Meet Robert Sim.

I met Robert (pictured above, holding a shark's head) when I first arrived in Penang. He has a small, modest restaurant called Robert Sim Seafood on the main road to Batu Ferringhi. I came in for dinner in October, a few ringitts short of a decent meal (I forgot my wallet and realized I only had a few small bills and some change.) He looked at me, nodded and said I could have whatever I wanted. "Feed you first, talk money later."

We didn't talk about money, though. I told him I was a fellow cook, so he sat with me as I ate (a steamed grouper and some belancan kang kong, if I recall) and we talked about life in the kitchen. He asked me about Paris. I asked him about working in hotels and big restaurants in Asia. He showed me his small kitchen, his mise en place and kept chatting to me as he wokked out a few dishes to customers. When I was about to leave, he invited me to try out his chee chong fun at his hawker stand at the nearby Tanjung Bungah market. (He does chee chong fun in the mornings; dinner at his restaurant during the evenings.) I promised I would. We shook hands and I went home.

A couple of days after my meal, I went to his hawker stand. He said I had to come by his restaurant in an hour to take a look at something special, something extremely rare. He told me he got a hold of some hammerhead shark head, and he was going to break it down and prepare it for the dinner service.

I've the whole preparation on video and it was something special to see indeed. I felt both excited and queasy about watching him prepare what is fish that is becoming disturbingly scarce. I got to test a few pieces too (near-extinction is, sadly, delicious). Yes, yes, I must edit and post the whole video soon. But the photo above is the teaser: Here is Robert, holding up the shark head, imitating its ferocious appetite.

But the reason I'm teasing is this: The past few days, I've started a stage of sorts, trailing Robert, learning the ways of the wok, helping him prep and admiring how he can bang out his dishes for his restaurant all by himself.

I'll certainly have more to report on this experience for sure. Some topics I will explore in the future: making belancan chili sauce, his deep-fry method and eating obscenely good fried chicken for staff meal. (Speaking of which, I've got the leftovers in my fridge....)