Fare Thee Well

After our fun time in the west side, I had a lump in my throat. I knew that the time was near for my sister to leave me. I get sad just thinking about that, even though she's been gone for a while now. That feeling, is the worst! You just wanna go back with her! Everybody loved her, which was no surprise to me. There's so much I still wanted to show her and share with her. Alas, she had to head back to her life in South Africa. My husband took
us to dinner to one of his favorite spots to celebrate Pumla's visit.

I ordered shrimp, he ordered Stinky tofu; that's tofu that's smelly, just as the name implies, haha. It's fermented tofu. We also ordered fried rice and most importantly, Chicken cartilage, in Xhosa, we call cartilage, ukrum-krum. If you don't speak Xhosa, chances are very high that you are pronouncing that word wrong, if you tried to say it our loud :). We wanted my sister to try the cartilage because where we come from, it's not a thing to be able to order cartilage from a restaurant.

Stinky Tofu for Calvin

Deep Fried Chicken Cartilage

The restaurant is dimly lit, so I had to use flash in all the food photos. The food looks better in real life.

Cashew Shrimp

The shrimp dish was OK, nothing beats the walnut shrimp with mayonnaise  I once had from a Chinese restaurant. 

Fried Rice

One can never go wrong with Fried rice. What I don't understand is when you have the option of either plain or fried rice, for the same price. What?!?!?!?

Some exotic drink

Dinner was nice, we also got to take a family picture with the owner of the restaurant whose face is also painted on the signage outside the restaurant. He is legendary.

That's the Owner, Uncle Yu

Back home, last bonding session before the sister heads back to Africa. Life's gonna be back to normal again, boo hoo!

In one of our shopping trips, Pumla had bought ingredients for what she wanted to cook for us as a thank you for hosting her. It wasn't necessary but any meal cooked by Pumla is a necessity, so, yes, please! 

She whipped up something supper delish in the morning for later. The entire house smelt mouthwatering. Or should I say Finger licking good, seeing as she's  on that KFC TV show now, KFC Taste Kitchen, haha.

Pumla's Food, Smoked Ham & Chicken Pasta

I believe the recipe for the above meal that Pumla made us is on page 48 of her cookbook, PumlasFood, Family Style.She made this in my Queen Latifah pot.

Chicharones 

Chicharones, my faves aka deep fried pork. Bought some when we took Pumla to a Mexican restaurant. She tried a few different things.

Mom-in-law has been unavailable the entire time Pumla was here. No hair off Pumla's back, of course, but Calvin and I would have loved for the two of them to meet. Finally, when Pumla was about to pop into the shower, minutes before it was time for her to head to the airport, who shows up, unannounced? First chance she got, Pumla sprinted to the shower. MIL (mom-in-law) was standing outside the bathroom carrying on a conversation with both Pumla and I. MIL had also brought Pumla some gifts, which we thought was sweet. 

I wore one of the outfits Pumla had brought me from  South Africa and the sandals I bought in San Diego, the Steve madden bag and the Rocawear watch.

Off to the Airport, we go! 

We're smiling but our hearts are weeping

It was a sad, sad good-bye! I didn't want her to leave! Can't they get a house here and be our neighbors? Ugh, reality sucks! We waited in line together, until such a point where we were told, 'no guests beyond this point'. Sht got really real right there! I could see the sadness in her eyes. One of us had to be strong, so I bent over and took it in the butt like a real man! I walked away and wondered if it would hurt more to look back or not to?

I just wanted to cry all the way on the freeway back home; Alas, immigration paperwork, awaited! I needed all my energy for that.

Back to the house! I took out the laptop and got to getting......