Wednesday, February 18, 2004

That Lunch, Yes! It was indeed great.... A sumptuous one and we did enjoy it..... Well after those great chat at the resort, we drove to his house which is not that far away from the Resort..... It is a beautiful house about two hundred meter away from the beach, the house does not face the beach but instead face northwest, thus avoid being gush by the strong wind that is associated with the sea front..... On arrival we met his charming wife, who did all those cooking for our great lunch..... He then took us on a quick tour of the house, full of antique collections of various categories..... And then we were introduce to his fish pond, where the Koi fish are really big, swimming happily in and around the long pond, which has been made to blend with the surrounding landscape, a lot of works has been put up to create this artificial pond to look like a real and a natural one..... Since my wife love to keep fish as well...It was indeed a hay day for her..... She love to see those beautiful colorful Koi in such lush surrounding......To add to this already picturesque scene of fishes plying up and down the length of the pond, perch on a rock nearby is a shiny black tortoise, which my friend Al has named 'Rock'...., thus turning this fish pond and its landscape a real natural scene, that blend well with the surrounding...... We sat for the lunch..., one of the dishes were of fish that He caught himself the previous day.... A red snapper, cook in a traditional way, we call as 'masak asam pedas' sweet sour and spicy hot sort of stew' a dish that is commonly cook in Malay houses.... She did it real well, and it taste superb, the other dish were fried chill prawns, hot and spicy,....a local salad.... We call it 'pecai', great taste, a vegetable mixed eaten with peanut sauce, probably of a Javanese origin, not many people could prepared a really good 'pecai'.... She did it real well.... I know.. for my dear wife is a expert of preparing this 'pecai'..... Another dish that is new to us is the fried bitter gourd, fried grips.... It really taste great.... I never knew that bitter gourd done this way would taste this good..... So we talk about this new item on the menu and soon exchange the know how of cooking this bitter gourd.... We shall try the next time, thanks to this lady.... We now have one more way of cooking this bitter vegetable.... Our friend Al throw a joke from time to time and it is real funny.... so it was a hearty laugh every times, over lunch we talk on many subjects from local politic to other subjects of common interest and in the chat, out pop the subject of my neighbor, a retired general, who gardens behind our house.... And it turn out that this guy we call Sam is his foster nephew of a sort.... What a small world we live in... And it look like He know most of the who and who that I knew.... With such info it makes our chat more and more interesting..... We finished lunch and we continue to chat, the coffee came and gone.... Time flies and soon it was four in the afternoon.... She decided to served tea 'teh tarik' and in the instance prepared a traditional delicacies the 'buah Melaka'.... a sort of flour ball with coconut sugar inside, boiled and covered with freshly scrap coconut.... Translated into English it the fruit of Malacca..... It taste great for a tea time tit bit.... I love this buah melaka... My wife have taught our granddaughter to it and she is now real good at making this traditional cake..... We continue to chat and hardly we realized, it is almost six in the evening.... We adjourn to the fish pool and continue to talk about other thing and at the same time admiring those beautiful landscape garden on his backyard..... Late.. With many thanks we left the house, happy that our visit have really being one of a kind.... Great lunch, great tea and what else... Great Friends....Our host Mr.Al and his charming wife Mrs.Hafsah....... Thanks again my friends for making our live so wonderful.... Indeed it makes our days.. We enjoyed every minutes of it...... Great friends we have..... Indeed a Godsend couple..........

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