‘WEATHER UNDERGROUND:  TODAY IN PENANG - 91 DEGREES, FEELS LIKE 105’

I left the hotel about 11 this this morning intent on going for an hour and a half stroll before lunch at Prosperous Dim Sum Restaurant.  In three days I have seen very little of the city of Georgetown other than the businesses and restaurants between my hotel and Mama’s, a fifteen – twenty minute walk.  Plus, a little exercise would be a good thing, given my eating regimen.

I was headed toward the ‘Little India’ section of Georgetown.  I thought I could get there and back to ‘Prosperous ‘ by about 12:30.  I didn't want to go to the restaurant any earlier because the 80+ seats would all be taken.  It is a very popular place.

A couple minutes after I left the hotel it felt like I was walking through a continuous veil of water vapor ladened air.  I slowed my stride even more and put on my cap and sun glasses.  Over the next hour and a half I alternated taking my cap and sun glasses off when I walked through each short shaded stretch and then donned them when I walked back into the sunlight.  If someone were watching me, they would have thought I was performing some sort of ritual. 

Only when I returned to the hotel after lunch did I look up the temperature.  This taught me to check the temperature in the future before I go out.  If it is like this I’ll stay in the hotel shortly before lunch, head out to eat and then return to my air conditioned cocoon until 4 or 5 pm when the day's heat starts to dissipate.  I can always use the time in the room to work on my new novel (5^th in the Richard Slaughter series).

I failed to reach ‘Little India’ and after a while decided to retrace my steps to arrive at Prosperous at 12:30.  That part I succeeded at. 

I wandered around inside the food area and quickly determined I didn't have a clue how to order.  I went outside to a vacant table and stood around trying to figure out the system.  Fortunately, I was taken in tow by a waiter who gestured for me to sit, fetched a menu and handed it to me.  That was nice, sort of.  There were fully 40 items on the menu and I had no idea what they were.  Finally, I did my ‘restaurant in China’ thing.  I stood up, went to the next table where two young women were eating, pointed to the two dishes of food on their table and said ‘I’ll have that’.

‘That’ turned out to be steamed buns filled with shrimp and a large plate of wheat noodles swimming in some sort of sauce.  The sauce, interestingly enough, turned out to be exactly that of Moo Goo Gai Pan.  It is a lightly flavored sauce thickened with egg and cornstarch.  The resemblance to Moo Goo ended there other than a couple thin slices of chicken (a couple of shrimp were thrown in also).  The main part of the dish was the mound of noodles in the center of the plate.   .

I ate it all, fumbling with the noodles at times with my chop sticks.  The sauce on the plate was at least a quarter inch deep after I'd finished the noodles.  It served as a 'soup' to finish the meal.  Later at the hotel I found the dish on the web.  It is called Yee Foo Mee with egg.  The noodles are a Cantonese style made of dark wheat flour.  Interesting.  Moo Goo Gai Pan is a Cantonese dish.

The meal came with a pot of scalding hot Chinese tea.  Two tea cups also appeared in a bowl of scalding water.  I fished out a cup, almost burning my fingers.  I poured the tea and even after a couple of minutes the cup was too hot to pick up with my fingers.  I nudged it over to the edge of the table where I could bend down and take a small slurp.  Delicious tea.  Needless to say, I finished the pot.

The price of lunch just went from $16-$17 at Mama’s down to shade under $3.  I’ll be back at Prosperous tomorrow and the next day for lunch, and, a little better prepared to select my food.

Speaking of Mama’s, for the last two meals I have not been able to pick out what I was going to order from the menu.  The daughters have become 'benevolent dictators'.  Last night I was ‘ordered to order Assam Pedas Fish, another Nonya classic.  The daughter suggested that prawn fritters would be a nice side dish to go with it.

I would really like to make the fish dish.  Out came a bowl with a large piece of what I think was grouper, swimming (no pun intended) in a fragrant broth.   Who would ever think about making a fish dish with pineapple for sweetness, tamarind pulp for sour flavor and then top it off with mint leaves and ginger flowers?  The kaleidoscope of flavors seemed to change with every spoonful.   

Dinner was topped off with black stick rice with plums embedded in it.  Again, fresh coconut milk was served with it.  You may recall the difference in flavor of my previous dessert of yam and sago that went from ho hum to outstanding when I poured the fresh coconut milk over it.  Same thing here, although I preferred the yam and sago mixture.

One of the high points of my meals at Mama’s was yesterday evening.  One of the daughters insisted that I have my photo taken with them.  I had walked in there a stranger three days ago, and last night, I left with fond memories of four 'friends' along with memories of sampling of excellent Nyonya cuisine.