To one unfamiliar with how to prepare Asian cuisine, Asian markets can be intimidating places. The outer edges of the shops are stocked with fruits and vegetables not typically found at a major supermarket. At the deli, dried fish and squid hang in long lines from a wooden rack while crawfish scuttle busily around the bottom of an adjacent fish tank. An uncertain shopper might seek refuge in one of the tall aisles, scanning the shelves of food for something recognizable before giving up and returning home.

What if this reporter told you there is someone who can help?

Chef Surja Tjahaja offers tours of Asian markets in the Portland metropolitan area to anyone who has an interest in learning how to prepare Asian meals from the ground up — beginning with picking the best ingredients.

"I love to combine these ingredients that are terrible raw," he explains. "When the meal comes together, the individual ingredients all taste delicious together. That’s magical!"

A tour with chef Surja begins, appropriately, around the table. This particular tour begins at Wong’s King Seafood Restaurant in Beaverton, where Tjahaja has ordered a series of dishes ranging from dim sum classics such as shrimp dumplings to vegetarian goose in order to highlight certain ingredients and tastes.

One by one, tour guests arrive at the restaurant and begin to delightedly sample the various dishes chosen for them. Surja surveys the group, asking what they want to gain from the day’s tour. He emphasizes that he keeps the size of the tour group small intentionally because he wants to make sure he can tailor the experience to the needs of the participants.

Whether searching for the perfect brand of oyster sauce at the best price or struggling to make the perfect bowl of traditional Japanese ramen, chef Surja is guaranteed to have advice to help perfect recipes, and learn a few new ones, too.

Chef Surja chooses from about 14 markets when creating a tour for his guests. From a business perspective, the tour is a win-win-win situation for all involved. His guests are treated to lunch and an inexpensive tour of markets they may have otherwise been too timid to visit, the Asian markets are ecstatic to be delivered business at no expense or effort to them, and Surja is given a front row seat to what he calls the "Aha! Moment."

"Some people keep recipes secret. I don’t do that. I love seeing the look on people’s faces when they finally understand how to make something, or when they discover that they can get an ingredient for incredibly cheap at one of the Asian markets. That’s why I do this," Surja says with an infectious grin.

Blending a passion for cooking with business expertise is something chef Surja has sought all of his life. His love for food started when he was a boy in Indonesia. While other young kids were playing with Tonka trucks, he was in the backyard whipping up imaginary delicacies out of bits of grass and sand.

"I was in love with the process of cooking from a very young age," he remembers, "but I was not encouraged by my parents."

To his mother and father, cooking was not a viable career option. He moved to California, where he earned an MBA in International Business to satisfy the wishes of his parents. His business degree helped him move from managing several food-related businesses to later owning his own swimming pool business for 14 years, a job he still cites as one of his favorites.

Upon retiring, chef Surja began teaching cooking classes to residents of West Linn, Oregon — the suburb he and his wife-cum-public-relations-manager Tamara Gilbert moved to after he sold the swimming pool business. He still offers cooking classes in addition to the Asian market tours, and there seems to be a lot of overlap in clientele.

Having met Surja, it is easy to understand the chef’s appeal. His kind attentiveness in conjunction with his passion and deep knowledge of cuisine makes him someone you want to spend time with. By the end of a daylong tour of Asian markets, you may be exhausted, but you won’t want to part with the talented, passionate chef Surja Tjahaja.

Chef Surja’s next tour is scheduled for Saturday, September 10. To learn more, call (503) 656-8910 or visit <www.chef2go.biz>.