Back to Malaysia - Day Four AM
On Saturday, the fourth day of our visit to Malaysia, our morning activities began with a tour of Pasar Tani, a comprehensive farmers' market. When traveling, I always love checking out the local markets and this is a great place to shop for local produce, seafood, meats and a large assortment of freshly prepared foods. After the market, we were given a tour of the very interesting Royal Selangor Visitor Center and Pewter Factory by Datin Chen, the grand-daughter of its founder, Yong Koon. This famous pewter factory is one of the oldest and largest in the world. It was so amazing to see 'live' the different pewter production processes from casting, filing, polishing, soldering, hammering, and engraving. We also visited their School of Hard Knocks, where we discovered that hammering pewter requires great skill.
1 Here I am at the pasar with Najib, our wonderful guide, and his very kind wife, Aida Abdullah and daughter, Anis Athirah Ahmad Najib.
2 Memrie standing in the bustling market place
3 A whole truck load of the very stinky durian fruit. None of us wished to sample it.
4 As I've already mentioned, crab dishes are very popular in Malaysia. These are blue crabs at the market.
5 Fish head dishes are also very popular.
6 A very friendly prawn vendor
7 The prawns are sold with head on.
8 Ginger root is widely used in the local cuisine and about 160 species of ginger (Zingiberaceae) occur in Peninsular Malaysia.
9 A kitty in search of breakfast
10 Chickens are sold with feet attached - cartilage in the feet make for rich soups.
11 This is a stack of fish cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves.
12 This vendor was selling an interesting assortment of culinary leaves.
13 A very friendly young man
14 Charming butchers
15 These ladies are cutting open jack fruit, the largest tree fruit in the world. It's part of the mulberry family and the seeds are covered with a delicious yellow flesh.
16 A closer look at the jack fruit
17 Fried snacks, such as these banana chips, are a real favorite.
18 This lady is making a spicy chicken curry-like dish.
19 Dried fish and more
20 We were drawn to these very decorative and meticulously designed desserts called kek lapis.
21 Pomelo, or Chinese grapefruit, is a very nutritious citrus fruit that I love.
22 Chinese medicine is widespread in Malaysia and this is one ingredient.
23 Memrie, Najib, and I are waiting to taste these crepe-like delicacies called murtabak.
24 A close up of the murtabak filled with egg - The skin is the same as the famous Roti Canai and can be replaced by Popiah Skin Wrapper - Chinese Spring Roll Wrapper.
25 A different kind of crepe called Apam balik - the same as we tasted the night before on Petaling Street
26 Creamy sweet corn adds such great flavor!
27 A variety healthy snacks, including glutinous rice rolled in bamboo leaf called lemang. The triangular shaped ones are called ketupat palas.
28 Another chip-like snack
29 Wonderful little lunch boxes - seafood, hard boiled egg, and vegetables
30 So much assorted cooked food to choose from
31 A variety of Asian noodles with various toppings
32 Dried fruits including kiwi slices
33 Shallots, garlic, and piles of dried fish
34 This lovely woman is making a fried dough kind of dessert.
35 A better look
36 The dough is cut into strips before frying.
37 These banana leaves are filled with savory rice, meat, and more.
38 A variety of chili sauces and pastes
39 We loved these natural bird houses, made from coconuts.
40 This is dragon fruit, which tastes a lot like kiwi.
41 Roasted chickpeas make a tasty and nutritious snack.
42 Bamboo leaves, filled with fish cake, are roasting on an open fire.
43 This is what the tasty interior looks like. As the bamboo leaf chars, it imparts a nice smoky flavor.
44 One of the fish cake vendors
45 This man, who is blind, sings and plays piano at the market every week. He has a very pleasing voice.
46 This juice station looks like a great place to stop!
47 Here I am at the entrance of the Royal Selangor Visitors Center and the School of Hard Knocks Pewter Museum with Datin Chen, who is the grand-daughter of the founder of this center and the Director of the Royal Selangor Centre.
48 Datin Chen's grandfather is in the photo on the bottom right.
49 Hand prints of children visitors to the museum
50 A cute pewter crocodile - we were told that children especially love this piece.
51 This is the melon-shaped Lucky Tea Pot. During WWII, a man bent over to pick up this teapot and in doing so, dodged a shrapnel that whizzed just inches from his head.
52 Old pewter catalogues and designs
53 This display is comprised of 1,578 kg of pewter shavings.
54 We were fascinated by how pewter molds are made. Here are some.
55 Ornate designs
56 A mini Petronas Twin Towers model made out of pewter. It's 1/50 the size of the real towers.
57 This is the factory section of the pewter museum
58 Pouring melted pewter into a handle-shaped mold - pewter is made from aluminum, antimony, and tin - which is readily found in Malaysia.
59 Drawing precise lines on pewter cup
60 Created a decorative hammered design
61 That's me in the background trying my hand at hammering pewter.
62 Making straight, even lines was far more challenging than I anticipated!
63 Sophie facing the same challenge - We have a new appreciation for hammered pewter.
64 Here I am with Datin Chen and our bodyguard, Ismail, touring the lively museum.
65 We also had the opportunity to make small, pewter bowls from a circular sheet of the metal. The museum calls this 'The School of Hard Knocks' - fortunately, we all passed.
66 It involved hammering around the wooden molds.
67 Almost finished! It was a rather noisy experience.
68 In the gift shop were beautiful pewter and silver objects. I loved this unusual tea set.
69 And this elegant silverware
70 When our museum tour was over, of course, we were treated to a beautiful lunch.
71 The homemade tofu (center) was one of my favorite dishes.
72 These gorgeous fruit-filled gelatins were made in pewter molds. Datin Chen presented me with one of those molds. I am very thankful.
73 The fuscia colored fruit is dragon fruit - remember from the market?
74 This kind woman prepared the delicious and colorful lunch.
75 We were quite full, but there's always room for cheesecake - yum!!!
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This sounds incredible! So fascinating to learn where everything comes from! Open markets are my favorite! Haggling for price sometimes is an art form! Thanks again Martha!!! http://www.meandmartha.net
Your fans really appreciate YOU!
Dan Viger
Hollis center,Maine.
Hollis 5 Corners
Posted by: Dan Viger | June 10th, 2010 at 12:42 am
The stuff in Pic. #11 is not a fish cake. Its called "Tempeh", made from the fermentation of boiled soy beans & yeast. In US, Tempeh can be easily found at the health stores.
Posted by: durio uno | June 10th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Wow...really great pictures, wonderful experiences. I think this is the post that I like the most, I keep "flipping" it again 7 again. Thanks Martha for your effort sharing them here.
Posted by: durio uno | June 10th, 2010 at 7:58 am
Pic 20 of 78 is called Kek Lapis ( Layered Cake). Very famous in Sarawak Malaysia.
Pic 23&24 of 78 - This is Murtabak. The skin is the same as the famous Roti Canai. The savory filling was made from either beef/lamb/chicken cooked with curry paste, onions and eggs were added just before placing the prepared filling on the Roti Canai skin.
Pic 25&26 of 78 - This is called Apom Balik. And the lady is not adding condensed milk but creamy sweet corn in a can.
Pic 27 of 78 - The cylinder looking delicasies is called Lemang while the triangle delicasies is called Ketupat Palas. Both these are best eaten with either chicken/beef/lamb curry or rendang.
Posted by: Rosmawati Mansor | June 10th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Thank you for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | June 10th, 2010 at 8:56 am
The Roti Canai dough used to make the Murtabak skin can be replaced by Popiah Skin Wrapper ( Chinese Spring Roll Wrapper).... in the US can be easily found at most Asian Grocery Stores.
Posted by: Rosmawati Mansor | June 10th, 2010 at 9:00 am
For Rosmawati Mansor - Thank you so much for providing information and the names of these delicious foods!
Posted by: Martha Stewart | June 10th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Markets are so wonderful for experiencing and tasting different foods...very colorful, too. I loved the photos of the pewter factory tour...i have some lovely pieces of this pewter so it was fun to see where it comes from. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: sherey | June 10th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Hi Martha,
I had no idea there were so many species of ginger. Even in one of our Asian markets, I have only seen one kind which looks like the kind you always use. I wonder if they all taste about the same. I have never been to a market where they sell so much fish – I was curious as to how they kept it cold. Lots of ice maybe or they sell or cook it right away. Anyway, I see many tubs but no ice.
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I love that woman’s apron in picture #34 – so American! Too bad you didn’t have one of yours with you from the Martha Show to give as a gift. All the food looks great to me and I would really like to taste the meat & rice cooked in banana leaves or the noodles with different toppings. Heck, I would like to taste everything – I love Asian food!
~
I found a new Asian Market/cafeteria nearby but they only had a Malaysian rice dish so I didn’t order. At the front door was a Tri-Shaw that I took a picture of for twitpic. I think they put the boxes in the front of it to keep people from trying it out and it’s not as decorated as the ones you pictured on your blog the other day but here’s my picture: http://www.twitpic.com/1v454x
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I wonder how many of your visitors to this blog knew about Malaysian Pewter – I know I didn’t. I have 2 pieces, a single flower vase and pitcher with a handle and it was made in Norway. Maybe you could show us how to pound out some dents – one of the bases got mangled somehow.
~
Thanks again for sharing your adventure with us. I’m enjoying ‘Amazing America’ in the July issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine also! Trish
Posted by: Trish | June 10th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Thank you for sharing this marvelous trip to Malaysia! Delicious food!
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | June 10th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Hello Martha...great soup today...you just said you are almost at 2 million..Wow!...I want a KitchenAid Mixer...just in case you're wondering! Have a great day.
Posted by: Margaret | June 10th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Our pastor when i was a child was born and raised in Malaysia. His stories were always so fascinating.
Posted by: Margaret | June 10th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Oh! None of you tried the durians? They may smell awful but they taste heavenly! Give it a try next time! : )
Posted by: foongpc | June 10th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Your photos of Malaysia are so informative & wonderful, thanks! I'd never heard of jack or dragon fruits, loved the coconut bird houses, roasted chickpeas looked good, & cheesecake looked devine! My biggest question; why did you need a body guard in the pewter museum?
Posted by: Suzanne Allen | June 10th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Talking about pewter, do you know that they produce some in Woodbury, CT too. Here is the weblink:
http://www.woodburypewter.com/default.asp
I have some small items from this store. The location is not very far from the Hopkins Vineyard in Warren. I've been there couple of times especially during the autumn to enjoy the colors & the crisp weather by the lake.
Posted by: durio uno | June 10th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I have to be honest, I think I would be very nervous about eating from those vendors. Weren't you nervous about getting sick? I would think safety regulations would be different and just the fact that your body might not be acclimated to possible microbial differences.
Posted by: Mike | June 10th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
That mold for the dessert looks really neat. Did they share the recipe for it -- the one with the dragon fruit -- and will you post it online?
Posted by: E. Teresa Touey | June 10th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Dear Martha
Pic 27 of 78 - The Lemang is actually wrapped using banana's leaves.
Pic 28 of 78 - This snack is called Keropok Lekor made from fish paste n tapiocca flour.
Pic 29 of 78 - This snack is called Pasembor....a famous delicasies by the Indian Muslim people here in Malaysia. The Pasembor is eaten with special sauce made from grounded peanuts n spices.
Pic 30 of 78 - These a Yong Tau Foo...customer can choose to eat them with clear fish soup or fried n dip with special chilli sauce.
Pic 34&35 of 78 - These are called Yu Char Kway (Crispy Chinese Cruller). POpular among the Malaysian Chinese. These can be eaten as accompany with Congee (Rice porridge) or with Kaya (Malaysian custard made from egg, coconut cream n palm sugar)
Pic 37 of 78 - These are Nasi Lemak wrapped in Banana Leaves
Pic 42 of 78 - These are Otak-Otak.....famous delicasies from the Southern part of Malaysia....the state of Johore
Posted by: Rosmawati Mansor | June 10th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Hi Martha, This was another absolutely interesting blog about the fascinating country, Malaysia. Everything you have shown us so far, seems so different from how things are in the USA. If I ever went there, now I would know what kind of things to expect. Your photos and comments are superior and once again all three of you look like you are having a fabulous time.I love the photo of the coconut bird houses. They really look great. The food in photo #29 looks delightful. Thanks again for taking us on this wonderful trip! Love, Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | June 10th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
this is for mike:
Mike -- for anyone to be a vendor, he or she needs to get a licence and observe the safety/hygiene standards. You are right. Our safety regulations maybe different but they are just as strict. We are not a third world country. Our (piped) water is clean. The only thing you may get "ill" from is eating too much hot and spicy dishes.
nevertheless, I do understand your reservations and fears.
Thank you.
Posted by: nuraina samad | June 10th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Just to respond to Suzanne Allen's question, I believed the bodyguard was attached all the time to the entourage, normal security procedure for visiting VIPs/celebrities here.
Posted by: durio uno | June 11th, 2010 at 3:57 am
The Dragon Fruit(Hylocereus costaricensis/undatus) or "Buah Naga" in Malay is a type of cactus, originated from Mexico & Central American regions. The varieties that are available in Malaysia were actually brought from Vietnam around 10 years ago. The plants require granite post with the height of 4 feet to support the vines & the fruit loads.
Posted by: durio uno | June 11th, 2010 at 4:20 am
Beautiful pics. I have to admit that i have not even been to Pasar Tani
Posted by: Syaf | June 12th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Malayia is such a hospitable country. We always accord our special guests at least a body-guard.
It's not because we are an unsafe country. But the guard to to attend to your needs and faciliate your visit.
Posted by: Idzan, Kuala lumpur | June 13th, 2010 at 9:15 am