance to dress up in a costume if you lived here!

I don’t think I’m going to a Halloween party this year, but if I did, I’d dress up as a princess.

Happy Halloween! Send me a picture of your costume. - Miss Dana

To Ms Lauren, part II

I now have a picture of Ms. Lauren herself - one of my aboslute favorite people under the age of 16. Keep sending those questions!

To Lauren, from Ms. Dana

I'm a postcard fan. Even in the days of email and Internet phone lines, I still think it's fun to send and receive things via the good ol' Postal Service. So I've been sending lots of postcards since I've been over here - both from Malaysia and from China.

I received a question about a postcard from Lauren Schooler, my friend Rose's 9-year old daughter. Lauren's picture is above.

The Question

"To Ms Dana....From Lauren...So were the caves you visited really as colorful as the postcard you sent me? "

This photo is similar to Lauren's postcard. I took it in the Reed Flute Cave which is about 5km outside the city of Guilin in China. It's a stunning maze - 240 meters long - of enormous and intricate stalactite and stalagmite formations.

The Answer Is...

Yes! but not naturally :-) The scene above is the "masterpiece" of the Reed Flute Cave - a rock formation set at the back of a lake that naturally formed inside the cave. The formation seems to resemble a city skyline and the lake reflects the formation as perfectly as a mirror. The top half of the above picture is the actual rock and the bottom half is its reflection in the lake.

When this site became a tourist attraction, the goverment installed lights to enable people to walk easily through the cave. Some of these lights are in fact colored to enhance the formations.

So there you have it Lauren! Send more questions if you have them - about China or Malaysia. I miss you VERY much. Love, Ms. Dana

PS

I encourage all my friends' and family's kids to post a question to me. Bring it! Even if you're an reader of this blog and we haven't yet met face to face - if you're little one has a question about my expat experience or the US, please send. I'll be sure to answer. Kids often have the most interesting questions of all of us!

Until next time, peace out my fellow citizens of the world.

Food Snaps

To follow my recent food update, I present the following snapshots. And I share a chicken story.

Below is Egg Prata, a breakfast dish. It's a super thin scrambled egg, wrapped in roti, a super thin local bread specialty. It comes with a curry sauce on the side for dipping. This makes a perfect brunch. And it costs 50 cents US.

Fishball soup from a Chinese place down the street from us. The soup was fine, but I found the fish ball quite bland.

The below meal comes steamed in a banana leaf, which you remove to find a yummy pork and rice concoction. It's rich and filling - comfort food. You can dip it in chili sauce to add some zing.

At the wet market, you can get fresh chicken to bring home for your dinner. And I mean fresh - they kill it right there. I told myself to toughen up and deal - I eat chicken, so I should be able to watch how the bird meets its demise. I position myself in the chicken area and watch the guy pull a chicken by its wings from one of the cages. The bird is squawking up a storm. The man raises his knife to the chicken's neck, stretched and exposed, and... I fled the area like I was escaping a raging wildfire. Perhaps I'll work up my courage another day. :-)

News from the Eats

In my first month here, my pal Christine, who knows this patch of the world quite well, challenged me on this very blog to eat a number of adventurous things. As I noted in my early August post, I’ve tried to rise to the challenge – rambutans, Hokkien Mee, Murtabak. Delicious all.

Well, we’ve been here four months now, and things are at a whole new level. I have a local friend, Z (real name: Tze), who takes me to all kinds of places that only a local would know about. She knows I’m an adventurous eater (as long as the food is not mega-spicy hot), so she makes bold menu suggestions. I have now eaten:

-- soup with clear brown broth, mushrooms, gingko nuts, and wait for it… pig stomach
-- lightly fried pig liver served in a black sweet sauce

Both tasted fine, though I stopped at a few bites and wouldn’t order again. Not because I found them awful, but because I didn’t find them super-good. I think your tastes are all about what you grow up eating. I would love the black sauce on regular pork however.

Local Food Homeruns
One local food that I adore is Kerabu, a salad-type dish made with, among other things, a medium-spicy chili sauce, crushed nuts, lime juice and fresh herbs like cilantro. I’d love to find the recipe (for the one made with raw, crunchy cucumbers, not chicken feet).

As I shared in my food “fook” blogpost, I dig Otak-otak, a fish dish. I also enjoy a Nonya dish of sautéed bean sprouts, sprinkled with crushed tiny fried fish. Nonya is a type of local cuisine that blends Malay and Chinese cooking methods.

So there you have it! I look forward to the arrival of !Marsha! in November to whom I will introduce all these foods (not the pig stomach).

Below: Ton eating dragon fruit. Note the color in the bowl below - white gray with black seeds. Funky!

Rookie Move
I forgot my tote bag the other day when I went to the wet market. So I had to carry masses of little plastic bags around. As the bags increased in number and weight, they began to cut into my fingers and became a general pain.

Don’t forget that tote bag. There are no grocery carts at the ol’ wet market!

What I Miss
(it’s the little things that get ya)
-- A disposal
-- Frozen broccoli / frozen spinach
-- Frozen wild blueberries
-- A long hot shower

I finally found PAM Olive Oil Cooking spray and that makes me very happy.

Ricotta cheese proved elusive until just recently, when I found a store that will special-order it for me

What I’m Digging
-- A new era of cooking. Many mornings as I sip my tea, I peruse my cookbooks eagerly, pondering my next cooking attempt. I’ve made:

• a great Chinese soup in a light broth with noodles, soy sauce and mushrooms
• an Indonesian sweet potato/peanut soup with cabbage
• an awesome garam masala sauce for roasted veggies
• a kickass Mexican lasagna and lime-cumin cucumber, orange & red onion salad

I had an unfortunate frittata crash and burn however.

-- I continue to meet interesting people. I’m consistently amazed at the vastness and diversity of Penang’s expat community.

-- I love the smell of Indian spices which wafts towards me every time I open my kitchen cabinet.

How I Know I’m Not in Kansas Anymore
I decided to make a braised chicken recipe which required:
-- 2 sprigs fresh curry leaves (leaves removed from stems)
-- 10 whole cloves

Back home, I’d have tracked down the cloves, but the curry leaves would have stumped me.

Here in Penang, I just thought, “I’ll stop by the wet market and pick some up.” I know exactly where to find the dude that sells the curry leaves, and the Indian spice guy hooked me up with the cloves. I also bought fresh coconut milk (right-out-of-the-fruit-that-day fresh) for the sauce. Gotta love it!

Misc Food Learnings
-- Curry leaves are not spicy; in fact, they have a pleasant, soothing smell. It’s the chilies that make curry dishes hot.
-- Dried chilies are hotter than fresh.
-- Freshly-squeezed coconut milk doesn’t keep in the fridge. You must use it that same day, or it will separate and be generally icky.