Travels...

Selamat datang from Penang, Malaysia. It's always nice to be here and it certainly doesn't feel like we were here 7 months ago. It's been a little on the disappointing side because there had been certain things we'd been really looking forward to. One was to eat at our favourite Hong Kong restaurant which we found closed for renovations. I'd been dreaming of my fish and rice claypot for weeks. Secondly, we always stock up on Dvd's here but the shopping centre has been raided by the police so for the next few days NO Dvd's. Then we go down to Guerny Plaza and the good bookshops have closed down. I tell you... we're jinxed.

Tonight we had dinner at Nando's a Portuguese style restaurant chain which originated in South Africa by a couple of friends one of them being Portuguese. Anyway, interestingly at the restaurant they have several posters explaining the history of Piri Piri (how the Portuguese call chili, which actually is derived from the African word Pili Pili) saying it was the Portuguese who discovered it in Africa. But after reading up on it, it seems that this is wrong. Many people believe chili to originate in Asia, but actually it's origins are from South America and it was the likes of Christopher Colombus, the Portuguese traders aswell as Arabic, Javanese and Chinese traders who spread chili to Africa and Asia.

But, just imagine, if we hadn't these zealous traders, we almost could've had a chili free Thailand ;) And imagine an Indian curry with no chili?