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!!