One of the writers of this blog visited Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently on a business trip. During his trip he tried Toddy, a fermented beverage made from the sap of the unopened flowers of palms.
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After several days of engaging meetings and great Malaysian food, I was ready to fly home. However, there was one more thing I wanted to do — try Toddy. I had heard about it from a coworker during a previous visit. As mentioned above, Toddy is a fermented beverage made from sap.
I opened Google maps on my smartphone and did a quick search for “Toddy” and found two locations near KL Sentral. I hailed a Grab to take me and my colleague to Bellamy Kitchen Toddy, which appeared a bit closer to KL Sentral than the other place I had found. On Google maps it had very high marks. Just to make sure they had Toddy in stock, I made a call before getting into my Grab.
The Grab took us through some winding roads and then through a large cemetery on rolling hills. Was it foreshadowing for what was to come? Were we approaching our doom, our slow demise? Will we meet our match with Malaysian Toddy?
When we arrived, the place was empty. We walked past some wet tables (due to rain) in a courtyard and walked in. My colleague and I each ordered Original Toddy in 500ml plastic bottles.
The Toddy came nicely chilled in a bucket full of ice. We poured it into Tiger (beer) glasses, which oddly resembled shot glasses. Who drinks beer in shot glasses? With a little bit of trepidation, we said “Cheers” and took a gulp…
Although we detected some sweetness, there was an overwhelming sourness that hit the back of our throats. Although a bit like Korean Makgeolli in appearance, it was clearly a different beverage. As we worked through the bottle, the taste got stronger – a bit challenging to drink without snacks. We wanted to order some food, but just couldn’t do so as we had just consumed a large meal several hours earlier.
We had heard that Toddy is often mixed with Guinness Stout, which might add some bitterness to offset the tartness. Bellamy Kitchen Toddy also offers flavored versions of the drink, which we are sure to try next time.
Also, as different palm plants are used to make Toddy and the sap is naturally fermented with wild yeast, I presume that the taste varies from producer to producer and may also depend on other factors such as how long it has been fermented and ambient temperatures.
We had heard that many Malaysians have never had Toddy and that it is primarily consumed by South Asian communities in Malaysia. It was, therefore, a very valuable experience for me.
The woman in the kitchen mentioned their specialty is a boar dish. During my next visit, I am looking forward to trying the various South Indian dishes while consuming more Toddy.
FYI, by the time we left, there was another group of people there having some snacks and drinks.
Drinking Japan 