Cooking Class in Penang

One of our goals is to learn how to cook the cuisine of each country that we visit.  So … when we see you next, we’ll be able to put together an authentic meal for you.  Bonus, right?!

We headed over to the Tropical Spice Garden in Teluk Bahang, west of Georgetown, for a cooking class with Nazlina Hussin, a self-made chef and savvy internet marketer (we found her on TripAdvisor and she has made several websites around food in Penang).

First, we got a tour of the grounds where they grow their own spices and vegetables.  So you get to see things like a ginger plant (below), whereas you usually only see the root part of it.

Or citronella (natural mosquito repellant), which is a grass similar to lemongrass, whereas you usually see it as a candle or oil.  Don’t eat citronella though!

After our tour, we got to work cooking.  The menu consisted of chicken rendang (essentially a chicken curry) and char kway teow, a typical stir-fried noodle dish in Penang.  A lot time was spent prepping – mashing/rolling peppers, garlic, and other things with a giant stone roller to make a chili paste (see below where Lisa is smashing a combination of chilis, garlic and ginger – yummm).

For the chicken rendang, we started by scraping out coconut flesh.  We did this by using a medieval looking device where Lisa sits on it, and then pushes the coconut shell against what looks like a spur.

The result is that the flesh falls onto the plate.

Then, you toast the coconut flesh until it’s brown.  But make sure you don’t burn it like I did.  They had to throw away my batch and start fresh.  Hah. Here’s me before burning the coconut to a black crisp.

After about an hour of prepping our ingredients, we finally got to cook.  Below is the rendang simmering.

Below we wok-fry the char kway teow which is served with chilis and lime.

View the slideshow below for the full set of photos, or click through to see it on Flickr.

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157624648491491″]

Next, we’re off to Thailand via bus, and it will turn out to be our most disastrous travel experience since we started our journey.  Stay tuned!