The kitchens are a vast labyrinth of industrial cooking areas. There are whole rooms full of people just peeling vegetables, then more rooms where they're sliced and so on.
Each preparation area is rigidly controlled - with so many Muslim customers, the airline offers halal meals as well, which means no contamination with non-halal food is allowed.
This even extends to the washing up area, where the trays arrive in their trolleys from the the plames. The enormous washing and sterilising machines have a special powder added which purifies the cutlery and plates in the halal way.
The kitchen complex was like a more prosaic version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There were massive vats everywhere, where bread dough and the like was being mixed.
We passed into a corridor and entered one of the many baking rooms where rack upon rack of goodies was cooling. They're very proud of their handmade croissants, which come approved by top chef Raymond Blanc. We were all handed one, fresh out of the oven, and had to admit they were pretty damn good.
There were conveyor belts with tray after tray of little fruit tarts being individually boxed, huge cookpots full of fried noodles and rice - and then there was the highlight of the tour. The satay room.Satay sticks are the signature dish of Malaysia Airlines. There at the kitchens, they hand make 21,000 sticks a day along with 320 litres of satay sauce.
We passed areas where the sticks were being threaded with chunks of chicken, lamb and beef, before we arrived at the room where the magic happens.
Two chefs stood in the blazingly hot room in front of a massive grill where hundreds of satay sticks were sizzling away. As we watched they'd dexterously grab a bunch of skewers (about 50 at a time) and turn them. Stand and turn, stand and turn. It takes about seven minutes for each stick to cook.
And then we ravenous media hordes were told to help ourselves! Big mistake. In a flash the pile of cooked sticks was decimated. The poor chefs would have to work overtime to make their targets that day...
The airline is so precious about their satay that the sticks are all made at KLIA, packed in Styrofoam and sent away to their other destinations - they don't trust other countries to get it just right.
Our tour came to an end, and it was time to head along the road to the airport. But they weren't done with us yet. Before we left the country we had one last taste of luxury left: the Golden Lounge.
Anyone who's ever managed to wangle their way into the Koru Club here in NZ knows how fabulous an airline lounge is: comfy chairs, free food and entertainment, massages, showers - everything the frequent flyer needs.Knowing we had a cramped seven-hour flight ahead of us, we fell upon the armchairs with stifled cries of glee before filling up at the bar and the buffet.
There was free high-speed internet for our last-minute browsing needs, and even a very handy towel service for a certain member of the group who failed to notice a water feature and fell in up to his knees.
We were probably the most badly-behaved bunch that lounge has ever seen, and yet we were welcomed, coaxed to try more food and generally treated like rockstars.
I'll probably never set foot in an airport lounge again (don't know if I deserve to, after that), so to the staff at the Golden Lounge: thank you. You made our last hours in Malaysia extremely enjoyable and memorable.
That was the end of my Malaysian adventure. But I'm not done exploring: this week I'll be travelling to Bali, land of beaches, cheap beer, rainforests and... Schapelle Corby? Expect regular updates on this blog as I experience the typical relaxing holiday, and also seek out the real Bali away from the resorts.
Amy Williams travelled to Malaysia courtesy of Malaysia Airlines and Tourism Malaysia.
Find out more about Malaysia.
Read more Yahoo!Xtra Adventures.
