Updates on Allison: Tonight's Dinner: August 21-23, 2012

Well, as the official start to our vacation, we went to Melo's for a quick dinner before heading to SFO. There was nothing too fancy about dinner since we were all trying to avoid dairy products as our upcoming flight was expected to be 13 hours in the air. Since hopping into the van that Mrs. Fong rented to take us to the airport, things have been a blur. Literally. We lost a day in flying to Malaysia because of the time change. We left on the 21st and arrived on the 23rd and pretty much skipped my parents' 41st anniversary. The in-flight meals were between head-bobbling sleep and flight attendant announcements. Needless to say, food pictures are nonexistent for the first portion of our trip. For the first three meals my camera was in my backpack under the seat in front of me, I was sound asleep for the second meal, and I was barely awake for the third. For a thirteen hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong, we were served two full meals and a hearty snack in between.

From left: Auntie Brenda, Mrs. Fong, Mr. Fong, Uncle Jan, Melissa, Dennis,

and Nick at SFO waiting for our 13-hour flight to Hong Kong.

See that pointy thing coming from the man in
the white's face? Those are his eyebrows! I
couldn't take a picture of him while he was looking,
but by this picture, you can tell just how long
his eyebrows are.

We were running from our Singapore leg to the plane that was going to take

us to Penang. Well, Melissa (right) and I were running. Nick and Dennis were

taking long steps.

Quick meal during our three hour flight from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Dim sum! It was pretty good for airplane food too.

Three egg salad sandwiches on our Singapore to Penang
one hour flight. They sure have Southwest's peanuts beat.

Probably the most unattractive picture, but it makes
Nick laugh historically. This is what happens after some
serious sleep deprivation. I did eat the sandwiches
individually like a normal human being after this picture.

The lobby of Traders Hotel in Penang. Can you believe this place is only

about $90 a night?! I love Asia.

King sized beds fit Nick horizontally!

Our Room

We got a kick out of this sign at the food "court". We had our first dinner in
Malaysia at a road-side-stand eatery. It's kind of like a food court, but dirtier.
There are dozens of food carts line up around a grouping of tables under an
overhang. We learned that you scout out a table and then order from whichever
food stand you want. They bring you your food and pay for it at the table. So far
Nick and I have been lucky and haven't had upset stomachs, but that is what the
two bottles of Pepto that I brought are for. I took videos of the food stands and
the awesome cooks, but haven't tried uploading any of the video yet. I'll try to
figure out how to upload the videos and post them to Youtube in the near future.

Roasted duck wings

My wonton noodle soup for about $1.80!

Dennis' chicken leg noodle soup.

Melissa and Nick's chicken feet and ramen. The chicken feet were soooo good.

They're one of my favorites at dim sum an they were certainly delicious at the food

stand.

Shrimp Chow Fun

Curry Skate

The adult table food. It's about the same as what we had at our table, but the

clams in the center are curried, there is a frog leg dish on the far right, and a

fried oyster dish on the left.

An aquarium? I think not. These guys are up for sale to be cooked up and

eaten.

There's a pretty harsh glare, but these prawns are about the size of my hand.

After eating at the food court we went to a grocery store

to get bottled water. There were fries and frozen sausage

in bins for scooping with no covers or scooping implements.

This would totally not meet FDA approval.

After eating at the food court that served a lot of egg dishes, seeing these eggs
sitting out in the middle of the store made me feel extremely uneasy. I'm
beginning to think that American's are paranoid weaklings. Still, I'm glad
that I have my Pepto just in case.