Spice up your Sunday Night

In late November on a typical wet dreary Sunday evening, you know the sort, John and I went to a new supper club in Holloway to discover the wonders of Malaysian Food. Our travels and love for Asian food led us to develop our Taste of Asia series, which features Thai and Vietnamese cuisines, but not yet Malaysian. We were therefore very much looking forward to the prospect of delving into the Malaysian world of spices and flavour, an area we’re keen to explore more of.

We first met May, the energetic host, when she came to Food at 52 for a PR event we held on olives and Spanish cuisine, a bit different! Her passion shone through when we found out she not only writes a Lifestyle and Food blog (check it out at www.malaysianbymay.com) and teaches cookery classes, but she also finds time to run regular supper clubs and kindly invited us along.

We were greeted with a cocktail (gin and tonic - what it lacked in not being very Malaysian it made up for by its generous strength!) and nibbles, before being sat down with ten others to a sumptuous feast of eight courses. It quickly became evident that eating a huge Sunday roast lunch with friends late that afternoon was not the brightest idea as by the third course we were both feeling rather full! We stoically plunged forth enjoying the Mee Siam noodles which were cooked to perfection, and the Gado Gado salad with its a proper kick (John loves his spice), but it was the Spicy Clams that got me really excited and stole the show!



Curry Kaptain Chicken curry came next - amazingly some guests had enough room for two servings, which shows just how good it was! The eggs (cooked just right with soft yolks) went well with a fiery sambal, rice and a divine pineapple salad with shallots and chili that took some of the heat away. Each course tempted us more and more into the idea of expanding into Malay cookery courses after all!



All the way through May chatted through the recipes, charming the room and gave some of her own stories about each dish, creating a lovely atmosphere. Check out future dates on her blog.

This was enhanced by the lovely venue, a Japanese restaurant called Kuriya Keiko (who also hire out their space on Sundays and Mondays if any of you want to run your own supper club/class – at great value)! They had a sake menu along with usual beers and wines and also sold these really quaint Japanese Green Tea Kit Kats - apparently in Japan they even have wasabi ones - now there an idea for John's stocking filler!



Emily x