Penangites in Melbourne...檳城人在墨爾本...ペナン人インメルボルン

Thai-style sour fish...
one of my favourite Thai dishes, pandan chicken....

Went out with two Penang friends last night for dinner....two of us initially had planned to go to this Chinese restaurant on Smith St apparently famous for its duck with my mother's friend (and also her mother's friend also) but she cancelled and so we decided to go ourselves with another Penang friend....however, when we arrived we realised it was fully booked and u needed to book seats....there are like two sessions 6pm and 8pm and so i decided to come again next time, i mean if the place is packed, u need bookings and there are eating sessions, i reckon the place must be good....and then we went around walking from Smith St to Brunswick St going thru 8 restaurants or so before we FINALLY decided on this place everybody agreed on. Before, we had changed from Chinese, Korean, to Japanese, to Western to Indian....somehow either someone didn't like the place or it was too expensive....i was so damn hungry by then i just wanted to eat at the very next restaurant we came across..we ended up having Thai at this place in Brunswick St called 'Thai Thani'......

the food was nice....and our conversation was of cos very Penang based as we were all from Penang....abit of Hokkien also lor..penang lang mar...but not alot as we weren't hokkien speakers in general...one friend was from Penang Chinese Girl's School 檳華 and the other from Chung Ling Boys High 鐘靈 , both the top schools in Penang and also both Chinese schools...so the two of them were talking about the subjects they took and their highschool days...we also talked about how Penang was like before we left during our high school days with 'One-stop' being the 'in' place to be at one time, Island plaza and its go-kart and cineplex (both gone now), the old cinemas in Penang before the muliplex era such as Cathay, Odeon, Rex,etc with their upper and lower sections and the kacang putih they would sell...how times have changed since then..

and of cos we talked about Penang food also lor...my friend is really weird, he once ordered Or Qian 蠔煎 (oyster pancake) without the Or 蠔 ,' uncle, or qian ji pua, mai or' (oyster pancake one plate without the oyster) i mean how can it still be Or Qian without the Or???!

Will probably go to the duck place on smith st next time, maybe i'll ask my two friends to bring along their two friends who are also from Penang as well(both i've met and nice ppl), then it will really be a 'little penang gathering' in Melbourne....sounds fun!