Hanna Hussein 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 (batch BR11).
Lead 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?
The trail kicks off with Malaysians’favourite Malay breakfast, nasi lemak! It’s a rich flavoured rice served with chilli paste and condiments.
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 thathelps to enhance the flavour of the rice, in addition to the coconut milk,” says Zaiton adding on that some cooks also add ginger and herbs. She advised 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 thestreet where plenty of goods, including nice clothing, electronics and more are sold.
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 for 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 coursebanana 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, white rice or Indian rice, three choices of vegetable dishes of the day, choices of curry which include chicken, fish and dhal, fried salted chilli, rasam herb soup and acar.
Oh, and eating the meal with our right hand, it’s heavenly! Most of the foreigners, especially the Russians and Chinese, are eating with their hands for the first time.
We also get to see a teh tarik demonstration. Pretty cool to see the Indian man pull the thick rich milk tea.
Kanna Curry House has eight branches in Malaysia.
BAKING AND SNACKING
By the time I finish my banana leaf lunch, I’m too full to walk. But we have another two places to go and the next one serves Chinese cuisine.
Okay, okay, ...we are not going to have a heavy meal and we are going to learn to make traditional Chinese cookies.
Weheadto the project leader’s home where we meet the lovely Goh family and also the home baker and family friend, Elaine Sim who will hold a demonstration.
“Today we are going to make two favourite Chinese cookies – walnut biscuits and pineapple tarts,” says Elaine. Both cookies are served during Chinese New Year.
Elaine makes the dough for the walnut biscuit, also known as Hup Toh Sou. It’s quite a simple recipe using four ingredients – a bar of butter, two-third cup of sugar, four large egg yolks, and four cups of all purpose flour blended with fine walnuts and baking powder.
“Just roll the dough like a ball and push the top, until there’s a bit of cracking, but not too much, almost flower-like,” she explains. All of us try and roll the dough. It’s so easy!
Each cookie dough is brushed with egg washfor colouring and then baked for 20 minutes.
We move on to pineapple tarts. Elaine has already made pineapple paste and explains the process.
“You need to grate the pineappple to get the puree but don’t throw the juice. Boil it together with the pineapple and let simmer. Sugar is added in batches,” she says.
For the dough, we need butter and rose flour. Sometimes the baker uses adds cinnamon, clove and star anise. To get the dough blended well, she uses the rubbing technique by lifting the ingredients up in the air. Later she lets the dough cool in the fridge for two hours.
Pineapple tarts are shaped with a mould, which is the hardest part. Elaine makes it looks so effortless but it is not easy to make it stick to the long form and not split. Everyone gets a chance to try it out, and later have a bite, fresh from the oven.
It is such a fun experience, and one of the best in the itinerary, especially because the Goh family is so warm and friendly.
CROWD-PLEASING DESSERT
Last but not least is dessert - cendol at SS15, Subang Jaya.
This is no stranger to me, my family loves having cendol here! The queue is long all the time, but it’s worth it.
Everyone has a bowl while standing or squatting on the pavement.
Oh, what makes it satisfying is eating it on a sunny day, under a huge tree. Yummy!
Pictures by Rohanis Shukri