eG Foodblog: Laksa - Wild man of Borneo

[Ms Congeeniality]

I am tempted to say that it entered their diet ever since Tan Ah Beng opened her restaurant in the Pantai Ria food complex in Bintulu, Sarawak, back in the 80's.  That's where Ms Congee pilfered her pickled mustard Umai recipe from.

It is true that the white umai dish presented here was inspired by one of my favorite restaurants, made by a Chinese couple in Pantai Ria, which has pickled mustard. In all likelihood Melanau recipes would not have pickled mustard, while other ingredients remain the same.

Also, alternative preparation methods include pounding all ingredients into a mixture to be folded into the fish. Some people may add turmeric, garlic or even crushed peanut.

Umai has many variations. Don't be surprised to find umai dishes from two neighboring stalls to be different. On the other hand, most places make Sarawak Laksa pretty much the same, of course some taste better than others.

[formerly grueldelux]

thanks for a fantastic blog. I can't wait to try some of these dishes. In fact, yesterday I picked up a jar of laksa paste at my closest asian supermarket. It's by Roland. Do you have any experience with this brand of laksa? How does it compare to the brand you use? The ingredient list looks pretty good, so I'm guessing they're interchangable.

michael

[Laksa]

Japan also uses starch from bracken-fern root, and roasted bracken-fern root was eaten in New Zealand...how about in Borneo?

Do the Ainu eat the bracken fern root or do the Japanese in general? I don't know if the root is eaten in Borneo.

Your question reminds of questionable joke I heard while I was in Oz, but may not translate well.

Q: In what way is a wombat like a man?

A: It eats roots and leaves.

[Laksa]

Do you have any experience with this brand of laksa? How does it compare to the brand you use? The ingredient list looks pretty good, so I'm guessing they're interchangable.

michael

Michael, I have never used Roland laksa paste. I never even knew that laksa paste was commercially available here. That is very good news to us -- thanks for the info!

The ingredients list does look pretty good. Please let me know how your laksa turns out.

I forgot to mention that we blanched the bean sprouts in hot water. And the shrimps were quickly cooked in salted water. Because the rice vermicelli (bee-hoon) is pretty much flavorless, the laksa broth needs to be more salty than regular soup, perhaps on the same level of saltiness as a sauce for pasta. For added flavor, you can use chicken broth (or any type of broth) instead of water.

As a comparison, I have translated the ingredients list from the packet we used:

bawang merah = shallots

bawang putih = garlic

buah keras = candle nut

bijan = sesame (seeds probably)

cili = chili

garam = salt

kacang = peanuts (?!)

lengkuas = galangal

minyak masak = cooking oil

rempah = spices (not very helpful, is it?)

serai = lemon grass

Edited August 23, 2004 by Laksa (log)

[Laksa]

It's a slow food day today. I had leftovers for lunch in my office. I had wanted to take a picture of the pandan chiffon I'm going to have for afternoon tea but the camera battery gave out.

Here are some bitter gourd pictures I took yesterday that I'd forgotten to post.

Ms Congee braised the bitter gourd in salted soy beans. If you're gonna use salted soy beans, it's important to use only a smidgen. Just a pinch. No more than half a tablespoon for this gourd. That stuff is super salty.

Notice how this gourd we got from the Chinese store is a lot less spiky than the ones from the Indian grocer.

The gourd needs to be cored and rubbed with salt to reduce the bitterness. Wash the salt off before cooking

Braised bitter gourd with salted soy beans:

[formerly grueldelux]

michael

Michael, I have never used Roland laksa paste. I never even knew that laksa paste was commercially available here. That is very good news to us -- thanks for the info!

The ingredients list does look pretty good. Please let me know how your laksa turns out

Edited August 23, 2004 by formerly grueldelux (log)

[hzrt8w]

Laksa: The bitter melon you picked looks beautiful!

I always cook them with garlic and Chinese Foo Yu, or garlic with fermented black beans. I should try it with salted soy bean next time.

[Abra]

Ok, I tried ricecooker congee. Although I have to say that I made a WW version using brown basmati and wild rice, as opposed to white rice, and smoked, pressed tofu instead of pork, so it's really only a riff on your recipe. Here it is

I added Sarawak white pepper and ginger, cooked it partly in chicken broth, partly water, with the reconstituted shiitakes, and also stirred in a little black sesame oil, green onions and cilantro, as well as a little soy sauce. That's Sriracha chili sauce on top. It was pretty tasty, although the different rice really changed the consistency a lot. My ricecooker wasn't big enough for the amount I made, so my counter also got the benefit of a good scrubbing.

I'm looking forward to having a bowl for breakfast tomorrow. That's just the sort of breakfast food I love. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Ms Congeeniality]

Ok, I tried ricecooker congee. 

Abra: That looks really yummy! The shitake look so succulent & inviting .What a nutritious breakfast it will make too. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[Laksa]

Laksa: The bitter melon you picked looks beautiful!

I always cook them with garlic and Chinese Foo Yu, or garlic with fermented black beans. I should try it with salted soy bean next time.

hzrt8w, your name is so difficult to type!

Credit goes to Ms Congee for selecting the bitter gourd. The salted say bean recipe comes form Ms Congee's side of the family. Oh, there's minced garlic in there too. Sometimes I forget to mention garlic as it seems to be a given.

For some reason, my mum always cooks bitter gourd with some sliced pork. (She cooks a lot of vegetables with sliced pork). I hope she doesn't read this, but the pork more often than not turns out tough and rubbery. "The meat is there just to to flavor the dish," she usually says, "eating it is optional".

Abra, your congee looks very rich. Those more knowledgeable than I should feel free to correct me, but I believe congee is traditionally considered a poor man's food. You have elevated it to a new level of luxury with the abundance of ingredients.

[Transparent]

For some reason, my mum always cooks bitter gourd with some sliced pork. (She cooks a lot of vegetables with sliced pork). I hope she doesn't read this, but the pork more often than not turns out tough and rubbery. "The meat is there just to to flavor the dish," she usually says, "eating it is optional".

Abra, your congee looks very rich. Those more knowledgeable than I should feel free to correct me, but I believe congee is traditionally considered a poor man's food. You have elevated it to a new level of luxury with the abundance of ingredients.

My mom cooks bitter gourd with dark meat chicken. Both the chicken and the gourd taste good.

[Dejah]

Beef, black bean garlic and bitter gourd stir-fried, poured over fresh ho fun ( wide, flat rice sticks) . . . OR

Pork bones, chunks of bitter gourd, ginger and dried oysters in a soup.

[Laksa]

Ms Congee is travelling for work. I'm having dinner alone tonight. Time to bring out the good stuff!

Tonight's menu is pepper NY strip steak with butter sauteed mushrooms on a rice vermicelli bed.

Here we have some baby bella, shiitake, boneless strip steak, Sarawak white pepper, McCormack black pepper:

I crush the pepper under a rolling pin. Crushing the pepper this way creates a rougher grain than if I were to use a pepper mill, which is what I want. It's also faster than grinding the same amount of pepper in a mill.

Salt the steak on both sides and coat it with pepper to form a thick crust. Press the pepper firmly into the steak.

Into a hot dry pan goes the steak. I don't use any oil at all for the time being. The pan will start to smoke pretty furiously. Some pepper comes loose but that's ok. After searing both sides, I turn down the heat to medium and add lots of butter. The pepper may have gotten in the way of a nice char but the butter will now help the steak brown. The pepper would have gotten pretty burnt by now but that's how I like it.

Just before the required doneness is achieved, I take the steak and all the pepper bits out of the pan.

I then melt more butter in the pan, lots and lots of it. Once I start to think there's too much, I add some more. I cut the shiitake into slivers and toss it into the pan with the baby bella slices and saute them until brown. I then add a little wine to deglaze any crusty bits in the pan.

Before serving, I reheat the steak under the broiler (with more butter if needed) to get even more char on it.

The rice vermicelli is tossed with peanut oil, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili flakes, sesame seeds and sesame oil:

Pepper steak with sauteed mushrooms on a bed of rice vermicelli:

I wrap each piece of steak with mushrooms and vermicelli in a lettuce leaf and eat it like a fajita.

Edited August 24, 2004 by Laksa (log)

[jhlurie]

Egad, that looks good. And rice vermicelli and steak together? Yeah... I can get behind that.

[spaghetttti]

That looks tremendously good, Laksa (well, so does everything!).

Just wondering, what sort of beverages to you like to have with your meals?

[SG-]

I am tempted to say that it entered their diet ever since Tan Ah Beng opened her restaurant in the Pantai Ria food complex in Bintulu, Sarawak, back in the 80's.  That's where Ms Congee pilfered her pickled mustard Umai recipe from.

It is true that the white umai dish presented here was inspired by one of my favorite restaurants, made by a Chinese couple in Pantai Ria, which has pickled mustard. In all likelihood Melanau recipes would not have pickled mustard, while other ingredients remain the same.

Also, alternative preparation methods include pounding all ingredients into a mixture to be folded into the fish. Some people may add turmeric, garlic or even crushed peanut.

Umai has many variations. Don't be surprised to find umai dishes from two neighboring stalls to be different. On the other hand, most places make Sarawak Laksa pretty much the same, of course some taste better than others.

I really thought you were throwing out some M'sian humour with that Tan Ah Beng story, thought it was going to lead up to stories about Ah Pek, Ah Leng, Ah Moi etc etc

[Laksa]

Just wondering, what sort of beverages to you like to have with your meals?

A nice bottle of Australian shiraz would've gone great with this steak. Although having an entire bottle of wine might sound tempting, drinking alone is kinda sad...

If I don't have wine with a meal, I don't drink anything at all. Unless I'm at a restaurant that serves Chinese tea.

What do you like to drink?

[Laksa]

I really thought you were throwing out some M'sian humour with that Tan Ah Beng story, thought it was going to lead up to stories about Ah Pek, Ah Leng, Ah Moi etc etc

Hey, do you know Ah Beng? Those people are all her relatives!

[Squeat Mungry]

Ok, I tried ricecooker congee.  Although I have to say that I made a WW version using brown basmati and wild rice, as opposed to white rice, and smoked, pressed tofu instead of pork, so it's really only a riff on your recipe.

Okay, I'm stumped at "WW". "Wild West"? "Wonder Woman"? "Why-don't-you-live-on-a-lovely-island-the Way-I-do?" Oh, never mind. I just remembered. Duh.

Laksa, your dinner tonight was almost exactly what I made for myself last night, except my steak was rib-eye and my noodles were linguini al verde. I was thinking I made up steak on noodles! Thanks for the terrific blog. Like everyone else, I'm learning so much.

(I drank scotch.)

Squeat

[Tepee]

Laksa, I'm immensely enjoying your food blog too...as I've enjoyed all the other blogs. You people are the greatest to share your week with us. For an original Msian (correct me if I'm wrong) who has seemingly spent more years abroad than home, your meals are very 'root-based'.

[phaelon56]

In all seriousness, I think we went blog-crazy and started making more food more often than what we would normally do.

Consider it to be one of the more pleasant occupational hazards of eGulet blogging. The week that I blogged was one fo the best eating/cooking weeks I've ever had a very good thing.

You're so kind to share this with us all - it's fascinainting cuisine and has prompted me, like so many others, to want to rush to the Asian market for some supplies and begin experimenting.

I then melt more butter in the pan, lots and lots of it. Once I start to think there's too much, I add some more.

Quite possibly the most classic phrase I've ever seen writtne in eGullet. It would make a nice tag line.

[Ms Congeeniality]

I wrap each piece of steak with mushrooms and vermicelli in a lettuce leaf and eat it like a fajita.

Dang, this sure beats the Ugoff salad that I had at Burger King last night...

[Dejah]

I wrap each piece of steak with mushrooms and vermicelli in a lettuce leaf and eat it like a fajita.

Dang, this sure beats the Ugoff salad that I had at Burger King last night...

And you didn't take a picture to "entice us"?

[Laksa]

The only Malaysian I have ever had was a spicey squid dish at a restaurant in London a couple years back.  The sauce and vegetables were very flavorful and great, but the squid was so rubbery I could barely chew it.  What you have been cooking looks much better.

NulloModo, thanks and I hope you will give Malaysian food another chance. Sometimes it's important to know what to order as some Malaysian restaurants I've seen outside of Malaysia have a tendency to offer dishes outside of "core" Malaysian cooking. Perhaps it's in an effort to draw diners who may be looking for Chinese, Indonesian or Thai.

TP(M'sia): Ms Congee and I were both Made in Malaysia. I took the chance to rejuvenate and replant my roots when I spent the four years up to 2000 working there. NY is so far away from Malaysia that we don't get to go there as often as we would like.

Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement. Please keep in mind that the only reason I'm blogging is because I crave attention, and you are all playing into my hand! Muahahahaha.

[Ms Congeeniality]

My ricecooker wasn't big enough for the amount I made, so my counter also got the benefit of a good scrubbing.

Abra, in your opinion, when there's too much ingredients & the rice cooker bubbles over, would it help to take the cover off and let it simmer that way for a while ?

Seems that the TheFoodTutor was able to put a towel around the lid of the rice cooker to minimize it. While I have not encountered this, I'm interested to know how this is tackled.