Breakfast the next day:
More roti canai with chicken kapitan curry, and pineapple
More prawn mee - but this time I added some greens and bean sprouts
Beef rendang with coconut rice made with pandan (hence the greenish color), ikan bilis and sambal
Indian style appam with coconut cream
We had a big breakfast because we were headed off to the Tropical Spice Garden - which is about a 40 minute drive away in the middle of nowhere and we didn't know how long we'd be there or when we'd get to have lunch.
The garden has lots of different kinds of plants, but as the name says, many of them are spices or herbs used in cooking. On the left, by the water's edge is pandan - commonly used in SE Asian desserts (kuih) and also can flavor rice, among other things.
I really liked this calathia (with the pink stripes), but planted all around it (and all over the garden) are wild betel leaves (also known as la lot in Vietnam - used in bo la lot - beef with betel leaves, and is also common in Northern Thai food as well as many others). I think I'm going to try to grow the betel leaves at some point soon!
Look at this lemongrass hedge!!!
I love walking through a nicely taken care of jungle!
At the end, we sat down at a little cafe they have for a drink.
Some sort of lemonade with butterfly pea flower
Lime juice and mint
Our view of the beach across the road from the cafe (which is right near the entrance/exit)
We finished up with the garden in time for a late-ish lunch. There was a laksa place I had read about in a suburb of George Town that was in between where we were and our hotel, so I figured that it was a good time to go there. The Grab taxi app and Google Maps both had the location wrong and we unknowingly passed the place as the maps led us on a wild goose chase through some residential neighborhood. Luckily, the driver was super nice and helpful (as they all were we found) and were able to find our way there. I gave the driver a few Ringgit extra for all the extra time and driving he had to do and he didn't want to accept it, but I insisted after which he thanked me like a thousand times.
Here was our destination:
Penang laksa is very different from Singapore laksa. Penang laksa is a sour fish broth based noodle soup, with pieces of mackerel, pineapple, mint leaves, pieces of pineapple, torch ginger flower and a thick round noodle, kind of like udon. It's sour from tamarind. It's served with a spoonful of a syrupy shrimp paste. It's quite addictive - this place was worth the hunt!
The full menu:
Keep in mind that it's like RM4.50 to 1 USD, so quite inexpensive.
Our haul - the laksa, some spring rolls and two types of kuih - kuih talam which is a pandan custard on top of salted coconut custard, and a kuih kosui which are little cups made from some kind of pandan starch which you fill with salted grated coconut.
The interior of the laksa
The seating area
Kuih talam closeup
Here's some video of me adding the grated coconut to the kosui.... look how fresh that coconut is - you can see how oily my fingers were! They were delicious!
By the time we got back to the hotel, my wife was starting to feel exhausted again, so we hung out in the room for a while and then stayed in the hotel for a snack for dinner so we could go to bed early:
Kuih pie tee made with duck.
Mee goreng (fried noodles) with shrimp, a bit underseasoned.....
