My Recent Discovery Saturdays (Part 2)

I am just wondering if things are not going very well with my blog as I am starting to feel as my fellow readers are getting less interactive or perhaps I am not writing the good stuffs here. Maybe I am just being extremely sensitive towards what's happening towards the silentness of my readers. Write in, don't just keep quiet... don't be the "read and leave" type.

Continuing from where I left, we took a drive all the way to Balik Pulau that afternoon. We took the shortcut to reach there by using the new trunk road which were built cutting through in the middle of the old Long Buoy road. For those who lived long enough in Penang, you should have known about this road. The trip to get to Balik Pulau were quick, took us about 20 minutes to climb the hill and then slope all the way down to the heart of Balik Pulau town. I didn't even realized that the old market in Balik Pulau town has been moved to a newer and much beautiful looking market that was built a few hundred metres from its old site. Gosh! It has been almost 2 years ago ever since I last came here with Tee, Hui Koon, Maria and gang for a durian fest. Never thought that so much has changed here and the development around the area seemed quite significant as the houses in Balik Pulau are growing like mushrooms!

Since mom's friend who lived in Balik Pulau area knew the area well, she took us to the new market to enjoy some light lunch. The Balik Pulau Laksa. Everyone certainly knew how famous the Balik Pulau laksa is and it was tedious to come to Balik Pulau to have one back in those days. Moving from the old market to the new market was a wise move as the car park there was spacious and more sitting space of course. I wonder if the crowd scene has died as when I reach there that afternoon, there were not much people. Normally, during lunch hour at the old market, you can't even find a place to sit.

Anyway, the new place looks tidy and neat. The laksa aunty and his son has been working since 9am. We took the liberty of asking the aunty a few questions about the stall. According to her, their stall opens from 9am to 5pm daily except Thursday. They have a few stalls setup across the market area as she pointed to the back of the stall and claimed that she even have ANOTHER stall opened just behind this stall. She also had another stall opened up at the old market site, nearby a cafe. So her business has expanded over the years.

Enough jabbering and it's time to order us some laksa! It's what we are here for. As we are waiting for our laksa to be served, a few picture moments with my little nephew and Cindy. He was extremely naughty that day, making faces and even tried to snatch my camera as well.

This is the famous Balik Pulau laksa without the Hae Ko (Shrimp paste)

And this one is with the Hae Ko.

Our drinks were the nutmeg juice which is being juiced up pretty well and it tastes extremely refreshing!

The damage for all of those stuff for the pack of 7 was RM25 inclusive of the nutmeg juice. Talk about cheap! Will definitely come back for more of these laksa and Cindy even told me that if I ever come back, don't forget to take away a pack for her too. Hehe! That was only our light lunch and now we are up for another round of lunch... and my mom calls it the buffet lunch. It's the season of the Kings and that's the reason why we are in Balik Pulau for, the durian fest. Hehe!

Our little convoy to Balik Pulau.

This is the place we had our durians, hut 207. I wonder why they have so many numbers along the way. It looks like its a home address but it's just not. Weird. Now the season of the durians only comes once or twice a year. If lucky, we might have 3. But for this year around, we only have one so far so if we are hoping for a second season, it might be a long shot... according to the durian seller.

Presenting the king of the fruits... very thorny... Haha! :-P

It requires a great deal of skill to open a durian but you need a very sharp knife to do as demonstrated by the durian seller here.

Durian comes in many many names. To name a few there's Hor Lor, Red Prawn, Kun Poh Ang Bak, Green Skin Ang Bak, D600, Little Red, D604, D11 and many more... phew! I never know that there's just so many names for durians! There are bitter durians and there also the sweet durians. I would prefer to go for the sweet meat ones because the bitter ones, tastes like drinking beer.

According to wiki, the durian, native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, has been known to the Western world for about 600 years. The 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously described its flesh as "a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds". Wow! I know the westerners has a complication with these thorny things, but never realize that Mr Alfred gave such a highly respectable comment on it. Haha!

My little nephew loves durian as well and he kept screaming for more. Mom kept feeding him with durians and he kept making a mess around the mouth. Our durian fest came to an end after having to eat 7 durians and take away 3. The total damage for the fest was RM60. It's so cheap and the aunty was very nice to us. We'll make our visit again, if we are still up for more durians... that's for sure.

My naughty little nephew, Marcus; with his antiques again... making faces. This time he asks my fellow readers to hush and admire the next and the last of the photos. Haha!

The aerial view of the Balik Pulau area from the top of the hill. Don't ask me what is the hill name but this rest stop area is along on the new Balik Pulau - Long Buoy new trunk road, you won't miss it. That's the last of my latest discovery saturdays. Will blog again soon, most probably headed back to Japan again as there's more to blog from there.