Popagandhi

I love whirlwind last minute adventures with no apparent purpose. It makes everything feel right and puts everything into perspective for me, stripped down to just one set of clothing and a bunch of notes.

I’ve stayed put at home long enough (slightly over a month), so I’m leaving in an hour’s time for Kuala Lumpur, sleeping in Kajang, then to eat lunch in a jungle in Hulu Langat (no idea where — near the Negeri Sembilan border?) tomorrow, and coming back almost immediately after. It’s a good thing I can’t drive, or I’d be driving up to Krabi or Bangkok for dinner. Maybe my conception of time and distance has been skewed by my time in South Asia — but 5 hours and 300 -ish kilometres are what I’m used to travelling on a daily basis there (in fact, I once drove 8 hours to get to the nearest airport, in Guwahati; to catch a 12pm flight I had to leave my hotel room in Cherrapunjee at 3am). So why not in time for lunch or dinner in Kuala Lumpur — or in today’s case, Hulu Langat?

I’m on the search for the holy grail of Malay cooking (where ‘holy grail=anything that surpasses Z’s grandma’s cooking’; that is, rarely anything), and I’ve finally come into the acquaintance of foodies in Malaysia, so there’s no stopping me now. I’m just happy I have friends who are as hungry as I am, and family who don’t bat an eyelid when I do the things I do (like “I’m going to KL to eat lunch” and “I met a man in Bombay who asked me to meet him in the world’s wettest place, so I’m going to Bangalore, Bangladesh and Northeast India next week, for a month!”).

So. Kajang satay or kari campur at Nasi Kandar Pelita tonight, a Malay feast in Hulu Langat tomorrow; pictures and review of Sarang Murai when I’m back. I’ve wanted to eat there for year and I can’t believe I’m actually going — in between environmental change policy class and international economics.

Update: Lunch was fantastic, but that’ll be a separate post. I gave my trip a bit more purpose by staying for dinner at Flam’s (again). Pretty much slurped up my soup and prosecco, stuffed myself with flams, oysters, squid ink pasta and chocolate cake and hopped into a night train by myself five minutes later. Got to hang out with the Malaysian lesbian blogger (the one with the broken gaydar) and, you know, show her around her own turf.