Eating the Extra Mile in Penang

We’ve established that we are in Penang to eat as much as we can of as many different foods as possible. To convey what exactly that means, let’s walk through our dinner tonight at Fisherman Village Seafood Restaurant, located on the beach of the Teluk Bahang neighborhood. We went there to check out the Teluk Bahang Fisherman Village and see how fresh we could get our seafood.

I asked the kids and Ya how many fish they wanted for dinner.

As usual, we ordered enough for two families.

First we started with fruit drinks, lemonade and plum juice. So Refreshing.

The meal started with black pepper fried squid. Yummy gooey tamarind and pepper coating a crisp batter.

Then came the starches, some Fisherman Village Fried Rice Special. I thought it was just ok, bland, but suitable for the kids.

And noodles in a soya gravy, which was too salty for my taste, but again good for the kids.

We needed veggies, so went with kailan, Penang's staple. This one was simply tossed with salted fish and retained its snap.

The star of the meal was 800 grams of garlicky fried red snapper. It was crunchy and fresh, and definitely worth the extra 40 Ringgit.

We completed the feast with fried ice cream. This was the first of two. Crisp salty crust covered sweet vanilla cold goodness.

The meal came to 91.80 Ringgit for three adults and two kids. The seafood was fresh, including the little bits mixed into the fried rice. If we go back, we’d stick to the seafood and veggie dishes so that the mediocre starches don’t take up uncessasary space in our bellies.

The fried ice cream may be shaped like a heart, but we know all this eating can’t be good for ours. The kids are getting plenty of excercise at the pool and playground, but Sandeep and I needed to take action. We started a daily ritual of running while the kids nap. Across our apartment in Tanjung Bungah is Pearl Hill, a neighborhood dotted with McMansions, forrest and monkeys in the forrest. A loop up and around the hill is three miles, but the climb itself is enough to get my heart leaping out of my chest. Sandeep hops up without any effort, which is why he can take a picture like this.

The views along the way are worth the gasps for air.

And we daydream about buying a place in the neighborhood.

I’m still trying to capture a picture of the monkeys we hear in the trees. They taunt us with their calls but no monkey sighting yet.

Penang has engulfed us in a virtuous cycle of eating too much, trying to run it off, getting lost in the scenary, feeling famished from the run, and eating too much again. We love getting caught.