Tropical Spice Garden Cooking School


Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion


immigrants have influenced the cuisine, from Chinese-inspired lobak – deep-fried, five-spiced pork – to roti canai, Indian flatbread served with curry. Our huge spread, including beer, costs £11 a head. Though I’m a talented eater,


rows – before purchase. A skilled ‘skin maker’ bends over a hot plate, churning out rounds of thin pancakes. Lim Kimhoe has been making these popiah (spring rolls) filled with powdered peanut and sugar, for 60 years. Nearby, kiosks – each specialising in a different dish – are grouped around a cluster of chairs and tables. For just 50p I get a plate of char kway teow – hot noodles with bean- sprouts, prawns, mussels and egg, spiked with soy and chilli – though as it’s breakfast time many locals are sipping mugs of telur setengah masak instead. It’s only 30p, so I try this too – two half-boiled eggs, mixed with soy and pepper to the consistency of barely-scrambled egg, and drunk.


Chowrasta Market is


predominantly for locals, but in the beach resort of Batu Ferringhi, most tourists hit the street food stalls along the coast road. The Long Beach Food Court lacks a little glamour and steadfastly refuses to make the most of its sunset-facing beachside position, but that doesn’t stop hordes of Brit and Aussie families and couples pulling up the plastic chairs and ordering a feast. Our table is laden with piles of chilli prawns, stir-fried squid and spicy chicken wings. We try Penang specialities: oyster omelette and the traditional assam laksa, which is heavier on tamarind than the more familiar coconut version. And we taste how Malaysia’s


58 • travelweekly.co.uk — 21 May 2015


I’m a terrible cook, so I feared our teacher at the Tropical Spice Garden Cooking School in Batu Ferringhi would have her work cut out. I needn’t have worried. Rohana is a calm, authoritative presence, breaking down the making of spring rolls, bagadhil potato patties and spinach and pumpkin curry into easy-to-follow steps. After an hour-and-a-half of chopping, frying, boiling and seasoning, we sit down to a hearty – and well-earned – lunch in the gorgeously lush surroundings of the gardens. Classes start from £42.


l A BLEND OF CULTURES Though the cuisine is a draw, Penang’s recipe for tourism success is based on more than food. Those who like their beach stay with a side-order of culture are well- served here. The island was the first British outpost in southeast


Asia, established in 1786. As a centre of trade it attracted immigrants from China, India, Arabia and Europe. Penang’s diverse history is


written all over the old centre of Georgetown, and its diverse architecture led Unesco to name it a World Heritage Site in 2008. Our walking tour starts at the


wedding-cake white colonial buildings of the Town Hall (where much of the 1999 movie Anna and the King was filmed) and City Hall, with views out across the water to the cloud-capped Kedah Peak on the mainland.


Chinese influences come to the


fore at the nearby Clan Jetties. Wooden platforms extend out from the shoreline, the major walkways lined with shops and narrow alleys branching off to small, wooden homes. Established in the 19th century, each jetty is still the province of a wider family. Some are barely in existence, but the Chew Jetty is thriving, with 70 houses accommodating more than 200 families. It’s here I encounter both the fateful durian custard puff and 87-year-old Chew Chengsiew (left). Sitting on her


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