Penang: Recipes & Wanderings Around an Island in Malaysia (Apartamento, Belmond)

‘The nights are long here, always with a hint of breeze coming from the sea, even on the stickiest of evenings. At 7 in the morning, at the height of the afternoon heat, or well past midnight, something is bound to be open somewhere on this island. Time has a different meaning here’.
—Tash Aw

Welcome to Penang: Recipes & Wanderings Around an Island in Malaysia, the second volume in Apartamento and Belmond’s new series. A cookbook as well as a cultural tour, Penang serves as your window to a unique culinary cosmos where spice-laden air meets the sea breeze and the hum of island life drums from markets to family kitchens. Chef André Chiang, culinary director of the Eastern & Oriental Express, along with chefs Malcolm Lee and Abby Lee, offer recipes for 23 quintessential Malaysian dishes—from tangy Assam Laksa to a sweet Three-layer Rice Pudding recipe by Kirthanna Naidu, and all the tasty bites in between. Vibrant photographs by Luo Yang and essays by Tash Aw, Anna Sulan Masing, and Kirthanaa Naidu guide readers across regional landmarks, from family-run nutmeg plantations to durian farms perched high on jungle-clad hills. Part invitation and part visual ode, this volume is a tribute to the island’s unforgettable mosaic of flavours.