OF AYAM GOLEK, AWANG GONENG & ANNIVERSARIES

What a week that I went through.
After a boring Monday (and a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) things picked up on Friday when my friend Razak came to pick me up for Friday prayers. I skipped the previous Friday because of the haze. As usual, after our Friday prayers, we had lunch together. I heard Eida (Jiwa's sister) drooling about Nara's chickens so I thought it was worth investigating since we were in the area (we prayed at the new Pantai Dalam mosque.) We managed to locate the shop after circumnavigating one or two blocks of flats. You see, Nara has its sign INSIDE the shop instead of outside. Regulars would have told me to look out for the rows of chickens on spits. The chicken is nice. It is not the usual East Coast ayam percik. You cannot discern any visible sign of santan on the chicken. It is on the sweet side though. Even the dip is sweet. It is good enough for a customer to observe that it can match (if not better) Kenny Rogers roasters any time. Unlike at Kenny Rogers, you cannot order quarters or halves. At Nara, they only sell whole chicken. So be very hungry or bring a friend.
After lunch, Razak dropped me off at the LRT station. Pak Adib invited me to tea at KLCC. In his email, he told me that Awang Goneng, a writer that I admired very much will be there. I don't remember meeting Awang Goneng before but he remembered meeting me in 1961. A few days ago he even remembered the Dikir Barat that I karut when I was in school. Journalists are like elephants, they never forget. Needless to say, it was a wonderful tea with wonderful people.
Saturday evening had me out of the house again. This time to Plaza Pantai (next to Menara TM) for the Korean BBQ and Steamboat. I missed the kimchi and the rest of the family got rather tired of mamak food. If you can eat a lot, try this place. It is called Seoul Bulgogi. You cook your own chicken, beef, seafood either steamboat style or on the bbq plate at your table. They even have ice kacang for dessert. Take what you want but eat what you take. Unfinished food will cost you RM3 extra for every 300 grams. It was almost a year ago when I first tried the place. They have improved since. They have added Hi-Tea on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays.
It was more than a year ago too that I started blogging. In my first posting, which is now gone, I explained why I use Di Bawah Rang Ikang Kering as my blog title. Many people missed it. I had 3 readers back then. Even now, a year later, I have only 300 hits per day. That could be the 3 readers hitting 10 times each. And they got another 27 people to do the same.
Anyway, for Lucia and other curious people, the rang is what Terengganu fisherfolks call the structure that they dry the fish on. I will try my best to get a picture of it later. The rang is usually erected on the beach and built high enough to prevent cats from jumping on to the rang and filching the fish. Thus they are high enough for a person to sit under one of them (the rang, not the cat), enjoy the shade and the view and probably ponder on whatever that comes to mind. It is not a sophisticated fixture but it is part of the Terengganu landscape. It can get smelly at times due to the nature of salted fish. My blog is like the rang. It is not sophisticated and it is smelly sometimes.