A taste of Malaysia
Goes on a food trail from Subang Jaya to KL and back
WOULD you rather sleep all day, or eat all day on the weekend? Tough choice, but I have to say “yes” to non-stop food! Driving to Subang Jaya on a Saturday morning is not bad at all. Traffic is light, with no nasty congestions — oh it’s heavenly.
I am heading to Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, where I will be joining participants of the Gastronomic Food Trail, a project by the final-year students of International Tourism Management majoring in Travel and Recreation Management.
Led by Shernice Goh Sheng Lyn, who works with 11 team members, the project aims to introduce a new tour idea — enlighten tourists (mostly foreigners) about Malaysian food.
Arriving at the campus lakeside, I head to the meeting point where the organisers are waiting for participants. Slowly people start to turn up. They are groups from Maldives, Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Japan joining the programme for a small fee. I represent Malaysia.
Lecturer Lee Wei Mei, who will be assisting the students during the event, says it was set up by them within 11 weeks of the semester. They planned, developed and promoted it. Quite impressive, I would say.
So, where do we start first? Breakfast, perhaps?
RICH AND SPICY
The trail kicks off with Malaysians’ favourite Malay breakfast: nasi lemak! It’s a rich flavoured rice served with chilli paste and condiments. Zaiton demonstrates how to pack nasi lemak the traditional way.
Home chef Zaiton Idrus gives a brief introduction to this delicious meal. With a passion for cooking and baking, she started Jayton’s Kitchen, a small home-based catering business, about four years ago after she retired from the corporate world.
Nasi lemak, cakes, muffin, all sorts of delicacies, you name it — she can make it.
“Rice is a staple food for Malaysians especially Malays. We eat rice for dinner, lunch and breakfast!”
She explains the ingredients in her nasi lemak. She shows us a handful of pandan (screwpine) leaves.
“This plant has a sweet fragrance that helps to enhance the flavour of the rice, in addition to the coconut milk,” says Zaiton adding that some cooks also add ginger and herbs. She advised one not to be stingy with coconut milk, as it gives the richness of the dish.
To go with the rice is the sambal — it can be plain, with anchovies or some other protein and seafood. Sambal is made of chilli paste, shallots, and its seasoning includes sugar, salt and tamarind. For me, the spicier the sambal, the better.
Also, don’t forget the condiments — fried anchovies, fried peanuts and cucumber. Zaiton serves nasi lemak with pickles made of carrots and cucumber.
After the explanation, Zaiton demonstrates how to prepare nasi lemak.
She shows us step by step how to pack nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaves and then invites us to try. Super fun!
We breakfast on her nasi lemak and muffins.
PEEK AT CHOW KIT
After breakfast, we head to the bus to start our tour of the most crowded wet markets in Kuala Lumpur — Chow Kit Market, on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman.
It is popular for its cheap prices. To be honest, I have never been there myself since I live in Shah Alam. So, I’m quite thrilled to see what it has to offer.
The traffic to Kuala Lumpur is smooth but once we arrive at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, it starts to build up.
The bus drops us not too far from the market and we walk along the street where plenty of goods, including nice clothing, electronics
and more are sold. A sweet dessert, cendol is perfect on a hot day.
The market is crowded with people. This is where city dwellers buy their groceries. Do be aware of your belongings while you’re here.
There are three sections available — fruit, vegetables and meat.
No doubt, prices are low, and to my surprise there are plenty of choices here. The market sells jering (dogfruit), petai (stinky beans) and giant mud crabs rarely found at supermarkets.
Foreigners in the group are introduced to local fruits. They even get to try the sweet jackfruit! I do some shopping too of course. A kilogramme of longan costs just RM6.
LEAFY LUNCH
Time flies so fast. I don’t notice that I have been exploring Chow Kit market for nearly two hours, and my tummy is all ready for lunch.
Next, we go to Kanna Curry House at Taman Mayang, Petaling Jaya. We are going to lunch on the South Indian tradition meal, and of course banana leaf rice.
Kanna serves food on paper banana leaves, a lookalike, but you can request for real banana leaves too.
It’s quite a unique way of serving. No plate, just the huge banana leaf on your table, whitericeorIndianrice,threechoices of vegetable dishes of the day, choices of curry which include chicken, fish and