Day 2 -- Work and "Dry" Meat!

After all the travel I was reminded the secondary reason I was sent to visit this foreign land -- to flex my brain muscle! I woke up and caught a 7 AM shuttle to mother Intel. On the shuttle, I met a Scot named Jon. Jon, like most people, were appalled that I didn't have jet lag whatsoever; but the way I sew it I was able to adjust on the plane ride; I was jacked up and ready to rock. Jon hadn't been able to adjust to the time change even though he'd been in Penang for over a week ...

I made it into the office without incident and found that everyone was really friendly. I met a handful of Penangite co-workers that I'd interfaced with quite a lot over the phone and via e-mail, which was good. Some people who I'd imagined as guys turned out to be gals; that's a quite strange feeling! I met Woon Sin, Kok Peng, Hui Siam, and Suk Han. Woon Sin and Suk Han are gals ... would you have guessed that? I didn't!

Lunch turned out to be a mini-adventure -- I hadn't arranged to eat with anyone as I'd been busy at my desk in the morning so I ventured down to the Intel cafe solo. I followed the crowd and filled up my plate with rice, some chicken-looking mixture, and green beans with tofu. Total cost, $3.70 Malaysian Ringgits (RMs); which was about $1 USD. The fare was good and the chicken turned out to be some kind of fish, it was flaky and dry but the sauce gave it a little heat and some wetness. I was impressed with quality to value ratio!

Work flew by and soon I found myself back at my hotel, casually named "The G"; I was ready to go in search of some local flavors. I was nudged in the direction of a variety of street vendors. The carnival-like atmosphere was packed with locals -- just what I was looking for; I was ready for some good eats. Malaysians though seem to have some interesting tastes in food -- there was a lot of crazy looking seafood and rice mixtures; plentiful fresh fruit and juice; I even saw some Shark fin soup!

I browsed the offerings and threw my money down at a pick-your-own-meat kabob grilling station. My choices included the Taiwanese Garlic Sausage, Pandon Chicken, Duck Leg, Salmon, and Dry Meat. I picked up a some raw sugar cane juice to wash it all down. I tried everything on my plate and decided I liked the sausage best, followed by the chicken, salmon, duck, and in a distant last the "dry" meat. The ensemble was capped with some unknown dipping sauce. During the meal, I kept thinking to myself, what is "dry" meat? What could it be? Didn't taste so great, but was made worse because I kept thinking it was probably a dog -- I've yet to see one on the island. I guess I'll never know, and that's a little disturbing. The sugar cane drink served it's purpose but I won't be a repeat customer.



After the meat sampling, I headed to the swank new mall built next to "The G". Turns out this thing is 8 stories tall, crowned with a movie theater; the prices were comparable to the US. With those "dry" meat thoughts still lingering, I decided I need another beverage. I grabbed a tasty kiwi smoothie; Back at "G Lounge", I ended the night with a Tiger Beer served up with some Jazzy tunes.