Happy Birthday to Me!

A weekend of indulgence had past, with a meaty BBQ party on Friday ending with walnut birthday cake, then a full feast of Chinese course dinner on Saturday and a decadent cheesecake that I would be confessing about, a chow-down on durians, all the way from Taiping, along with a whole day of shopping on Saturday followed by another feast of course and then some more of the leftovers durian, cold from the refrigerator. Now try beating this wonderful tummy-filled birthday weekend. In sum, I had a blast.

The BBQ pictures will be up soon once I get the pictures from M, my 1984-recentlly-turned-housemate friend. As for the cheesecake that I mentioned about a confession, oh yes, I made a cake for my own birthday. That night it was a trio of celebration, where my sis, cousin and I celebrated, as we have our birthdays close together, spanning out in 10 days. I decided to go full force indulgence for this once-a-year event, and decided to make Oreo Cheesecake. I got this recipe from Kraft’s website, which I had faith would turn out well.

One bite into it, everybody says “Mmm, it’s good!’ My dad, who was always honest, he even commented on my not-risen-enough cake for my Grandma the last time, said I can give Secret Recipe a run of their money with this one. But half way through the cake, I started to get more comments. My sister’s boyfriend asked did I use blue cheese, and I was startled. I take a bite of the cake and oh no, I realized that something was wrong with my cream cheese. I confess, I used a block of cream cheese that had been, let’s say pretty long, maybe too long in my refrigerator. My mum and aunt decided the cheese was too heavy and did not finish their cake while my cousin though enjoyed it, wasn’t able to finish it either due to the ‘weird’ taste which became obvious after more than few bites. J can taste it right away, since he had so many of my cheesecakes before, and being a cheese lover himself. Only my dear Pho Pho, enjoyed her cake, this proving she’s a strong-cheese lover. As for me, let’s just say, the cake could have been good, the texture was great, the Oreos was yummy but the cream cheese was just, a little too cheesy, more for the savoury kind I might say. Anyhow, I would certainly try it again; I still think it is a good recipe. Ha-ha. So, let’s just call this my Blue Cheese Birthday Cake. How’s that. Anyway, the rest was finished later by J’s family and her sister even said it was not bad.

After the eventful weekend, I was suddenly swept back to reality with training and all, so was too busy to really post up anything. But in case you haven’t notice, I had just properly shifted all my recipes and posts’ links to a new index page, as my recipes grew too long for the sidebar and the categories I had was not enough to properly catalog them. In addition, I had finally made an about page of myself, do have a read about this tham jiak little girl behind this blog! ;)

With Love, L

I seldom post without picture if you had notice, just because I like to spice up my posts, but this testimonial had been long overdue in my laptop and I have yet the chance to post it. You see, I do not have internet connection at home and I usually online at J’s with this laptop. Most of my precious pictures are, unfortunately, in my house personal computer. So sometimes due to my usual forgetfulness, I forgot to copy the picture over to this laptop while I have the notes here at this laptop. Now I am posting from office, oh yes, this is how naughty I am and they banned my picture site, stating ‘Banned Phrase Found’. Now would I have anything naughty in there? Did I accidentally name my food that can offend or provoke people? Anyway, back to the topic, this testimonial is by none other than my favourite guest blogger, yes you guessed it, L. I mentioned that she will be leaving a testimonial here as she leaves to go back to Penang. How I missed her! Now on to her lovely and thoughtful note:

My mother is an excellent cook. She works her magic in the kitchen effortlessly and I watched her cooked, baked, skewed, sliced and chopped since I was a little girl. But at 22 today, one would normally assume that the daughter would have learnt a whole lot from the maestro herself. But assumptions do go wrong at times because she just can’t cook.

But one thing for sure, I enjoy eating and am always open for new eats. It is no surprise for someone who had always been accustomed to good food to be critical of others than her moms’. Thus, with this passion of mine and Rokh’s passion for cooking and eating out as well, we set out always in search of good eats, always talking about food and writing about them.

This testimonial is one which came way too late. I apologized for the delay as I was busy settling down up north again after my rather short 2 month stint in KL. I was there for my compulsory Industrial Training which every 2nd year university student needed to complete. And the word ‘wonderful’ is underrated to sum up my experience.

Of course, the highlight of my entire stay was staying with my good friends (all 3 including Rokh with additional good friends coming over every once in awhile)and our gastronomic adventures around the Klang Valley. A drain on our pockets for sure as we never resist to splurge on good food and then, expanding our waistlines. But it is always worthy; as I believe the connection made at a table of people eating is wonderful. You not only dine together but you connect. This is where friendships are forged and kept in checked.

Rokh is truly a wonderful and close friend of mine. Our friendship is further strengthen through this blog where we would discuss about food and new findings. She surprises me a couple of years back when she donned on an apron and whipped out utensils to cook. Shame on me to think it would be a passing fad but boy am I wrong, for she sure is an excellent cook today. I’m sure her future daughter would feel the same way as I do now. Grateful and ecstatic to always have good food waiting for her.

So this is my short say and do watch out for my detailed food ventures here with my good friends around town. There is nothing irreplaceable than hanging out with your friends, cracking up jokes,endless drinks and filling in stomachs together. That is what I would certify as life’s greatest pleasure.

P/S: Yes, I cannot resist putting a picture, this one from a cute site, and I also would like to leave that message to L, :). Oh, since I am already so thick, I might as well announce that tomorrow is my birthday! Look out for party food!

What Breakfast Means

Since young, my mum had always enforced the importance of breakfast to us, my sister and me. Once someone told her that an egg a day would make your children grow up big and smart!(I can testify that the former is wrong, judging from my height, but I hope the latter is right ;) So, every morning for most of my pre-school, she would make half boil egg for us and a glass of Milo (a popular Malaysian chocolate malt drink). We practically eat the same breakfast everyday for school days until one point I am revolted with the smell of half boiled egg (which suddenly smell really raw) and my mum would insist I finish them. So every morning I would pinch my nose (I learnt from somewhere that we taste through our nose, ha-ha, cheeky me) and down the egg and then quickly wash down with milk or Milo. At one point my sister and I take up a banner and make a riot to sanction a ban on it. Ok, maybe a bit exaggerating but you get the idea. Finally we got our ban and moved on to other breakfasts. But knowing my mum, she would go the fast and easy way, and most of our breakfasts are then bread with jam, or peanut butter and so forth. Soon it got even lazier where my mum would just get chocolate milk drink in cartons.

That was a long time ago, and later I came to stay by myself in KL and soon found out how is it to live on my own. Many of my mornings went without breakfast, maybe an occasional cereal and fresh milk, but that’s about it. Most of my university days have me waking up when the sun is already halfway across the sky. Thus breakfast took a back seat in my life.

Now, as I grew up more and got into culinary adventures and food craze, I learnt that how important breakfast is (yes mum, I finally understand), and always look forward to have a good breakfast to kick start my day. I even got the penchant back for half boiled egg, especially with toast and a good cup of coffee, kopitiam style. Nowadays, getting into the life of working, I need a good coffee to boost my day. I am now always in search for good and healthy breakfast recipes as I want to go home made style. of course I take into account on time and also ease of eating, as I would sometimes need to have my breakfast in the car. Life is all about rushing isn’t it?

Anyway, nowadays I seem to surf a lot on breakfast recipes and was mostly interested in the healthier options such as lower fat, higher nutrients and so forth. I had made quite a number for my everyday breakfasts before I got to work, and so you can be sure of more breakfast recipes to come. To me breakfast is something of a ritual, something exciting to look forward to the night before and the reason for you to get your bum off the bed in the morning. I wouldn’t call it a day without breakfast, won’t you too?

Ginger Molasses Cake
(adapted from Williams Sonoma)

I love ginger. It is one of the most useful spice that I ever came about. In Asian cuisines, it mostly used in savouries, especially with meats and in some sweet soups. Since our ancestral times, we know the goodness of ginger, of its medicinal properties, such as aiding in digestion after a heavy meal and also others such as aiding in nausea and other illness. This ginger cake that has crystallized ginger in it is something foreign to us Asians, Malaysians that is, but somehow I am attracted to it, imagining the flavours in my mind. This cake is really light and soft, despite the low fat content and the ginger flavours is just amazing. Sadly though, J did not enjoy it as he felt that it is weird and my housemate Y thought it was chocolate cake at first and got a surprise once she bit into it. She could not exactly guess the taste but once enlighten, she left the cake alone too. Well, I guess I am the only one having ‘foreign’ taste here. Don’t be put off though, if you’re a ginger lover and you love the thick heavy taste of molasses, this cake is definitely good eats, as it is really tender, moist, gingery and full of flavour from the spices.

3-4 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup minced crystallized ginger
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups cake/superfine flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup low-fat yoghurt

Preheat oven to 180C. line a 9 by 4 inch loaf pan with baking/parchment paper.
Beat the butter and sugar till creamy and fluffy.
Stir in molasses and crystallized ginger.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and the spices.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with yoghurt, starting and ending with flour.
Mix until smooth.
Pour into prepared pan and bake in oven for 45-50 minutes.
Transfer to wire rack and let it cool for 10 minutes or so.
Then turn the loaf out onto the rack.
Cool completely before storing.
It tastes divine warm out of the oven, still good in room temperature but it would turn hard once refrigerated. It keeps well for about 5 days in air-tight container and room temperature; if it is still around.
Now have a few slices and call it a day!

Serves 10-12.

P/S: This post is added into Nandita's Weekend Breakfast Blogging over at Saffron Trail. Do look out for the forthnightly roundup!

Update: The roundup is here, Part 1 and Part 2. More food to wake up to!

Tastes of Yesterlife

If one's life can be determine by food preferences, I believe that I might be an Indian in my past life. As much as I love Chinese cuisines, I am strangely drawn towards Indian food, my five senses transfix on the myriad of spices, smells, tastes and textures. Indian cuisines are complex. Even the simplest cooking involves clever blends of various spices. But of course, there are some simplicities, such as its roti (bread), which ranges from easy to long preparation and the choice itself is numerous! Every roti is different from one another; some made with rice flour, some gram flour and many more that I have yet to learn and discover.

After bouts of exercise early one morning, the first thing that hit my mind for breakfast is some Indian fare. So I walk all the way through The Curve (shopping mall in Malaysia) to Restaurant Penang Nasi Kandar, right outside Tesco, for my Indian breakfast fix. On the way there I had already picture tosai in my mind. Why, I love the taste of tosai, slightly tangy and its texture soft to bite, crunchy on the outer layer certainly plays one palate

I like my tosai with the coconut chutney (on the left) and the middle chutney, I can't make out what it is but it is tangy, from tamarind I believe, and some spices, hope someone can enlighten me here. It pairs real well with the tosai, adding more to the tanginess and sourness. Of course I would also eat it with dhal (on the right); then again, I eat my dhal with every other roti.

Then its time for lunch, my hunger pang starts playing with my head again. I crave for more Indian fare. Then I thought of banana leave, from a shop I once was recommended to by a friend, which I found the branch right here in my neighbourhood. Banana leave is actually a kind of meal where your food is serve on a clean banana leave, and the perks are, you can ask to refill as many times as you want with no extra charges. It consists of only vegetarians fares but you can separately order other meats. When one eats banana leave, one tends to indulge a little bit, as it is addictive and the thought of able to fill to one's content is extremely inviting. Therefore, as I am set on getting fit before work, I think twice bout this choice of lunch.

I drove aimlessly there, park the car, still deciding on whether to enter a Chinese hawker restaurant, but somehow my feet got me over to Sri Paandi, a restaurant serving Andhra cuisine. I sat down, I asked for banana leave, I take a quick snap of picture, devour, ask for refill, and then proceed to clean it off. Then I was really full, but just enough place left in my tummy to clean my palate with the really tangy fresh yoghurt. The thought of fitness somehow just got suck into the black hole in my mind, he-he. Then the pictures did not turn out well, due to my gluttony thus the impatient take of picture. So on another day, this time, I drag both my good friends there again (vowing not to refill), in aim to once again answer my cravings and of course to take more pictures! Ah, all in the name of this blog, and my tham jiak-ness.

The meal was great. I absolutely love the vegetable curries. The usual fare are the lightly spicy long beans, tangy and superbly spicy brinjal with black-eyed peas, one mild veggie (on the right, which I'm not sure what it is) and the light yoghurt cucumber (I forgot the proper name for this) which is really refreshing. Then there comes the condiments, coconut chutney (again), and one really salty and sour chutney where I accidentally bite into the sour fruit (not sure what fruit, now I sound like an Indian food enthusiast who knows nuts). Then there are the keropok (chips), where there is the ever famous papadum (though I have tasted better ones out there) and also the potato chips, which tasted like heaven, sliced thinly, heavily spiced and deep-fried. Ah, such indulgence. Then you can opt to drown your rice in dhal or chicken/fish curry. Lastly, there is rasam and one light tangy milk (in the picture, which I don't know what it is, if someone can tell me I'll be so grateful, never mind if its just a guess) and also yoghurt to soothe off all the spice, which are now madly meld on your tongue and in your tummy. Take note that, they will charge an extra dollar for the yoghurt as we had asked to clarify when we saw it on our bill. In addition, my friend ordered a mutton curry, which is reasonably priced with good portion and which of course, tasted good.

Maybe I was an Indian in my past life, but indeed much of my knowledge on the food must have been loss during my transition to this new life. I cannot really name most of the food yet or even to cook them, but one thing for sure, I absolutely love to eat them. One day I might just be able to learn the secrets of Indian cooking, but of course not to forget my own origins. I always think the spices and condiments have some kind of drug in them that makes one keep going back for more, but to me, that's a good thing. Oh no, I am addicted.

Restaurant Nasi Kandar Penang
Tesco
Damansara

Restaurant Sri Paandi (TTDI)
36, Jalan Tun Mohd Faud 1,
Taman Tun Dr Ismail,
60000 Kuala Lumpur
03-7726 8581

P/S: I went to Sri Paandi again last two night, and found the selection less than lunch time, condiments must be requested, no yoghurt or rasam, and the chips were already ‘lau fong’ (soft). So go only during busy lunch time where the service would be even faster and better!

It's Getting Hot in Here

If you guys have noticed, I had slowed down a lot on blogging into only bout once a week. I had just started my new job, and still in process of getting the hang of things and in the midst of training. So do bear with me as I have a lot of wonderful good eats waiting to share here.

Anyway, this time I am here to post for Barbara’s The Spice is Right Event, this time with the theme ‘It’s too darn hot!’ Barbara is so right about the case that we Asian love to eat hot and spicy food even though it is darn hot out there. Why? We are mad people who like to sweat their shirt out in some road-side stall with the heat up to 38 degrees. We also like to burn our tongues when we eat and end up with red puffy lips all day. We also happens to enjoy end up with a burning sensation in our stomach all day long and maybe a big business trip to the toilet. Well, there are many reasons we Asian eats darn hot chillies in the heat, but one holds true for everyone is that it is just plain good eats.

The chili condiment that I am going to feature today is called the Sambal Chilli. It is usually served alongside the famous local dish called nasi lemak, which is the unofficial Malaysia national dish, competing with char kuey teow. Nasi lemak holds much stronger position to me as it is enjoyed by all races, young or old. Somehow I believe that it evolves from a simple Malay dish to various types of serving, somehow adapted by other cultures. There are Indian and Chinese serving nasi lemak here in Malaysia, both with their own distinctiveness, or maybe not, what is real nasi lemak anymore anyway? The basic is the rice that is cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves for fragrance. For now there are two popular types, one which is in small servings wrapped in banana leaves, the usual breakfast fare for our locals here. As for the bigger serving style, of huge amount of lemak (fatty) rice, and lots of sambal to go with it along with some fried ikan bilis (anchovies), groundnuts and cucumbers, sometimes with egg, hardboiled or sunny-side-up and fried chicken. This is the usual mamak style fare that we eat it anytime of the day, which I called it fast food the Malaysian style.

For me, as I grew up in Taiping, with not much of wondering around and not much of mamak stalls available, I have not been really expose to the wonders of nasi lemak. When I then came to KL I started to try it out both the breakfast and the mamak style. To me, the best of the nasi lemak comes not only from the coconut milk rice, but the sambal that goes with it. It must be hot with enough kick, while slightly sweet and tangy. Now I would share with you one fool-proof and darn hot

Sambal Chilli

I got this recipe from KC, and it yields quite a large portion of sambal, thus I had scaled it down by half when I did it. But if you have a large family to feed, I would definitely recommend you to make the whole batch since you are doing the same amount of job and it keeps really well too. According to Gina (founder of KC and the one who shared this recipe) it can last for 1 month in room temperature (away from sunlight), 2 months in the fridge and 6 months or longer in the freezer! How cool is that? As for me, after eating bout half the batch, I took the liberty by adding fried ikan bilis (anchovies) to it for the nasi-lemak-style sambal which I’m not sure would the shelf life be shorten, but I remembered keeping it for quite sometime in the fridge. As the recipe that follows, most of the ingredients are just for guidelines, you can add more or less of whichever fancy you most. I had also reduced the sugar amount as I like my sambal more hot than sweet. Amount of oil is also adjustable, some like their sambal drowning in it, but as for me, I am a little health (or weight ha-ha) conscious, thus I reduced the oil amount quite a bit and it still turn out great.

100g red chilli
2 pcs of assam keluk/gelugor (tamarind slice)
100g sugar
10 shallots
6 cloves of garlic
250ml tamarind pulp juice (or dilute tamarind paste in hot water)
80ml oil
2 lime, juiced

Grind together the chillies, onions and garlic into a smooth paste
Add in sugar, tamarind juice and assam keluk to mix
Heat up the oil in the wok
Add in the chilli paste to cook, turning down to low heat and continue to stir fry the paste
Cook until the paste turns dark and starting to dry out
Turn off the heat and let it cool completely
Stir in the lime juice
Store in tight jars

For sambal ikan bilis:
2-3 handfuls of ikan bilis (anchovies)
Oil for frying

Heat enough oil for frying in the wok
When smoking hot, throw in the ikan bilis and fry until crispy
Take care not to burn it as it can turn from crispy to burn pretty fast
Dish out and let drain
Then stir it into the sambal, mix well
Store in tight jars again

Yields 300g of darn hot sambal

Suggestions:
Serve with nasi lemak
Goes along really well with stir-fry noodles too like my pad thai
Kicks up a notch on any regular or chinese fried rice
Leave out the ikan bilis to go with char kuey teow

Sweet Goodbye

If you all have been following this blog, you would be familiar with L. Yes, she had been my guest blog a few times, writing about her food adventure in Penang and also her great research on Chee Cheong Fun that had caught so many’s attention. L came up to KL for internship the last 2 months, which started our food whore out there, once I wrote about it, many more in my archives yet to be publish, due to more food eating and enjoying life. It had certainly been fun when she’s up here. We got around quite a bit, pretty adventurous with our food endeavour, sometimes burning holes in our pockets, yet we would still go out and do it again.

Let me give some introduction about L. She had been one of my longest friend, and also a fellow 1984. I’ve known her since 11, and from there we just clicked and our friendship had grown since then till now. We have a lot in common, sharing interests in writing, books, dreams and of course food. It is not a wonder we are so close.

Anyway, we had a mini farewell for her last Tuesday at our new home, with our housemates and a few close friends. She promised to leave a goodbye note here, which I have yet to receive from her, and would update when I do. We had steamboat party, which has the usual array fresh food, and clear soup which would then later be turn to tom yam to finish it off.

When I got home from work (oh, yes I started, it was great), I quickly got to the kitchen to make dessert for the party. Guess what I will be making? It’s bread pudding. This dessert is easy; one can prepare before the party starts, leave it in the fridge and bout 1 hour near to the end, take out the bread pudding and bake it, then serve right out of the oven. This is one time I made something with my ‘own’ recipe, adapting from here and there, and since I am making it specially for L, I am naming it

Farewell Bread Pudding

I had about half a loaf left on apricot and raisins bread that I bought last week for my daily alone breakfasts. After a few days, I got tired of it and chuck it into the fridge. Therefore came the inspiration to use up this bread when the party came. This is actually the Gardenia Toast 'em fruit breads, if you live in Malaysia you’ll know which one, and it can be bought just about anywhere. They are good to eat just like that but I love it especially when toasted, with a good cup of coffee. Now, I found out that making it into this pudding was really good as well. Browsing through various recipes, I encountered most using whip cream, which if you had notice, does not ever appear in my recipes. Not to say I do not like it, maybe it’s the high fat content, maybe it’s the unavailability and also maybe it’s expensive. Therefore I had to adapt and fine alternative. To me, evaporated milk would be good, thick milky taste yet light and slightly creamy. This following recipe is my adaptation from few recipes, which I just go with hunch this time with the milk ratios, since I did not use cream and phew, it turned out great. At first it would seem to wet but trust me, once baked, all the liquid will absorb into the bread, making it pudding like. During baking it would puff up so nicely making one happy, but after cooling, it will shrink down. My heart nearly jump to my throat at the sight, there goes my dessert, as it also looked really burnt on the top and sides. There is no turning back for me as everyone at the steamboat table is waiting. There you have it, the adrenaline rush of a first try, serving to a bunch of people. Despite the hard look, once you spoon on it, it is actually soft inside, while crusty on the outside. The sugar topping gives it a deeper taste, some guessed it was gula Melaka, and with some hint of cinnamon. No one guessed the presence of alcohol, but I’m sure that is where the complex flavour came from. My first try and all my guests are happy about dessert, though it took some initial coaxing to try, as all of them have never tried bread pudding before. One of them even expected a flan instead. Well, a nearly empty dessert bowl signifies success I guess.

8 slices day old bread
3 tbsp butter melted

3 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup low fat milk
4 tbsp of sugar
½ rsp vanilla essence
½ tsp cinnamon

½ cup raisins (I used a little lesser because my bread came with raisins)
4 tbsp brandy

2 tbsp fine jaggery powder (or fine brown sugar or palm sugar)

Soak the raisins in the brandy for at bout 30 minutes
Melt butter in microwave, or on the stove
Use a spoon and slowly swirl and coat all the bread slices with butter
Trim off the sides if the bread (not necessary white clean, a little crusts would give a crunch)
Then cut it into about 8 triangles each slice, I did not care bout getting it really uniform, just about the same size
Reserve triangles from two side slices of bread to one side
Then line the bread triangles in two rows, slightly overlapping one another in a glass oven proof dish (I used an oval dish about 12 cm width, 5 cm thick, just use one big enough to accommodate all the bread and some room for puffing up)
Cream together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until bubbly
Then pour in the raisins and all the liquid and mix well
Slowly, pour this custard mixture onto the bread slices
Take the reserve bread slices and chuck it in at all the sides, with the crusts facing outwards, lining next to each other
Put the dish into the refrigerator and let it soak for about an hour
Preheat the oven to 180 C
Take the dish out and then sprinkle the jaggery powder all over the bread top
Bake the bread for 45 minutes

Serves 8-10 party people

Going Thai

It has been so long since I contribute to the weekend herb blogging at Kalyn’s (I got to her blog and found her blogging on the same herb this week, how coincidence!). This time I decide to add in my entry on Chinese parsley (pictured above as garnish). This herb surprisingly has various names referring to it, where last year, without the world of blogging to expose me, I would be totally lost. It is also known as coriander leaves, cilantro and dhania in other parts of the world. It was once pretty confusing when I see it mention in foreign recipes and I had to research up on it. As for its uses, it is usually used for garnish as it will loose its flavours quickly with heat.

But this time, as per recipe I would be cooking it slightly at the end and then garnish it with more parsley. This dish also features a lot on the limau purut (kaffir lime leaves) which I had blog before on of those long-time-ago herb blogging. This time I am making a dish from the Thai cuisine. Thai is one of my favourite Asian cuisines, apart from Chinese and Indian, and also not to mention Vietnam. Thai is famous for its sweet, sour and spicy cuisine, complex in taste yet light on the palate.

So since these are my last few days of freedom, and usually being alone during the day, I decided to whip up a light lunch. Flipping through the recipes, I was drawn towards making my very own

Pad Thai

I remembered having this dish before but I cannot recall where. Nevertheless, I know it would be good, as reading the ingredients made my mouth water. This dish can be chow (fried) with other meats such as chicken or beef but this time I am using prawns, since Tesco is having a huge sale on prawns, and it seem to be more authentic this way. Then of course there must be the fish sauce, which is the main flavouring agent in this dish. You can also substitute it with soy sauce, if you don’t have it. Oh ya, I wanted to get glass noodles for this, but I cannot seem to find it in Tesco, thus I bought brown rice vermicelli instead, just for the sake of nutrition, hence the darker looking Pad Thai. Since this recipe have many variations, and you can add many ingredients or omit them, I would list down the alternatives too and do take note everything is in estimation, after all, this is done with Asian cooking style (if you don’t know what style, it is the dump, fry and taste style). Enjoy.

200g of noodles (rice vermicelli or glass noodle)
12-15 Prawns (I forgot how much I bought, but lets say two big fistfuls)
Bunch of mushrooms (sliced thinly)

1 fistful of Chinese parsley (stems removed)
1 fistful of kaffir lime leaves (roughly teared up)
1 bunch of Chinese chives or scallions (green parts only, cut up 1 inch long)

3-5 Thai bird chillies
5 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
1 20inch cube of fresh ginger
(all above peeled and slice then grind)

Fish sauce to taste
3 tbps of oyster sauce
1 lime (zest and juice)
1 Tbsp tamarind (soak in some water)
Sugar to taste
Some broth or water
Oil

Garnish:
½ cup unsalted peanuts
1 fistful of chopped parsley (stems removed)

Variations (substitute or add in):
1 boneless chicken breast, sliced thinly, marinated with fish sauce for bout half hour
2 blocks of firm tofu, sliced thinly (I should have added this, I love tofu)
1 egg
Pepper to taste
Fistful of bean sprouts
Banana flower

First soak the noodles in warm water until soften, then drain
Grind up the spices – chillies, shallots, garlic and ginger
Remove the parts of the prawns that you do not like, I left on the shell and tail plus half the head, legs removed of course.
Then heat up the wok in about 3 tablespoons of oil.
Throw in you paste and fry briskly, till the aroma is all over your kitchen.
Then add in the prawns and fry quickly till slightly red
Add in mushrooms, give a quick fry as it wilt quickly
Add fish sauce to taste
Now add in the drained noodles, fry until slightly limp (careful that it does not stick to your wok but still the heat must be high, else it will turn watery)
If using egg, push aside the noodle and crack in an egg, scramble till cook and then fold into the noodles
Then add in fish sauce, sugar and pepper to taste and tamarind plus its water
Then fry some more till a little dry, then lower the heat a little
Add in oyster sauce and stir till combine
Add in the scallions or chives, lime leaves and parsley, stir fry a little more
Off the fire, dish up and serve, garnish with chopped peanuts and more parsley and a lime wedge if needed.

Serves 3-4 people for lunch

Cham-cham of Cultures

Rojak is one of the unique cuisine of Malaysia. The word rojak is of Malay origin, which means, cham-cham, that is the mixture of things. Who would ever know that mixture of this and that from each culture would form such a medley wonderful tastes that excites the palate. There are two distinct rojak here in Malaysia, one is the Chinese version which is we called the rojak buah (fruit rojak), which do have other stuff besides fruits such as vegetables, tofu and keropok. These are then mix in a dressing, made up of belachan (shrimp paste), sugar, chilli, lime juice, dark sauce, prawn paste, black bean paste and so forth, with each rojak comes in its own variation and then top with chopped peanuts and bunga kantan (torch ginger). As for the Indian rojak, which is commonly known as pasembor here are mainly consists of fried dough fritters, hard boiled egg, prawn fritters, fried tofu and cucumbers all mixed in dressing of spicy peanut sauce, usually comes in stall that also serves cendol; one day I will talk more about this. I had discussed with J whether the idea of rojak is originated from the Chinese or the Indian culture. But for sure, it is truly a unique Malaysia cuisine. Come to think of it, rojak is actually a mixture of the three main cultures in Malaysia, since the use of belachan, which is a Malay paste and of course, the name itself is a Malay word.

One of the best fruit rojak I have tasted in town is this rojak stall in my new neighbourhood, which parks right opposite KFC. This is just a coincidence that it is in my neighbourhood, as I have long been hooked to it way before I shifted here. My cousin is the one who first brought it for me one day, when I was craving for some rojak, and I was hooked. Thus, fate must have somehow got me to stay here, and so one day (a recent one) on the way home, I took diversion there to get a pack for tea time snack. I ordered the usual Rojak Special, without the sotong (squid). I spied a newspaper cutting of a review of the stall, pasted there, which titles something like “the tastiest rojak in town”, I could not agree more. Since it’s so yummy, naturally you have to wait a little as there would be people all around. So I took the time to take some pictures of the stall and then the owner (the guy on the left with the apron) caught me in the act.

“You working for any press or organization?”

“Oh, no! I write all this just for fun.” I laughed

“For fun? How?”

“Oh, I write it onto the internet.”

“You can do that? I would love to see it.”

“Uncle, you play internet too?” I was shocked.

“Nah, but my son does. You can write this up for free?”

“Oh yea, you can post it up for free and then whoever reads it, uh - reads it.” Mentally whacking myself for not being able to describe blogging properly in Chinese.

“Oh, I must do too, as promotion for this stall” He smiled.

The thought of a blog, dedicated to promote a rojak stall cross my mind in a flash. “Sure you can, uncle” I said, flashing a big grin at him.

“I can leave my address for you, and have your son show my site to you. He can learn from there.”

Out of sudden, the wife who has been quiet all along, agrees with this, open the drawer and whips out a pen and a paper. Still in a faze, I wrote down my address, keeping in mind I better write this review quick, or they will be viewing with disappointment.

Then finally I got my pack of rojak, which the wife prepares all the while when I am chatting with the husband, and bid goodbye. I left with a smile on my face and their faces too, from the lovely conversation and also of course, the thought of able to devour my favourite rojak when I got home.

I open the pack of rojak and boy was it yummy looking. This rojak is consists of fruits, such as pineapple, guava, and many more that I forgot. Then there are the veggies, such as cucumber, sengkuang (jicama) and kangkung (water convolvulus). There are also tofu slices and the usual Indian keropok found in most rojak. The specialty that sets this rojak aside from the rest is the addition of fried youtiao (dough fritters) which is fried to the crisp (in oppose to the usual softer chewy ones), and the dried squid which gives a whole new dimension of taste to the rojak. But overall, as usual, the tastiness of one rojak lies heavily on the sauce itself, and this sauce, is absolutely yummy, enough belachan spiciness and the right sweetness. The sauce is coated all around the medley of fruits, veggies, tofu and keropok and then generously topped with chopped peanuts. Oh, yummy! It is hard to describe how a rojak taste like, until one taste it themselves, so go try it, if you are one of the lucky people who are in Malaysia, best yet in town to try out this stall.