Cameron Highlands, Malaysia: Tea plantations and strawberries

To get to the Cameron Highlands you have to endure a six hour bus journey from Penang. The lack of sleep, and the news story from the week before about the tourist coach trip that went fatally wrong is really enough to put anyone off going there. The roads there are windy, steep and narrow and with the coach driver taking sharp corners at 60mph you spend most of the journey there with your eyes shut hoping to arrive in one piece. But once you get there you realise it was all worth it.

You are 4,940 feet above sea level and the air is refreshingly cool. You start to feel some normality come back to your head as sleeping is easier and the town has a familiar feel about it.

The trip to the tea plantations and strawberry fields is well and truly what made my trip to Malaysia. I have decided it is one of those natural wonders, a bit like the Grand Canyon, that you can see photos of a million times, but never truly appreciate or understand its beauty until you are there in person.

Every inch of the tea plantation was covered in tea plants. The plantation produces the equivalent of 820,000 cups of tea per day which is distributed internationally. It was so calming there and beautiful. We, of course, had the obligatory cup of tea and cake which was delicious, and then moved onto the strawberry farm.

The strawberry farm was very similar to a pick your own farm in England, but somehow the strawberries tasted nicer, and everything was much cheaper. Whilst we were there we had a punnet and a strawberry milkshake. If all this talk has got you in the mood for something strawberry, here is how you make a delicious strawberry milkshake:

Ingredients

• 8 – 10 fresh strawberries
• 2 small glasses of fresh cold milk
• A scoop of vanilla ice cream
• 4 ice cubes
• A spoonful of honey
• Mint leaves to garnish (optional)

How to make it

Step one: remove the green stem of the strawberries and wash them.

Step two: place all but one of the strawberries, milk, ice cream, ice cubes and spoon full of honey into a food blender and blend until all of the ingredients are mixed up.

Step three:  Serve into a glass and garnish with a mint leave or small slices of the remaining strawberry.

Enjoy!

Next blog entry: Singapore Sling and Songs of the Sea

Malaysia…….a food identity crisis!

Those people that know me will know that I have an abnormal memory for food. You could ask me what I ate on my 21^st birthday, or what I ate at a restaurant on holiday five years ago and I will remember. Unfortunately this is sad but true.

The trouble is, and this strikes me as slightly strange, I can barely remember anything we ate in Malaysia, and hence the title of this blog “Malaysia….A food identity crisis”.

What little memory I do have is filled up with a strange mixture of Thai, Indian and Western style dishes which all left me feeling a little uninspired. It was almost as if Malaysia didn’t have a food identity of its own, they have just filled their menus up with dishes from elsewhere. I am sure this is completely misguided and I just went to the wrong places. If you have been there and stumbled upon some great dishes, please add a comment below.

Having read back through my journals, vague memories of venturing off to a small family run Indian restaurant down a seedy back alley in Penang come flooding back. With no idea how to read the menu or what to order I took advice from a local (probably a bad idea) and ordered a chicken dish wish nearly blew my head off. I just couldn’t eat it.

 I also remember a group of us ordering a stir-fry in one restaurant and out came a full blown fondue style set with raw chicken, eggs, vegetables and noodles, for us all to share and cook up in whatever way we wanted. It was fun, but I have to say it tasted bland.

The country itself was also a bit of a mixed bag however I have amazing memories of the Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur. My next blog will be about the Cameron highlands which deserves an entry to itself.

Next blog entry: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia: Tea plantations and strawberries.