Fruit Salad: guava, mangoseteen, mango, apple, pink grapefruit, rambutan, rose apples, and jack fruit

Food is such an all encompassing aspect of life here that I thought it was deserving of its own category. Let me see if I can do the eating experience justice.

The smell of lunch fills the air and like one of Pavlov’s dogs, by 11 am my mouth is already watering with anticipation . I want to close my eyes and absorb every flavor, but that may not be appropriate in polite company. Creamy coconut is infused with cinnamon, cloves, mustard seeds, cumin, anise, lemon grass, and chili. The chili burns my mouth. And I like it. I keep coming back for more. The burning in my mouth only intensifies the flavors. But taste is not the only sense that is stimulated. Bright red curry contrasted against white rice reminds me of a surreal white moon floating in a red sky, and the silky texture of tofu feels good inside my burning mouth.

The fusion of three different culinary traditions plus a ready supply of local ingredients makes the food in this country so wonderful.

A perfect example is curry mee. Mee are yellow noodles made from flour that hail from the Chinese. Usually the Chinese eat them in a clear broth, but here the mee is eaten in a bowl of coconut milk based curry with tofu and prawns. Malaysian curry is different from Indian curry because it is thicker and the base paste adds pounded sardines to the usual pounded chili and garlic. The result is a spicy and hot noodle dish.