Islands in the Sky

I’ve been told numerous times that on Malaysia’s Penang Island you eat, and on Langkawi Island you drink.  This has actually been my personal experience as well.   The food in Penang was interesting, inexpensive, and everywhere.   [For those in the Chicago area, you can visit Penang restaurant in the northern suburbs: http://www.penangarlington.com/]

My dear Malaysian friend Santhi had a business trip to Penang when I was on the island so I got a first hand lesson on local food.  She was practically drooling when we met up, anxiously awaiting her first meal of Nasi Kandar, or Indian Muslim food.  We ducked into an alley I had spotted and photographed during the three days I was in Penang before her arrival.  It was the place for people in the know, although by the looks of it, an outsider would never know.   A few shelves in a makeshift metal kitchen held bowls of brown and red gravy, trays of different kinds of meat and fish, rice of course, boiled eggs, greens, and tumeric cabbage with mustard seeds and carrot.  The draw are the gravies.  The server deftly flips his wrist as he dips into each bowl of gravy, making a brown brick pool of liquid over your rice.  Since I only had veggies, I was given only the red sauce.  We sat at metal picnic tables and drank teh tarik (“pulled tea”– sweetened with condensed milk and sugar and literally thrown from one cup to another to cool it) and iced lemon tea.  Santhi was in food heaven with a huge grin on her face.  She even licked her fingers afterwards.  The place was packed and everyone looked like they were eating the best meal of their lives.

Cendol is the dessert which is known to be delicious on Penang.  Imagine green jello shaped like short spaghetti noodles,  a mound of ice shavings, kidney beans, red beans, coconut milk, and brown palm sugar in the same bowl.   The textures and flavors all dance in your mouth and somehow it all makes sense and your tongue very happy.

Can you think of a spice you would like to eat?  There is one that exists on Penang and is among my favorites.  Nutmeg fruit is pickled, candied, and dried making for a an unusual snack available only on this island.  The first time I tried it I wasn’t sure what fruit it was, but it did make sense once I closed my eyes and concentrated on Christmas cookies.   When I toured the spice farms of Zanzibar 10 year ago there was no mention of the nutmeg fruit being eaten or used for anything, so perhaps is an Asian speciality.  At the market where I bought pickled nutmeg, other fruits such as mango, papaya and some others Santhi can’t translate into English were sold.

After 5 days exploring Penang, I arrived on nearby Langkawi Island, which is definitely not a backpacker’s paradise, except for the very cheap beer.  Rather, it’s a fancy resort island with a few hostels and guest houses, and without any public transportation. Fortunately upon arriving at Shirin’s Guest House I met a Chinese Malaysian gal and a Chinese guy who were looking for someone to share a car rental which is quite cheap.  We drove around the island in a few hours and even toured the fancy Four Season’s Resort and imagined staying in their villas.  The island is full of rice paddies, coconut groves, big green hills, and even home to the USSR Restaurant, owned by a Kyrgyz family serving authentic Russian food.  While the beaches are pretty, the islands on the east coast of Malaysia outshine this one with their turquoise blue waters.

Because Langkawi is a duty free island, the alchohol is cheap, meaning .75 for a can of beer at the convenience store or the same price for a glass of wine at my hostel.   As this fell within my meager budget, I had a glass of wine every night, which is the most I’ve drunk in seven months.  The food was expensive and touristy; Thai curry was hotter than anything I’d eaten in Thailand and the Indian food more expensive than Kuala Lumpur.  One night I did ride a bike off the main drag to a night market and bought veg noodles and peanut pancakes for about $1 which evened it all out.   The upside was bath water warm sea and white sand beaches full of shells so I was able to engage in my favorite pastime, which is a real addiction although I haven’t any idea what I will do with all the shells I have collected.  Perhaps you will be receiving a shell clock for Christmas one of these years… 

 Thanks Malaysia for a wonderful visit.