Friday photos - At Noodle Shop 55 and with Mar's Family

On Friday at lunchtime Anton, a graduate student at Nommensen, picked us up and took us to Noodle Shop 55, which is owned and run by his parents. We were fed a great meal of mie (noodles) and then treated to some delicious sweets. We met Anton's fiance and his parents, who are full of life. Anton's parents also own and run an internet cafe and an English Speaking School. Of course Anton's mother thinks Jacob is awesome! Before bringing the noodles she served some wonderful fried croquettes, made of potato, other veggies, and chicken. She made them for us because they had been liked by European guests several years ago.At the heart of every noodle shop is the boil master who dips the noodles into the boiling water for just long enough to cook them perfectly.
This is the exterior of the noodle shop. The street address is 55 so that's what they named it. Mie is noodles.
Here's the finished product, with crispy bacon fat (the dark stuff), pieces of pork, and a big hard boiled duck egg. It was quite tasty. Of course there was plenty of hot sauce available, which we used sparingly.
Anton was a good coach for Nancy and Jacob, who insisted on using their chop sticks.
Everyone eats noodles when they are not eating rice, including young children. No Easy Mac for this kid!
Afterward they fixed an icy fruit drink for us, which was a nice cool off after the hot noodles and sauce. I will add the name of the fruit later, but it is something introduced here by the Dutch.
We decided it looked like a pomegranate.
Anton and his fiance will be married in January of next year.

After eating all the noodles he could hold, Jacob stepped out on the street to test reception on his I-Touch, and Anton joined him.Later Friday afternoon we were finishing up some postings at the Graduate Office when Mar stuck his head in and asked if we'd like to go out with him for a drink (that means a fruit drink here). I had a bit more work to do with the blog, but agreed to meet them at our house. When I arrived I found Jacob serenading our guests. Mar's nine year old daughter Priscellia then returned the favor by singing "You Lift Me Up".
We then drove around the corner to a Nommensen faculty house, lived in by a family closely related to Mar's family. They served us some beautiful tiny bananas, which grow right here in the neighborhood.
We then moved to a great open air restaurant which we are told is traditional Batak. It was the first time we went to a restaurant with grounds, not sitting on a busy sidewalk. Here is Jim with Mar's wife Roida, who teaches English at a local public high school.
Here is Mar(olop) and his family: Priscellia, Roida, and Christian. We had a nice time with them and several other close relatives who joined us.
The grilled fish, which is raised in ponds, tasted delicious! The brown sauce in the little round dish was....you guessed it, really hot!
Here's the grill master at work. This seems to be the set way of grilling here, with charcoal or wood embers and a fan providing a super-charged source of oxygen.