Last night…

It was not on our last night in Penang, but after the delightful salted fish fried rice I had at a stall at Red Garden, the hawker centre somewhere across the road from Cititel Penang, we went back there again some nights later and my daughter had the pineapple fried rice…

…while I had one of the other fried rice dishes…

Somehow, I just can’t remember exactly what I had, so you can imagine how unimpressive it must have been. Well, both were a disappointment and a far cry from the salted fish fried rice that I had which was simply awesome.

My daughter also had rice for lunch that day when I went out for lunch with Mac and Joe. She did not want to join us, so I tapaoed for her some roast duck rice (RM6.00) from the May Garden Restaurant located right next to the hotel and some roast suckling piglet (RM20 for mostly the crackle/skin)…

…but she said it wasn’t that nice even though that restaurant seemed somewhat popular and was well-known for its roast stuff. I tried a bit of it and I must say that I couldn’t agree more. We have much nicer ones in Sibu, she said…and she was right, and what we have here is a lot cheaper too!

Anyway, all too soon, our stay in Penang was about to come to an end. On our last night on the island, we went back to Red Garden as my daughter wanted to have the Japanese bento (RM15.00) that she had that first night in Penang…

I had this Thai rice dish…

…which wasn’t anything to shout about, but I really liked their mango pulut (glutinous rice) dessert…

I think that was RM6 or RM7 for that big plate and it was really nice even though I would very much prefer durian. The last time I had that was years ago at some food court in Singapore. I had both durian and mango and it was S$10.00 each for just a small plate. Try converting that! *Pengsan!

Incidentally, there is a satay and chicken wing stall at one far end of the Red Garden Hawker Centre…and as they didn’t look too bad, I thought I would just order a few sticks to give it a try…

Unfortunately, they were far from what I would expect. Even the seasoning of the sticks of satay did not taste like what it should be and the satay sauce was equally disappointing. Besides, they were not cheap at all – 80 sen per stick. I can get satay at the Taman Muhibbah Hawker Centre near my house here in Sibu for half the price and they taste real good…like satay!

Now, while we were halfway through dinner, I received an sms from some ex-students, so I just told them to come to the hotel later and we could just sit and chat…and that was what they did. This is Lay Po who stays in touch with me via Facebook…

…and this is Hui Lik…

…both from my Form 5 class in 1995. Now, both are happily married, settled and working in Penang and each of them is blessed with a daughter. Good grief! Don’t tell me they are following their ex-teacher’s footsteps! LOL!!! We sat and talked till almost midnight…

…and the next morning, my Penang friend, Eng, dropped me off at the airport for my flight to KL and was so kind as to help me send my daughter back to Sungai Petani after that.

As you can see from my posts, other than the eating and a little bit of shopping/window-shopping, we did not do very much else during all that time we were in Penang. My daughter had lots of assignments, so most of the time, we were cooped up in the hotel room with her doing her work and me, lazing around and idling the time away and dozing off…

But she did say that she had a good break and was happy that I came over to keep her company. I certainly am glad I went over too and one consoling thought is that I’ll be seeing her again pretty soon as she’ll be coming home for Hari Raya in a couple of weeks’ time…

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