Wrapping up Malaysia

I'm back on the Western side of the world writing this. The last 48 hours in Malaysia combined with the mind numbing 30 hours worth of travel time - during which I swear I saw the wicked witch fly by on her broom outside the plane window - makes it feel like I left some unfinished business for this post. So here are my final culinary moments of what was an amazing experience.

We returned to Sesame for dinner. I opted not to get the braised goose foot this time (been there), but there was one item on the menu that matched my "to eat" list - abalone. Now at the time I ordered this I had no idea what abalone are. So how could it be on my list? Marketing. Pure marketing. It was during the night we spent in Hong Kong when I saw about three ads in a matter of three seconds for abalone. Sure I could have immediately went to the know-it-all (aka Wikipedia) but where's the fun in that? Truth is, I just forgot to look it up.

Turns out abalone are just edible snails, but are considered a delicacy in the Southeast Asia. Preparation of common abalone dishes can take all day, and are considered a real draw (hence all the ads). At Sesame though I had abalone in a cheesy tart that was so familiar that I swore Ms. Marie Calendar was in the kitchen. So while it was tasty, I think I missed out on the true flavor of abalone.


The next coarse was a gorgeous and delicious rack of lamb with veggies in a Szechuan sauce. Probably not so much Malaysian, but fantastic nonetheless. Jasmine tea in the background.

We wrapped up the meal with some complimentary sesame ice cream.



I wrote a LOT about the bacon shop. It would have a tragedy if I had left without at least tasting some of it. Fortunately my co-worker Dan decided that we might all want to try some. So he decided to pick some up ... or should I say he took every piece the store had. Seriously! He ordered what he thought was a "normal" amount - 500 g - only to see all but two pieces exit the case. He couldn't let them those two occupy that large case by themselves (they'd surely feel like rejects), so he asked the vendor to toss them in the bag too, thus completing the clean-up.

We snacked on the bacon at work. Dan got the square kind which was coated in a sweet glaze. Do I even need to say that it was delicious?

And after taking a bite of the bacon, clicking our heels three times, and saying "there's nothing as tasty as airplane food" we found ourselves eating something at 30,000 feet elevation in the middles of a 30 hour travel "day".