Our village is so small, it doesn't have a restaurant you can go eat out at when you don't feel like cooking at home. There are two coffee shops, no doubt, but you can't rely on them for your daily victuals; the one nearer our house (well, the house we are renting) caters to a special horde of people: mahjong players; the other one which is a bit further off on the other direction (not visible from the main road) sells grilled fish and "ais kacang" (shaved ice with sweet stewed red beans and other confections) at night, starting at around 8:30pm (too late for proper dinner, IMHO).
But we, the village folks, are not completely "disenfranchised" in our rights to eating out, as we still have one person - the only person around here (OK, she has a "sidekick", sort of, in the form of her Indonesian maid) - to turn to: a middle-aged auntie who wields her magic at a small roadside stall from 1pm to 6pm everyday.
I describe her as "magical", because she can do so many different dishes so well! In Penang, if a hawker sells curry mee, he or she will specialize in curry me, and no other; if koay-teow-th'ng (粿条汤; rice fettuccine in clear broth), then just koay-teow-th'ng. But what does this auntie offer? Fried rice, fried noodle, char-hor-fun (沙河粉; fried rice-fettuccelle in starchy gravy), hokkien-char (福建炒; noodle in starchy gravy), ee-fu-mee (伊府面; pre-fried noodle in starchy gravy) koay-teow-th'ng, laksa, curry mee, and several other dishes I'm sure I haven't even thought of trying. You could even bring along the ingredients of whatever dish you want to eat, and ask her to cook it for you (rather than soiling your own hands and kitchen).
Of course she is not the only person in this world to know how to prepare so many different dishes; but what amazes me is that most of the dishes she prepares are as good as - if not better than - those prepared by hawkers specializing in only one dish. I particularly like her fried rice, curry mee (shown in the picture below), ee-fu-mee, hokkien-char, and char-hor-fun.
And she prepares them in HUGE portions, which is so totally agreeable to my biggish tummy. :-p
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