Rainy weather antidote

rkhooks — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:40:22 +0000

If the weather is anything like it is in Paris at the moment then I have the perfect antidote for it: homemade crumpets and long pepper spiced curd. Head over to designsponge where my recipe (and more pics) is featured in ‘in the kitchen with’ this week.

Edible Tapestry Tales

rkhooks — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:42:51 +0000

Frankie making saffran pasta.

So on the first night Frankie was still frantically rolling out the pasta when the first guests arrived. There was a hectic 5 minutes with me being my usual bossy self and getting one of our lovely helpers to deal with the guests. Another to do a speedy clean up.

Tanqueray 10 Gin Elderflower cocktail.

The cocktails were shaken stirrred and served with the feta filled white macarons to the guests who were starting to arrive. They were allowed to mingle and enjoy the lovely tapestries in the Gallery space while Frankie and I made sure everything was spot on in the dining area (or the main workshop space).

Outside the Australian Tapestry workshop.

Twenty minutes later both Frankie and I were ready to go. Frankie at this point (I don’t know how she did) had also managed to change, put on her make up and dust off the flour from her face.

The candles were lit, our ‘tapestry’ playlist was on and the wines had been given their Mollydooker shake and time to breathe. We were really fortunate to have the owner of Mollydooker wines (who were our wine sponsors), Sarah Marquis with us on the first night. She was great at explaining to the guests all the delicious wines we served throughout the meal.

Our lovely waitresses Sarah and Briar doing the Mollydooker shake.

Deep breath and we went to introduce ourselves and lead the guests to their seats. We disappeared very quickly into the kitchen after our introduction and got started with plating the next course.

Incan ceviche with vegetal threads served with Mollydooker Verdelho.
Edible Tapestry Tale: In Ancient Peru, tapestry was used similarly to bury the dead, often using alpaca or llama wool.

This was a fairly simple one to plate. The trick was to twist the vegetal threads around the fork and spin it so it looked like the yarn reels found around the tapestry workshop.

: Saffran-dyed spaghetti with cauliflower crumbs served with Mollydooker Verdelho.
Edible Tapestry Tale: Vegetal and animal dyes were commonly used, including that of murex – a sea snail – which produced a royal purple. Saffron was also used as a fabric dye.

Remember the saffron pasta Frankie had so frantically been rolling before hand? Well actually cooking it for 24 was pretty tough too, especially when you only have two gas rings and two pots. The difficult part was getting it dressed, plated for 24 people and out before it got cold.

This was definetly one my favourites to eat though. The saffron pasta was coated in a spiced butter and tossed with cauliflower crumbs, pine nuts, soaked raisins and capers. Just thinking about it, makes my mouth water!

Taking the clothed dashi out of the oven.

At the same time the next course had to go in the oven. This was the one course which really gave me the most grief. The bowls had to be filled with the scarlet dashi, duck and toulouse sausage boulettes and cannellini beans before being covered with filo pastry. One of the problems was that the filo pastry tore super easily, so in the end I had to cover the soup bowls with four layers to ensure that it wouldn’t crack before it got to the table.

Fitting 24 bowls into the one oven at one time was not possible. So finding a way of keeping the first batch warm while the second bath crisped up took some figuring out. But we found a solution in the end

Breaking through the clothed Scarlet dashi with Gobelins boulettes.

Clothed Scarlet dashi with Gobelins boulettes served with Mollydooker Maitre d’ Cabernet Sauvignon.

Edible Tapestry tales:
1. The word tapestry is derived from from tapisser meaning “to cover with heavy fabric”.
2. Paris’ Gobelin Factory was founded in the 15th century as a dye works and later developed the Gobelin weaving technique which is used at the Australian Tapestry Workshop.

Plating main course.

Flanders beef cheeks with pumpkin gauffres with Mollydooker Blue Eyed Boy.

Edible Tapestry Tale: By 1500, Flanders, especially Brussels and Bruges, had become the chief places of tapestry production.

Next up was the main course. We had especially bought a waffle machine as I had been obsessed with serving savoury pumpkin gauffre with the slow cooked beef cheeks (see the tale for the reason why). We served the main course with some beautifully coloured (and of course tasting) roasted vegetables and a little zingy pickle.

Cheese course: woven fruit leathers with Holy Goat cheese and e.t.t. oatcakes served with Mollydooker Velvet Glove.
Edible Tapestry Tale: Weaving is the art of forming a fabric by interlacing at right angles two or more sets of yarn or other material.

Second to last and on to the cheese course. We had sourced a goat’s cheese, Holy Goat from the Yarra valley which was a perfect match for our woven fruit leathers and E.T.T. oatcakes. Just a note: making and weaving fruit leathers is one of the most time consuming jobs ever.

Dessert course: Punch card millefeuilles with cryptic kumquats served with Mollydooker Goosebumps. Edible Tapestry Tales: 1. In 1804, French silk weaver Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the mechanical Jacquard Loom to weave complex designs. 2. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp by using a punch card, laying the foundation for modern data computation.

A lot of components in our dessert with a puff pastry millefeuille punch card, olive oil sablé, poached spiced kumquats and spiced pastry cream, accompanied with a slightly acidic yoghurt mousse (to balance out the sweetness of the millefeuille) and cashew nut praline dust.

And so we came to the end of the Edible Tapestry Tale which we managed to pull off without any major problems (apart from the electricity blowing on the first night, half way through service). By the third night Frankie and I were pretty at ease and even managed to serve a staff meal during service

I must say we would definetly not have managed it without all the support from our friends who hosted us and preparation work, the staff at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, the State of Design volunteers, Placesettings for helping us with the crockery and kitchen equipment and our lovely waitresses of course!

Photos all by Leo Farrell who did an absolutely fabulous job at photographing the whole event.

Behind the scenes at Edible Tapestry Tales

rkhooks — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:28:54 +0000

Some insprirations: weaving yarns dyed in house at the Australian Tapestry workshop

After a stopovers in Dubai, Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Singapore it was finally touchdown in Melbourne on Saturday 17th July. The cold came as bit of shock with having gotten used to the humid heat in Singapore and Summer having kicked off in Paris , but there was no time to warm myself up by a cosy fire. It was all go go go from the start with my partner in crime, Frankie having flown in on the same day from Sydney. We hadn’t seen each other since the Edible Immigration Tales in March and even though we had been skyping and emailing regularly our ideas, cooking experiments and designs. It’s still not quite the same as having a face to face conversation.

Australian Tapestry Workshop in the 'normal state'

A week before the 3 nights, 7 courses, 24 people a night Edible Tapestry Tales kicked off we had the longest an never ending list of things to do. The first couple of days involved finalising the menu, going to lots of random places in Melbourne (at one point we had to cross a motorway by foot to get to a supplier) and buying all the equipment we were missing.

Work in progress

Unlike the Edible Immigration Tales this event required a whole different level of organisation. The event was part of the State of Design festival aswell as taking place at the Australian Tapestry workshop. We had to hire a kitchen (no oven or hob at the Australian Tapestry workshop but they did have a dishwasher ) , crockery, find the waiting staff, deal with the bookings…plus so many other little administrative things that it’s impossible to list them all. And all this from not actually being in Melbourne. We were fortunate enough to have found a wine sponsor, Mollydooker who provided us with some delicious wines and Tanqueray 10 providing the gin for the cocktail. Plus we were hosted by some great friends who helped in every way possible (i.e. being mad enough to let me drive their car around Melbourne ).

Australian Tapestry Workshop's kitchen before we took it over.

By mid week the hardcore food prepping kicked off with an enormous order from the butcher (free range/local beef cheeks for 75, smoked bacon, duck breast and toulouse sausages), several visits to South Melbourne market which was also in handy walking distance from the workshops and also had a lovely coffee shop where they serve the perfect remedy i.e. coffee for late nights/early mornings and some super yummy muffins.

At the same time we had all the little objects and accessories to make for the table (mini cardboard looms, hand stitching serviettes and facts, making recycled candleholders and placemats).

Handmade tealight holders made out of recycled jars and leftover weaving yarn.

On the day of the first night we literally took over the workshop. All the weavers had to stop their work as the large looms had to be pushed to the sides to make space for the tables. Everything in the kitchen was cleared away (so no coffee machine and microwave for the staff) aswell as their coffee table area too. Luckily the people at the tapestry workshop were more than accomodating. Once everything was set up. It was last minute or last hours rush to get all the prep done.

Dessert inspiration: punchcard for Jacquard loom

We had worked hard to develop a menu which could handle only one oven and 2 gas rings which meant a lot of switching things around, making sure that one dish didn’t need an oven at 80°c and the one immediately after didn’t need to be in the oven for 5 hours before the event. So the menu not only had to be delicious, tell the tapestry tales and something Frankie and I could produce but also deal with the limitations in the kitchen.

Making feta macaron to go with Elderflower cocktail.

We were lucky to have two lovely waitresses plus some brilliant volunteers from the State of Design festival who came in early and helped us out otherwise we would have never finished. Fifteen minutes before the start Frankie was madly rolling out the fresh saffron pasta and absolutely covered in flour….

Frankie making saffron pasta

….Edible Tapestry Tale to be continued.

Cornes de gazelle

rkhooks — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:08:32 +0000

It was role reversal for me on my first visit to Marrakesh (it was also my first visit to North Africa) where I attended some cookery classes. Normally I’m the one teaching.

The cookery class took place at a Riad in the Medina which was almost impossible to find. An hour and half late and after going round in several circles we finally arrived at this stunning Riad. It was like walking onto a set for a glossy interiors magazine. Anyway after a glass of freshly pressed orange juice (one of the best things about Marrakesh was the abundance of freshly pressed orange juice) we got down to some serious business by making some morrocan biscuits.

“Cornes de gazelle” translated “Gazelle’s horns” were on the menu. These biscuits are probably the most popular of all the morrocan biscuits. They are simple a biscuit which is filled with almond paste. The dominant flavours are orange flower water and almonds.

Fairly simple to do: a basic pastry dough (similar to a filo pastry) is made and blanched ground almonds are blended with sugar and a bit of butter to make an almond paste. The pastry is rolled out thinly and cut into squares. Then a sausage shaped bit of almond paste is placed into the middle and the pastry is folded over the top and pressed down to make a horn shape. A little egg is brushed on top and then they’re baked for about 10-15 minutes. There are some versions which are dusted with icing sugar but I prefer mine without. Unfortunately I lost my scribbled piece of paper where I noted my recipe but it’s similar to this one here.

The same mixture and pastry was used to make money bag shaped cookies. In addition to those were made some simple orange flower water cookies and chocolate cookies.

They had these great stamps which created a pattern after being stamped onto the biscuit.

Our teacher was lovely and very patient with all my questions, even put up with all my picture taking too. Speaking French was definetly an advantage.

Just a note: the biscuits keep for a good couple of weeks in an airtight container, that’s if you can stop yourself eating them all

80s mashup in Paris

rkhooks — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:15:38 +0000

On the 3rd of June I held my first clandestine dinner in Paris. Never to be one to do just a ’simple’ dinner party I had make it more of a culinary event and decided upon doing something fun with the 80s and French food. The 80s are not one of the decades to be known for it’s culinary delights which I discovered after hunting down some beautifully food styled (the more food or props they could fit in one photo the better) 80s recipe books.

The menu kicked off with a Tom Cruise inspired shaken cocktails (red berries, limonchello and gin) which fit perfectly with the summer evening and was accompanied by some 80s coloured savoury macaron (cream cheese & wasabi and green olive tapenade – Pierre Hermé started his macaron experimenting in the 80s).
First course was edible pacman with pâté powerballs and confit cherries. I had wasted considerable amount of time playing pacman in the name of research. Second course was twisted bacon and a two toned tartiflette, a kind of deconstructed version with the use of sweet potatoes and some peppery roquette to balance the Reblochon. Tartiflette was created in the 80s by the Reblochon producers to promote their cheese.

Homage to 80s power dressing and those big shoulder pads: main course of Power puff pastry shoulder pad with a boeuf printanier (slow cooked spring beef stew).
A cold war soup: communism watermelon gazpacho and cucumber capitalism sorbet was served as a palate cleanser. And to finish off a 80s Paris Brest (the 8 was filled with a praline pastry cream and the 0 with a salted butter caramel cream).
The first 4 dishes were accompanied by red wines recommended by my great local caviste who matches all my wines for me as I’m hopeless. He also recommended a lovely caramel/light Irish whisky to go with the dessert.

Special thanks to myprivatedinner for providing the apartment, Jay-P for an awesome 80s music mix, my lovely culinary assistant Bernadette, Sten Pittet for taking some pictures for me and my lovely guests for coming!

Beer smelling tamagotchi

rkhooks — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:34:38 +0000

Last week I started to dabble in with sourdough. I got a crash course in sourdough bread baking but was still a little dubious as my track record with looking after living things isn’t that great. Maintaining a starter felt all too much like having to take care of a plant or a beer smelling tamagotchi. My last attempt of growing rosemary and thyme ended up in the bin. Luckily Clotilde from Chocolat & Zucchini has been doing a great job writing about sourdough with plenty of recipes.

Sourdough or a natural starter is a combination of fermented flour, water, wild yeasts and friendly bacteria which is used to leaven bread. It’s a tradition to name your starter, so I decided to baptise mine “Lucca” as I’m testing and researching sourdough bread recipes for some culinary workshops I’ll be doing in Tuscany near the town of Lucca.

I went about feeding my starter every day (organic white flour and filtered water). I accidently put it in the fridge and it froze but I managed to bring it back to life. It’s quite warm in Paris (Spring has finally kicked off) which is just the kind of temperature Lucca likes. A week of feeding and I thought it was about time to put Lucca to a test. I used the 1 2 3 sourdough recipe which is pretty fool proof. I went for a mix of wholewheat and white flour with a sprinkling of seeds. I made my sponge early in the morning, gave it 6 hours and then made the dough in the afternoon and left it to rise for a further 6 hours and by 10pm I had a fresh loaf. I must say I’m very impressed with the crust which is made by putting the dough in a oven proof dish with a lid to bake. The water evaporating from the bread creates steam and makes a very crunchy crust. Another plus with sourdough is the bread keeps really well. Even a week later toasted it still tastes great. More beer smelling tamagotchi tales to follow…

Check out Clotilde’s well documented basic sourdough recipe for further information.

Gooey sticky pear & vanilla caramel

rkhooks — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:12:59 +0000

What do you do with a bag of very ripe/almost rotting pears? Throw them away, no. Put them on the compost heap, no. Make a pear & vanilla caramel spread of course! I recently discovered a bag of pears when I came back from my trip downunder. I was quite impressed they lasted that long considering I was away for a bit. Trying to reduce the amount of food wastage whenever possible (hence my fridge being full of little tupperware containers of leftovers or me constantly giving away food). I am on a constant search of making the most of the ingredients.

This recipe is similar to the Belgian “Sirop de liège” a gooey syrup made from pear and apple juice. The apples and pears are stewed for so long to create a dark almost molasses kind of syrup which is spread on toast or even used in savoury dishes. My version is slightly less time consuming and therefore lighter in colour. If you want a darker colour, stew the pears for longer, so they “caramelise” (slightly burn) before extracting the juice.

The bread in the shot is a slice of homemade sourdough made by a friend of mine who gave me a crash course in sourdough today. I have now got my own “live” sourdough, so I’ll be giving sourdough bread a go myself soon. Fingers crossed and mine will be as good.

1,5kg pears
200g sugar
50ml water
1 vanilla pod, cut in half
pinch of salt

Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the vanilla grains add to a large pot with the pod, pears chopped into large pieces and water. Cook on a low heat for 1 hour with the cover on. Stir occasionally. Once the pears have become soft and pulpy, take off the heat.

Pass the mixture through a jam bag or very fine nylon sieve. Be careful not to push the mixture too hard if the sieve is not very fine as otherwise you will get a fruit puree in the juice mixture.

Return the extracted juice to a large pan with the sugar and salt. Simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes or until the juice has become a sticky syrup. It will thicken and set once cold, so do not overcook.

Pour into a sterilised jar* and close tightly. This will keep unopened for at least 6 months. Keep in a cool and dark cupboard. Once opened store in the fridge.

*To sterilise jars, wash in soapy water, rinse well and then place open in a cool oven at 130°c for 15-20 minutes.

Edible Immigration Tales

rkhooks — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:25:14 +0000

Once upon a time there were two Brit girls who met in Paris over muffin making at an adorable cookbook store. They soon found out that they had many things in common: a pâtisserie diplome from Le Cordon Bleu, the love for food and lots of fun.

They had many adventures in Paris and beyond. But the day came when Frankie departed to a far away land called Australia. Rachel was very sad that her fun loving foodie partner in crime was leaving but was determined that no matter how many thousands of miles away Frankie was, she would make sure they would continue to have more edible adventures.

So Frankie left for the land of Oz in September. On a cold wet Autumn night in Paris Rachel discovered her golden ticket (in form of a special Malaysian Airline deal) away from the greyness of Paris. Very excited about going to the land of kangaroos and barbecues she sent Frankie an electronic mail and that’s how they both decided to tell an edible immigration tale in Sydney.

Many Australian history and culinary books, skype calls, emails and photos later Rachel arrived in Sydney. And this is the tale they told:

Edible immigration menu

1. Shaken and shipped to shore
Hibiscus and ginger Bundaberg rum cocktail.

2. First encounter with native grub
Goat’s curd and macadamia nut grubs on dehydrated date leaves.

3. A fling with fish before flame
Kingfish tartare served with finger limes.

4. Desperately seeking sea cucumber, serving sotong satay instead
Coconut and lemongrass rice and spicy Asian peanut caramel cake with baby octopus satay and cucumber.

5. Cuppa tea with dundee
Homemade special brew served with marinated crocodile sticks.

6. Bushbride’s ration pudding with Granny Smith’s pickle
Duck pudding with granny smith puree and pickles accompanied with damper bread.

7. Easy as peasy pie
Downunder puff pastry base with slow cooked vegemite lamb, pea purée, mushroom caramel and warrigal greens.

8. Fosters-free lager and lemon sorbet

9. The great dessert debate
Pavlova with fresh cream, strawberry jelly , lemon curd and passionfruit.

10. Freshly spun edible wool
Coffee candy floss.

Each of the dishes were based on facts that they had discovered while doing research. Here are some:

1. Rum was the number one drink with the 1st settlers and convicts. It was even used as a currency.
2. Similar in taste to almonds, the witchetty grub was originally eaten either raw or cooked in hot ashes by aboriginies.
3. Despite being one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, meat was still favoured by the first European settlers due to it’s association with the high life back home.
4. As early as the 16th century indigenous North Western Australians traded sea cucumber with Chinese traders making it Australia’s first export item.
5. The first settlers clung to their British roots becoming the world’s heaviest tea drinkers.
6.1. One of the world’s most successful apple varieties was thanks to Granny Smith who arrived in New South Wales in 1838. She tipped some rotten crab apples into her orchard and from there the variety we know today blossomed.
6.2. Not until the Second World War or perhaps a little earlier was the pie mentioned as a national dish. Vegemite, another national favourite, was first advertised as nourishing for the whole family. Except for one irony, the spread that epitomised `family goodness`was made from brewery waste.
7. In 1864 the cookery book “Australian Aristologist” quotes a medical opinion on the “Danger of the meat pie”. Not leaving a hole in the crust traps the poisonous gases.
8. It was Baron Liebig in 1842 who discovered that Bavarian brewed beers did not turn sour on contact with air like other Australian beers. The German name was “Lager -bier” (the German word lager means to store) hence the name of Australia’s most popular alcoholic drink.
9. The pavlova is said to have been invented in Perth’s Esplanade Hotel in 1935 after the famous Russian ballet dancer. However the New Zealanders claim that a chef in a hotel in Wellington, created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour
10. With 1 million sheep recorded in 1830 (jumped from 100,000 in 1820) the wool industry was Australia’s biggest export, worth roughly 2 million dollars.

Special thank you to Howard Trang from eatshowandtell for the photos.

Check out a great write up on SBS.com and here.

Behind the scenes of Edible immigration tales

rkhooks — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:13:58 +0000

Breakfast at K.L. airport: Soft boiled eggs, Kaya toast and Tee tarik

Sky chefs loading food onto Malaysian airlines plane

The journey began with a Eurostar train from Paris to London followed by a 12 hour flight from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur where I had to strip off all my winter layers (tights, jumpers, jacket, scarf, gloves, woolly socks…) as Malaysian heat is like being in an enormous Sauna. Enough time in Kuala Lumpur to enjoy some Won Ton Mee, one of my favourite dishes. Quick breakfast of soft boiled eggs, Kaya (coconut jam) toast and teh tarik before boarding another 8 hour flight to Sydney. Food on the flights consisted of a curry option for dinner, lunch and breakfast. That’s Malaysian airlines for you.

8 hours later touchdown in Sydney where it was pleasantly hot but thankfully without the stickiness. It was straight in a cab to Edible Immigration Tales Headquarters. No time for jetlag as there was plenty to discuss, prepare and organise. My fellow foodie partner in crime, Frankie and I had been working on this project since November when I had booked my flight. Menu ideas, press and marketing campaign, bookings and other bits ‘n bops had been done via emails, skype calls, photos and waving things at our tiny web cams. So it was good to be able to sit down and discuss things face to face

: Frankie piping pavlova nests

The following 5 days were a mad rush of running around, cooking, shopping, organising, sticking…. basically turning an apartment into a restaurant. I got stuck into writing all the menus, tea labels and edible immigration facts by hand with a pot of ink and quill which took me a good half a day to do. Needless to say by the end of it I had hand cramps and my fingers were stained black from the ink. I did manage to get out and visit Sam the butcher, the local organic shop and the supermarket.

Last minute testing/cooking would kick off once Frankie had come back from her day job (still don’t know how she managed to do both). We then roped in the whole family with Frankie’s parents picking up various groceries, chairs and running other errands. Frankie’s sister helping out on the night and Frankie’s boyfriend putting up with having a restaurant in his home three nights running. BIG thank you!

On the day of the first event it was an early start as Frankie and I were pretty excited about checking out the Sydney Morning Herald to see what they had written about us. We were relieved to see that it wasn’t an exposé about the “illegal” underground dining scene

Things started to come together when I saw the table set up. We had collected plenty of jars, tins and bottles for the table setting. Naturally they were all scrubbed meticulously before hand. I nipped to the beach to pick up some sand and shells to make little glass candle lanterns.

Handwritten menu with a list of things to do - Photo: Howard Trang eatshowandtell.com

My attempt of sketching out the dishes - Photo: Howard Trang eatshowandtell.com

A wall with sketches of all dishes/courses, guestlist and rundown for the night were hungup in the kitchen. Followed by more cooking. Cutlery and glasses polished. Nice soap and candles in the bathroom. Quick tidy in the kitchen. Then a last minute shower and some warpaint (make up). A last run through of the menu. The aprons were tied on, candles lit and Australian music mix put on and a BIG deep breath before we opened the door to the first guests…to be continued

The one thing I had to eat

rkhooks — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:51:14 +0000

I had 24 hours in Kuala Lumpur before flying on to Sydney for the Edible immigration tales (more to come soon). And there was only thing on my mind in terms of eating when my cousins asked me what I fancied for makan (Malay to eat – over there you don’t ask people how they are, you ask have you eaten yet). It had to be some Won Ton Mee (Won ton with noodles). Just looking at the photos makes my mouth water. The first couple of pics are taken with my old school Pentax K-1000 manual camera, excuse the not so great digital pics.

The food isn’t served anywhere fancy. Like most of the best places in Malaysia, good food comes cheap on plastic plates with punters seated on gardenesque plastic furniture. This place only served Won ton mee (dumplings, noodles with barbecue pork, duck, chicken) and why serve anything else when you do it so well?

Unlike most of the won ton dumplings I taste in Paris or London the pastry was super fine, similar to the texture of silk. It slid way too easily down your neck. Accompanied by a simple plate of chai siu (barbecue pork) noodles. I don’t know what they put in their sauce but it’s seriously addictive. Top that off with the homemade sweet/sour/spicy pickled chillis it was literally as good as I remembered when I had been there five years ago. I later started to eat the chillis on it’s own. I had to stop myself from just literally eating the whole jar.

For lunch I managed to squeeze in another favourite Penang Assam laksa. I love anything which uses tamarind. The sour tangyness works in great combination with the spiciness of the dish. The whole dish was quickly slurped and splattered everywhere (eating laksa is a messy business, you know with the noodles and all).

Unfortunately I didn’t have time for Roti Canai for breakfast even though I did happen to stumble across a great offer at the airport. A world away from croissants and pain au chocolats.

To be continued…