Memoirs of a Travelling Foodie: March 2012

March 30, 2012

Cooking Class in Penang (FINALLY)

I know this post is 2 months late, my b my b, but I've finally got a hold of the pictures to share with all of you. It feels like this incredible experience happened YEARS ago buuuut thanks to my handy dandy traveling journal (judge me all you want, but it's useful) I am able to fully recount the foodie adventure that occurred. Now try to take yourself way back to my Penang post when I mentioned that magical cooking class? Oh yes yes, now you remember. After a little internet research of "things to do in Penang", Val & I stumbled upon the Tropical Spice Garden Cooking Classes. Like I've said before, if you are ANYWHERE near Penang, Malaysia this cooking class is A MUST!
We were first greeted and taken on a tour of the jungle &spice gardens by Uncle Lim (ha) on location and learned about the various plants and crawlers that lurked the gorgeous terrain. Val & I were extra spoiled when it came time for our cooking class since it was just the two of us so our Chef Sugu taught us 7 traditional Indian dishes (with a few variations). We made saag paneer, chicken tika vindaloo, chicken vindaloo, biryani rice, chicken 6-5, onion baji and a coriander salad. Sugu was incredibly skilled and even more patient - a dream instructor/teacher that was so excited to share his skills & life story with us! We chopped, fried, cooked and learned various techniques for 3 hours until we were finally able to enjoy our meal w our chef. Chef Sugu's assistant (known to us only as "1", actually though) made us this surprisingly amazing nutmeg juice - I have NEVER ever tasted something so delicious, refreshing and unique! This was definitely one of my favorite experiences so far in Asia!!

the start to almost every dish we made with 5 basic spices that make up garam masala: cardamon, cinnamon, clove, star anise and fennel seeds

prep for the chicken 6-5

the base for my biryani rice

chicken vindaloo nom

showing us how its done w onion baji + chicken 6-5

onion baji - FAVEEE

chicken 6-5 time

saag paneer coming along just right

chicken tika vindaloo

clockwise: onion baji, saag paneer, biryani rice

still can't believe we made ALL of this

close up of saag paneer - nommmmms

coriander salad

hands down favorite - chicken 6-5 + onion baji (essentially fried chicken & onion)

waiting to dig in

our MASTERPIECE

fresh dessert

with Chef Sugu!!

March 22, 2012

Boracay Escape

After just 3 very short (and extremely foggy) days in HK, I had enough of the frigidness & was off to another beach destination. Between my travels, assignments & presentation preparations, SOMEHOW I managed to organize a trip for 13 friends to Boracay, Philippines. We rented this incredible villa that I absolutely recommend checking out. Todd is a total sweetheart & helped our large group with getting around, gave us suggestions on where to go out/eat and provided us with his housekeeper to cook us the most DELICIOUS St Patty's Day breakfast&dinner I have ever had. The days were spent simply lounging at the beach, tanning, playing volleyball, meeting new friends (a group of children that insisted on calling us various names like Mr. Pinocchio or Mr. Bean haha) & enjoying the beautiful weather we experienced. At night, we went to a few beach bars including one where the group tried a "15 shot challenge". Getting around this busy little island was easy with the immense supply of "tricycles" (aka a motorcycle or motorbike with a little passenger carriage attached to it) or motorbikes that you could hop on the back to. All in all, this was a very relaxing vacay from the "harshness" of HK (ahaha ya right). BUT ONE WARNING - be EXTREMELY careful when you fly in or out or around Philippines. The domestic airlines (specifically Cebu Pacific) are totally unreliable & you are bound to meet some serious delay - my flight from the Boracay/Caticlan airport to the Manila airport was cancelled unexpectantly. What was meant to be a few hours of travel became a 15 hour journey that included waiting times at 3 different airports, a turbulent van ride to Kalibo with a pair of Aussies & many more delays in between. Needless to say, it was an adventure & I (somehow) came back to HK in one piece!