Banana Leaf Vegetarian Curry

September 20, 2008 in Eats, Malaysia
Tags: banana leaf, barfi, curry, dessert, indian, kuala lumpur, Malaysia

I headed out to KL Sentral and Brickfields this afternoon for my first banana leaf curry lunch. From the monorail station, one walks down the steps and heads left up Jl Tun Sambanthan. Supposedly, if you walk far enough up you run into many of the little places but I accosted a gentleman on the street and asked him for his favorite place and he directed us to a small corner shop one block behind the main road. I apologize for the quality of the images; I had already dug in and only had my left hand free to photograph so there may be a bit of blur.

A banana leaf curry is served, obviously, on a banana leaf. Someone lays out the washed leaf, places a bowl of steamed white rice beside it and comes back and forth dipping out various vegetables onto the edges of the leaf leaving the middle open for your rice. The curry is served in a small bowl to the side as well as what looked like a bowl of coconut milk and some other tasty liquid. Take a handful of rice, plop it down in the middle and, with your right hand, start piling in different bits of food and enjoy yourself. Eating with your hands is great; it makes you feel like a kid again and brings the fun back to food. Quite a contrast the five-star restaurant at the hotel I once worked at.

Photos after the jump