April 8, 2010: Kuala Lumpur Iii

On our terminal total twenty-four hours inwards Malaysia, Michael together with I took a cooking class!  After eating together with thence much great nutrient circular town, I was itching to acquire how to brand some of it for myself.  And nosotros could non select learned inwards a to a greater extent than pleasant environment.  Our class at LaZaT had simply 4 students that morning, pregnant lots of opportunities to uncovering upwards close, inquire questions together with acquire one-on-one advice on our techniques.  The kitchens had a lovely opened upwards design, our dingy pans were whisked away for someone else to construct clean and, most of import of all, our teachers Ana together with Saadiah were 10 kinds of terrific.

LaZaT classes are non to a greater extent than oft than non vegetarian but they were form plenty to adjust the day's recipes for Michael together with I, having an choice prepared for each of the meats that the other students cooked with.

Our get-go dish of the twenty-four hours was wontons.  This had Michael together with I a picayune nervous for dissimilar reasons.  I'm non much of a deep-fryer (though I've no work eating the outcome), acre Michael prefers to avoid fiddly tasks similar wrapper-folding.

It could non endure denied, though, that Saadiah's chicken together with prawn wontons looked rather good.  So nosotros gave it a shot, using theatre tofu for the mass of the filling.

Saadiah rightly noticed Michael's fine chopping skills, together with he genuinely did a pretty expert project of the folding too.  I managed the hot fossil oil good enough, ultimately frying the most wontons of all.

The tofu filling was flavoured amongst restrain onions, garlic, fresh H2O chestnut, soy sauce together with sesame oil.  I'd never seen a fresh H2O chestnut earlier - it tastes together with thence dissimilar to the canned ones!  Their distinctiveness got a fleck lost inwards this filling but I'd honey to uncovering together with endeavor cooking amongst them again.

Our mo class was san chou bau, which Saadiah demonstrated using soaked edible bean curd peel instead of the commons crab meat.

With the edible bean curd peel already soaked, this was a super speedy dish.  I reckon it'd brand a vivid weeknight dinner inwards summer.

Rather than moving on to the master copy dish nosotros side past times side prepared our dessert, bubur cha cha.  It's a rich pudding of noodles (the coloured strips, similar the ones inwards cendol), sago, yam together with sweetness spud cooked inwards sweetened kokosnoot milk that's infused amongst a pandan leaf.

Like rice pudding, this is the form of dessert that I would non select loved a few years agone together with consequently I don't tend ready such things at home.  More lately these starchy puddings select crept upwards on me.  In fact when the fourth dimension came, I shout out back I was the alone somebody circular the tabular array to gobble downward my entire bowlful!

Our master copy class was char koay teow.  Instead of the fish cake together with prawns used past times the others, Michael together with I were supplied amongst mock chicken pieces.  Nice!

Though it's a elementary fried-noodle dish, nosotros learned a few novel things hither too:

• the wok should endure shifted on together with off the high rut regularly to ensure nil burns
• cracking an egg amongst i hand!
• pouring the egg into the centre of the wok together with piling the noodles on operate past times acre it sets
• that clever wrist manoeuvre that tosses the noodles roughly inwards the pan (well, nosotros observed it several times, both of us struggling to replicate the drive ourselves)

It's some other delicious dish that I'd honey to brand to a greater extent than oft at home.

With the char koay teow cooked, nosotros had plenty of fourth dimension to chat over the fruits of our (and the LaZaT assistants') labours.

Of class this meant that nosotros weren't hungry for quite some hours afterwards.  Late inwards the afternoon nosotros did at to the lowest degree dig into these curious fruits, which we'd picked upwards at the Petaling markets the previous day.

Nothing well-nigh this fruit was what I expected - beneath the reddish peel the flesh was most similar to an apple, though the season reminded me of carambola/starfruit.

Eventually nosotros did develop sufficient appetite for dinner together with walked on over to Pure Mind vegetarian restaurant.

Compared to most of our other meals inwards Malaysia, Pure Mind was a picayune to a greater extent than expensive (with mains running from RM12-25 $4.10-8.60) but it in all likelihood also had the most refined setting.

I chose the deep-fried gluten balls inwards a pineapple handbasket (RM15 $5.20).  For me, this was all well-nigh that pineapple - it's rare that I swallow it together with thence fresh together with sweet.

Michael went for the mah po tau fu (RM12 $4.10), which was both delicious together with gratifyingly similar to our home-cooked version.

We walked dorsum to our hotel - content amongst our meal, our day, our entire vacation - but also ready to provide home.  I was looking frontward to some to a greater extent than familiar abode cooking inwards my kitchen (and an Aussie cafe breakfast!), acre also inspired to select dorsum some of the flavours together with styles I'd been tasting for the get-go time.