Aisling Visits Malaysia

In early September our niece, Aisling came to Kuala Lumpur for a week long stay.  Aisling is based in London, and the trip to Malaysia came following visits to Prague, Croatia, Rome and Singapore.  She also came bearing gifts (computer parts transported from Indianapolis via the family parcel transfer system). Thanks Brendan, Kelly and Aisling.

Sunday Sept 9

Arriving on a bus (First Coach) from Singapore, we met Aisling at the Bangsar LRT station (Light Rail Transit).  The bus made a quick stop in the shelter under the station (better than the bus company office around the corner).  A short taxi ride later we were at home.  We then did what most visitors to Malaysia do, went out to eat.

Kafe Chawan is a Malaysian/Indonesian style restaurant in Bangsar.  As are many restaurants here, it is open air (no a/c).  Unfortunately, it was also late (nearly 11 pm) and several of the items were sold out (the soup broth was gone, and the prawns were overcooked and soggy).  We had always eaten there at midday, so we learned.

Monday Sept 10

The next morning we were off to the Royal Selangor Pewter factory, our favorite tour spot for visitors.  The Royal Selangor Pewter factory offers a free factory tour every day.   We have visited the factory multiple times over the years, and the tour is always somewhat different.  The theme is the same, but the details and the stories vary.  I guess there are many stories for a family owned firm which extends back over a century.  They always offer a visit to the school of hard knocks....you get to make your own pewter bowl using traditional techniques, hammering.  None of our guests has taken us up on this.  As in most factory tours, it ends in a gift shop, but this gift shop is something else: pewter, sliver, and gold.  We only look at the pewter and all our guests have purchased something to take home.

Our guide showing us a pewter cup

Following our visit to the Royal Selangor Pewter factory we traveled to the Kuala Lumpur Crafts Centre. (a project of the Ministry of Tourism). This facility in downtown Kuala Lumpur features Malaysian crafts, some of which you can do yourself.  We visited a batik shop.  While Aisling painted (filled in the lines with dye), Liz and I went to an adjacent shop.  The artist who specializes in large batik paintings (1.5m x 3m).  He was facing eviction and was selling his wares are bargain prices.  When Aisling finished her painting, and arranged for it to be made permanent (drying and boiling it in water to remove the wax) we went to gift shop.  Nothing was purchased.

Painting carefully within the lines!

We had lunch at the Pavilion Shopping Centre in downtown KL  We went to the 6th floor and ate at an upscale raman restaurant on Tokyo Street.  Good food was had by all.  Following the meal we purchased mo chi and walked (in an A/C elevated walkway stretching 2 km to KLCC: a shopping center under the Petronas Twin Towers).  Along the way we ate the mo chi outside the KL Aquarium.

That evening we went to dinner at the Pacific Seafood Garden in Petaling Jaya, a favorite haunt of ours.  We feasted on 1/2 of a fish (deep fried) with a spicy Vietnamese sauce, sauteed vegetables, and peanut free chicken saute.  Next time we will get the whole fish and have it steamed.

Tuesday Sept 11 (a very special day)

Tuesday began slowly.  Liz had a meeting with Empower, a local NGO, but that was all to the good.  Aisling had let it be known that she enjoyed pancakes, something that Liz neither understands nor is gracious enough to allow others to eat them in peace and serenity.  So I was free to make pancakes including a Mickey Mouse!

We had a Korean cooking class at 2 pm.  We introduced Aisling to the KL monorail.  When we got to the appropriate building we were early so we went to Sisters.  We drank a surprising drink: a mango smoothie with mango flavored bubbles (ala bubble tea) and ate cendol, ais kacang and two types of popiah.

Popiah

Cendol

The cooking class was fun, especially watching the other students.  Taking pictures of food for documentation purposes is endemic in KL.  As the teacher was demonstrating different techniques while making bibimbop, a number of students jumped up, ran to the front of the room and took snaps of the food.  The class was fun, but I have no recipes.

Food prepared at Korean Cultural Center cooking class.

We worked our way back to Pasar Seni (central market).  Whilst Liz and Aisling perused the goods for sale, I went to purchase bus tickets on the Nice Plusliner to Penang.     I then went to the main post office to mail a cell phone battery to Bhutan.  It was either RM 86 via DHL or RM 4.10 via registered/insured Royal Malaysian Mail.  I chose the latter and it took over 3 weeks to get to its destination slightly better than the 6 weeks for postcards to go from Hue to the US.

Tuesday evening we went to My Elephant in SS17 Petaling Jaya.  We had been there many times previously, but our taxi driver decided to take an alternate route.  We finally made our way there.  We arranged for our taxi to return in 1.5 hours.  Dinner was served promptly and we exited the restaurant early.  I took out my mobile phone to call the taxi driver, the battery was dead.  I went back to the restaurant and explained by problem.  They opened a drawer, pulled out a charger and after 5 minutes or so I had a sufficient charge to make a call to the driver.  We got back to Bangsar Shopping Centre in time to chose pastries, and have them decorated to celebrate Aisling's birthday.

Happy Birthday Aisling!

Wednesday Sept 12

Aisling was a good sport and accompanied us to a framing shop.  We were arranging to have our painting from Bhutan re-stretched and framed.  (We have found that it is often cheaper to have an oil painting taken off its canvas frame and shipped in a tube.)  We were in and out of the framing shop in 15 minutes.  The painting would be stretched and framed in only 4 days at a total cost of $150 (a great bargain).  From there we returned to the Kuala Lumpur Crafts Centre to pick up Aisling's piece of art, and do some additional shopping.  And if you arrive too late to enter the store they have this option.

Yes, those are locally manufactured gifts.

We returned via the monorail and walked through the Jalan Petaling market during a tropical downpour (the market is covered).  A short trip to KL Sentral and we went off to view a Hindu temple.   We stopped for fried yams, curry puffs, and fried bananas.   The temple was closed but we did have a nice discussion with two older Indian attorneys.  Our day was completed with a bus ride to yet another mall (Mid Valley) where we searched for a paper shredder, moon cakes (it is the mid autumn harvest festival).  We finished the day with soup dumplings.

Yes, it is food yet again.  Soup Dumplings!

Thursday Sept 13

Thursday morning we were up early to get our bus to Penang.  Our prebooked taxi driver overslept so we needed to find an alternative taxi to get to the old KL train station.  Our bus ride to Penang was uneventful.  Checking into our hotel was uneventful and we off to lunch at the Selamat Cafe on Jalan Selamat.  We had roast duck rice, dim sum, iced lime drink, oyster omelet and pan mee.  A great meal and a very reasonable price:  under RM 30.

All is not eating in Malaysia, we did do some sight seeing.  We spent several hours wandering around the temple complex at Air Hitam.

Temple at Air Hitam

We then visited several Buddhist Temples in Geogetown proper.

The inside of the Burma Buddhist Temple

Lina (Liz's friend) came by to take us to dinner in a small fishing village. The fish cooked in a banana leaf, rice, and pan fried vegetables hit the spot.

Lina

BBQ Fish

Friday Sept 14

The next morning was our birthday gift to Aisling: cooking lessons at Pickle and Spice.  We got up early and met our chef at the Stewart Street market.  We were the sole students.  We ate breakfast (roti cani and teh tarik) began our market tour.  We visited the fish market, the vegetable markets, spice dealers, and the wet market (live chickens, mutton and beef).  Our menu for the day was Penang Assam Laksa, and Mee Goreng Mamak.

In the Stewart Street Fish market

We began our cooking lesson by chopping and grinding ginger, turmeric ginger, Indian shallots (the small red onions in Asian grocery stores), and lemongrass.  We used a motor and pestle.  Using a food processor does the chopping but introduces air into the items being ground increasing oxidation and destroying some of the delicate flavours.

Yes, I know how to use a mortar and pestle.

Aisling got the honor to scale and clean the mackerel we used in the Assam Laksa.  Unfortunately for Aisling, she is a relative and let me know that she is considering taking a butchery course in London.  Folks in Nevada, watch out when she takes out a knife!!

Concentration while using a knife is essential.

Three hours later, the cooking was done and we dined on our handy work

Mee Goreng Mamak

Penang Assam laksa

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Following the class we went in search of some murals painted on Georgetown walls.  Evidently they can cause traffic jams on weekends with tourists taking pictures from car windows.

That afternoon, Lina dropped by and took us on an abbreviated tour of Pilau Pinang (Penang Island).  We saw the Straits of Malacca, Batu Ferringhi,and did a short walk to a waterfall.  Since it was September and not fruit season, we were unable to serve Aisling a local delicacy, the king of fruits - the Durian.  Being chauvinistic, Malaysian Durian are the best, and Malaysian food is much better than the Singaporean equivalent.

A storm over the straits of Malacca

Aisling and Lina

For our evening meal we ate at a local Indian banana leaf restaurant, which Liz lived to regret the next day.

Saturday Sept 15

Liz awoke under the weather, so Aisling and I went back to the Selamat Cafe for breakfast.  Since it was morning, we dined on a wide variety of Dim Sum.  After eating, the proprietor asked where Liz was?

Lina, always a saint, took us to the bus station (with a quick detour to TESCO for supplies) just in time to make our bus back to Kuala Lumpur.  At a bus stop, we watched as a gentleman was carried out of another bus, loaded into a pickup truck to be driven to a hospital.  No waiting for an ambulance here!

Back in Bangsar, Aisling and I went to "Burp", the Asian food court at a nearby mall (Bangsar Shopping Centre), and with that meal ended our culinary tour of Kuala Lumpur and Penang.  Only a sampling, but hopefully enough to have Aisling travel here again.

Sunday Sept 16

Since Aisling was travelling via Malaysian Airlines back to London, she was able to check in at our local train station.  With her luggage taken care of, it was a wave and Aisling went down the escalator and off to London.