Some time ago, my colleagues and I decided to give M a treat. She doesn't take pork or beef but when we learned that she does take fish, we decided to drive down to Kuala Sepetang, a coastal town some 8km away to have a seafood dinner. Fish of course, was in the menu, steamed Teochew-styled; besides deep fried cuttle fish, deep-fried Mantis shrimps coated with salted eggs, Paratapes textilis, the marine bivalve mollusk better known as lala, stir fried in Taucheo, a salted bean paste. Then, there was a tofu dish; hard, hard tofu and a vulgar plate of vegetables. Practically, there was much to complain about everything. All the dishes except the fish were served almost immediately, giving the impression that they were precooked. Then, as we were eating, there were houseflies to contend with, spoiling the mood of an emerging sunset.
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