Masterchefing the Tropical Spice Garden Cooking School

Went to another cooking school whilst travelling. My only disappointment was I cooked Indian not Malaysian here in Penang. People of Indian decent do make a good portion of the population so it is still Malaysian. I did though have my heart set on cooking Malaysian street food. Alas the schedule of the Cooking School was not in my favour. Tuesdays class didn't get the required number of bookings. So I had to delay until Wednesday. Alas Low Season on the island.

Not to worry as I eat Tandoori. By the chicken load. Tandoori, Raita,and Naan was the focus of Wednesday's class. In fact it was better than if I ended up doing some soupy fish dish. Only 4 of us in the class. A couple from NZ, and a English lady cooking for 2 (i guess her husband doesn't cook)

The Tropical Spice Garden has a good set up. They're right up away from the main drag of Batu Ferrenghi Beach. They have a small plot along the main road along the coast but are literally the only thing there but for a basic restaurant shack across the road on the beach. Great for being able to set up their own kind of edu-tourism arrangement with this whole tropical forest educational walk through, and then their focus on herbs and spices that they then use in their cooking school. Well done to them. It takes courage to develop this as opposed to the rest of Penang who have the standard basic food stall, or tacky gift shop.

Anyway my cooking school went well. The Roti with the Tandoori wasn't too tough. I went away happy and full. I didn't offer any of my Raita to the big monkeys outside. Didn't want to be attacked for not warning them it had a strong kick at the end. After all I left some of the chilli seeds in.

Meanwhile I suspect this island is quite the place for Robinson Crusoe's making their way from the rest of Malaysia on weekends. They all seem to have a second home here. There are so many new constructions going up over the place I suspect there'll be noone on the mainland soon.

It won't slow the traffic though. Even in gridlock they are driving erratically here. I know I've had enough of the drivers here now because I told off 2 motorcyclists for stalking me on the sidewalk this afternoon. Both decided that waiting in a traffic jam wasn't for them and sidewalk was free but for me. I just heard them come up from behind knowing full well it was probably going to happen, stopped, turned around to see them, and then asked them if they thought they should be there. For the second one I waited until he backed himself out backwards sheepishly. Screw them I thought. There already isn't a sidewalk half the time, and then for the rest they park on it for pedestrians to be forced onto busy roads. I've done my bit. Hopefully police and the rest of pedestrians around here get to realise that their safety could be improved.