Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A quick trip to Georgetown, Penang Island

I went over to Penang island on the ferry last Sunday and spent an hour or so just wandering around the centre of town.  It was an old Chinese and British trading post and has Chinese, Indian, and British colonial architecture – very beautiful, and remarkably well preserved.


 There’s hardly any modern development in the area, and its just been made a UNESCO world heritage site, which means that no more modern development is allowed. Unfortunately, it also means that the property prices are starting to go through the roof, and the locals are being priced out while old shop-fronts get turned into chic cafes and B&B’s.   Fortunately, that  process is at its beginning stages, so the place still has a very authentic feel to it.

Last night Maz and I were taken out for dinner with a couple of lovely (and very generous) people she works with. The guy, David,  is one of the founders of the school, and the woman, Yen, is doing the interior design for the new school.  Maria has met her Chinese twin in Yen, they are very alike. 


They took us to a seafood restaurant on the beach and the spread was amazing; the table was piled with places of food. We had cockles, clams, crab, prawns, shrimp, mussels and something  Yen called a 'praying mantis' - I think it was like a lobster with really long legs. 
The cockles were hands down the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted.  As I was putting on in my mouth I was thinking, 'that's strange, it looks raw and...is it covered in blood?'  then I popped it in my mouth and discovered why it was called a 'blood cockle'.  

I can't really describe the taste except to say that blood cockles make brussel sprouts taste like pavlova. I  was trying to be polite, because Yen and David were obviously excited about sharing all this food with us, so I tried to keep my retching to a minimum. 

Running a close second to the cockles was crab eggs; which look and taste like crab poo. (I was hoping they'd taste like caviar, but no.) Everything else was absolutely delicious. I have never had such a spread of sea-food before. And it is all so fresh. They have all the seafood in tanks as you walk in the door, so they just scoop them out and cook them. 
Me selecting my dinner.  Poor little crab,
it doesn't know I am about to eat its poo.