Penang

Ainsley starts with the classics, he wants to try satay and coconut rich laksas in the place where they were made famous but on a trip into the countryside he also discovers how local people preserve traditional recipes, like grilled stingray with fiery sambals, sticky chicken ayam and black pepper crab. Penang isn’t a place where curry comes in powder form and coconut milk isn’t from a tin. The mantra here is fresh and local. Ainsley’s ‘Sayer Lodeh’ vegetable curry begins with a stone ground paste of fresh spices and aromatic roots and coconuts ground to order in the market that morning. But before he heads home Ainsley discovers how to make an authentic Penang fish laksa from scratch. It’s not a quick process but every stage has a purpose, grinding spices, balancing sweet and sour and adding fresh herbs and salads at the very end. It’s a sensory explosion, complex flavours and textures and in as Ainsley says this is the “Big Hello and Welcome to Penang!”.