Pulau Tikas Wet Market.

Today was an off day for Roxanne, the plant was closed for the holiday (Wesak Day, in honor of the birth of Buddha). We decided to walk down to the Wet Market after getting Brenna on the bus for school. We also had some things to mail, so we swung into the post office as well. Ok the wet market was a great idea, and we will be going back for all of our produce. the fruit was all good, fresh and inexpensive. We bought Bananas that had been freshly cut from the tree, mango (two kinds, the local and a larger Indian mango. We checked out the veggies and got some corn, we ill go back for the carrots, potatoes, and perhaps some of the greens, once we are more familiar. The we moved onto the seafood, it smelled great in the seafood house, very fresh, and many varieties of fish, crabs, and huge prawns. We will have to look at what and how to prepare the fish and that will be a regular part of our cooking as well. We made it back around front, when we walked in there were two stalls with smoked and grilled meats (Chicken, Duck and pork) I had to go with the whole duck for $29 ringgit (about $10US). The butcher was nice enough to cut it for us, throw in the head and neck parts, and also throw in some chili and soy sauce, AWESOME!!

We headed home with our stuff, and decided to head to the gym. We walked down and had a nice conversation on the way. the gym is good and we got in a nice workout. We walked back, and Rox had some work stuff to do, I watched some TV, and then it was time to get Brenna from the bus stop. We had planned to meet with "Rita" our prospective domestic helper today, we had some trouble getting with her and two earlier appointments had to be cancelled. She cam by around 18:00 hrs. We met, talked, expressed to her what we were looking for and came to an agreement on schedule and price for service. she will start next Tuesday and work two days for now, cooking and cleaning. This is a very different part of our Penang experience. We could never afford the services Rita will provide to us back in the states, and we are blessed to have this chance to experience her local cooking (we have heard she is a great cook) and get some help keeping this place clean. The night closed with some excellent grilled (although it may be smoked) duck w/rice and dessert of fresh mango. Excellent!! Well another great day here in Penang, I will get more pictures of the wet market next week, we wanted to check it out before we committed to it, now we are committed!! Goodnight everybody!!