142 replies to this topic

[yunnermeier]

Hello and welcome to my foodblog!

I am back home into the loving,cosy- sometimes suffocating- arms of Malaysia. I only had about 30 hours between actually buying the ticket and leaving The Netherlands (it was a bit of an emergency which is over now) so apologies to Kim Shook and Lindsay Ann for not sending the stroopwaffles (in exchange for Girl Scout Cookies) yet!

Short update: Farmboy and I DID go for the relationship visa in the end which I received approval for shortly after (to the jealousy of other foreign spouses who have been waiting for nearly a year). He's coming at the end of June for nearly 2 weeks to meet my family and to get to know Malaysia. It should be fun

This was my foodblog's teaser:



No, it is NOT a potato! It's a very old-fashioned fruit. That was my first time trying it. This fruit is called buah nanam and I believe it is a relative of the guava family. It's a little sour,slightly bitter (because of the skin which you eat as well) but quite addictive. It is small (about the size of a very large strawberry) and rather flat.

I guess it's time for fridge photos. I have a very messy fridge.

Freezer




Middle compartment


Fridge




Next: Pictures of breakfast (I woke up late and will have brunch soon) and Ma's Kuih Talam (Malay dessert/snack)

Edited by yunnermeier, 13 May 2007 - 09:55 PM.

[Hiroyuki]

No one could have guessed it was you!
Blog on, as they say.

P.S. How can you keep track of everything in your fridge?

[Pan]

I can't say I'm familiar with buah nanam. I'm glad you're blogging again, yunnermeier. Selamat makan.

[yunnermeier]

Couldn't post earlier because there was a thunderstorm and I was afraid my modem and computer would get roasted (again) and god forbid I be internet-less on foodblog week!

We had brunch down the road at one of the many Indian Muslim restaurants.

Limau Kasturi (Calamansi) juice with pickles


Iced Nescafe Tarik (pulled- meaning the man would pour the coffee from another container about +-1 meter from the cup (back and forth) until there's a lovely froth.



Rawa Tosai with chutney and fish curry. Rawa Tosai has green chillis (not spicy), carrots, onions and a few other herbs.


Banana leaf rice


When you're done eating, you fold the leaf (facing upwards) to indicate that you have finished.

About an hour after we got home, Mum started making Kuih Talam. She makes this very often because it's easy.

First, you grind pandan (screwpine) leaves and squeeze the juice with a muslin cloth. Add rice flour ,a little alkaline water and I can't remember what else (I can check if you're interested). Boil until thickened.



Steam for about 15 minutes


Then, gently pour the santan mixture (combination of coconut cream, salt, rice flour etc). If you don't do this gently, your kuih will have ugly holes:-D



The finished product


Fresh coconut cream (ie. you have to squeeze it yourself!) and fresh rice flour is very important. You'll have funny tasting kuih otherwise!

If the day becomes less gloomy, I will go to the night market for you, eGullet-ers :)

[yunnermeier]

  No one could have guessed it was you!
Blog on, as they say.

P.S.  How can you keep track of everything in your fridge?

Hrhr. My family is similiar to hamsters. We hoard. My aunt's fridge is stuffed to the brim (even more than mine!) and she lives alone! We also buy fresh things in bulk. My mother has a childhood friend whose cousin is a fisherman (living in this part of Asia means any connection equals 'better service and prices' - quite scary! I'd be scared to do business here;) ) so whenever he comes back , we'd have about 20kg of fresh fish which we distribute to the rest of the family. Instances like these are why the fridge is always full! hahahaha. I used to find it iritating but I'm starting to appreciate all the quirks of this circus family

p/s: Hello again Pakcik Pan :) Whereabouts did you live in Malaysia? Somewhere in the east coast if I recall correctly??

Edited by yunnermeier, 14 May 2007 - 05:38 AM.

[insomniac]

a few questions yunnermeier, the calamansi juice drink, what sort of pickles??
I love teh tarik but have never tried the coffee....does it have any extra spices like the tea?
the rawa tosai, what sort of flour is it? like roti canai? looks a bit more pancakey to me....
must add that is my sort of breakfast, never been an eggs girl, give me curry every time, and no dishes to do:smile:

ps. often use pandan leaves to give rice that lovely fragrance and wrap meat in and BBQ, will try grinding etc now, thanks

edited to add I don't know where the heart came from but i do love Malaysian food, any laksa coming up?

Edited by insomniac, 14 May 2007 - 03:01 AM.

[Smithy]

This will be a fascinating blog! You're off to a good start with interesting and pretty photos, and there isn't a single thing there that I recognize! Any and all explanations as you go along will be welcome. My questions will be so basic as to be laughable to anyone who knows Malay food. I'll start with one right now: what do you mean by alkaline water?

I love the fridge shot. I may not recognize anything in there, but I certainly recognize the impulse...my fridge looks about the same. Hamsters, eh?

[Carrot Top]

Not a Maine potato? Well at least I got the first letter right: M.

Your refrigerator is not messy, yunnermeier. That is called "controlled chaos".

It must be nice to be home. Yesterday here was Mother's Day, so please wish your mother a happy one (although just having you there makes for a Happy Mother's Day, I bet).

Looking forward to learning more about the endless variety of food that is Malaysian.

[markemorse]

hey yunnermeier, great to see you at the helm again!

do you take requests? i'd love to see some cooking with candlenuts/kemirienoten this week....(and some nutritional info on them if you can find it, saturated fat in particular)....

mem

[yunnermeier]

Thank you for all your replies and keep those questions coming!

a few questions yunnermeier, the calamansi juice drink, what sort of pickles??
I love teh tarik but have never tried the coffee....does it have any extra spices like the tea?
the rawa tosai, what sort of flour is it? like roti canai? looks a bit more pancakey to me....

edited to add I don't know where the heart came from but i do love Malaysian food, any laksa coming up?

Oops,my mistake. Not pickles but just dried,pickled plum! Yummy. Rawa Tosai doesn't really taste like pancakes. It is much more fluffy and has a sour taste because it was fermented (a little) before it's cooked. The batter is made from a combination of rice flour ,cooked rice (left overnight hence the fermentation) and a few other ingredients. Laksa might appear, I don't know yet:-D What kind of laksa do you want to see?

I'll start with one right now:  what do you mean by alkaline water?

According to my dad who has made his own alkaline water (also known as air abu ), alkaline water is made from fruit (my dad uses durian skin) which has been dried and then burned. You then dissolve the ashes into water (the ashes are alkaline). Ta-da!

Not a Maine potato?  Well at least I got the first letter right: M. 

Your refrigerator is not messy, yunnermeier. That is called "controlled chaos".

It must be nice to be home. Yesterday here was Mother's Day, so please wish your mother a happy one (although just having you there makes for a Happy Mother's Day, I bet).

Looking forward to learning more about the endless variety of food that is Malaysian. 

She is indeed very happy to have me home haha. Will be having a belated Mother's Day dinner with her tonight

hey yunnermeier, great to see you at the helm again!

do you take requests? i'd love to see some cooking with candlenuts/kemirienoten this week....(and some nutritional info on them if you can find it, saturated fat in particular)....

mem

Sure, requests are good! I can't promise to fulfill everything but I'll try! Lucky you, there WILL be a dish with candlenuts (called buah keras here) somewhere later this week

[Shaya]

Hello again. Good to hear it's still going well with DutchBoy. Where do you in Malaysia? Are you in KL?

Travelling through your country was a culinary feast for me. The blend of the different cultures - Chinese, Indian, Malay - brought forth so many different cuisines. I really enjoyed something we called roti canai - it was a type of flatbreat, crispy on the outside yet chewy on the inside, which the cook would slash in a checkerboard pattern and serve it with a curry. I dream about re-creating this at home, all these years later. Could you tell me anything else about it - or better yet - have some for me this week? I'd love to see it again.

Edited by Shaya, 14 May 2007 - 06:59 AM.

[yunnermeier]

Foo... ImageGullet is a pain in the arse to use ! Argh!

There is a morning market daily and there are 2 night markets within walking distance on Mondays and Thursdays. I love night markets . Sure, plenty of stalls sell fake stuff, ugly clothes and cheap Made-In-China toys but night markets in residential areas tend to focus on street food, fresh produce and other 'necessities' like sandalwood joss sticks (for Buddhist/ Taoist altars) , bread etc.

I wanted to take pictures of everything but I doubt eGulleters would want to look at 138 pictures! I decided to exclude foreign street food (takoyaki, Taiwanese fried chicken, Taiwanese sausage, bubble tea, pastries and cakes etc) and non-food stalls.

Fruits


Satay


Salted Eggs (they look evil,don't they?)


Stall selling nuts,seeds, umapudi (Crunchy Indian snack) etc.


Mata Kucing (a fruit) and Soybean drink stall


Ikan bilis (dried anchovies) ,dried shrimp etc.


Lok-Lok (Chinese fondue)


Jackfruit


Apam (kind of very thin pancake)


I (or rather my dad) bought 3kg of mangosteens (small because the season is nearly or already over), 1 kg of Thai dokong (the small brown grape-like thing), a packet of 3 guava-apples (I think they were probably rubbed with green sugar?), keropok lekor (fish mashed with sago and some other stuff and then deep fried. It's really good!) , corn, jackfruit and apam.



Have to go for dinner. It's already 9.46p.m. now and I don't feel like eating (I ate all 10 lekor) and neither does my dad. However, a promise is a promise and we're eating dinner late (as sort of a heavy supper).

Shaya: I love roti canai too:) I'll definitely eat roti canai somewhere this week and I could post a recipe but trust me, no one really can replicate it at home because tossing that thing requires lots of skill I don't live in KL but very close to it (Petaling Jaya).

Edited by yunnermeier, 14 May 2007 - 06:51 AM.

[yunnermeier]

Belated Mother's Day Dinner/Supper

There is a steamboat (Chinese fondue) restaurant not too far from home. I love this place, not just because of the steamboat but because they have wonderful razor clams. Unfortunately, they were sold out today (as were the crabs and crayfish ).

We had the dishes below with white rice and Chinese tea.

Asam fish. They do this very well too



Claypot Tofu



1/2 Herbal Chicken



Egg soup with seaweed and fishballs



Clams



Sweet Potato Leaves



This is precisely why eating Chinese food in Holland depressed me. We had 6 dishes for 4 people (and today's dishes weren't impressive ). In Holland, I'd have just one dish to eat with rice (which is OK and everything but I somehow find it very unsatisfying).

Total cost of dinner: RM63 (about US$18!). Cheap,huh?

I'm off to bed. Have to go somewhere tomorrow

Edited by yunnermeier, 14 May 2007 - 08:28 AM.

[MarketStEl]

Hi, Yunnermeier! I'm beginning to feel like Matt Lauer,* heading from the Netherlands to Malaysia in this fashion!

I guess it's time for fridge photos. I have a very messy fridge.

Freezer




Middle compartment


Fridge

You call that messy?

Hah!, say I.

That is mere clutter. Otherwise, your fridge is a model of organization -- paraphrasing Bill Cosby, "everything's right where you put it."

Do you find that sauces and condiments accumulate over time, the way they do in my fridge and pantry? I've lost count of the number of half-full bottles of things I have.

Carry on! This will be a highly educational experience for me.

*Matt Lauer is the co-host (with Meredith Viera) of the top-rated US morning news program, NBC's Today Show. Twice a year during sweeps period, the show runs a week-long series dubbed "Where In the World is Matt Lauer?" Originally inspired by the children's game show "Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?", the sweeps stunt shares the game show's interest in world geography, sending Lauer globetrotting to a series of interesting destinations. The most recent edition had Lauer heading from the Boeing plant outside Seattle to Ireland, Dubai, Bhutan, and Cape Town.

[miladyinsanity]

Which part of Malaysia are you in?

I don't think I'll get the chance to go back to visit the cousins before I leave in September *turns out pockets to show that they are empty* and that makes me sad.

I've never seen buah nanam before.

[SuzySushi]

Okay, I recognize the pears on the left and the dragonfruit on the right. But what are the red fruits in the center?

[miladyinsanity]

I'm not yunnermeier, but they are rose apples, SuzySushi. Also called Jambu Air (I think...my Malay is close to non-existent).

[Dasha]

Yay, a Malaysia foodblog, the type of blog that gives me the most food envy of all! Glad to see you blogging again, yunnermeier!

Your Mother's Day dinner looks amazing. What do sweet potato leaves taste like? They're gorgeous looking...

[Kim Shook]

Hello and welcome to my foodblog!

I am back home into the loving,cosy- sometimes suffocating- arms of Malaysia. I only had about 30 hours between actually buying the ticket and leaving The Netherlands (it was a bit of an emergency which is over now) so apologies to Kim Shook and Lindsay Ann for not sending the stroopwaffles (in exchange for Girl Scout Cookies) yet!

Not to worry about the stroopwaffles! I was just glad you got your cookies before you had to leave!

So glad to see you blogging again. I know exactly NOTHING about Malaysian food, so this will be a real treat for me. The market and Mother's day dinner photos are incredible!

Can't wait for more!

Kim

[insomniac]

Thank you for all your replies and keep those questions coming!

a few questions yunnermeier, the calamansi juice drink, what sort of pickles??
I love teh tarik but have never tried the coffee....does it have any extra spices like the tea?
the rawa tosai, what sort of flour is it? like roti canai? looks a bit more pancakey to me....

edited to add I don't know where the heart came from but i do love Malaysian food, any laksa coming up?

Oops,my mistake. Not pickles but just dried,pickled plum! Yummy. Rawa Tosai doesn't really taste like pancakes. It is much more fluffy and has a sour taste because it was fermented (a little) before it's cooked. The batter is made from a combination of rice flour ,cooked rice (left overnight hence the fermentation) and a few other ingredients. Laksa might appear, I don't know yet:-D What kind of laksa do you want to see?

curry...assam....any laksa at all, actually only being selfish as have been amply supplied with recipes...too bad egullet doesn't have smellevision

[Pan]

[...]p/s: Hello again Pakcik Pan :) Whereabouts did you live in Malaysia? Somewhere in the east coast if I recall correctly??

That's right. I lived in Kg. Merchang, on batu 25, halfway between Kuala Terengganu and Kuala Dungun on the coastal highway.

Your blog is off to a great start, and I'm feeling "homesick" for the jambu air, the rambutan, the air mata kucing...

The last time I visited Malaysia, I spent several days staying at the Shah Hotel by the A&W restaurant in PJ. Shiewie and Maukitten and a couple of non-eGullet-member friends of mine separately took me to a very nice satay stall nearby there. Shiewie, Maukitten, some friends of theirs and I also had a great pig-out seafood meal not far from there. My parents, three friends of theirs and I had another delicious meal at a slightly upscale place on the main road a couple of blocks down from the hotel, and after having been to Restoran Oversea in the mall on the other side of the LTR station a couple of times with my parents, I went there by myself for a last blowout meal before flying home - kangkung belacan and a great braised fish dish that was expensive by Malaysian standards but fully worth it to me. So I'd say that your city is chock-full of great food!

[snowangel]

Banana leaf rice

What is on top of the rice and in the piles above the rice?

[Chihiran]

I'm loving all of these foodblogs. So thank you, Yunnermeier, I'm completely unfamiliar with Malaysia so I look forward to a week of your blogging

The market pictures are gorgeous! Is there a reason why the signs are in English?

[yunnermeier]

I'm in a hurry so I'll answer all your questions later My parents and I had a quick breakfast as we have to leave soon.

Dim Sum
I'm not a big fan of Dim Sum. I think it's OK but not something I would actually request for, if you know what I mean.

[Abra]

Nice to see you home and blogging! Is there any chance you'll have some rojak this week? I get an "Indian rojak" at the Malay restaurant here and it's so weird and good.

Shaya, be sure to go to Malay Satay Hut when you're in town!

[Pan]

yunnermeier, I think you should show these fine people real Malaysian udang galah, if you have the chance. And definitely get something with belacan, if not sambal belacan. And show them Ais Sago Gula Melaka. Again, if you have the chance.

Edited by Pan, 15 May 2007 - 07:26 PM.

[jumanggy]

yunnermeier, am loving your blog! The pictures are great; makes me want to go there, buy as many sticks of satay as my fist can hold and munch on them all afternoon.

SuzySushi, I concur with May; those are indeed Rose apples (Syzygium (Eugenia) jambos). I didn't think they could be sold in markets because they spoil so quickly!

[miladyinsanity]

SuzySushi, I concur with May; those are indeed Rose apples (Syzygium (Eugenia) jambos). I didn't think they could be sold in markets because they spoil so quickly!

They are imported here, usually from Taiwan or Malaysia, all the time. They don't seem to spoil much faster than most other fruits, at least compared to tropical fruit. Apples and oranges don't count.

[mochihead]

yunnermeier, am loving your blog! The pictures are great; makes me want to go there, buy as many sticks of satay as my fist can hold and munch on them all afternoon.

SuzySushi, I concur with May; those are indeed Rose apples (Syzygium (Eugenia) jambos). I didn't think they could be sold in markets because they spoil so quickly!

SuzySushi: They are also locally grown here in Hawai'i. They call them mountain apples here. We have a tree in our backyard.

yunnermeier: Wonderful to seeing you blog again!

[sazji]

This is precisely why eating Chinese food in Holland depressed me. We had 6 dishes for 4 people (and today's dishes weren't impressive ). In Holland, I'd have just one dish to eat with rice (which is OK and everything but I somehow find it very unsatisfying).

Total cost of dinner: RM63 (about US$18!). Cheap,huh? 

Oh no! You mean everyone just orders one thing like in a western restaurant? Come to think of it, that's what we did when I was a kid and my grandfather would take us out to a chinese place. But after that it was just a given (whether with Asian or non-Asian friends) that we would get several things and share them all.

Malaysia has been No. 1 on my wishlist of places to visit for a long time now...amazing food, culture, and amazing botanical treasures all in one place. Maybe next year...I refuse to make my first trip there outside of durian season!!