eG Foodblog : kew/Tepee

[spaghetttti]

kew, there's a Ramly stall right down the street from me with es potong, too! It's on my way to work, but I've never had the urge to try them, and now I will most likely keep just driving by. But the es potong do look good. Hmmmm, on second thought.

Yeah, I know -- entirely two different kinds of martabak.

By the way, we call those little apam = putu mayang here.

Blog on, dear!

[JustKay]

Kew, that was the Pasar Malam in Cyberjaya? What would you say are the most popular stalls? How late is it open and do they take a break for Isyak (evening) prayers like the one in Kota Bharu? I think the Pasar Malam is a great institution in Malaysia, but I'm not sure how long ago it became prevalent. I don't remember them from the 1970s, when many people in villages didn't yet have their own electricity supply and people had to wake up early for a day of hard labor in the sawmills, fields, or sea.

That was in Sleepy Hollow Dengkil, about 10km from my place. They start at 5:30 and starts packing up by 9:30pm.

I would say the foodstalls are the popular ones; all of them - equally popular. Malaysians just love to eat.

I remember in the 70s there was only one pasar malam in the whole town and it was only once a week. It wasn't as big as they are now too.

I didn't get to go to the produce and fish/meat stalls last nite. It was just too crowded.

I got the idea in Kelantan that Murtabak is a local specialty. They seemed to be selling meat (chicken or goat, I think, but maybe beef, too) or banana murtabak in the Pasar Malam in Kota Bharu. I found them tasty but pretty buttery.

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Beef, mutton, chicken, shrimp, sardine murtabaks.

But the banana 'murtabak' etc, are really filled roti canais. They don't mix these with the egg and onion mixture like they do murtabak. Now they also have roti bomb (just plain sugar filling) and roti tisu (tissue-thin rotis).

[Tepee]

**smacking head**  That's right! I was cracking my head trying to think of a 'sandwich'.    I miss Angus Burger stalls. Remember them? From way back in the late 70s/early80s? Ramly burgers are so bleh nowadays, I won't touch them with a foot long-pole.  And since an acquaintance who used to work as a food inspector told me all about how sausages are made, I have not touched them again.

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Kew! My BIL worked at Ramly's factory once while waiting for his exam results. You are so right to keep away from them burger patties. Enuff said.

[JustKay]

So ... I went on a walkabout this morning and took pictures of the fruit trees in my compound.

First, the little papaya tree my son planted by my girls' bedroom.

And my neighbor's big papaya tree.

Next is the mango tree. I found out today that we have 9 mango trees within our compound.

And the mangoes:

And whaddayaknow .... I found 2 almost ripe ones well-hidden between the leaves

[Tepee]

So, unlike Shiewie and Tepee who can eat almost anything  , I have to comform to the Halal guidelines.

Speaking for myself, I do almost eat anything under the sun. I've an aversion for things that crawl, though. No Fear Factor stuff for me!

And unlike the both of them, who are trilingual, I am only bilingual. 

Er, Kew....when my blogging term comes, I would need help from you and others. Engrish not so good/canggih as you-lah.

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[JustKay]

Kew! My BIL worked at Ramly's factory once while waiting for his exam results. You are so right to keep away from them burger patties.  Enuff said.

LOL! Everywhere's the same then coz my friend is in Germany. I make my own burger patties now. I'll eat Burger King though once in a while. But no more sausages and the likes.

[JustKay]

kew, there's a Ramly stall right down the street from me with es potong, too! It's on my way to work, but  I've never  had the urge to try them, and now I will most likely keep just driving by.  But the es potong do look good.  Hmmmm, on second thought. 

It's yummier if you make the bubur at home. Do you have the foot-long tube-like plastic that we have to make AisKrim Malaysia? Maaan... maybe I'll have to do this soon.

By the way, we call those little apam =  putu mayang here. 

Hehehe .... are you talking about the disc-shaped kinda crumbly 'pancakes' with a coconut-palm sugar filling? That would be Putu Piring here. And Putu Bambu if using molds cut from bamboo segments.

Putu mayang or putu mayong is 'stringhopper' which are made from a hot-water rice flour dough and pressed out vermicelli-like from a mould on to wicker mats and then steamed.

[spaghetttti]

Your Putu Piring/Bambu is just plain old putu here (mostly green colored tiny little cylindrical cakes, I have seen some plain white ones, though).

Now it's my turn to smack myself on the head! Ouch! You're right - putu mayang/yong is exactly like you said. Now I have to go and find out what those little apams are called here.

Edited March 9, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[JustKay]

We have 1 carambola/starfruit tree and one is enough to produce tons of fruits. The tree can grow quite big but the gardeners here likes to keep everything like so

Not sure if you can see them, but the tree is full of flowers.

Net is a jackfruit tree.

And a lone jackfruit.

The sukun tree.

And the sukun fruit:

You can see lovely pictures of the fruits upclose in this thread.

[JustKay]

Now it's my turn to smack myself on the head! Ouch!  You're right - putu mayang/yong is exactly like you said.  Now I have to go and find out what those little apams are called here.

Looking forward to seeing a picture too!

[JustKay]

A funny-looking kedondong tree. I'm sure the gardeners considers this avant-garde. We have about 6 kedondong trees.

And the fruit :

Maybe I'll go pick one fruit later so you can see what it's like inside.

Aaaccckkk!!!! This calamansi tree was laden with fruits just last week. Sometimes, I'll pick the fruits to make ice-cold calamansi juice. And now it has been reduced to this shrub

I found a lone young banana tree :

[JustKay]

Here's a young rambutan tree. Still a long way to produce any fruits.

And a promegranate tree - but no fruits.

We have several of this yellow coconut trees around the pool area. This specie is grown more as a decorative plant but the coconut water is quite sweet. The flesh however, cannot be used to make coconut milk - they're too thin and not 'milky' enough. Loads of coconuts we have.

And here's the 'curry leaf' plant and the pandan. Poor curry tree is often subjected to the gardeners' sculpting skill. Even the pandans aren't spared.

Helenjp, this pic is for you - pandan are the ones in the foreground. I'll add more info on pandan later.

Edited March 9, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

Hmph .... this morning we had butter-kaya toasts.

Here's a recipe for kaya (literally means rich in Malay) :

Seri Kaya

They are a PITA to make, so I just buy them.

For my mid-morning snack, I had a bar of 3 Musketeers (courtesy of my US friend). And half a honeydew melon

I'll post pics of my lunch later. I think I've had enough picture posting for now.

[Pan]

Lobster flavored crackers. Yumm!

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Interesting that the lobster flavor is called "udang galah." I think of udang galah as really collossal shrimps (no oxymoron intended).

Moosh, some of us non-parents remember playing with Lego.

Kew, do you put the curry leaves in most of your curries? I love curry leaves, but I don't remember them being used on the East Coast back when. Are they a traditional part of Malay curries on the West Coast?

Also, a general remark: The influence of Indian food on Malay palates is obvious, what with Roti Canai, Chapatti, Murtabak, and even curries themselves being originally Indian imports. But what's also evident is how much Chinese food has influenced Malay palates, probably even more on the West Coast -- where there's a much higher percentage of Chinese Malaysians -- than on the East Coast. I didn't realize until recently that kueh itself is a Hokkien word. And of course there are many varieties of mee (=noodles) and Hainanese chicken. Nowadays, some dishes borrowed from the Thais are very popular. Would you like to expand on the topic of Malaysian cuisine as a delicious fusion of diverse influences from longstanding and more recent international trade, conquest, and so forth? I imagine your Chinese-Malaysian neighbor Tepee will also have some remarks about this.

[Shiewie]

Pictures galore, thanks kew ! Wow you're really lucky to have such a wide selection of fruits in your garden.

Pan - curry leaves - think curry leaves plays a bigger part in Indian food than Malay food (but kew will know better , sorry for jumping in) - but it has crept its way into other food here too - it's used in butter prawn/crabs and kam heong style prawns/crabs at Malaysian Chinese restaurants ... an example of the fusion of the influences of longstanding trade and migration you mentioned .

kew - while we're on this topic of various influences on Malaysian food, why is spaghetti used in Laksa Johor? Is this traditionally so? A friend's mum's version also includes a garnish of minced preserved radish / chai poh (Hokkien) / choy poh (Cantonese) - she's Chinese muslim married to a Malay so perhaps it's a personal interpretation?

Here's a picture of the Laksa Johor we shamelessly pestered my friend to ask his mum to make for Hari Raya Puasa (Eid al Fitr).

[Laksa]

We don't get the eggs here. 

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That's not necessarily a bad thing. I almost broke my front teeth once biting into a kinder egg and not knowing there's a "kinder surprise" inside.

[spaghetttti]

Poor David, what was the surprise?

Oh I see it's dinner time, I wonder what kew and family had for makan malam.

Edited March 9, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[Laksa]

what was the surprise?

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Inside the egg was a single propeller aeroplane piloted by a bird. Hmmm... birds are training to be pilots now? Talk about being kiasu!

(Okay, maybe it wasn't really a bird )

[JustKay]

Interesting that the lobster flavor is called "udang galah." I think of udang galah as really collossal shrimps (no oxymoron intended).

Actually, it's wrongly translated.

Udang galah (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) = freshwater king prawns.

Lobster = udang karang which is closely related to udang ketak = crayfish.

Kew, do you put the curry leaves in most of your curries? I love curry leaves, but I don't remember them being used on the East Coast back when. Are they a traditional part of Malay curries on the West Coast?

Oh yes! Curries without the curry leaves is like ...errr .... **thinking hard for an anology here** .... spaghetti sauce without oregano?

Perhaps, in the East Coast they are known as something else. In Penang and Kedah, it is known by it's Tamil name "karappulai" (Karuveppilei). It's botanical name is Murraya koenigii Sprengel Rutaceae

Would you like to expand on the topic of Malaysian cuisine as a delicious fusion of diverse influences from longstanding and more recent international trade, conquest, and so forth?

We went to Swensen's Restaurant for dinner last Saturday. I ordered "Spaghetti with Chilli Fish". No description was provided. When it arrived, I was to see daun kesum (polygonum) and bunga kantan (torchginger flower). It was really just spaghetti tossed with thick asam pedas gravy. And topped with deep fried battered fish fillet. Talk about fusion food!

Many of the newer restaurants features such fusion dishes. Even Pizza Hut has Satay and Rendang Pizza. Not to be outdone, Domino's Pizza offers Spicy Sambal and Spicy Tuna which uses sambal tumis as the sauce instead of the traditional tomato-based pizza sauce.

During the late 70s and up until the late 80s, our Malaysian government sponsored a really huge number of students (mostly Bumiputeras - loosely defined as a Malay Muslim, including other indigenous minority groups but excluding the ethnic Chinese and Indian origin Malaysians) to pursue their tertiary education abroad. Ask any of the people in this age group who holds a respectable position, chances are s/he was a recipient of this scholarship. I think this is one of the exerting factors too.

And then there are the inter-racial marriages. Malaysians have become more acceptable about this. It's very common nowadays to see an Indian guy with a Chinese girl, for instance. And then there are the inter-national unions.

Influx of foreign workers have resulted in the mushrooming of restaurants specializing in cuisines from Pakistan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, even Nepal, and Indonesia to a greater extent.

The booming and ever expanding tourism sector brings forth 'westernized' Malaysian food. Dishes that are tinkered to be less hot, less spicy, for example.

The dynamics of the Malaysian cuisine are ever evolving. I think it's all very exciting.

Even the more traditional dishes aren't spared. For example, it's common now to see mushroom, broccoli, cauliflower in kuah lodeh along with it's customary ingredients of tempeh, cabbage, greenbeans and tofu (a chinese influence, I'm sure). Ais kacang comes topped with a scoop or two of ice-cream and sprinkled with jimmies - something that wasn't done when I was little. I'm sure there are loads more of examples.

.... but it has crept its way into other food here too - it's used in butter prawn/crabs and kam heong style prawns/crabs at Malaysian Chinese restaurants ... an example of the fusion of the influences of longstanding trade and migration you mentioned  .

There you go, another example.

kew - while we're on this topic of various influences on Malaysian food, why is spaghetti used in Laksa Johor? Is this traditionally so?

As best as I can recall, people started using spaghetti more and more instead of the rice laksa noodles ... maybe from the mid 70s. I remember my Grandma and Mom thought spaghetti was so cool compared to the clumsy rice laksa noodles. Plus, it was more readily available (at home) since spaghetti is dried 'noodles'. The rice laksa noodles had to be bought fresh from the wet market. But now I see dried rice laksa noodles too.

A friend's mum's version also includes a garnish of minced preserved radish / chai poh (Hokkien) / choy poh (Cantonese) - she's Chinese muslim married to a Malay so perhaps it's a personal interpretation?

I would say it's personal.

Edited March 10, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

My kids had no extra classes today so I had to make a real lunch.

We had white rice with Daging Masak Merah , Ikan Bilis Goreng Bawang and microwaved broccoli. My kids are picky about the vegetables but they love broccoli. For dessert, it was mangoes (the one I picked this morning!) and ice-cream.

Edited March 9, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

I brought the kids to the Taman Putra Perdana Perdana Park in Putrajaya.

There's an interesting section at this park, aptly named Laman Haruman = Fragrant Garden.

Lots of fragrant flower plants like the Jasmine (many different species) and the Kenange ... Canangium odoratum (?) and these plants :

Serai Wangi = Citronella, Cymbopogon nardus (L.), fragrant lemongrass - not to be confused with lemongrass used for cooking. This is more pungent and it's most useful as a mosquito/insect repellent.

Halia = Ginger (the plant to the fore)

Limau Purut = Kaffir Lime, Citrus Hystrix

There were also calamansi plants and probably others that I missed.

This public park is right opposite the Putrajaya Shangri-La Hotel

(the image in the link is of the entrance/lobby)

Edited March 9, 2005 by kew (log)

[Laksa]

Ais kacang comes topped with a scoop or two of ice-cream and sprinkled with jimmies - something that wasn't done when I was little.

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What are jimmies?

Is there any food you had in Canada that you now miss?

[JustKay]

What are jimmies?

jimmies = sprinkles.

Sprinkles or Jimmies?

Is there any food you had in Canada that you now miss?

Too many!

I'll have to list, and post later.

Edited March 9, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

After the park, we went to Dataran Putrajaya Putrajaya Square.

The building you see is our Prime Minister's office complex. To the left of me (when taking that picture) is the Putrajaya Mosque.

Adjoing the mosque is The Souq.

The following are pictures of the various food stalls at the lower court of The Souq.

And an ice-cream booth and a fruit stall.

Edited March 9, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

The kids wanted to eat at Nando's.

And so, we had an early dinner.

A whole Lemon & Herb Roasted Chicken - we added the peri-peri (pili-pili) sauce later because my little girl can't stand the heat, hence the flavoring choice. Otherwise, they have mild peri-peri, hot peri-peri and flaming peri-peri chicken.

Along with the chicken we had Mediterranean Rice, Fries, Corn-on-the-cob, Greek salad and coleslaw. Yumm!

After dinner, we bought a loaf of bread for the fish.

To the right is the Putrajaya Cruise

The new Selangor Palace on the opposite side of the lake.

Edited March 10, 2005 by kew (log)