On the Cusp of Penang Haute Cuisine

GROWING UP IN Penang as a lover of nasi (rice) in all forms, I recall queasiness at sampling what I felt at the time was “elevated” cuisine—through my first taste of sushi at a newly opened Japanese establishment. The small bundles of cold rice and fish felt oddly overpriced. The rice certainly tasted different, and, at the end of the meal, my stomach was left still rumbling and my taste buds unconvinced. Sometimes, that experience lingers as a reminder that refined tastes don’t always work with everyone. After all, whether refined or not, isn’t food a daily need, or a matter of survival as much as it is an experience?