Day Four - Thursday 27th October: Nyonya spices and cooking: the joys of Penang food

 After a leisurely breakfast in the quiet of Palm Court at the E&O we piled into the van and headed west towards the Tropical Spice Garden, 45 minutes out of town. It was interesting to see the coastline and the more modern side of Penang: huge apartment buildings and shopping centres.


Dense rainforest with some very ancient plants


These were a new plant for me: truly stunning contrast between the deep red and the white of the flower


Beautiful colour

Supposed to cure COVID? 
I don't think so!


We arrived and absorbed the lush green of the secondary rainforest and slowly wandered the damp trails following the guide, Joseph. Lots of palms, spices, poison plants, a plant that was supposed to cure COVID(?), beautiful tropical flowers, interesting herbs and ferns. Some of his claims seemed to conflict with our understanding of the medicinal qualities of some of the plants but it was an interesting tour.

It ended at the Cooking School where we were greeted with great enthusiasm by Tarneeta, our instructor. 


We each had our own station with everything we needed to cook up a storm


Not sure Kerryn was impressed with her progress!


Jenny holding her culinary masterpiece!

Success at last!!


We set off to make Ayam Masak Merah (Chicken in Red Sauce) and Cucumber and Coconut Acar.  Tarneeta made Tomato Rice to go with it. With helpers ensuring we cut, pounded, crushed, mixed and cooked properly we produced a lunch which was very tasty. 

The recipes were good examples of Nyonya cuisine which is a combination of Chinese, Malay, Indian and other influences which makes a unique and delicious cuisine especially evident in the food choices in Penang. 

After lunch we wandered through the shop and made some purchases including cute kids T-shirts, home -made vanilla essence, chopsticks ......and more.

When Jenny made some purchases the sales woman said to her that she shouldn't mind the viper in the tree above the door when she left! Not the sort of statement you'd be hoping to hear.....and not our only encounter with a snake as it happens!

After the drive back to E&O we were revived by a G&T ......or two. 

Decided we would explore a different restaurant in the Hotel overlooking the infinity pool on the 6th floor. Lovely view of the lights but not fabulous food: the Char Kuay Teow I had enjoyed at the Hawker Market was so much tastier than the noodles I ordered (and cost a lot less!). Ah well, it's the joys of travelling - you can't win them all!

PS. Joseph showed us a range of pestle and mortars of varying sizes and materials. He believes that the best ones are made from granite.
A little heavy to carry home!

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