Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Five leaves left


A banana leaf lunch at the Royal Selangor Club in KL. We began with an ice-cold lassi. The banana leaf is loaded up with savoury condiments (chopped cucumber in yogurt, mango, deep-fried chilli pods, spicy cabbage) and steamed rice ("with extra vitamin B", said our host). A choice of sauces is ladled on top of the rice - I chose curried daal and then took this picture. Then a sequence of little dishes are passed around - mutton, chicken, beef, and fish - and with the right hand, you scrape up a collection of different flavours and eat. When you're finished, the banana leaf is folded over and removed. A highly efficient way of eating and so tasty that, urged on by everyone around me, I ate much more than I was hungry for as our host and his friends talked Malaysian politics, corruption, legal gossip and compared blood sugar levels (really).

3 comments:

Claire said...

That doesn't look terribly appealing - at first I thought 'Why has LP put a picture of some vomit on a leaf?' - but I'm sure it tasted lovely.

LottieP said...

I blame the camera on my Blackberry, which is not very good with colours, coupled with the fact that I don't really like ostentatiously photographing my food when out with clients (it seems a bit rude) so I tend to rush the shot.

LottieP said...

And yes, it was delicious!