Penang, Malaysia - Cooking with Pearly

Cooking with Pearly

After going to the Market we went to Pearly's house aka the cooking instructor and made pork belly with brown sauce, curry with chicken, and shrimp in a coconut lime sauce...

Then we sat down and ate our yummy food.

We bought a lot of fruit at the market, but we didn't know we couldn't take it on the ship, so we had a fruit picnic.

Penang, Malaysia - Market Tour

In Penang my mom, dad and I went to this awesome cooking class.

First, we went to the market and looked at all the yummy food and we ate some food too.

We ate a string hopper, which is rice noodle and shaved coconut with brown sugar all mixed together, and it was really good. We also had blue rice cake with coconut jam. It was a big clump of sticky rice that was blue that had this really yummy coconut jam, that had almost a caramel consistency and color, that was spread on top. The third one I did not like that much, it was like a sandwich but the bread was sticky rice and the meat and cheese was a ginger paste that my mom really liked.

There was also this thing called a peanut crumpet and the pan that they used to make it had been passed down from father to son. He does not wash the pan, he only wipes it with a towel because the pan is already seasoned. It is like a thick pancake that was never flipped over on the other side and so the side that was not flipped over was all bubbly and it had brown sugar and peanuts on top. It was very good but was not my favorite; the string hopper was my favorite.

We also had a coconut seed that was cut in half and Pearly,the cooking instructor, said it was like a sponge that was all soaked up in coconut juice.

We had some jackfruit which is my dad's favorite. Jackfruit looks like a little tiny mango and it tastes like juicy fruity gum except juicy fruity gum does not have a big pit in it (I mean the last time a checked it didn't) Did you know that Juicyfruit gum was based on Jackfruit?

We also saw this really interesting thing to at the market! Did you know that are such things as black chicken's ?!?!? Of course if you have ever seen them alive they are not black they are a silver gray but when you take off the feather's they are black and maybe you are wondering does that still mean that they have white egg's? You are correct but the cooking instructor has never opened one she has just heard that they are white. We also saw black covered eggs the cooking instructor did not even know what it was.

Then we left the market and went to her house and started cooking!

Once Upon A Time - in the pool

Once Upon a time there was a girl named Katarina. Katarina loved to swim and she swam almost every day she also loved talking. One day when she was in the pool she bumped into this lady named Pauline , Pauline was from Australia and was a retired High School teacher. Pauline heard Katarina talking to a lady from Sydney and Pauline said is that lady from Sydney and Katarina was shocked and Katarina said "How did you know she was from Sydney",  Pauline said I could tell by her accent. A couple hours later Katarina was talking to a man from Manchester and after she was finished talking to him she swam over to Pauline and said did you know that man was from Manchester by his accent, Pauline said No I did not but Pauline did know a great new  name for Katarina. So she said to Katarina I have a new name for you said Pauline and Pauline said Katarina Chatterbox because you talk to so many people.

And Katarina swam happily ever after in the pool!

The End

Mumbai, India - Hands on Curry

Today we went to Mumbai and did a cooking class with Jenny at "Hands on Curry". We started off
by getting to know each other better and apparently Jenny used to have a chocolate cake business and she did that for 12 years. Then Jenny started a cooking class. After we got to get to know each other she did a very formal welcome where she put a red dot on our forehead and put a marigold flower necklace on us.

Let's start cooking!



First she made a traditional lentil and curry soup called Dal and it tasted really good. Then she made what she calls a dry chicken.




She also made Peas Palau which is rice and peas with clarified butter and the smell was so floral and it tasted so yummy (I may have gone for 5th's).



She also made beet raita which has beets and yogurt and it was for if there was anything on the table that was spicy the beet raita is used to cool it down. It is also used to make a splash of color on the table. They also had really yummy nan bread.



There was also Paneer which is soft Indian cheese with cilantro green peppers and onions and it was really good.






After we ate we went to the market and saw lots of yummy fruits like longon which is a has a hard shell and the inside is a like a litchi and it was wonderful. There was also a mangosteen which has a plum color on the outside but a white color on the inside. The inside tastes like a bunch a different types of fruit and it was beautiful.        

Travel or Clothes

We travel a lot and I asked my dad "Why do we spend more money on travel then we do clothes?" For instance we could spend $30.00 on a dress or you could go to Chanel or Gucci and buy a dress for $3,000.00. My dad said we do not buy any expensive clothes because we could buy 3 dresses from chanel and it would cost  $9,000 dollars or we could go to Tuscany Italy for 3 months. Whether  I spent $30 or $3,000 dollars on a dress I would grow out of it in 6 months. But when we travel, I know that it will last a life time.

Dubai, U.A.E - HOHO

On March 27, 2017,  we were in Dubai and we got off the ship at 9am and went on a HOHO (Hop-on-Hop-off).

We saw the Burj Kalifa which is the tallest building in the world. We also saw some other things too like the Dubai Mall which had an amazing waterfall with a bunch of divers jumping in but, we did not see that.

We went to a Muslim Mosque and my mom and I got an abaya and my dad got a turban.

After the Mosque we went to the Dubai Mall for lunch. First we had to walk through Fashion Avenue which has Gucci, Dolce Gabana, Dior, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Michel Kors, Manolo Blanik and many more.



Then we went to the food part (YAY!) I had sugar cane juice and my dad had a lemonade with mint and food wise I had beef lasagna and it was really good and my dad had hummus with pita and my mom had beef shwarma with French fries inside. After we had an amazing lunch we hopped on the HOHO and went back to the ship and looked at the shops in the port. My dad got a DishDasha which is a dress for men and  my mom  got a caftan which has a bunch of beads and pretty fabric.

Goa, India - Rita's Gourmet

We went to another cooking class and this time we did with Rita's Gourmet.

We started off by eating breakfast and we had a very traditional Indian breakfast. Here are all the things we had: Naan bread, cauliflower and carrots , curry with potatoes, coconut chutney, coconut with roasted red pepper, mint chutney, Indian pizza's (which were the naan dough but with sliced tomato's and white cheddar cheese), curry soup, watermelon, chickoo (which is a persimmon texture but it tasted like caramel), banana, custard apple and oranges.



We had dessert for breakfast so I tried all four but my favorite was the bolinhas which is like a coconut macaroon and, dodol is like chocolate jello with a cashew nut on top, my mom's favorite was bebinca which is like a bunch of jelly layers and it looked like a cake, last but not least a sticky rice pattie.

Then we drove to the beach and I took a jump shot photograph and we saw this really cool boat that was made out of all wood. After we left the beach we were driving to the market and on the way we saw the Goa international airport and it was huge.




We then got to the market and there was lots of saris which are Indian dresses. We also went to the food part and there was this stall that had this interesting color of juice that people were drinking and it was sugar cane juice and man was it yummy!






We also got to see dried fish and unfortunately smell it. But the reason they have dried fish is because 3 months out of the year the tide gets high and the fishermen can not fish so they eat dried fish. There was also a lot of fresh fish too because it was not high tide season yet.





I got to hold a live crab that was the first time and not the last time and it was really cool there were also these two adorable cats that were sleeping. Then we went to Rita's house had coconut juice yum.





Now lets start cooking! We started off by making a coconut pie with nuts, dried fruit and of course coconut. Then we put the pies in the oven and we started making chicken with a mild green sauce and made the green sauce with parsley, lemon, ginger etc and let it marinate in the chicken.

It's chicken puff and prawn puff time! We started by making the dough which she said was like éclair dough and then put it in a moist towel now it is time to make the white sauce. First we put the onions in and then the tomatoes sauteed them for a couple of minutes. Then we started the white sauce while the chicken was still marinating and mixed the onions and tomatoes with the white sauce and the chicken. We then rolled out the dough and cut it into 4 circles and filled the dough with the white sauce, onions and tomatoes. After filling them we did an egg wash with bread crumbs and we pan fried them and then we ate them and they were so yummy!

That was one cooking class to remember.