Day 7: Port Klang
Malaysia
Port Klang is known as the “gateway to Kuala Lumpur” as it’s the place you dock. We have friends, Barb and Roger, who live in Kuala Lumpur and the last time we came through here, they drove into Klang and then showed us around KL. We went up in the Petronas Towers had a nice lunch and I even picked up a new rollercoaster credit. Was fun!
This time, though, we suggested staying closer in, since we’d seen KL and we hadn’t seen Port Klang at all. So our friends met us at the ship again this morning.
…and off we went to Klang for lunch. We knew nothing about the place they’d picked, but we made good time and arrived about an hour before they opened. So Roger parked the car near the restaurant and we walked a few meters to a corner cafe for some coffee.
It tasted very similar to my beloved Singapore kopi - and I’ve since looked it up and this is made the same way. What a nice surprise. After a couple of coffees, we strolled back toward the restaurant for lunch. It’s tucked away in a strip centre, and you’d never know that such a thing would exist in this location.
It’s tucked in behind a “wellness kitchen” across from a day care and you’d never know it was even here. The yellow umbrella with the host stand is your only clue.
Attendants outside the gates instruct you to knock three times with the heavy brass ring door knockers. The doors open and you’re greeted with the restaurant signage.
We were each handed a postcard-sized map (!) of the restaurant grounds, and on it the map says, “this experience brought to you by Roger Poulsin” (our friend who made the reservation). That was our first clue that this wasn’t going to be normal. The host led us through the gardens and pointed out each station. The first three involved shoes: a place to remove and store your shoes, then a small, shallow stream-like fountain to wade through to wash your feet, then a third station with dozens of wooden sandals you could then put on. We opted not to do the wading part.
Continuing through the garden, we were led to more stations intended to cleanse our bodies and minds to prepare us for the meal. One station had a wish contraption (sorry, I didn’t catch the actual name of it). You would walk around it in a circle, spinning the drums as you went, whilst making a wish.
I found it to be a surprisingly emotional experience. Before long, we were in a garden with decorative balls, zen gardens, and a nice lawn. The host suggested we all pose for a photo. I thought the swing would be a good spot.
Then we were led into a little glass-walled pagoda and shown our table, and oh my. This is gorgeous.
The little dishes in the centre of the table held dried strawberries, dried figs, and some crunch things that were like a cross between a Rice Krispy square and peanut brittle. It was all good. But then we saw the menus… again, Roger’s name was printed on them just like the maps we got earlier. The front of the menu was a reproduction of a famous painting that they told us about, but I’ve forgotten all of it other than “famous painting.”
It’s a set menu, so the reverse side doesn’t present you with a list of options, it merely tells you what you’re getting. I’ll tell you about it as we go, plus it’s taking about ten minutes to upload each photo, so I’m going to skip the picture of the reverse side of the menu and get right to the food porn.
In the cups: hot oolong tea. The bowl at the bottom of the pic is “ten treasures”, apparently ten kinds of shredded veggies. It reminded me of the veggies you get in a mushu. The other bowl is sliced white radish marinated in tamarind tea and I had no idea that was even a thing, but it’s something I needed in my life, and didn’t know it until now.
From left to right on that plate: leaf-shaped parmesan tuille, a “cherry foie gras” - which is a cherry…. um…. thing. You remove the stem and then the thing that looks like a fresh cherry ends up being a foie gras-like thing that melts in the mouth. Then there’s an abalone covered in crab roe, a glazed shishamo fish, and a tiny little pod with peas. I like the abalone best.
This is “Crimson in the Sea” - it’s a large prawn in a tomato filled with some kind of egg custard sitting on a sweet-ish sauce. The butterflies were made of rice paper and edible as well. And yes, I know that I’ve eaten some “interesting” things on this trip already, but people who’ve known me for awhile will be absolutely shocked to hear that I ate a whole tomato. (shudder)
Next up is a duck consommé with duck and mushrooms (OMG, I ate mushrooms!) It was delicious, but made more interesting with the dried lotus flower. You pick up the lotus with the little tongs, then set it on the soup. The lotus falls open almost immediately, making an interesting presentation.
No, you don’t eat the lotus flower, but I think it does impart a bit of flavour to the dish. It really was delicious, even with all those mushrooms in it. I should also mention that the palate cleanser was a drink made with aged honey and vinegar. It was way better than it sounds.
This is “Wellington Reimagined” - a plant-based Wellington made with puff pastry, jackfruit, and a very nice parmesan cheese sauce. Grilled veggies finished it off.
My favourite course followed. Not just because of the dramatic dry-ice fog presentation, but because the food was delicious and it had a spicy sauce for dipping.
Those are prawn dumplings made to look like koi fish. They were delicious and the two dipping sauces were really good, too. One of them was a bit like teriyaki and the other was legit spicy. We were all getting stuffed by this point, but we weren’t done yet. The waiter returned with a beautiful wooden treasure box, which opened in sections.
The bottom tray is a selection of fruit - strawberries, blueberries, pear, honeydew melon. The top tray are little balls of fried dough filled with a raspberry coulis. Oh, but wait… we’re still not done. They brought us a nice little gift bag. The treasure box had samples of the oolong tea we’d been having with dinner. They also brought us a 5x7 wooden photo frame with a copy of the photo of us on the swing. Nice! Then they rolled up with yet another dish with dry ice fog emanating from it, holding a banana cream cake with a graham cracker crust. It would have been even tastier if we weren’t already stuffed, but we were happy to eat it anyway.
It was an extraordinary meal served as part of an extraordinary experience. We were there for several hours.
Back to the ship, quick nap, then hang out at the LGBTQ+ meet-up. Ended up working it out where 8 of us all met in the main restaurant for dinner. Three of the guys are from the Palm Springs area, so that was a fun connection. Dinner was nice there as well, but after what we had for lunch, none of it seemed especially noteworthy.