Royal Selangor Pewter Factory, Kuala Lumpur

The Royal Selangor Pewter Factory is a must visit museum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It is one of the best known Pewter brands in the world. 

Even Harry Potter bought a pewter cauldron ,standard size 2 and I'll bet my book case,that that cauldron came from here.

A dull grey alloy, that can be shaped to make durable objects and some objets d'art. 

 A guided tour of the factory reveals its colonial history and how one family and some royal patronage has gone on to shape such  widely exported products.
They export to India too BTW. We were informed by the almost invisible employees of the museum.
Such concentration...
Had i ever toiled with such concentration, i would have cracked the exams of the entire world. All I can garner at the moment -scant scenes from  my English lit class...

Double,double toil and trouble
Fire burn and caldron bubble...

OK, the lady was making beakers...

Passing them on to her neighbor who hammered them so...I so wonder who she was thinking of, when she hammered those even wedges onto the glass?

 We tried the same at the School of Hard Knocks. Just after the museum tour finished.
First the name is hammered onto the pewter disc...I hammered the boys names too. I was missing them.
And you try your best not to hammer your fingers...

Like Sneha here...

While posing for a group  pic. 

 These were stationed at every table...they assume you know how to spell and hammer. These are slim metal rods with letters in reverse. Just like the type writer keys of yore.                                                                                                                           

 
 Now that very disc is placed on that hole in the wooden block and you hammer away. I will never reveal whose head I was imagining under that pewter disc.
Never.
Ever.

 And finally Smiles.
Shonita found the right use for her pewter disc.
Only it was too small.
We really needed this...

The largest  beer tankard in the world.2796 litres weighing almost 1600kilos. Imagine the size of the hand that will be able to lift such a tankard. Maybe Orion?

That was the complete knock.

Collections and souvenirs and objects you can buy here are many. I loved this chess set...but it was way out of my budget.

royal selangor.com

This chess set is limited edition, from the Lord of The Rings series. Recognise the chess men? There are Hobbit glasses you can drink from and even Smegul/Golum shot glasses to drink from. 

And you pay for them with INR. Check out the Lord Of The Rings Collections at the Royal Selangor.    

This museum was time and money well spent.

Steeped in history, one will never know how many men have given their lives  to mine this dull grey Malaysian treasure.

So what are you visiting today???                                                          

Some Shopping at the Mega Shopping Festival, KL and Penang

#MalaysiaJao and Shopping. That's what we were here for.
So agenda on course.
Shopping.

This is the Mitsui Outlet Park,KLIA Sepang. Yes,the Japanese Mitsui.

So close to the KLIA ,that you can shop between flights. This outlet park has just a season old stuff.
On Sale.
And the deals are great. So its a fab way to spend time if you are waiting for a connecting flight.
The Mitsui Brand Outlet is Swanky and has discounts galore , I found a bag at an amazing price.
Le Creuset also had an outlet at almost 50% discount.  But I had a lot to shop for before buying cast iron pans.

Yes ,I know ... make decisions in haste and cry every time you fry an egg later.
I cant believe that I chose a handbag over a cast iron pan.
Vanity !

I had an agenda.
An emotionally expensive agenda.
A story that deserves its own place in this blog post.
There was another bag too...
A backpack.
Nike.

Nike.com

The goddess of Victory.
Which I finally found at the Gurney Plaza Shopping Mall, under the moonlight ,by the sea.
The shopping mall at a hopping distance from the g hotel Kelawai where we were staying.
And when I actually found and bought what I was made to...it was that elusive feeling of having climber Mt Olympus.
The back packs ...were the subject of many calls and whatsapp messages. Let me just say that Calling and Internet services in Malaysia are just great.
And then the AirMax.
Even though these are the third on his shelf...

Which one do you think I bought? Ah the second...

Yes, the second. By virtue of the fact that EU size 45 is not available in black. Mine would have had heels BTW.
And after all the scouting in Bukit Bintang, KL( Pavilion, Berjaya Times Square, Fahrenheit 88, Starhill Gallery, Sephora,Lot 10  and Mitsui Brand Outlet Park), I finally found the AirMax2015 in Queensbay Mall, Penang .
One of the largest malls in Penang,here I also found what I had been looking for.

Porcelain.

And Tea.

 And some tea pots...

 Oolong tea...Somewhere in here,but my box definitely had Oolong.

 And a lesson on how to brew and pour tea at the Purple cane Tea house, Queensbay Mall.

And some Korean sheet face masks and also some local perfumes in pretty recycled bottles that are painted.

 The bottles are brought back by the customers for a discount of RM 5 .

 And some employees paint them.

The perfumes were all for about RM 79.00. Not a bad deal at all.
After dinner at The Bayview Hotel Three Sixty° Revolving Restaurant and Sky Bar we went to visit Batu Ferrenghi, the night market in Penang.
Of course, some more shopping...

But my owls deserve another blog post.


So what are you shopping for today???

360° View- As High As You Can Get- Malaysian Holiday-Atmosphere 360°

The climb may be tough ,but the view from the top is always worth it.

Our last evening in Kuala Lumpur ended in a truly spectacular place. The revolving restaurant @KL Tower,Atmosphere 360°.
The restaurant is atop a tower with an observation deck and the revolving restaurant on top. With probably the fastest elevator around(any lift is fast if you compare them to our lifts in Mumbai), the ride to the observation deck takes less than 40 secs.
The Menara Kuala Lumpur is the 7th tallest free standing tower in the world. 

The entrance lobby is decorated breath takingly with the Muqarnas pattern with  beautifully inlaid diamante crystals.

 It was a little difficult to capture the image of the geometric patterns, primarily because of the lights and flashes going off everywhere. The pattern is based on a millennia old geometric pattern that is specifically done by the  Iranian craftsmen from Isfahan.
The observation deck was full of families beautifully dressed in the Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung, patiently waiting for Iftaar.

This group of kids thought I was positively nuts, when I asked if they would smile for me for a picture...

You can see the Petronas Towers from here. Also visible was the shopping district , the Golden Triangle and Bukit Bintang ,and the Pavilion Shopping Mall  and the Royale Chulan Hotel that we had just visited.
That is why its called the observation Deck.
Close to Iftaar time, we moved to the restaurant.
What struck me first was the view.

And then the food was another visual treat.
We had been introduced to the best of Malaysian Cuisines already, but this was a spread.
I only wish I had been 10 years younger, I would have eaten so much more.

Always start with desserts first.

But here, that is not a good idea. All these desserts and more you can eat again, but the fish...

OK ,this is where I tried the tuna carpaccio and the mussels and the scallops and there were oysters too.

The trick with raw fish is COLD and lots of lemon juice.

And if your nostrils can take it...wasabi.

OK, this was not my plate, just the other food blogger with us,this crab leg was what I really wanted to try, and it was fabulous.

That was my plate with the chicken satay and peanut sauce and the Roti Jala and Chicken Murtabak, the roti similar to our Baida Roti and the relish was pulled meat Serunding Daging.

The satays were super fast moving...

especially the Chicken satay.

And that was cooked shell fish.

And some fabulous Gado-Gado salad.

The company was good, the view fantastic and the food ,even better.Now that the palette had gotten used to the flavors of the region, the food was just WOW!

I only rue the fact that I couldn't eat any more of the crab.

The only thing I wouldn't have tried was the custard made with Durian. Was I grateful that my Allergic Rhinitis had played up exactly then allowing me to not smell the Durian.

So when are you going to Atmosphere 360°???

Penang Food Trail of Authentic Char Kuay Teow and Cendol

The most interesting bit of my Malaysian Holiday was the trip to Penang. I know This was a shopping trip ,but my shopping was more of the curios kind. More of that later.

travelmalaysiaguide.com

The most authentic Malaysian meal was the one we sampled at Georgetown,Penang.

Just like our desi home style dhaba eateries, this one dished out the most fabulous stuff.

I had sampled Char Kuay Teow at KL and once before at a Malaysian Food festival in a hotel. I can safely say, this was by far the best. 

Inspiring me to try out something similar.

So now that I have been reading about it, our Tour Guide John Khor knew his stuff.

This Mom and Pop joint serves the best.

We tried the Cendol-appropriate for the summertime heat.

After sampling this the third time,I still couldn't get over the Rajma-red Kidney beans in a sweet.

All I could think of was the spiciest curry served with rice or tortillas being dunked into mince spiked Red kidney bean Chilli.

Char Kuay teow and nutmeg drink

enjoy the char kuay teow and see the size of the sprouted mung bean

Laksa,super spicy fish soup.

Rojak

So I'll pass.

Then the Char Kuay Teow.

Served in a plastic plate and banana leaf,the thing that stood out were the jumbo prawns.

Jumbo.

And juicy.

And the giant mung bean sprouts.

I have been trying to sprout my mung beans or moong dal forever. But no matter how warm or how dark my chosen spot is, my sprouts are never the Jack and the beanstalk kind-plump and juicy.

These were.

the right way to use chopsticks

And according to John Khor,our tour guide ,these were OK, I should see the giant ones.

If the place had been crowded ,I would have fallen off the plastic chair.

And to cut the spicy heat ,nutmeg drink. This is a syrup that is made of boiling the outer soft nutmeg fruit and sugar almost 8 hours.

It was sweet ,fizzy and nice. I checked up,remember ,I am DIY mad.

jumbo prawns and fried tofu-boring

And this was rojak.
Fried and served with a sweet shrimp sauce and crushed peanuts.

But I went back to the Char Kuay Teow.

she knows whos the boss!

The little lady who made this had a surprising amount of energy ,considering her wrinkle lined face. And the poor husband in the blue Tshirt was just being bossed around. At least that's what it sounded like. They were speaking the Hokkien dialect of Chinese here.

Similar stuff was up for grabs at the Perisian Gurney Food drive,Penang.

Only,by the time we reached they were cleaning up. So we had to just make do with the 7/11 store.

More coming up on what you must eat while in Malaysia.

So what are you baking today???