Cooking with Pearly in Penang

We spent a delightful six hours in the company of Pearly Kee and her husband Chandra, at their home in Penang, on their “Penang Home-cooking” course, consisting of a market tour, cookery course and “eat what you cook” lunch.

This considerably extends our gap-year cooking repertoire, previously limited to Tibetan Momos and Argentinian Asado, by adding three delicous ‘Nyonya-style’ dishes - fish in spicy tamarind curry, dark sauce pork and curry kapitan. Nyonya basically describes the fusion of cooking styles and ingredients from Malaysia and China.

After being picked up from our hotel by Chandra, we met Pearly across the road from the wet market. For a moment, our class was in jeopardy, when Pearly explained to us about crossing busy main roads in Penang.  “All locals know that you just walk out, wave your hand and the cars will slow down” Pearly explained confidently. Unfortunately the first car hadn’t read the script, and we were almost immediately mown down by a large red Volvo that swerved around us. In mitigation, the driver probably wasn’t from Penang.

However things promptly picked up when Pearly started showing us knowledgeably around the market.  It was refreshing yet rare to see Louis and Frankie exhibiting such interest in vegetables!  Pearly had us smelling and tasting an assortment of fruits, vegetables and spices - mangosteen, lemongrass, garlic chives, numerous different types of ginger - really bringing the market alive for us. Even our sense of hearing was involved; as Pearly explained to us just how fresh the chickens were, we heard the urgent, terrified squawking of a chicken punctuated by an uneasy silence.  

Pearly showing Louis the giant bamboo

Louis comparing two types of ginger

Fighting with an eel in the wet market

Mmmmmm....smells leafy

Delicious snack made from stringed dough with coconut and sugar on a banana leaf

A crumpety peanut delight

Chandra then drove us to their house where we found three cooking workstations, each carefully arranged for up to four people. Unlike our momo cooking adventure in Kathmandu, this was going to be all hands on deck, as we would be preparing two lots of each of the three dishes as a family. To our right, we had Chami and Tracey, two ladies currently living and working in Malaysia and to our left, Lester, an American gentleman and able cook who deservedly received most of the cooking plaudits on the day. 

Pearly guided us on the preparation of our cluster of vegetables, including a clever garlic squashing technique for instantly removing the skin. We also learned the importance of soaking and washing vegetables to remove parasites. The boys were closely and enthusiastically engaged in the process, Louis with me and Frankie with Julia, refining their slicing, chopping and stirring as the morning progressed. 

Frankie carefully chopping....

Louis garlic-squashing

Vegetables all prepared

We had detailed, colourful menus to follow - and keep - although thankfully, we didn’t need to refer to these too often as Pearly gave clear instructions throughout. If we were in any doubt, Lester was paying close attention and could be relied upon for back-up!

Pearly’s advice reached much further than just talking through and acting out the recipe.  We enjoyed anecdotes about life in Penang, her career in cookery and about the fun and games in putting her last two books together.  

Louis keeps the curry sauce moving about

Frankie rolling the limes to get them nice and soft before squeezing

We learned also about how every Nyonya meal has a purpose beyond merely satisfying hunger - it aims to heal and ease your body too. So, for example, after eating something hot, then rather than reaching for a bucket of water or an ice-cream, try a cooling mangosteen instead.  We picked up many other useful tips too - did you know, for example, that you can tell a fish is cooked when his eyes go white and pop out?

After a few hours of cooking  - you’re expected to keep to a reasonable pace - Pearly comes around for the tasting.  We waited with baited breath as she pronounced her verdict, thankfully all positive!  We had produced three meals that were ready for eating in Pearly’s dining room.  

Well done, team mate!

There followed a very enjoyable, homely lunch as we dined on the products of our labours, complemented by some delicious nutmeg juice, a local speciality.  Our boys’ favourite was the dark sauce pork - no coincidence perhaps that this also happened to have the most sugar!

Our reward - we get to eat what we cooked!

Some photos and shared contact details later, we parted - very full, very satisfied and a little wiser.  Thank you Pearly for your wisdom shared. 

Baders with Pearly and Lester

Louis and Frankie's woodcarving day in Nepal

As you wander through the streets at the centre of the  beautiful old city of Bhaktapur, one of the three 'kingdoms" in the Kathmandu valley here in Nepal, you realise architecturally, at least, it probably hasn't changed much for centuries.  Intricately carved wood is everywhere, from the majestic temples to the door frames of much more modest buildings.  Wood shops abound that want to sell you anything from tiny wooden statues to huge wooden wardrobes that literally take months of painstaking effort to finish. 

We were talking to a family in one shop about how they make these items, and the effort involved and whether our boys could try.  The owner, Monika, explained that they would be happy to have the boys for a few hours and teach them how to carve something that they could then take home.  Mindful of the limited space in our rucksack, I checked that this would in fact be a small piece of wood, and not a large coffee table. 

So we returned a few days later, and Louis and Frankie indeed spent a day woodcarving. 

We met in the shop and followed Monika's cousin through a labyrinth of dark alleyways, along narrow passages with low brick ceilings, seemingly into a quiet back and beyond away from the busy streets and finally found ourselves in a little workshop where two teenage girls were already busily carving huge wooden posts. 

All very interesting but can we get on with it now, please?

Setting up their "workbenches"

The boys were set up with their own workbenches (everyone sits on the floor) and, after reading about a short history of woodcarving in Nepal (not sure how much they digested of this!), given some delicate carving tools with assorted tips - some flat, some shaped - as well as a wooden mallet. The expert was introduced to us and began to show the boys firstly how to secure the strip of wood they would be carving and then how to draw the pencilled guidelines on them that would orient their carving pattern. 

After observing his technique, the boys were soon trying it for themselves, gently tapping their tiny chisel-like tool at a very shallow angle to break off very small chunks of wood.  You realised how hard it was to accurately reproduce the patterns - the boys made a good effort but when you looked up close you appreciated the workmanship that must go into these things to reproduce the pattern with machine-like accuracy. 

Pooh - this stuff is smelly!

The boys stuck at it for a few hours, working very diligently, Frankie finishing with a lovely piece of wood with two patterns, and louis with a single strip of wood and also a second piece called a "Knot."  It was then time to go on another journey, deeper into the narrow backstreets, to find the tiny little room where they dip the wood in a very smelly veneer.  Even the lady working there had a mask on to protect her from the fumes.  

Frankie summarised: "It was very hard but thoroughly fun.  I am pleased with my carving, it's not something you'd do every day!"

Louis added: "I really enjoyed it.  I was amazed how much work they have to put in to do all the detail on the big pieces of furniture. Imagine if you were doing the very last part of a wardrobe and you accidentally chopped off an important bit!"

Perfect.

Finished!

Latest video - Trekking in the Himalayas

In our previous post below, we talked about our recent trek to Poon Hill in the Annapurna range in Nepal, and shared some photos. Here is a short video of the experience, including some interviews with Louis and Frankie beforehand about what they were expecting!

Our family trekking adventure in the Himalayas

Checking the route with his new torch

You can’t really come to Nepal without trekking. Whenever I speak to people about their visits to Nepal, one of the first questions that invariably arises is “Which trek did you do?”  So we figured that it would be a logical progression from the one day treks we did in Patagonia to extend ourselves to something longer and, because these are the Himalayas, after all, higher. 

We chose the Ghorepani circuit, potentially getting us up close to the Annapurna range. May is not a great time to visit, with pre-monsoon rains shrouding the mountains in clouds for most of the day, but nevertheless we hoped for glimpses that would make the walking worthwhile. And Poon Hill, the high point, at just over 10,000 feet would be a great milestone for the boys, with little risk of altitude sickness that could arise higher up.

The investment in warm clothing proved thankfully cheap - four double strength fleeces and full length poncho-style waterproofs for about £30 all in, plus lots of chocolate bars, dried fruit and nuts and granola bars for energy - and encouragement  - on the trek.

Some nagging thoughts occurred to us before we left: Would the boys be up to it? Five days is very different to a one-day trek after all.  Would Frankie’s trainers hold out as he’d outgrown his walking shoes? How would we cope with the leeches? Would the boys just be bored and want to leave? Would we get any views at all, given the persistent cloud cover?  

With Ratna, our guide on board, we left Pokhara on a 90 minute car journey to the start point at Nayapul, sitting at an altitude of about 1000 metres. It was raining as we started and probably the only time we all used our waterproofs, ironically, given we’d been warned to expect permanent heavy cloud and daily pre-monsoon storms.  The timing was such that we walked less than an hour before our first meal! 

Yummy cake!

Day 1 was about 4 hours uphill to Hile (Heel-lay) at 1460 metres. We stopped here in a little tea-house, a mere £2 per night, providing you have dinner with them.  You pay a bit of a premium whilst you are trekking, but £10 for a meal for 4 is still pretty reasonable. Over dinner of egg vegetable noodles, I explained to Ratna, our guide, the story of Gerald Ratner and his business that failed after his prawn sandwich comments.  He explained that “Ratna” ironically means “fine jewellery” in Nepali. After we’d finished, we got talking to an American couple who were at the end of the Annapurna Circuit after 16 days. Suddenly a big chocolate cake was brought out, by their guides as a thank you.  Louis and Frankie were practically drooling, so the couple decide to offer them some!  

The shared bathrooms - well what do you expect for £2 - western toilets? Cockroaches provided in the sink at no extra charge.  They took off with that deep-pitched buzz that warns you that something big and probably not very agile is flying towards you. The boys were amazed that they actually stayed up in the air at all.  

We found a room with four beds - and not much else - but it did the job. The rooms proved surprisingly bug-free, given the wide gaps between the walls and the ceiling, with the exception of one spider that woke Jules up as it crept across her face, shot across her pillow and disappeared behind the bed!  We could tell the boys were tired - Frankie fell asleep while doing his bedtime Kindle read. 

We’d read about the dreaded steps we faced the following morning from Tikhedunga to Ulleri - apparently 3,760 of them to take you from about 1,500 metres to 2,100 metres over a fairly short distance.  We began the climb about 30 minutes after setting out from Hile.  The steps were very uneven and slippery and we were often near sheer edges and drop-offs that you wouldn’t want to drop off. The boys would occasionally say something like “Are these steps ever going to end?” or “What are we climbing all these steps for?” At this point the reassurance of spectacular views wasn’t really meaningful to them, so we’d focus more on what we were going to eat from our ample supply at the next rest stop. 

The boys pace was influenced by their conversation.   If the boys got talking to each other, perhaps about which video game they were going to get next on the IPAD, as we’d promised them one each if they complete the trek - then they would tend to walk on up a little faster. If we got talking as a group or playing a game - we have quite a few games for long walks/bus rides/car journeys that we’d gathered this year - then it was more likely we could keep the group a little less strung out.  We enjoyed the ‘In my grandmother’s suitcase’ game as we’d had a couple of alphabet’s worth of things that we made up last September in Brazil that every now and again we’d see if we could still remember. Frankie nails it every time.

As we approached half way, we had a rest stop and Jules and I weren’t surprised that our shirts were pretty soggy, (as Louis thoughtfully pointed out.)  The boys weren’t even sweating at all.

As we continued our climb upwards - we needed to get to Ghorepani for the second night, at 2810 metres - our attention turned variously to passing horses, buffalo, Nepali people carrying inordinate amounts of weight - such as a chap with four long concrete posts -  and the occasional other trekkers with their guides. 

After lunch at Ulleri, and a celebration of completing all those steps, we headed on to climb the same height again, but at least it was spread out over a longer distance, so it didn’t feel as steep. Louis and Frankie were very matter of fact and got on with the walk, and it was only as we approached the end, nine hours after we’d started that day, that there were a few “How much further” type questions;  At one point we had a ‘balloon debate’ about the point of trekking.  Not surprisingly the boys were both against while I was proposing in favour! At this point, we still hadn’t seen any mountains, but had definitely seen plenty of clouds very close up - in fact you could literally see them passing right in front of you.

We settled in early at our tea-house in Ghorepani for our second night, knowing that we’d have a 4.45am start, if the weather looked reasonable, for a 4 km round trip that would take us to Poon HIll, 400m higher at 3,210m (as high in metres as Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, is in feet!) Ratna woke me up and we assessed the situation. It looked very cloudy, but we figured we might get some breaks and we agreed to leave at 6am. It wasn’t the most popular of our trekking decisions with the family, but half way to Poon Hill, we turned and saw our first glimpse of Annapurna South, between the thinning clouds, it was almost as if we’d seen a spaceship!  
“Wow, Daddy, look at that mountain and there’s another one beside it” - that was Annapurna 1, the 8th highest mountain in the world.  And then a few moments later, Frankie chimed in

First glimpse of Annapurna South.....

“.......And Daddy, look, you can see a bit of Dalgoolie” referring to Dhaulagiri, the 7th highest mountain at over 8,100m.  We carried on up, frequently looking around, buoyed by the sights we’d seen.  Although we got to the tower - Frankie was actually running when we passed the “15 minutes to go” sign - the thicker cloud had set in, so whilst there were no views from Poon Hill, we satisfied ourselves with congratulating the boys on becoming members of the prestigious 10,000 feet trekking club, by virtue of reaching the top. 

It was the geographical high point of the trek in distance, but the emotional one was to come later that morning, when we enjoyed some fabulous views of the same mountains and more from the Duerali Pass. Clear, snowy peaks set against blue sky, with clouds beneath them making them almost island-like.  And over to the right, Machapuchare, the sacred, unclimbed ‘Fishtail mountain.’  We spent at least 30 minutes at this rest stop, taking it all in.  At one point, Louis remarked contemplatively, as he gazed across to the mountains, “I could stay up here all day.”   It was as if in that moment he understood what all the walking was all for. We walked about 7 1/2 hours in all that day, including the 1 1/2 hours pre-breakfast excursion to Poon Hill. 

Annapurna South.......

The boys admiring Dhaulagiri

Yes, that's how far we've climbed!

Great view of Dhaulagiri - so lets all look the other way then!

The Annapurna Range

Bit of a squeeze that night......

The third night we stayed at Tatapani and enjoyed some wonderful early morning views of Machapuchare.  From there the remaining two days trekking were much easier as the altitude fell away, and we ended with a short Jeep ride to Nayapul and then on back to “normality” in Pokhara. 

The trek had been demanding - because of the sheer altitude of the first couple of days; revealing - because it proved the boys were fitter than us; and ultimately rewarding - because of the memorable views of these awesome mountains. 

And whilst there had been some doubts beforehandand as to whether this was a good plan or not, we all agreed we were very pleased we did it. And it will give the boys a reference point against which to measure future tough challenges - if I did THAT then surely I can do THIS!

Machhapuchare at dawn

Yippee!  We made it down again......