Day 5: Christina and Kevin's wedding (#2)

The following two days gave many more opportunities to explore the city.  Every corner had a new surprise waiting to be seen, but we were limited by the suffocating mid-day heat and would seek the cover of the indoors. 

Red dragon fruit to start the day.  Indeed, it made my hand red.

Breakfast of char koay kak, triangular rice cakes with bean sprouts, bits of meat, a brown sauce, salt, and served on a banana leaf to help meld the flavors (the secret ingredient is most likely MSG).

Pink sweets along an outdoor market

Snails in shell, apparently good in soup

 

Pastry shop

Inside the shopping mall--a store with lots of bulk goods. Samples were encouraged, and they had samples of everything, which did not do our stomachs any favors.

The outdoor portion of one of the malls beside Komtar

Funny talking bird near our hotel

We found this strange bread made with bamboo charcoal, which is supposed to be detoxifying.  In case you are wondering, it really doesn't taste like anything.

Hotel Sentral

Prangin Mall, attached to the mall in the Komtar tower and another mall across the street.  That's right, three interconnected malls.

I brought my coat that I had made in Vietnam to a local tailor.  The zipper busted a little while ago and I didn't want to pay $23 to have it fixed in Waltham.  This guy did it for $4 (it took him two hours).  I really liked him, maybe because he resembled my grandpa, who was also a tailor.

Wandering through Little India

Wedding time!  The Tea Ceremony was held at the Traders Hotel just around the block from us.  This ceremony was fairly informal but it had elements of a traditional Chinese wedding.  The bride and groom are supposed to serve tea to their partner's elder relatives.  This included Kevin bringing tea to Eileen and me, which was kinda fun. The next step was to offer gifts (fake money) to the younger relatives of the spouse, which ironically also included Eileen and me (we are both between Kevin and Christina's age).  We were not allowed to 'double dip', so we had to settle for just tea and no fake money.

 

 

Now for the reception!  Another 7 course extravaganza, this time with more western-stye Chinese dishes, as well as a menu.

Entering Mr and Mrs Ng

 

 

Course 1: Deep fried prawn balls with mayo sesame, kung po chicken with cashew, marinated baby octopus, deep friend prosperity money bags, kerabu mango

Course 2: Pumpkin and crab meat soup

Course 3: BBQ roasted chicken with sesame seeds

Champagne toast interleude

Course 4: Braised mix vegetable loh han chai

 

Course 5: Steamed red lion with teow chew style

Course 6: Traders assorted seafood fried rice

Course 7: Double boiled sweet soya bean with gingko nuts and snow fungus

A fake cake.  This was not course 8.  What a tease!!

Seth and I were tricked into going to the 'after party' at a mansion.  This was NOT a quiet lounge club.

The cousins, Christina, me, Eileen, Nathan, and Peter