Ukulele Serenade

Today's entry in our host's efforts to cook up 17 unique breakfasts for us during our stay was stuffed pitta breads.

The pitta was filled with a kind of turnip, often known by the Spanish name jícama, but called ubi sengkuang in Malay. This was grated and fried with garlic until soft, stuffed into pitta with tomato, lettuce, coriander leaves and a sweet chilli sauce. Tasty and filling.


We took a walk around the local area. First, we walked up the hill through the rubber plantations, where the row upon row of trees had their bark peeled back, oozing sticky white sap.

Rubber tree

We ended up at the fisherman's wharf and took a small lunch at Shin Mi.

While most Asian countries have a version of fried spring roll, Thailand has not been surpassed in our affections. The rolls we had for lunch were small and crunchy, but more roll than filling. A Thai roll is fatter and full of noodles, mushrooms and veggies, and it's hard to beat the Thai sweet chilli dip. It's also always interesting to see what passes for a salad in various countries, as few constrain themselves to the lettuce leaf. Our 'mixed salad' was shredded white cabbage, carrot, tomato, and red onion in a limey, oily dressing. Not my favourite dish. Even the bland Tiger beer was rendered acceptable by an icy chilled glass.

A one that is not cold is barely a one at all

On the main road near our homestay is a place called House of Lamb. We had previously written this off as a grill restaurant and of no interest to vegetarians. However, on closer inspection, it turned out to be an art gallery whose owner tacked on a meat café, as he "really likes lamb".

'Meat' the artist at House of Lamb

During the day the art space functions as a café, so we enjoyed a coffee before perusing the artwork, some of which was created by the same hands that prepared the drinks. The menu is indeed exclusively lamb-based and, while no doubt delicious, sadly offered no reason to return.

Char kway teow

Our host was keen to cook for us this evening, as this would give him a reason not to eat out. He prepared us a specialty from his native Penang, char kway teow. This is stir-fried flat rice noodles. Typically, the noodles are fried in pork fat, which is odd for a Muslim country, but it is a Chinese import and halal and non-halal restaurants co-exist happily. This version was vegetarian and excluded the usual seafood. Alongside was a lovingly prepared corn soup made deeply savoury with shiitake mushrooms.

A surprise serenade by our host on the ukulele rounded out the evening. We were honoured that he chose to share this passion of his and he clearly took great pleasure in playing us versions of his favourite songs. I look forward to his rendition of Fly Me to the Moon.