Friendly Locals

Malaysia is made up of three main ethnic groups, Malays, Chinese, and Indians. The majority of people I come into contact with are of Chinese decent, as they tend to be more in manufacturing and Engineering than the other groups.

Because of this ethnic diversity, the languages used are as diverse. Bahasa Malay is the official language, Tamil is the main Indian dialect, with Mandarin and a multitude of other dialects are spoken by the Chinese. As in most countries, English is widely spoken by the majority of people as it is taught in schools. The locals chop and change languages mid sentence, so they might start in Mandarin, go to Cantonese, then English, Malay and then back to Mandarin. Bloody confusing!

My un-official tour guides are Li Ling and her house mate Shin. I met Li Ling through work and we got talking about, of all things, spectacles as I was having trouble with the new ones I had bought back in the UK. She and Shin offered to take me around a few of the shops to make sure I did not get ripped off. Since then they have taken it upon themselves to take me to every type of ‘Local’ food they can think of.

Probably the strangest thing I have had, well it sounds strange but is very nice, is a Steamboat. Steamboat is a Southern Chinese version of a fondue. Pieces of fish, sea food or meat are dipped into a stock that is on a hot plate of gas ring in the middle of the table by those eating. Once everything is cooked, the stock becomes a delicious soup. Well that is a normal Steamboat, the one I was taken to had a small but highly significant twist to it. There was no stock. Instead we had porridge. Porridge here is different to England and even Scotland. The porridge is not made with oats but rice. It takes about five hours to cook, and can have chicken of even frogs added. We had plain rice porridge. With it came fish balls, tiger prawns, Chinese Dumplings, cabbage, and some vegetables I did not recognise. I must say, I do prefer a traditional Steamboat more.

After Porridge Steamboat they took me to a MAMAK stall. MAMAK comes from Tamil and means Indian Muslim. At the MAMAK stall you can get food and drinks. My favourite is Teh Tarik (pulled Tea). It is tea made with condensed milk and a huge amount of sugar, and is very sweet. You can have it hot, as I do, or with hot with ice in. It is really the national drink, either that or Milo!

NEWS FLASH:

Just to stop you gossips, I have met Yee Wei. He is Li Ling’s 'husband to be' as she calls him. I don't know when the wedding will be, nor do they, but I am told Catherine and I will be invited, just as long as there are lots of chillies.