The lament of Malaysians living overseas is real when it comes to missing home-cooked food. Same goes with travellers that fell in love with our flavourful local offerings but have no idea on where and how to start.
Sara Khong puts our worries to rest with “New Malaysian Kitchen” where we can learn to cook Malaysia’s hawker food and tour an edible garden in her cooking class.
The excitement of taking home cooking course from a professional cook and famous culinary author definitely adds some kick to my amateur cooking ability.
Sara in her organic garden
Organic Garden Tour
The cooking class starts with a light appetizer and tea for refreshment. It is during this introduction session when I found out the canape salad I just had is a produce from her organic garden using wild betel leaf, pickled papaya and butterfly pea flower. Sara shares her accident in knocking the papaya fruit from the tree before it ripen so she had to find a way to serve the green papaya.
Her quick save does make the accident worthwhile as the canape salad is well-prepared for. It only raised my anticipation for her edible garden tour. With our straw hats on, Sara takes us on a storytelling session in her garden.
Plant by plant, it is clear that Sara has some serious gardening skills up her sleeves and would generously gave us plant seeds to bring home.
Real Malaysian Kitchen
After harvesting spices and leaves necessary for cooking, we head straight to the kitchen to start my fledgling attempt of making the Malaysia’s National Dish menu for the class.
Besides this, there are two other menus to choose from either hawker fares or Chinatown favourites, each with five recipes of our preferred local cuisines.
In the small cooking group, it is easy to follow the pace as Sara takes us through each step in her instructions and cooking tips. Sara is known for writing cooking books like “Malaysian Meals in 30 Minutes”, “One-Pot Wonders” and “3 Ingredient Recipes” so it is an added perk to receive a personalised recipe booklet from a published chef.
The classes are held on booking basis only so try to book a slot in advance. Overall, the contentment of learning how to “pull” tea, success in wrapping my own nasi lemak and grinding spices using a pestle and mortar are the unsuspecting ingredients that make the food taste even more amazing.
How To Get There
Situated 20 minutes away from KL center, the “New Malaysian Kitchen” is easily accessible via MRT or car-hailing services at Cheras. For train takers, alight at Taman Connaught MRT Station and you will be privately chauffeured to the destination. Additional services like hotel pick-up are available upon request.
Good To Know
• Classes can be conducted in English, Mandarin or Cantonese language
• The private cooking class can only accommodate up to 5 people in a session
• Learners get to go home with Sara’s recipe booklet and extra cooking tips through her friendly follow-up email
New Malaysian Kitchen Cooking Class
Location No.2, Jalan 11, Taman Len Seng, Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur
Website www.newmalaysiankitchen.com
Text and photos by Jessy Wong
