0:03

The chicken rice, Lady. The rice is

0:06

perfectly schmaltzy, not too much,

0:08

just the rhine amount of ginger, just the right

0:10

amount of chicken fat. It's

0:12

gleaming with oil, it's yellow, it's

0:15

so flavorful. But chicken is

0:17

cooked perfectly. Welcome

0:23

to a Way to Go, a production of I Heart Radio

0:25

and Fathom. I'm Jarlin Gerba

0:27

and I'm Pavio Rosatti. Our guest today

0:30

is Aria Abraham, founder of Oria's

0:32

Malaysian Kitchen, a line of sweet and savory

0:34

sauces and jams. When Aria

0:36

moved to the United States to study film scoring

0:39

at the Berkeley College of Music, she never

0:41

planned on staying, but life took

0:43

its turns, and her homesickness from

0:45

Malaysian cuisine led her on a path

0:47

that ended up with a food business in Brooklyn.

0:50

She's so passionate about spreading the word about Malaysian

0:52

food that this year she took a group of Americans

0:55

on a food tour of her home country Oria.

0:58

Welcome, Thank you, Pavia. It's nice

1:00

to be here. We want to

1:02

start area by asking you to tell

1:04

us why you led a group of Americans on a trip

1:06

to Malaysia. Okay, so here I

1:08

am in Brooklyn in the United

1:11

States, where Malaysian cuisine is

1:13

very very still new,

1:16

relatively new to a lot of people. Here

1:18

we are in New York City, where

1:21

you know, there are a lot of Malaysian restaurants,

1:24

people have experienced it. But you

1:26

go further west and most

1:28

people have never heard of Malaysian food. In

1:31

fact, a woman who lives in Chicago, when

1:33

I was telling her about my business, she said

1:36

to me, what is Malaysian food?

1:38

And do I care? Was what

1:40

she said. She had no frame of reference

1:42

for it at all. So here I am

1:45

making sauce and jam

1:47

and selling it. And even

1:50

before that, I

1:53

always loved sharing the food of

1:55

my country because most people haven't experienced

1:57

it yet. And so they go, what

2:00

is it? Is it Thai food? And

2:02

I go, well, we use a lot

2:04

of the same ingredients, but no, it isn't. And

2:06

then they look at me and they say, is it Indian

2:08

food? And I say close, but no,

2:11

cigar, it is Indian

2:13

food, but with a lot of malays influenced

2:16

Chinese influence. And

2:18

you know, I talk about it a lot, and I cook

2:20

it a lot, and I share it a lot. And

2:23

it hit me one day here. I am doing

2:25

this when the wealth of Malaysian

2:28

food is there, and

2:30

why not let people experience

2:33

it? Um. I think that folks are

2:35

intrigued and curious. It's

2:37

interesting and it's nude. It's a relatively newcomer

2:40

on the ethnic food scene

2:42

here and they want to go

2:44

and taste something they've never experienced

2:47

before. And so I am.

2:49

I decided I'll take people with me. I go every

2:51

year anyway, and friends have

2:53

been asking me over theres can I go to Malaysia

2:56

with you? Can I go to Malaysia with you? And

2:58

I've taken folks here and are,

3:01

but it's never been this kind of thing

3:04

where organized a trip, planned

3:07

the you know, the the cities that we would

3:09

stop at, and planned the dishes

3:11

that we we would eat in all the different cities.

3:14

They're all my favorite things, and

3:17

what better way to share them than right there

3:19

in Malaysia and like a hundred degree

3:21

weather and you're eating a spicy, hot

3:24

dish, you know. So it's

3:27

part of my quest to share Malaysian cuisine

3:30

and it's the most fun way to do it,

3:32

I think, is to go there and sit on a rickety

3:34

stool and eat something. Give us the sort of bird's

3:37

eye super quick overview of

3:40

what Malaysian cuisine is and how it got

3:42

to be that way. Okay, so it's a little bit of a history

3:44

lesson. Right. So if you look at a map of Asia,

3:47

Malaysia is that tiny peninsula

3:49

that hangs off the south of Asia. It's

3:51

geographically it's south of Thailand,

3:54

north of Singapore. In the fifteen

3:56

hundreds, a little town

3:58

on the coastline, Calm lack of became a

4:01

very popular ports city.

4:03

Why was it popular because it was sort of in the middle

4:05

of the ship journey from

4:08

Europe to China. We were right

4:11

smack dab in the middle. It was a great place

4:13

to stop, um,

4:15

you know, refill your your restock

4:17

your supplies on your ships, and do

4:20

a little trading and move on. So

4:22

the Portuguese landed in Malaysia, where

4:25

the Malaise had been living peacefully for

4:28

eight centuries, and colonized

4:32

as they did. Yes um.

4:34

And after a few years the Dutch

4:37

came over and said, hey, we want this

4:39

port. We'll colonize this. The

4:41

Dutch colonized at the same

4:43

time the Chinese heart of tremendous

4:47

mining and trading opportunities

4:49

in Malaysia. They came from

4:52

China in ships full of

4:54

immigrants and landed on the on the shores

4:56

of Malaysia. The British then came and

4:58

kicked the Dutch out and said, hey, we'd

5:00

like this spot. Everybody wants their piece

5:02

of Malaysia, that's right. So they landed,

5:05

and that says a lot about that

5:07

particular part of the world. The British

5:09

landed, they developed rubber plantations

5:12

and they brought people from India my

5:14

ancestors to come and work on the rubber

5:16

plantations because they needed labor. They

5:19

needed labor that they had already

5:21

trained. People in India at the time

5:23

had already been colonized by Britain. Everybody

5:25

spoke English, right, so they brought them

5:27

all with them. So because of this multiculturalism

5:31

over the centuries, Malaysian

5:33

food has become these

5:35

this mix of cultures.

5:39

So it's Indian food, yes, But the

5:41

Indians learned about aromatics

5:44

like lemon grass and ganal and kafir

5:46

line leaves that they had never used in their cuisine

5:48

before, but now they were using them.

5:51

The Chinese came with their incredible

5:53

cuisine from China, right, But

5:55

they also learned how to use coconut milk,

5:58

dried shrimp, dried anchovy, two

6:00

flavored dishes. You're making me really hungry.

6:04

Um and the malaise

6:06

learned how to use cardamon

6:08

and cinnamon fresh from Sri Lanka.

6:11

You know that that they were growing there. And this

6:13

is Malaysian cuisine. So it's

6:15

the United Nations of cuisine, I think, exactly,

6:18

that's exactly what it is. So we always

6:20

say America is a melting pot. Malaysia

6:22

is two in its own way,

6:25

It's a melting pot. It really is a melting

6:27

potter pot

6:29

food exactly right. When

6:32

you ask what Malaysian food, it's not a

6:34

one line answer. It can't

6:36

be. When you understand the history, then

6:39

you understand the centuries of coexistence

6:42

lead to what Malaysian cuisine is today.

6:44

Can you tell us a little bit about how you

6:47

went about planning this trip,

6:49

because, like you said, most people

6:51

do not understand where Malaysia

6:53

is on a map, what the influences

6:56

are. So when you were thinking, Okay, I'm going to take a

6:58

group of people over there, where do you

7:00

start, where do you end up, and what do you do in between?

7:03

Okay, So the planning of the

7:05

trip figuring out where I was

7:07

going to go in Malaysia was the easy

7:09

part because this is a trip

7:12

that I do pretty regularly.

7:14

I go to Malaysia to spend time with my family,

7:17

and we drive up the coast,

7:19

the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia, and

7:21

we eat all along the way, and so this

7:23

trip was based on that journey

7:26

that I had done a couple of times before. We

7:28

start in Malacca, which is an hour south of

7:30

my hometown, and we

7:32

eat food that is. Malacca

7:35

is the town that was colonized by the Portuguese.

7:37

There's still a very vibrant Portuguese

7:40

community there, and so the food

7:42

is Portuguese Malaysian with

7:45

lots of European influence

7:47

and stews and curries and

7:50

and cooking methods

7:53

that otherwise would never have come to Malaysia. We

7:55

start there, it's sort of starting at

7:57

the beginning of Malaysia to me, which

8:00

is this town called Malacca. And then we eat

8:02

our way north and we end at Penang,

8:05

which we call the Jewel of the Orient,

8:08

and it's some of the best eating in Asia.

8:11

I think Penang alone, if

8:13

someone was traveling to Malaysia on their own,

8:16

go to Penang for five days. Oh that's

8:18

a good tip because that's how

8:20

long it's going to take you to eat

8:22

your way around Pinang. The food

8:24

is out

8:26

of this world. Um. There's

8:29

a dish called Assa

8:31

Laxa. It's um spicy

8:35

clear broth made with

8:38

mackerel and thick

8:40

noodles sort of like udon um,

8:43

and then all these different toppings

8:45

on top, caluman, sea lime,

8:48

sliced cucumbers, fish, fish

8:50

balls, um, torch

8:53

ginger flower, torched

8:55

ginger flower. Okay, that's

8:58

beautiful. You can google that. It's

9:00

a beautiful flower that has an incredible

9:02

taste, and it's torched. That's

9:05

the name torch because

9:08

it looks like a torch, right, Okay, looks like flaming

9:10

flowers arrive at the table on top of your

9:12

bowl of soup. I love this, Yeah,

9:15

And Anthony Bourdain said it was it's

9:17

one of his most favorite things

9:19

that he had ever eaten in the world. And after

9:21

eating that, he said he was spoiled

9:23

for eating. I wonder if my stomach grumbas are getting

9:25

picked up on the microphone right now. What

9:36

was it like? What was it like to go on a

9:38

trip that you usually do with your family with

9:40

a bunch of presumably strangers. How

9:42

many people did you have with you? So when

9:44

I had set up the trip, I thought, you know, I need

9:47

at least six people. I need at

9:49

least six to make it worth my time, to

9:51

make it worth giving up five days of my

9:53

vacation because the trip was five days

9:55

long. But we only managed to sell three

9:57

tickets. It was not easy for

9:59

me to sell this trip. I think

10:01

it's so far away,

10:04

it's so unknown, and

10:07

maybe there's a level of I

10:09

don't know where I'm going to do. I

10:11

really want to go there to eat a cuisine

10:14

I actually never heard of. And so

10:16

we sold three tickets, and

10:18

part of me was ready to

10:20

abandon the trip because

10:24

I had decided that six

10:26

was the number. What an intimate group you

10:28

probably ended up with. So

10:30

it was great for our first time out

10:33

to have three people, three really

10:35

gung ho folks who are like, take me to Asia

10:38

and feed me um. And so

10:40

what we did was we kind of folded it into

10:42

the family. So

10:45

that's even better. Were they having dinner with your mother

10:49

to which actually, really, I mean, if

10:51

one of the goals of everybody's trip is

10:53

I want an authentic local experience, what

10:56

is more local than Mama's at the table

10:58

with us, with my nieces

11:00

and nephews running around, and you know, and

11:03

so we had a really nice

11:05

time. I was really grateful for that

11:07

experience of doing it on

11:10

those terms because

11:12

it was yes, it was a paid trip

11:14

and I was responsible and everything,

11:16

but it was also folded

11:18

into my time there with my family. I

11:20

didn't feel like I needed to completely separate

11:23

the separate the two, which in my head was

11:27

what I was going was

11:29

how I was going to do it. You didn't just have

11:31

to be the cruise director, that's right, And

11:33

it just was so much warmer, so much

11:35

nicer, and the end of the trip, you

11:37

know, these people were hugging us. It was hard for them

11:39

to leave, and it was really really nice

11:42

by the end of it. You know, they

11:45

were family. What were the surprises

11:47

for you as somebody was putting this

11:49

trip together, And this

11:52

could be in the relationship of the people

11:54

that you were traveling with, or in

11:57

making discoveries in your own home country.

12:00

I see my home country through

12:02

my lens, right, and

12:04

then it's interesting to see it through the

12:07

lens of someone who's never seen it before. So

12:09

there were things that they were pointing out that I

12:12

had always taken for granted, like you

12:15

know how Surramba, my my hometown

12:17

is this small, sleepy town, and

12:20

yet it's so vibrant with

12:22

food culture. I

12:24

just I grew up there. I wasn't thinking on those

12:27

terms. I just knew where to go to get the

12:29

curry luxA. I knew where to go to get

12:31

the chicken rice um, and I knew.

12:34

So it was that. And then it was

12:36

also sort of looking

12:38

at dining

12:41

in Southeast Asia through a Western

12:43

lens, which we just

12:46

accept. The rickety stools,

12:48

the tin roof that starts to leak in

12:50

the middle of your meal. You know, you're sitting

12:52

there, there's a river next to you, it starts

12:54

to drain, the river starts rising. Where are immune

12:57

to all that? We're just like, let's get

12:59

the food. Let's you know, nothing

13:01

else matters. Nothing else matters. Um,

13:04

stray cats, lots

13:06

of stray cats, stray dogs, depending

13:09

on where you are. And you

13:13

know, I want to say yes, but

13:16

don't look at that, just look

13:18

at this food. But I

13:21

think, you know, we can do

13:23

a bit better about keeping the animals

13:25

away at least. And then there's my niece,

13:28

my nieces on the floor feeding the cat, and I'm

13:30

like, kid, what are you doing? You know? And

13:32

I never would have had that thought if there were not

13:34

people sitting at the table who were not accustomed

13:37

to that. That's interest. Were

13:40

your guests Were they looking askance like what's

13:42

that little girl doing feeding that stray cat? No,

13:45

they would say that like is this is

13:47

this normal? And

13:49

I was like, yeah, it is, um

13:52

the floor. There's this one chicken

13:55

rice place in my hometown. It's called

13:57

Diamond Chicken Rice. And the reason why it's called diamond

14:00

chicken rice is because there's a woman who

14:03

her one job is to quarter

14:06

and chop up the chicken and put on the blake. And

14:08

she's an absolute pro. She stands there for four

14:10

hours, that's all she does. And they've

14:12

been doing this business for over thirty

14:15

five years and they are loaded

14:17

because everybody. People come from

14:20

all over Malaysia for diamond chicken rice.

14:22

And she's got a rock on her finger. That's

14:26

just I mean, it's crazy

14:28

and what a visual You just picture her with

14:30

all those chickens. Oh

14:33

yes, her hands are covered in schmaltz.

14:36

She's very uh,

14:38

she's tall and slim and

14:40

she's beautiful. And she's got giant glasses

14:42

and she's standing there. She's chopping this chicken with this

14:45

rock shining and all that chicken fat,

14:47

and the floor is dirty. Right,

14:49

And we walk in and I pick

14:51

up on all the cues. Right. So when

14:54

I'm in a room and I look at people, I know what they're

14:56

responding to a reacting to her. I see

14:58

it without even them saying it. So

15:00

they're looking at the floor. It's money, it's dirty.

15:02

And I've never looked

15:04

at it that way, you know, until

15:07

I went with people who have never seen

15:09

that before. Was it upsetting

15:12

to you or or do

15:14

you feel like you had to justify certain

15:16

things? No? I like to to

15:18

let people have their experience of it and

15:21

process it from

15:23

whatever background they come from. You're

15:25

going to process it however you want.

15:28

At the end of the day, I think the food

15:30

and the family takes center stage.

15:32

Everybody says that they want as

15:35

they want experiences to be as authentic

15:37

as possible. So I'm guessing that if

15:39

I went to that chicken rice place and

15:41

suddenly there was sparkling child floors,

15:44

you would look and say, diamond lady, what

15:46

have you done? What have you done? That's

15:49

right now. I would never want to like sanitize

15:52

an experience for anyone. I want

15:54

you to eat where I where I

15:56

grew up eating, and experience

15:59

it. And it's full lists. You know, what were

16:02

the highlights? What were some of the great things

16:04

that you did when you think back on this trip, What are

16:06

the scenes and the things that just flashed through your minds

16:09

as the oh my god highlights one

16:11

of the Okay, there there two

16:13

highlights for me and for them. One

16:16

was taking them to a place

16:18

in my hometown that makes

16:20

beef noodles. It's um.

16:23

It's a stud brisket on top

16:25

of noodles with a like a dark

16:27

brown sauce, peanuts, uh,

16:30

pickled cabbage, um

16:33

and beef balls and soup.

16:36

And I ate that every Friday afternoon

16:39

after school with my mom before we

16:41

went to the market and then got in a rickshaw

16:44

to go home with all the marketing. And

16:46

it has stayed the way that they

16:49

have made it all these years.

16:51

I think I was ten when I started going there.

16:53

I'm fifty, so they've

16:55

been making that at least for forty years.

16:58

And it was so great to

17:01

take them there and

17:03

to share that with people, and

17:05

it was so good and comes in a small size and a large

17:07

size, and you know when people

17:09

are going to sit down and eat something they've never

17:11

eaten before. Some are like,

17:14

you just laid on me whatever it is

17:17

I'm going to eat, and some are a little more cautious.

17:19

Start with a small. Yeah, I'll start with a small,

17:21

and then then a few minutes

17:23

later, can I can? I have another one? Um?

17:26

And I love that. That's my favorite thing.

17:29

You ate something you didn't know, you

17:31

were a little cautious

17:33

about it, and now you're totally converted.

17:35

Love it. And the second

17:38

highlight is sitting at the bar

17:41

on the beach and Pennang watching the sunset

17:43

before knowing that you're going to

17:46

go and have this amazing dinner. As

17:48

soon as the sun went down, the beaches

17:50

and Pinnang are amazing, and you sit

17:52

and you watch the sunset and

17:55

you have a few drinks and it's

17:59

just otherworldly.

18:12

It sounds so magical. I'm wondering was

18:15

its smooth sailing the whole time or were there

18:17

any hiccups or travel

18:19

fiascos that you had to kind of yeah

18:22

what yah? Yeah,

18:24

yeah, so we had not to

18:26

travel fiasco but directive. Then I gave

18:28

everybody was never to drink water that

18:30

came out of a tap, just to

18:33

be safe. Listen, I drink anything

18:35

and everything there, but I grew up there and my system

18:37

is accustomed to it, and I just

18:40

was taking care of people from the West and I just

18:42

needed to make sure they were not

18:44

exposed to bugs or

18:47

kills. A trip faster than not being able

18:49

to leave the bathroom. Thank you, thank you. Yes.

18:51

Yeah. So especially a food trip,

18:54

especially a food trip, because then you know,

18:57

if on the second day of your food trip somebody

18:59

gets sick in the next five days, everybody's

19:02

like, exactly,

19:04

so we we don't want that. So I was trying to be very,

19:07

very very very careful with that. One of

19:09

my guests decided to get fruit,

19:12

caught up cut fruit from a roadside

19:14

stand. I was trying to get her

19:16

not to eat it, and she was

19:18

gung ho, but it was I think it was day

19:20

four or something, and she's like, no, I'll be fine, I'll

19:22

be fine. And I said, you know, I really

19:25

don't want you to do that. I

19:27

really really put

19:30

down the mango, but don the mango, lady,

19:32

and nobody always never

19:36

resist. And you know, it's beautiful you

19:38

know, in Asia they have knife skills

19:40

for day. Right.

19:44

The other thing that folks

19:47

might not have been prepared for is how hot it

19:49

is in Malaysia. It's hot

19:51

but wearing an air conditioned van. The

19:54

hotel rooms are air conditioned, but

19:56

when you're traveling around, Uh,

19:58

Malaysians will sit down and eat a bowl

20:01

of steaming hot soup on

20:03

a and eight degree day because

20:06

we are convinced it makes you feel better. Right.

20:08

I don't think they're totally wrong, but I

20:10

don't think I'm totally wrong. Yeah. And

20:12

as for me, you know, I make samball. I

20:14

don't just all throughout the winter, I

20:17

don't really crave it, but as soon as the hot

20:19

weather hits, I'm eating more of it.

20:21

I find I just realized this last

20:23

week that when it's hot, I crave

20:25

the chili peppers more. Yeah, what

20:27

did you learn about yourself on this trip? I

20:31

always say that I don't like people, and

20:36

uh, and I say it a lot um,

20:41

But I think I'm wrong about that. I

20:43

think I like people. Can

20:46

you imagine to realize that at fifty um,

20:48

I think that I don't like people that I don't know?

20:50

It takes a lot for me too, it

20:53

takes a lot for me to let someone in um

20:57

And I think what I learned

20:59

about myself on this trip is,

21:02

you know, if people have decided

21:04

to give you five days of their lives,

21:07

in general, I think they want

21:10

to be around you, they want to be where you're going,

21:12

and it's okay to share yourself

21:16

with folks. I mean, I imagine that

21:18

people are asking all sorts of things, not

21:20

just about the food. They're asking about how you grew

21:22

up. But your home life was like that, your brother

21:24

and sisters were like So it

21:27

probably gets intimate pretty fast,

21:29

especially a group of three. I guess that's why it

21:31

was. If it was a group of six or whatever

21:33

it was that I had planned originally, it

21:35

might not have resulted in that. But this

21:38

was definitely intimate. If

21:40

you were telling someone how to plan this trip, if Patty

21:43

and I were looking to go and you aren't going to be

21:45

there, what would be the piece of advice

21:47

that you gave us to help us jump start our

21:49

own trip. Don't eat in the hotels.

21:53

Don't eat in the hotel, seek out the

21:55

places. I mean, I've I've written

21:58

lists of places for people. Uh,

22:00

you know, friends will say, oh, my girlfriend is going

22:02

to Malaysia for three days. Where

22:04

should she eat? I already have it in

22:06

an email because I've sent it repeatedly, So

22:08

you just copy and paste it. You wrote it for

22:10

Fathom. Oh yeah, that's that's right. But yeah,

22:13

you need to go outside of the comfort

22:15

and the hotels are air conditioned. It's

22:17

nice. You can eat anything

22:19

you want. It's the a c is down to

22:21

like sixty five degrees. But no, get

22:24

out of that. You're going to Asia.

22:27

Step out of your comfort zone. Look for

22:30

the you know the the

22:32

there's in Penang. There's a place

22:34

called End of the World Seafood. It's

22:37

at the top of the island. It's on

22:39

a cliff. It's you

22:41

have to go off the main road and drive on a

22:43

little dirt road to find it. Go

22:46

go, That's where the fish just jumped

22:48

out of the sea, the crabs, the

22:50

shrimp, um. The food

22:53

at the End of the World is out of this world. Yes,

22:56

so you've talked about the chicken rice, You've talked

22:58

about the beef soup. It's

23:00

the sort of place where every

23:02

restaurant has its little specialty.

23:04

And by restaurant, I mean like every stand

23:07

with the tin roof that leaks when it rains,

23:09

like you were saying, yes, yes,

23:11

yes, exactly right. So I was just talking about

23:13

this with my husband the other day. The thing about

23:16

eating in Asia, and in

23:18

Malaysian in particular. A hawker

23:20

learns how to make one dish. It's

23:23

probably something they learned from their

23:25

family, and they make one dish

23:27

and they make it forever. It's there

23:29

one thing, right, and

23:33

so imagine the

23:36

level of perfection that they

23:38

have achieved with this dish.

23:40

The chicken rice, lady. The rice is

23:43

perfectly smaltsey, not too much,

23:45

just the right amount of ginger, just the right

23:47

amount of chicken fat. It's

23:50

gleaming with oil. It's yellow, it's

23:52

so flavorful. The chicken is

23:54

cooked perfectly. It's

23:56

dunked in hot water. It's only boiled. It's

23:59

boiled. And then she chops

24:01

it up, puts it on a plate and sauces it. She's

24:03

been making the sauce. She's been saucing this chicken

24:06

for forty years. She's got the perfect

24:08

balance, the sweet soy, the

24:10

sesame, the black soy, the

24:12

cilantro perfection.

24:14

These hawkers, who I

24:17

have the utmost respect for, have

24:19

been making these dishes. This

24:21

one dish forever. So

24:24

just this main sorry, that dinner would be a movable

24:26

feast, right, go to one stand for the soup

24:28

course, then I'd go to someone else for something else.

24:30

Okay. So in Malaysia

24:33

we have what we call the hawker centers.

24:35

So it's basically somebody found a piece

24:37

of land, put down a cement floor

24:40

and a tin roof and and then rents

24:42

out space hawker spaces

24:44

around the perimeter. So you walk in

24:46

the middle is full of tables and

24:49

chairs, uh, and the sides

24:51

are hawkers and you walk around

24:53

and you pick what you want to eat, and

24:56

you give them a table number and they'll bring it to your table.

24:59

So you're sitting and you're eating something from

25:01

this hawker, something from a hawker over

25:03

there, and something from somebody the original

25:06

food court. Yes, is

25:08

there anything that you would want to add to the trip or

25:10

anything you would want to do differently? What

25:12

we didn't do last time was a cooking class.

25:16

Perhaps a cooking class and coal a lump or

25:18

a cooking class is so nice because that's

25:20

something I found when I travel, I like to

25:23

come back and recreate or attempt

25:25

to recreate a favorite meal. It's

25:27

a nice way to extend the trip. Yes, and then

25:29

there's a wet market. I think that

25:31

everybody needs to go to the wet market.

25:34

We didn't do this last time, but I would love

25:36

to take folks to the wet market just to see

25:39

how different

25:42

life is on the other side of the globe.

25:44

Would you define really quickly what a wet market is.

25:47

Wet market is an Asian market that sells

25:49

everything produce. There's a produce section,

25:52

there's um, a pork section,

25:54

a beef section, a chicken section. In

25:56

the I guess we call it a wet market

25:58

because the the vendors

26:01

are spraying down the vegetables and

26:03

whatever. The floors are all wet. It's dirty.

26:06

It's probably the dirtiest place you

26:08

will experience, um, even though they're

26:10

constantly rinsing it off. Well yeah, uh,

26:13

you know, the fruit and the vegetables come

26:15

straight from the farms, and they have covered in sand

26:18

and soil, and that's everywhere.

26:20

That's all over the floors. You will see

26:23

fruit and vegetables that look

26:25

like they came from an alien from from

26:27

you know, somewhere else in a hundred years. You won't see those

26:29

things here. Torch ginger flowers

26:32

torch ginger flowers. Do have a line

26:34

of samballs and sauces that you make

26:36

that people can buy their sweet and their savory

26:39

and you can. I mean, we've covered these on

26:41

Fathom and we included them as great

26:43

holiday gifts for people who are who

26:45

love travel and food. Um,

26:48

so people can order your food. Yes,

26:50

these sauces and do they and they come with little

26:52

recipe cards recipe cards, Yes they

26:55

do. If somebody wanted a starter because

26:57

they're so intrigued by what we've told them about

26:59

malay Asian cuisine being the u n of

27:02

food, what would the sauce be that you think

27:04

is a good starter sauce for Malaysian cuisine.

27:06

I have. I make a lime

27:09

leaf somball. It's a green chili

27:11

pepper sauce flavored with maccruit lime leaves.

27:13

Maccruit lime leaves to me, encapsulates

27:17

the idea of Malaysian food for

27:19

me, it's such a beautiful fragrance,

27:21

um and flavor. And

27:24

so with that jar, you can make a hundred

27:26

things with it and you'll feel like you're

27:28

in Malaysia. Put it on some salmon, stick it in

27:30

the fridge, sorry, stick it in the oven

27:33

and your house will smell like southeastdays.

27:35

When people say to you, I want to eat good Malaysian food,

27:37

where should I go? What are the places

27:39

New York? Or there's a place in l a that

27:41

you love. Just the quick hits. Our listeners are from all

27:44

over the country. In New York City,

27:46

come to New York City. Go to a place called

27:48

the Malay Restaurant. It's

27:51

in Flushing, Queens And that's the closest

27:53

thing you'll get to eating in Malaysia,

27:56

including the rickety stools and

27:58

the dirty floor. Are they open

28:00

for lunch? Because it keeps hearing

28:02

my stomach. You

28:05

have to go to Queens for the best Malaysian

28:07

food. And also now in

28:09

um in Chinatown

28:12

in Manhattan is CopM

28:15

is uh a

28:17

Chinese Malay concept. It means coffee

28:19

shop and uh. The

28:21

copy dam here in

28:23

in in Chinatown makes

28:26

the most beautiful Nionia,

28:29

which is a type of cuisine inside

28:31

Malaysia, dishes

28:33

and desserts. And every time

28:36

they their Instagram gets me harder

28:39

than anything on Instagram. Yeah,

28:41

so go go to copy dam right

28:43

here um in Chinatown. Excellent.

28:46

Well, thank you so much, Aria for joining us

28:48

today. Thanks for having me it's such a pleasure

28:50

to be here. Thanks for making me so hungry.

28:53

I think we're ready to go to Malaysia and

28:55

that's our show. Thanks for listening. If

28:58

you like what you heard, please subscribe, and

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29:31

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