Memoirs of a Travelling Foodie: malaysia

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!!

January 31, 2012

Raining Ringgits in Kuala Lumpur

Let me start off by saying that Malaysia was absolutely phenom. Got a taste of a little bit of everything; the bustling capital city of Kuala Lumpur to the seemingly laid back nature of the north west island of Penang. Technically Kuala Lumpur wasn't our first "official" stop butttt it kind of was. Our itinerary for zee trip was as follows:

Depart via plane Wednesday evening for Singapore (night time ish) & arrived late that night/wee hours of Thursday

Depart via bus for Kuala Lumpur from Sings early Thursday afternoonish and arrive in KL in zee evening

Chills in KL from Thurs-Sun

Depart via bus for Penang from KL early Sunday morning and arrive in Penang in the afternoon

Chills in Penang Sun-Thurs

Depart via plan Thurs evening for Singapore, connecting flight in KL+6 hour lay over and arrive in Singapore Friday morns

Chills in Singapore Fri-Sun

Depart via plane Sunday morns for HK

Complicado right? Meh, it was worth it so no bother. Anywhoo, back to KL aka Kuala Lumpur - fantastico. This is def a must see on your adventures in South East Asia. We had about 3 days in the city & I feel like that is enough time to see most big attractions, meet new friends, discover delish food & have some chills wherever you may be. So what did I do? Visited chinatown&little india, strolled the infamous "Petalling Street", learned that Jalan actually means street (true story), climbed the Batu Caves & the gazillion steps, almost got attacked by a ferocious monkey, checked out the luminous Petronas Towers, checked out some temples, experienced a "fish pedicure" and roamed the streets like the lost tourist I was. Oh and ate mucho mucho, duh!! Fave part? Definitely the Petronas Towers - they were so gorgeous & it was extra nice since we met up with some friends from school that happen to be in KL. Where did we stay? BackHome Hostel, which by the by is ranked #1 hostel in Malaysia & let me say it def lived up to its name. Great staff, great location, great room size, just great overall! Enough w this bantering, time of photographic memories. Take a look!