"Honeymoon" - Part 4 (final)
Monday was low-key. In the morning, Ethan and Marcel took a trip to Fry's to pick up a hard drive - my aunt called it "Disneyland for boys". :) And it was, for Ethan - upon returning home, he told me decisively that we were moving to the West Coast, and proceeded to gush about the West Coast-based superstore. I did laundry, and watched Ting-Ting play. (Movie of her helping out around the house)
Around noon, we headed to Milpitas for lunch at Penang Garden (not to be confused with Penang Restaurant in NY, Boston, DC, Philly). No crabs for Ethan, but plenty of great authentic cuisine - roti prata, char kuey teow, steamed chicken, roast chicken, (stuff I can't remember), and kangkong belachan. After dinner on Friday, there was much talk about how Ethan hates terasi (extremely pungent) and what a shame it was, because it's one of my favorite ingredients. Ethan had passed the durian test, but he fell short at this. (Understandably! Even some Indonesians hate terasi.) This time, however, Ethan made a show of heaping the kangkong belachan onto his plate. Marcel, one such Indonesian who doesn't care much for terasi, couldn't be outdone by 2 Americans (Josh was wolfing it down too), so in a rare moment, he had some kangkong as well. :) Men are so funny.
At Penang Garden
After lunch, as promised, my aunt took us to an Asian supermarket to shop for goodies. This time, I was in Disneyland. I stocked up on so much food, all of which I'd never be able to find in Pittsburgh (or even the East Coast). I was going to make good use of my molcajete! Got some Indonesian palm sugar, terasi, and assam (tamarind) for my fruit rojak. Dutch rice chocolate for martabak (Indonesian pancakes), sambal belacan (special chili sauce for my own indulgence), kaya jam for breakfast, agar-agar powder, dong cai (pickled vegetables) for rice porridge, petis udang (paste form of terasi)... I missed home so much. From the supermarket, we went next door to a dessert shop that had avocado and durian milkshakes. Imagine that! Ethan and I each got a flavor and swapped frequently. Both were delicious. Next door to that was a bakery owned by a renowned Hong Kong pastry chef. Reminds me of Maxim's in Hong Kong, and my favorite Singaporean bakery, BreadTalk. We bought yummies for ourselves and a little box of eclairs for Ting-Ting.
Stuffed (and used to it by now), we returned home, bags in hand, and relaxed while my aunt prepared for the satay-grilling that evening. Ethan introduced Ting-Ting to Super Mario on his laptop. She cleverly mistook the lava pits for chocolate, and squealed every time Mario fell into "chocolate".
Ting-Ting endorses Apple
Throughout the whole afternoon, we puttered around the house and played card games. Around 4pm, we sat outside by the pool and started skewering the satay. My aunt marinated 2 pounds of pork! What was she thinking?! Josh stayed inside and played with Ting-Ting, Marcel scrubbed and prepped the grill, I picked lemons to make lemonade. My uncle decided it was a great time for a swim, even though they hadn't turned on the heater for the pool.
Ethan did a great job with the satay-skewering. :) He had been excited about this since we mentioned it, and I think he enjoyed the experience.
Hee! My hands are slimy!
Big beautiful lemons in the backyard
So much satay; the very inviting pool
My uncle made a whole wok full of fried rice, with Chinese sausage, shrimp, pork, shallots, eggs, and kecap manis. My cousin and his girlfriend came over. The grilling began; a bottle of wine was opened. The satay tasted excellent! When Ting-Ting wasn't paying attention, we switched her Teletubbies to CNN for half a minute, where we learned of Rehnquist's death and the Medan bombing.
Finally, at 7.45pm, we said our goodbyes and left for the airport. We took the 9.50pm red-eye to Newark, then back to Pittsburgh. Continental ran out of blankets after passing them out to the first 3 or 4 rows. Even during the long 5-hr flight, they only offered the standard pretzels and beverage (but I guess most passengers are asleep). We arrived at Newark a little after 6, just in time to witness a spectacular sunrise over NYC:
From there, it was pretty uneventful. Once we got to Pittsburgh airport, we took the airport flyer back to campus, then a connecting bus home. And that was it! :)