penang malaysia

[Pan]

my first dish

One of my favorite foods was what I believe was called a rose apple.

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What's the fruit at the bottom right-hand corner? Looks like some kind of custard apple-like fruit.

Did they have any mangosteen? Or star apples?

The rose apple is the one on the far left about the middle of the plate, right? In front of the banana, with shiny bright pink skin?

I think I need to go to Penang, just to eat fruit! I really miss being able to eat lots and lots of fruit.

And I agree, KFC in Malaysia is really good!

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Yes on the rose apple, which is called jambu air (water[y] guava) in Malay.

"Star apple" produces a wide variety of Google image search results, encompassing at least 3 different fruits, so I can't help there.

What Filipinos call Chico is called Ciku (old spelling: Chiku) in Malay - almost the same word. I never loved ciku; I just thought it was OK. I do love jambu air!

Kristin, your kids are beautiful!

I hope to get back to Malaysia some time. Such beautiful, delicious food!

[v. gautam]

Pan,

Actually JAMBU is a direct loan word from Sanskrit which itself loaned it from earlier indigenous languages. It means fruits of the GENUS Syzygium [or gold] and India is JAMBUDVIPA, the Rose Apple Land, very sacred in Buddhist cosmology.

That jambu is variously transliterated in older horticultural literature for Bahasa [skt. BhASA] Malaysia [ Skt. Malaya =balmy] chomphu etc. So guava being a very late comer by 3 thousand years at minimum, contacts between Bengal, Indonesia etc predating the dawn of agriculture, guava shoul be termed Potruguese jambu. Its referent should be the jambu. Jambu, a native fruit, with a borrowed name long predating the arrival of guava seems queer referred to or indicated by the latecomer guava!

[Pan]

Thanks, v. That's very interesting. Of course, Malay contains loads of borrow words from Sanskrit and other Indian languages, from the times when lands inhabited by Malays, like the Malay Peninsula and large parts of Sumatra, were ruled by Hindu or Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms that had such a deep effect on Malay culture. Nevertheless, today, jambu is the word used in Malay for various varieties of guavas. It's often the case that words no longer mean what they used to, when they pass from language to language and centuries and millenia intervene.

[PCL]

Wow!!

See what happens when one is absent from the board? One misses out on a most fruitful and exciting discussion.

I was recently in Penang, a week ago actually, and I'm still working off the food.

Big contrast right now, as I'm over in Borneo, anticipating a dinner tomorrow night by ex-French Laundryman, Damon Campbell.

Mind boggling away as I type.

[torakris]

Wow!!

See what happens when one is absent from the board? One misses out on a most fruitful and exciting discussion.

I was recently in Penang, a week ago actually, and I'm still working off the food.

Big contrast right now, as I'm over in Borneo, anticipating a dinner tomorrow night by ex-French Laundryman, Damon Campbell.

Mind boggling away as I type.

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Please tell me more about Borneo! (starting a new thread of course! )

My family and I have traveled quite a bit in Asia recently and Malaysia was by far our favorite. We are thinking of going back next year and hitting KL and Borneo.