Kuala Lumpur 4 - Roti

[This post and the previous two posted Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009 around 10:30pm Malaysia Time - which is one hour ahead of Thai time, so it gets dark about an hour later]

Joan wanted to see what snacks they had at Temptations, one of the hotel restaurants last night.

The Indian chef Yodesh (I think that was his name) was
teaching one of the Chinese chefs how to make a roti.

So they insisted that we taste it.

This morning we passed up the 44 Ringget buffet for another roti in a little Indian shop cooked with egg and served with a delicious sauce. Joan got tea and I got water. 7.50 ringget for the two of us. It was delicious.

[Update Feb. 9] Wikipedia tells us more about this

Roti canai (pronounced "chanai," not "kanai") is a type of flatbread found in Malaysia, often sold in Mamak stalls. It is known as roti prata in Singapore, and is a close descendant of Kerala porotta. . .

Malaysianfood.net has a recipe. But the chef at the hotel said it took three months to master.

After looking at about six roti cannai videos, I think this one gives the best overall picture of how they are made. So, no, this is NOT my video. It was posted by rustyanalog.

Kuala Lumpur 3 - More Petronas Towers Pics

Those little white dashes at 5 o'clock and 8:30 around the moon are bats.

Looking up.

This one is this afternoon when it was still light out.

And this is the giant shopping mall inside.

From Greatbuldings.com:

ArchitectA	Architect: Cesar Pelli
Location	Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia map
Date	1998 timeline
Building Type	skyscraper, commercial office tower
Construction System	glass, steel, and concrete
Climate	tropical
Context	urban
Style	Modern
Notes	Tapering twin towers (connected by a sky bridge) share an Islamic-influenced geometrically polygonal plan. Featured extensively in "Entrapment", a cool action movie starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.

Kuala Lumpur

Everything went well today. The plane left a bit late but we made it to KL with no problem. There was a decent bus into town from the airport (about $2 (9 ringit) for 60 minute direct ride)- not the spectacular airport, but the LLC (low cost carrier) airport 20 kilometers further out. We walked down steps out of the plane into the tropical, humid heat. We haven't had that sort of weather in Chiang Mai yet, so it was a bit of a surprise. But nice to be embraced by the atmosphere.

On the bus I sat next to a Dutch student who was finishing up his 6 months management internship here in KL. From the bus we took the monorail to the hotel. An expat was giving us advice on the train and then an Indian told us about the Hindu festival taking place this weekend. We waited a few minutes for the downpour to end, then crossed the street to our giant Renaissance Hotel. Not quite our normal style, but there was a good deal on the internet and it has a big pool. And if you stay at little hotels you get free wifi, but at the big hotels (this one is a Marriot) you have to pay for internet.

It turns out that right across the street is a big tourist info and Malaysian cultural center. And they have free internet and wifi. So, all is well.

I got to read from my book The Man Without Qualities by Richard Musil. I'm warning you now that I'm going to be telling you about this book over the next few months as I read it.

More later.