On one of his almost daily trips to the local wet market, this morning my husband bought four “aji” (horse mackerel) about one kilo, for the equivalent of 240 yen. The fish are fresh, and my son loves to eat aji.
He also bought home some winged beans (angle beans) shown in the accompanying photo, some freshly grated coconut and freshly squeezed coconut milk. I made a cold salad partly with these ingredients, and the results were good for a first attempt, I think. These beans are rich in protein as well as a wonderful source of dietary fiber. The Thais have their own style of this salad.
As we move from next year to neighboring Thailand, the things we will miss most about living in this part of Penang are the local wet market, southern Indian food, and being within walking distance of almost everything we need on a day-to-day basis.
We have become comfortable here, perhaps too comfortable, and to us this signals that it is time to move on to the next place, to the next set of challenges. Emil Nolde, the Expressionist painter/printmaker, explained this better than I can when he wrote: “Clever people master life; the wise create fresh difficulties.” We think it is time again for us to create “fresh difficulties.”
