The Traders Hotel buffet breakfast included lots of Malay and other Asian dishes including Kobis kunyit, Nasi lemak and Ponzu fish. I gave them all a try, but Bill stuck with a traditional Western breakfast.

Ari our driver picked us up at 7:30, Emily and Lati greeted us at the market, then Lati began giving us the tour. We had 2nd breakfast at Aleef Caterers - the guy making roti chania (kneading) was really cool. It was like he was making a really thin pizza dough. This is also known as prathai in Singapore. It is a doughy flat bread that you eat by tearing in strips and dipping into a coconut sauce, daal, or curry. So delicious! We also had Tea Tarik, which is Indian and tastes like a hot Thai iced tea to me (it is made with condensed milk too).

From there, we continued the tour by exploring the spice, fruit, veggie, fish, and meat stalls. Lati educated us for the next hour in local food and culture. Here were my top nine interesting market tidbits:

She showed us the black chicken (the skin and bones are black). These chickens have down instead of feathers. Chinese believe that this meat is restorative. Women need to eat it for one month after giving birth.
I can now tell the difference between a male and female Flower Crab apron and know that I should select the female to have a more delicious meal!
A way to check if the fish is fresh is to stick finger in under the gill. It should not be slimy and sticky.
We learned that palm sugar comes from the sap of the flower of coconut. It should be soft in the package, otherwise it’s not pure.
Sago is harvested from a palm tree that matures after 7 years; The tree is cut down and is split open to harvest. The result are tiny white pearls that make a delicious dessert that we made at the cooking class (think tapioca).
Bruise galangal and lemongrass before cooking and you need to grind down really well; if you are increasing the size of the recipes do not increase galangal, lemongrass and chilies by the same ratio or it will be inedible
Coconut cream - add water to make milk. Coconut milk, heat and stir rapidly to turn into coconut cream
Tamarind will be sweet or sour depending on the soil it is planted in
String up chilli and lime to keep the fruit flies away

Ari drove us just on the edge of KL, to our cooking class. Irene and Saadiah were our instructors and chefs for the day at Lazat Cooking. https://www.lazatcooking.com. Let me just say off the top, that Irene and Saadiah were both fantastic. Both are so knowledgeable and skilled. Saadiah is so adorable and is like your favourite auntie (see attached photo that Bill is definitely going to include).

We were served a delicious tea with lemongrass, ginger and galangal before Irene gave us the safety instructions (think flight attendant), then we donned our aprons and got down to business.

We had no idea what we were in for. We were already two breakfasts in, and it did not stop for the next 5 hours had in store for us. Throw on your sweat pants and join us for a foodie trip...

The classic Malay menu included: Kuih Cara Berlauk - savour meat filled waffle cups, Nasi Lemak - literally Rice Fat (meaning creamy) - a ginger and pandan rice with a hard boiled egg, fried peanuts and dried anchovies, Sambal Udang or Prawns in Sambal sauce - chili, shallots and shrimp paste, and Sago Gula Melaka or Sago Pudding with Palm Sugar.

For the rest of the class Irene and Saadiah would demonstrate how to make the dishes, then we would go to our stations and try to replicate what they had just shown us.

Bill performed like a star pupil for preparing his Kuih Cara Berlauk and in the end we both cooked delicious snack fit for royalty. We thoroughly stuffed ourselves on our fresh treats, then realized that we still had more dishes to make and eat. Ohhhh! Deep breaths, we can do this!

Next we were taught how to prepare nasi lemak properly, without a steamer. It is a multi-step process to cook rice perfectly, and we both succeeded with some guidance from our experts chefs.

Lastly, we learned how to make Sambal from scratch. There were not shortcuts with a food processor. We had to chop our shallots, galangal and ginger, then create a paste with a pestle and mortar. Saadiah had told us how she had previously been scolded by her mother when she was growing up for fooling around in the kitchen. She had been told by her mother to be very quiet when cooking, no signing or dancing, otherwise she would get stuck with an old husband. Saadiah realized as she got older, that this was merely said to keep her focused on the cooking and not allowing something to burn. All this to say, as Saadiah was encouraging us to continue pounding away on our paste, she turned it into a percussionist activity for the group! She had a delightful spirit and I am sure that her mother had a hard time keeping her occupied as a young girl!

After we completed making our Sambal Udang, we decorate our plates and heading up to the dining room to enjoy our meal. We were all still full from our breakfast and snacks, but did not hesitate to enjoy our own creations and the very delicious cold sago and palm syrup (very refreshing)!

After lunch we thanked our chefs and headed back to the hotel. It was around 3pm when we returned, so we had a brief break, then walked over to the street food area. It began raining lightly while we were there which scattered what few tourists were around at that point. We took refuge in a Cuban themed bar for a whiskey and pina colada.

Once the rain stopped, we headed back to the hotel and went to the Sky Bar for happy hour. I had one free Seniorita drink, then we ordered another delicious Basil Smash while working on the blog.

Around 9pm we still had some energy and the skies had cleared up, so we walked back to the street market to try some Pepper Crab with some Tiger Beer. The street was now packed with tourists and all of the restaurants were busy. We selected one of the first places and sat down to enjoy a frost beer and attacked the crab, even though I was still full from our breakfast-snack-lunch 7 hours earlier. The crab was delicious, but man is it every a lot of work. It does not come out of the shell like lobster does. It seems like you burn as many calories as you consume for this dish.

Afterward, we headed back to the hotel to crash. It had been a great first day in KL. I am looking forward to coming back in a few days to do some more exploring!

Cooking in Malaysia