Presenting The Faux Gourmet!

The Faux Gourmet has been on hiatus for a while. I began this blog as a creative outlet during law school. After law school, I started other blogs on other topics and no longer needed this as a creative outlet, not to mention my diminishing free time.

But I kept cooking, kept taking food pictures and garden pictures, kept wanting to share the little tidbits of what I'd made. I occasionally did this on my personal blog (to which, I'm sure, people yawned and wondered when I'd post another cat picture). But I started to miss this space. Of all the blogs I have, this format, culled over several dedicated years and incorporating that adorable illustration by Sam Wedelich (see info the left) is by far my favorite.

So I'm back!

Expect short and sweet posts. Less food porn, more recipes and tips. If you want food porn you can look at any of the 5000 million existing food blogs. I don't have good lighting in my apartment and don't have time to style plates. I just want to make something yummy and eat it. If that sounds ok with you, stick around.

Looking forward to being back in touch!

xx

The Faux Gourmet

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    Wednesday, January 23, 2008

    Second Stop: Kuala Lumpur

    An assault on the senses, in the best possible way.

    Taste & See: I will ever associate Malaysia's food with, as my traveling partner A put it, "an assault on the senses-" power food, if you will:


    Malaysian cuisine incorporates tastes from China to India, and the myriad places in between, including predictable regional staples like flaky roti, fried noodles, curries and rice, but with distinct notes of flavors you don't expect. It's as if the Malay chefs at an ancient culinary convention sampled the best their neighbors had to offer and said, "that's nice, but wouldn't it be better with a dash of . . . ."

    The food as a whole looks like fall in the Northeast, with healthy doses of vibrant spices like nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves turning piles of rice bright yellow and infusing chunks of meat with a rich earthiness . . .


    And making soupy curries in crayola shades like burnt umber, pumpkin and saffron.



    Kuala Lumpur, or KL, with its 1.6 million people, felt small compared to Bangkok's sprawling urban jungle of 12 million. This, despite the presence of the famous Petronas Twin Towers, currently the tallest twin buildings in the world.


    However, KL definitely won top prize in the "Inventive tropical Christmas decorations" category. And in a city (country, really) where no use of twinkle lights are spared, and no tacky decoration is turned away, this genius Santa depiction surely takes the cake.


    Most of the good food I had in KL came from poorly-lit, undecorated, cafeteria-esque restaurants with unwiped tables and aluminum trays. The fancier places I saw tended to serve foreign food. I wonder if this steakhouse is halal? Most food in Malyasia is, as to be "Malay" is to be Muslim, though there are substantial (non-Muslim) Chinese and Indian populations as well.


    Each of these groups represent a specific strain of Malaysian cuisine, which also include Mamak, or Indian Muslim food; and Nyonya, invented by the Peranakan people of Singapore and Malaysia and combining Chinese and Southeast Asian ingredients (Inter-Asian fusion!). But the purpose of this particular entry is not to give you the history of Malaysian cuisine, especially when people more knowledgeable than I am have already compiled such a guide. The purpose is, rather to make you hungry, so let's get to the good stuff.

    If you see this:


    You can expect you'll soon be eating this:


    Those pudgy white balls become roti canai when grilled in massive amounts of oil, a flat, stretchy bread served with a small bowl of a curry sauce as a dipping sauce, eaten with the right hand. The tea in the photo above is teh tarik, or pulled tea, a Malaysian tea-cappuccino. It gets a frothy, foamy top (though not visible in the picture above) as it is poured back and forth between two containers, which also conveniently mixes the (usually thick and gooey) condensed milk into the tea. Teh halia is another delicious version, adding ginger for a bit of a kick. I had at least one, sometimes two, steaming, foaming glass at every meal.

    Roti canai is so tasty, it is eaten twice a day in Malaysia- for breakfast, and after nightfall, for the fourth meal. Take that Taco Bell.

    These photos are from a very satisfying respite eaten at Restoran Shukran, one of the unpretentious cafeterias, on New Year's Day after a long day trekking to Hindu caves and shoving my way up and down Chinatown.


    Most of the restaurants of this sort offer a little of everything, from stir-fried rice or noodles . . .



    To buffet trays of veg, chicken and mutton (here, goat, not lamb) curries splashing exuberantly overboard.


    The roti-maker takes a break:


    As does this satisfied customer:


    The next day, while exploring Masjid Negara, the national mosque with a bright blue jaggedy rooftop symbolizing loyalty, an 18-point blue dome representing the 13 states of Malaysia and the 5 pillars of Islam, and purple choir robes available for rent to improperly dressed visitors; & the lovely Islamic arts museum nearby, I was pleased to discover a tidy little cafeteria directly opposite the mosque itself, saving us from the white-linen, embossed menu cafe at the museum. How to choose from such a feast?


    For my traveling partner A, mutton curry, saffron rice, and pickled cucumber salad + iced milo= the picture of happiness:


    For me, mee goreng, fried noodles with chicken marinated in thick red sauce, doused with a bit of lime:



    I'm continually amazed by how the most beautiful dishes, full of life and color, come from the dowdiest restaurants, the humblest chefs. Malaysia is definitely an sensory assault I'd like to keep coming back to.

    More to come- next stop, Penang.

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