OK! I've been back 2 weeks now. Feels great to be back. There’s so many things to do and I've more or less spent the last two weeks running all around KL, PJ and other
parts of the Klang Valley running errands and catching up with friends.
After much deliberation
with my wife, we've decided to postpone our return trip to the Netherlands.
Instead of returning on the 24th of February, we've delayed it for
another 2 weeks and decided that we will return on the 9th of March
(It wasn't really our choice as we couldn't get earlier tickets back). So,
there will be a lot more eating to do.
In keeping
with the theme of this blog, I've decided to write about my nasi lemak
experiences during this trip first. I’ll write about some of the other food
another time (and there will be lots of it).
Each nasi lemak portion is enough for a complete meal
The first
nasi lemak I had was one of my all-time favorites. It’s one of those that are
wrapped in banana leaves, consisting of your basic nasi lemak with the sambal,
the dried anchovies, eggs and cucumber. One wrapped nasi lemak is enough for
one meal although on almost every occasion, I’ll have 2 portions for breakfast
(The only times I don’t have 2 portions is when I have 3).
This nasi
lemak has been one of my favorites since the year 2000. It is sold by this
lovely kakak (sister) by the roadside in Bandar Seri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. She
sells nasi lemak and fried mee hoon (which she makes herself) and also some
malay kueh such as karipap, kuih ketayap, kuih keria and seri muka. Her stall
is usually open by around 7.00 am as she tries to catch the early crowd heading
out to work.
My wife buying the nasi lemak from the kakak
On a
weekday, things are normally quite slow and she doesn’t make and sell a lot of
nasi lemak. You can still get nasi lemak from her around 10.00 am on a weekday.
But on a weekend, you have to be early if you want a taste of her nasi lemak.
In fact you’ll be lucky to get any by 9.00 am.
I love this
kakak’s nasi lemak because of her sambal. The sambal is superb. It’s just a
plain sambal without any anchovies in it, but the taste is wonderful. It’s a
bit on the hot side but it is beautifully balanced with sweetness. Her rice is
a bit inconsistent, sometimes a bit too mushy and sometimes perfectly cooked.
But the deliciousness of her sambal makes up for any imperfections in her rice.
For anyone
who would like to give this kakak’s nasi lemak a try, her stall is located at
Persiaran Margosa in Bandar Seri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. It’s not too
difficult to find as her stall is the only one along that road.
I've always thought that living abroad would be no big deal. Home would he wherever you decide is home. Your surroundings would have no impact whatsoever on how you live your life. Nothing changes. You go to work, you go home, have dinner, go to bed and wake up the next morning doing the same thing. From time to time, you socialize or you travel or do whatever else takes your fancy. The environment you live in doesn't change your lifestyle.
So then why is it that just when you're about to board the plane heading home, you develop anxiety. You start feeling jittery and start to wonder about all the things that you used to do back home and the things that you would do on this trip back. You start to remind yourself of all the friends that you would like to catch up with and all the great food that you've been missing since your last trip back.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy living in The Hague. The pace is slower compared to Kuala Lumpur. Getting around is easy, you can easily take your bike out and go for a long ride without having to worry about lorry drivers who cant see you or even acknowledge that you have as much right as they do in using the tarmac. You dont have to worry about being late anywhere as you don't have to crawl through bumper to bumper traffic.
Over the last couple of years, I've found that I enjoy my life in the Netherlands. The lifestyle there gives me more time to pursue my other interests and develop some new ones. So why is it that when the plane lands and the cabin crew is making their final announcement before you disembark the plane, you get this feeling of pure contentment when they say "To the Malaysian citizens, welcome home". When you hear that, it sounds so right.
It started
off as one of those days. You know the kind of day where you wake up and feel
like you've just been run over by a steam roller. That was how my Saturday
started. I woke up quite early, around 7.00 and the moment I sat up I felt like
I had been crushed by a huge rolling pin. All my muscles were
aching and crying out to me to just lie down again.
I don’t
know how to describe how I felt in English (I guess lethargy would be a close
enough description) but in Malay I would call it as “lemau” (If I was referring
to food, I think “lemau” would translate as “stale”). After a brief tinkle, I
decided that my running shoes could wait another day and my rowing machine wasn't going to go anywhere, I went back to bed.
Waking up
again at 10.00 was slightly better. I could no longer hear screaming coming
from my muscles, just some faint whispering For a brief second, I contemplated
either putting on my running shoes and head out in 0 degrees temperature or
spend 15 minutes breathing heavily on my rowing machine. Instead I did neither.
After
another brief tinkle, my wife informed me that Siti had cooked nasi lemak that
morning and had invited us over. All of a sudden, all my aches vanished. The
thought of having nasi lemak for brunch sounded like a brilliant idea (I
honestly didn't know that the invitation was actually for breakfast).
The nasi
lemak was excellent. The hotness of the sambal was more prominent compared to
mine but the sweetness and the sourness helped to temper it down a bit. The
rice was nicely cooked and I noticed that there were chunks of rice from the
bottom of the pot in the rice bowl (in Malay we call this the “kerak”). I love
these chunks of rice from the bottom of the pot. I didn't notice them that much
in my first serving. I only realized they were in the rice bowl about half way
through my second serving, so naturally, I just had to have a third helping.
The sambal, eggs, cucumber and fried anchovies making up the whole nasi lemak combination.
I would
normally stop there. Three servings of nasi lemak is a lot to have in one
sitting (although I think my record was 5), but I spent yesterday afternoon experimenting
with this recipe for chocolate mousse on a baked cornflakes crust. I couldn't find a recipe for chocolate mousse on a baked crust so I had to combine 2
different recipes. And I was very eager to taste it. It was wonderful. The
crust was a bit crunchier than I expected making it very difficult to cut, but
the mousse was perfect and the whole combination of mousse and crust worked
very well. Next time I will have to find a way to reduce the crunchiness of the
crust.
The Chocolate Mousse on Baked Cornflakes Crust
(You need to zoom in to see the crust)
After the
start I had this morning, I didn't really think that I’d feel much better in
the afternoon. When I start any day feeling “lemau”, it usually ends the same
way. Not much that happens during the day that would improve my overall outlook
for the day, but today, was different. Thanks to the nasi lemak from Siti
This is
tough. It’s the eve of the New Year and I want to write something about it. I've been staring at this blank document for 30 minutes now and have typed and
deleted at least 6 paragraphs. I have walked back and forth to the toilet 3
times (it’s about the only place I can smoke in the house and also there’s
something about a toilet seat which makes it a great place for contemplation).
And so far, I just can’t seem to put my thoughts in a coherent form to write
them down. But I’m going to try anyway.
Around
about this time of the year, I always find myself contemplating the events over
the past 12 months, reflecting on the good times and bad times, trying to
decide if the year that is about to leave, was a good year or a bad one. The
conclusion that I have come up with is that it was a wonderful 2012.
I have to
say that I wasn't really expecting much from 2012. I had no job and spent most
of my time at home. My biggest worry was that I would get bored and depressed since
I didn't have much to occupy my time with. I was diagnosed with diabetes in
2011 and my cholesterol level was border line. So on top of not having much to
do, I had health issues to contend with.
But during
the year, things started to pick up. My professional life remained in the
gutter, but I was expecting that. I figured as long as I stayed in the
Netherlands, it would be very difficult for me to find a job, so I wasn't expecting much improvement there. But everything else started to fall in place.
I started
to become active again towards the end of 2011. I started going to the gym,
played badminton, and I went running and cycling on a regular basis. All this
continued throughout 2012 (except for the last month or so as I was advised to
stop playing sports for a while because of a hip problem). These activities not
only improved my fitness levels, but they also helped increase my overall
health. My blood sugar level is still high but it has been constantly reducing
throughout the year. My cholesterol level is still border line, but I see light
at the end of the tunnel.
Besides
that, I've also managed to travel a bit this year. I went back to Malaysia 3
times, and spent some time in Norway, Italy, Portugal and the UK.
Western
Norway was breathtaking. We spent a couple of days hiking around Maloy and the
hills surrounding it. And then we spent another day driving into the mountains,
looking at the wondrous nature of glaziers and also taking in the beautiful
scenery of the fjords.
In Italy,
we enjoyed the scenery around San Gimignano and the Tuscan countryside. We also
learned a bit about the history of Lucca and Sienna but one of the highlights
of the trip and the whole year was driving a Ferrari California around the countryside
surrounding Maranello in Italy.
Unlike the
other places, Portugal was a relaxing holiday. We stayed in the beautiful town
of Cascais, 30 minutes away from the hustle and bustle of Lisbon and just
soaked up the sun at the hotel swimming pool.
In the UK
we went to catch a live game at Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC (my favorite
football club). We also spent a couple of days just driving around the
countryside in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, taking in the beautiful scenery and enjoying
the offerings of the small quaint towns such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping
Campden and Bradford-upon-Avon, along the way.
But if I
have to say, the happiest moment of 2012 to me, would be looking at the joy in
my wife’s eyes when I gave her the birthday present I got her.
(That first
part was written on New Year’s Eve. The next part was written a few days after
the New Year)
I have
never made a New Year’s Resolution. Every year, on the eve of the New Year, I
reflect on the events of the previous year, without making any resolutions for
the New Year. I’ve always believed that whatever resolution that I make at the
eve of a New Year will be forgotten within a couple of weeks, a month at the
most. So I've never made any.
But this
year, I've decided to make a New Year’s Resolution. I guess this change in
heart has been brought about because I feel like there is so much more that I
can achieve when I put my mind to it. So here are my New Year’s Eve
Resolutions:
I’d like to learn some new things.
I bought an acoustic guitar a couple of
years ago and took some lessons. That was before I moved to the
Netherlands. When I moved here, I stopped completely. Last year, I
started to take guitar lessons online and I think I am making some
progress. So my first resolution is to learn how to play the guitar
properly.
Apart from that, I’d like to learn how to
ski. It won’t really be a useful thing to know back in Malaysia but I
would like to go on a skiing holiday and I would like to know how to ski
before I go on that holiday.
I would also like to learn how to make
coffee. I've been looking at learning this for a year or so. I have been
looking at a course in London and hopefully this year I’ll be able to
take that course.
I would also like to learn other things
but I haven’t really decided on anything else yet. More on this later.
I’d like to experiment more with my cooking.
I have my normal repertoire which I think I've more or less perfected
according to my tastes. But nowadays I feel like I should expand my
horizons and try different things as well. I've already started with a
birthday dinner for my lovely wife and it turned out quite well. The
starter was Mussels cooked in tomatoes, while the main meal was a Lemon
Baked Turkey, Roast Pumpkin and Parsnip, a simple salad and for dessert, I
served a Banoffee Pie.
I also want to increase my fitness levels.
I want to keep on playing squash, badminton and tennis. I also want to
start cycling and running again. I've got a rowing machine now and that
will help with my fitness levels.
The full spread
Top (right to left): Roasted Grated Pumpkin and Parsnip, Salad with Pomegrenate Bottom (right to left): Mussels in Tomatoes and Banoffe Pie
That’s all
my New Year’s Resolutions. I might decide to add to that list later on in the
year but then they won’t be New Year’s Resolutions any more. I’ll keep you
posted on my progress.
It’s that
time of the year again. Its Christmas time and I get to play dress up and
attend my wife’s departmental Christmas party. Since I don’t work, I spend most
of my time in jeans and t-shirts (and thermals and sweaters in the winter), so
I don’t get the chance to dress up very often. Over the weekend, we went to the
Malaysian Association of the Netherlands Annual Gala Dinner and we decided to
dress up for that. This is us before the event:
Before the Gala Dinner... we looked goooood
Besides
that, I’m stuck for ideas. I've spent the whole morning just hanging out at my
favorite watering hole, the Coffee Company at Korteporten in Den Haag, and
followed that up with walking around aimlessly for another hour or so. Then I came
home and spent the last 2 hours reading comments on articles posted on a website
dedicated to Liverpool Football Club (I read the articles in 15 minutes). Now I’m
just waiting for the time to get ready and head off the Louwman Museum for the
Christmas party.
Since I’m
not doing anything else, I thought I might as well write about the events over
the past weekend, particularly Sunday when we had our nasi lemak brunch. As I
mentioned in the last post, I left the invitation open, anyone who wanted to
attend would just have to read the post and let me know that they were coming.
You’d think with that type of invitation, I’d probably have to cook for 100
people. But not here in Den Haag, I had a guest list of 5 and a half and even
then, at the last minute, someone couldn't make it.
So I was
left with Fazrin, Merlyna, Siti and Shaukatt being the 4 and little Khaleef
making up the half. Brunch was scheduled to start at 11.00 and at 8.30 that
morning, my wife got a message from Siti telling us that she was already hungry
and couldn't wait to come over. I hadn't even started cooking yet.
The guests. From top to bottom: Fazrin & Merlyna, Siti & Shaukatt, and Khaleef
It usually
takes me about an hour to cook nasi lemak, but this time I had to allocate a
bit more time because I was planning to serve fried chicken with the nasi
lemak. I started cooking at 9.30 and by 10.30 I was done with the nasi lemak. At
11.00, Siti, Shaukatt and Khaleef arrived. I was only half way through cooking the chicken
so I could feel the daggers coming from Siti as she was probably expecting to
eat immediately upon arrival.
In a way, I
was feeling a bit under pressure. This would be the first time I was going to
cook nasi lemak for friends since I started writing this blog. I knew expectations
were going to be high. As we sat down to eat, I grew more anxious and nervous.
What if it turned out to be a disaster?
After my
first bite, my fears quickly disappeared. It was exactly how I liked my nasi
lemak. The rice was perfectly cooked, not too creamy or heavy and the sambal
had the right balance of hot, sweet, sour and salty. Everything tasted right. I
got confirmation of that when Siti asked if she could take some of the sambal
home if we had extra.
The fried chicken on the left and the sambal on the right
But what
really brought a smile to my face was that we almost finished the rice. As a
general rule, for the 2 of us, I normally cook about 1 cup of rice. If I’m
feeling really hungry, about a cup and a quarter and even then we’re usually
stuffed by the time we finish it. If I base my calculation on that rule, 4 cups
of rice should have been enough for all of us. I added one extra cup just in
case anyone was extra hungry. But then, when I poured the rice into the cooker,
there wasn't much left in the bag, so I poured the whole thing in. In total, I
cooked about 6 and a half cups. THAT WAS A LOT!!!!
Anyway, all
in all, it was a success. I spent the rest of the day with Fazrin and Shaukatt
watching football while my wife, Siti and Merlyna went shopping. They left
Khaleef with us but being the nice boy that he is, he didn't create too much of
a fuss and we managed to enjoy the games on the telly.
It started
snowing about an hour ago. That’s the first time snow has been sighted this
year in Den Haag. For me, it’s not truly winter, until you see snowflakes
drifting down past your windows. That’s the real sign of winter and a warning
that the temperatures are going to drop further.
I have this
love hate relationship with winter. I hate winter because every day is the same
as the day before, it’s wet, windy and overall, very dreary. But I also love
winter because it gives me the opportunity to put on my body hugging thermals
and I DO look good in body hugging thermals. YES, I am that vain and I’m sure
most of my friends will be able to testify to that fact (sometimes I can’t walk
by a mirror without taking a peak at how good I look). It’s a shame that I always
have to cover up the tight fitting thermals with a t-shirt or a sweater on top.
Anyway,
since the weather is not very encouraging, I’m more or less stuck in the house
for now. Rather than waste my time this morning watching the idiot box (I can
do that later today), I've decided to make plans for the weekend. I've got a
couple of friends staying over this weekend. They will be in Den Haag for the
Malaysian Association of the Netherlands Annual Gala Dinner which will be held
on the evening of Saturday, 8th December 2012.
I have a
lunch invitation on Saturday at a fellow Malaysian’s house somewhere in Den
Haag (I haven’t got his address yet). In the afternoon, Fazrin Edzuan
Jamaluddin and Merlyna Aillen Kraal will be arriving from Antwerp, Belgium, and
we’ll all be attending the Gala Dinner that evening. Fazrin and Merlyna will be
spending the night at our place. So my Saturday is fairly packed.
Sunday
morning is usually tennis time. I joined this group of 6 Malaysians who play
tennis on Sundays. So far, I've missed a few sessions because I was traveling
and a couple of sessions had to be cancelled because we didn't have enough
people as others were traveling too. For this Sunday, I’m not sure if tennis is
on. Three of us will be attending the Gala Dinner, so we’re not entirely sure
if we can get up early that Sunday morning to play tennis. And on top of that,
another one of us will be traveling that weekend. So we might not have enough
players. Then there’s always the weather which might put a dampener on our
plans.
Rather than
living with the uncertainty, I've decided to make my own plans this weekend.
Since I have guests over this weekend, I have decided to make nasi lemak for
brunch. It’s the perfect substitute. In this kind of weather, all you’d be
doing is warming up, you won’t sweat much playing tennis. If you eat nasi
lemak, and the sambal is hot enough, you will definitely break into a sweat. So
in a way, it’s a better Sunday morning activity compared to tennis.
I already
have 2 guests and I’m still contemplating on whether I should invite more. I enjoy entertaining friends, but I do try to
keep a limit on these kinds of invites. I like chatting and catching up with
friends but I wouldn't enjoy the occasion if I have to shout at them from across the
room. Taking this into account, I have decided that I should invite a few more
people over for brunch. I think a limit of 8 or 10 people would be nice. I just
need to figure out who I can invite. Maybe what I can do is just leave the invitation
open. Anyone who reads this post is welcome as long as places are available.
All they have to do is just inform my wife or me that they would like to come.
First come, first serve.
Now that my
plans for the weekend have been settled, all I have to do is figure out what to
do for the rest of the day. Maybe this afternoon, if the clouds stop pouring
stuff that will make me wet, I might just drop by the gym (I think there’s too
many maybes there).
P.s. I haven't exactly cleared these plans with my wife. So, these plans are still subject to change
Yeay!!!
There is a part 3 to this story. I didn't really expect there to be one as my
writing depends on my mood. I guess I am in the mood to write but I don’t
really have anything else to write about (Hint to Ida Faiz back in Malaysia).
Before I go on, I think I should prepare everyone who reads this blog (all 12
of you) that if you’re looking for more rambling on nasi lemak in this post,
you will be terribly disappointed. I won’t even be mentioning nasi lemak
(except for these 1 or 2 instances). This post is more about the rest of my
trip which doesn't involve any nasi lemak at all.
Just to let
you know, today is the first day where the temperatures here in Den Haag has dropped below zero. That’s what my wife’s phone seems to say. I’m not sure what
my phone says. Sometimes it gives a different temperature reading compared
to my wife’s even though we both use the same brand of phone, with the same OS and the
same app to check the temperature. Maybe the weather pattern is a bit different
at her office (which is a staggering 2 kilometers away) than it is here in the comforts of my house.
Oh Yes! Back
to my story. UK Trip Part 3.
Photo taken 2 years ago
I think in
my last post I mentioned that we spent the night at Highworth, which is a small
market town just 30 minutes from Swindon. I decided I wanted to have a light
breakfast (not sure what my wife wanted to have but I noticed it wasn't very
heavy either) as we were planning to head to Bath. My main aim to get to the
historic city of Bath was to go to Sally Lunn’s House, home of the famous Bath
Bun, which is located in the city center. We arrived just after 9.30 and headed
straight there.
A bit of a history lesson. Sally Lunn was a Heguenot refugee who came to Bath in 1640
escaping French persecution. She found employment with a baker located in
Lilliput Alley and introduced the creamy yet light and delicate bun which has
now become famously known as the Bath Bun. The original and very secret recipe
to this bun is now passed along together with the deeds to the house. Over the
years, a lot of imitations have cropped up including the “London Bath Buns” but
none have been able to match the deliciously light original Bath Bun.
The bun
comes with a variety of toppings, sweet and savory. I have never tried any of
the savory toppings such as the Smoked Salmon Bun, Roast Beef, Creamy Brie (this
actually sounds interesting) or Welsh Rarebit. I have always gone for a sweet
topping. In fact, I've only ever had one type of topping which is the Cinnamon
Butter topping. The bun is served with a topping of melted cinnamon butter and
a slice of lemon on top. When you look at it on your plate you wonder how could
something so simple be so famous, but the moment you put it in your mouth, you
feel as if there’s a small explosion mixing the sweet and salty cinnamon butter
together with the crunchy and creaminess of the toasted bun. You just can’t
help but to close your eyes and enjoy the sensations.
The famous Sally Lunn's Cinnamon Butter Bun
The Coffee and Walnut topping (pic courtesy of my wife)
My wife had
the Coffee and Walnut topping which was equally as good. I had a small bite
from her plate and I wished I had some more. Maybe I should have just ordered
another one.
Left: The after effects of the floods.
Right: Cross Guns
(again pics courtesy of my wife)
After
walking around Bath for a couple of hours (shopping, what else) we headed out to
Avoncliff, which is a small village just a few miles from Bradford-Upon-Avon.
Cross Guns is a typical English pub located in Avoncliff right next to the
river Avon. Going there was a bit of a gamble as the area had experienced some
heavy rains and had flooded the day before. The effects of this flooding were
very obvious when we got to Cross Guns. A couple of their tables were in the
river waiting to be fished out by the proprietor when the water level recedes
further.
The menu at
Cross Guns is fairly simple. It consists mainly of traditional English food. I
had a meal here once 18 years ago and I remember it till today. That time, the
steak was particularly memorable, but this time, the starter and desserts did
it for me. For starters, I had the Cross Guns Mushrooms which were sliced
mushrooms cooked in a creamy garlic sauce (couldn't take a photo of this as my phone had run out of batteries). This dish was absolutely divine. For
dessert, I had the Spotted Dick, one of my favorite traditional English
desserts. The Spotted Dick is a steamed suet pudding which consists of dried
fruits served with a creamy custard sauce (once again, no photos of the one served). At Cross Guns, the pudding just
melts in your mouth together with the creamy custard making it a very appetizing
dessert.
The Cross Guns Mushroom. Absolutely delicious.
(Battery ran out so once again pic is courtesy of my wife)
Not the one that I had but it does look good
After Cross
Guns, I was stuffed. We hadn't really made any plans for the afternoon.We had booked a hotel in Warwick for the night but e didn't really feel like heading
straight straight there since it was still only after 3.00 in the afternoon. So we
headed to Bicester Village an outlet shopping center located in the heart of Oxfordshire, for, surprise surprise, some more shopping. We
spent almost 3 hours there, walked the entire breadth of the outlet village twice, and eventually arrived at our hotel in Warwick at almost 9.00
in the evening. Overall, it was a day of indulgence. In fact, the whole trip
was about indulging ourselves. If we could find a place for a nice relaxing
massage, the whole trip could have been a perfect pampering holiday.
P.s: To find out more about Sally Lunn's House and Cross Guns, visit their website. Here are the links:
Before I
continue on to Part 2 of my UK Trip, let me first apologize to Teddy and all my
readers. I got the name of Teddy’s bistro slightly wrong in Part 1. It’s
actually called the “Malay Cuisine and Bistro”. I only realized this last night
when I visited their Facebook page to get some details of the bistro. A big APOLOGY for that mistake.
Moving on,
after we finished our meal at the bistro, my wife and I headed to Liverpool. I
was planning on catching a football game between my favorite team, Liverpool FC, and BSC Young Boys from Switzerland. Surprisingly, for someone who wasn't keen
on watching a football game, my wife was more excited than me throughout the
game. She made more commentaries about how the game was going on and about our
defending. We should watch more games together (but maybe we should wait until it gets warmer).
The teams lining up at Anfield. Unfortunately we were on the opposite side
Overall,
the game was an exciting one, but the end result wasn't good for us. The game
ended in a 2 – 2 draw, and I have to say, we were very bad at defending. We took the
lead twice and due to our lapse in defense, they equalized twice.
The next
morning, we had planned to drive all the way down to Bath. I went to the
University of Bath and had planned a visit to some of my old hunting grounds.
The main purpose of going there was to go to Sally Lunn’s House and Cross Guns (more on those 2 later).
Somehow,
after a shower and packing all our stuff, our plans changed. I remembered the menu board at
Teddy’s place and started to wish that I had tried the nasi lemak. I suggested
we drop by at Teddy’s place on the way south and my wife was quite enthusiastic
about the idea. So once again, we took a detour (again, nowhere near the route
we were supposed to take to Bath) and headed off to Stalybridge (and again, the
thought of eating nasi lemak made me drool all the way).
Teddy's nasi lemak
The nasi
lemak was absolutely delicious. The rice was less creamier compared to mine, which I suppose was due to it being cooked in a lot
less coconut milk, but had cardamoms and cloves in it. These
spices were a perfect substitute for the coconut milk as they also gave the
rice richness without the heaviness of the coconut milk. The anchovies came on
the side and not in the sambal, but the sambal was full of chopped onions (I
usually blend my onions and put some of the dried anchovies in my sambal) and these chopped onions gave the sambal its sweetness. All
in all, the nasi lemak was superb and because it didn't use as much coconut
milk, you don’t get the feeling of wanting to doze off after (which was good since I was going to spend 2 hours driving on a boring motorway).
The nasi lemak also came with some chicken satay. When it comes to satay, I'm a bit of a stickler. My dad used to sell the best satay at night markets in Kemaman, Terengganu. We used to make our own satay and the peanut sauce that accompanies the satay. Every year, during the Eid celebration, we used to get huge orders for satay (in one year, the orders exceeded 80,000 sticks of satay). So my dad's satay was very popular in Kemaman (in fact, if you happen to visit Kemaman and there is a night market, you might still find a stall there which uses my dad's recipe. Look out for Satay Bistari and I can guarantee you that you will enjoy the satay).
Teddy's satay, although not as delicious as my dad's, had the right ingredients. The chicken was tender and moist while the peanut sauce was hot and creamy. Shame there was only 3 sticks of it. I enjoyed the satay although I do miss my dad's satay (Maybe on my next trip back to Malaysia I'll take a short day trip up to Kemaman).
Back to my story. We had to
change our plans and not head to Bath that day. The extra 2 and a half hour detour (including the time it took for us to finish our meal) created havoc to our plans but it was well worth it. We ended up heading into
the countryside around the Cotswold area to places like Chipping Campden, Stow
on the Wold and Burford and went shopping instead (which was our plan for the
third day). We spent the night in a very nice hotel at Highworth which is half an hour outside of Swindon. A bit of chaos to our holiday plans, but still a good meal and a good day.
The title
to this blog post implies that there will be more than one entry featuring my
recent trip to the UK. To be honest with you, I´m not entirely sure how many
entries there will be regarding this trip. At the moment, all I know is that
there will be at least 1, maybe 2 and if I decide to indulge myself, 3 or more.
So bear with me on this one.
For future
reference, a particular trip to any foreign location will have at least one
entry depending on the amount of good food we eat. Based on this logic, during our trip to the UK, we had
a lot of good food. Like my wife said, the trip to the UK was basically an “indulgence”
trip. We indulged in a good football game, good food and lots of shopping.
Let’s start
at Birmingham International Airport, which is where we landed. We had decided
while planning this trip that we wouldn't fly into any of the London airports
because a) they were nowhere near where we wanted to go; and b) just too much
hassle. So upon our arrival, we picked up our rental car, a Nissan Micra (which
disappointed me a bit because I had booked the new Ford Fiesta which I was so
looking forward to trying but wasn't available) and headed straight to
Stalybridge which is on the outskirts of Manchester (nowhere near Liverpool but
we had to go there anyway).
Before
making this trip, we had already told Teddy that we were going stop by to
sample some of his food. While driving along the way, we got a message from him
outlining the menu, White rice served with “Asam pedas ikan semilang (hot and sour catfish)”, “Sambal
tumis petai udang (prawn in sambal)”, “Rendang daging (beef rendang)” and “Daging masak hitam (beef cooked in black gravy)” (hearing this, I
ran out of saliva from drooling too much just as we reached Manchester).
As I was
taking my seat, I noticed a few boards on the wall displaying some of the
dishes served. Then I noticed the one on the wall opposite my chosen seat, “Nasi
Lemak” my favorite meal. I started to get excited but I realized that Teddy had
probably spent the last couple of hours cooking the menu he sent to us, so I wasn't going to make a big fuss out of it. So I sat there quietly while waiting for
Teddy’s other guests, Rosnah Mu, her husband Simon Alexander and their 2
children.
The nasi lemak menu board
For starters,
Teddy brought out 2 pieces each of homemade “Roti canai” with curry. For those
of you in the know, making the dough for the roti canai is the easy part,
spreading the dough to make the roti thin, light and crunchy is not the easiest
thing to do. There is a special technique called “Tebar”or spreading which
makes the dough very thin before it is folded over to form the roti before the
roti is pan fried. Here is a video of this technique.
Teddy’s
roti canai, was filling. The roti was light and crunchy, and the curry was hot
and spicy. In fact, it was very hot and spicy, I had to mask some of the
spiciness by dipping pieces of my roti in some sugar after dipping it in the
curry (I like doing that anyway as it adds a bit of sweetness to every piece of
roti that goes into my mouth). But it was excellent. I tend to sweat whenever I
have some good spicy food, and after the third bite, I could feel the sweat
exiting my pores on my forehead.
Before I go
on with this post, I have a confession to make. I don’t check my blog very
often. On average, I take a peek at the dashboard maybe once a week and even
then, only when I feel like writing and posting something. So to all readers of
this blog (probably 7 in total), if you post a comment on my blog, I apologize
in my tardiness in moderating any comments. I hope this doesn't deter anyone from leaving comments.
It’s a
pretty cold day today. Temperature is about 7°C but “Real feel” is 4°C. So
today it feels like it’s pretty close to freezing. With the relatively thick
fog and visibility down to 50 meters, I really don’t feel like going out (so
all plans to go for a short run have gone out the window).
Since I’m
stuck inside with not much else to do, I thought I’d write something. I haven’t
got any new experiences relating to nasi lemak and on top of that, my memory
has deserted me temporarily (another way to say I’m too lazy) so I can't recall some of
my previous experiences either. Since that is the case, I thought I’d write about my plans for the next few
days.
Nothing
much will be happening over the next couple of days. However, on Thursday, my wife
and I will be flying to the United Kingdom. The plan is to fly into Birmingham
Airport in the morning, hire a car and head towards Liverpool to catch a
football game (I’m a huge Liverpool fan). Along the way, we’re planning to stop
somewhere near the outskirts of Manchester to visit my wife’s friend who runs a
bistro in Stalybridge, 30 minutes from Manchester city center (the amount of
time taken to drive from Manchester city center to Stalybridge was provided by
Google Maps. I have no personal experience of driving that route so have no
idea how long it would take).
At Anfield, Liverpool on 30th December 2011
Truth is,
Stalybridge is nowhere near to being “along the way” to Liverpool. It’s a good
45 minutes in a totally different direction. But since my wife has graciously
allowed me to watch a football game (while she will probably have to spend the evening in a hotel room watching whatever is on BBC), we will be making a major detour along the
way (I also wouldn't mind some good Malaysian food too).
I am so
looking forward to this trip. The football match will be quite enjoyable, but
most importantly, the potential to eat some good Malaysian food (I will be doing a Google search for "Malaysian restaurants" in Liverpool). The UK has one
of the largest populations of Malaysians living abroad. Hopefully I can get to
sample more Malaysian food in the UK. We shall see.
Last week,
I was tagged in a photo posted by fellow blogger J. Mokhtar (you can find a link to his blog in my blog list on the right). The photo was a
picture of a selection of “nasi lemak bungkus” at the breakfast buffet of the
Le Meridien Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. They offered 5 options for your sambal.
There is the conventional sambal ikan bilis (dried anchovies) then they also
have the options of sambal udang (prawns), ikan (fish), daging (beef) or sambal
sotong (squid). I can’t testify to the tastefulness of the nasi lemak as I’ve
never tried the breakfast buffet at Le Meridien before and JM didn't say if he
tried the the nasi lemak either.
Upon
viewing this picture, my wife decided she wanted to have some nasi lemak. She
made this decision while rushing back from Brussels via Roermond (another brief
shopping trip). It was good that she volunteered to cook it as she hasn't cooked nasi lemak since I moved here to the Netherlands (and also because I was
in a rush to catch a football game and since we were expected to arrive an hour
before the game started, I was planning to park myself on the sofa until the
game finished).
Here are a
couple of pictures of my wife’s nasi lemak (the nicer photo was taken by my
wife).
My wife's nasi lemak
After devouring
her nasi lemak, I had a major criticism. I have a problem with her nasi lemak
and I haven’t told her about it yet. I thought I would reveal the problem here
in my blog rather than revealing it to her personally. I think in most cases,
this could be grounds for a divorce.
The problem
I have with her nasi lemak is that she doesn't make it often enough. I had
three plates of it that night and another 2 plates over the weekend. Besides my
own, the only other nasi lemak that I can eat 3 servings in one sitting is my
mom’s.
Her nasi
lemak is different compared to mine. The rice she cooks is not as creamy or as
rich as mine but it is still very good. Apparently she adds another ingredient, "fenugreek", into her rice. As I said before, a good sambal has to have the
perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot. Her sambal doesn’t have the
intensity of these tastes but the balance is there. Although I prefer a more intense
sambal, her version is perfectly balanced and it doesn't overwhelm your taste
buds. Through all the tastes, you can still feel the richness and creaminess of
the rice.
My version
of nasi lemak will flood your taste buds with the sweet, sour, salty and hotness
of the sambal mixed with the creaminess and richness of the rice. Together with
the crunchiness of the fried dried anchovies, it makes a wonderful meal. My
wife’s nasi lemak achieves the same objectives (a delicious meal that you can
have over and over again) but with a lower level intensity.
Maybe next time my wife says she would like nasi lemak, I might just park my butt on the sofa again and wait for it to be served.
I was back
in Kuala Lumpur last week. Although I went back to visit my kids especially
the youngest, who was recently diagnosed as having a growth in his brain and
had to undergo surgery, I also had some errands to run. So I spent almost an
entire week darting from one end of KL to another, making brief sojourns into
Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya, while trying to ensure that everything I had to do
was done. And as always when you runaround trying to complete all your errands,
you will forget one or two (no need to go into details of that).
Going back
to KL is always fun. There’s always so much to do, many places to go and a lot
of friends to catch up with. Special thanks to Ida, Selva, Arni, Salwani,
Nasir, Fadhli, Jaf, Hakim, Nazam, Alfie and Shasha for putting up with my last
minute calls to hangout. I’ll try to give you guys more notice next time I’m
back.
Chawan Kopitiam in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur
The biggest
problem I always have when trying to meet up with friends in KL is to find a
decent location to hangout. With friends coming from all over the Klang Valley,
it’s always a challenge to find a place which is central enough so that
everyone has to go through the hassle of KL traffic just to meet up (we have to
be fair to everyone). About the only place I can think of which is both
convenient for everyone to meet, and can give you migraines to get to is
Bangsar.
The unwrapped "Nasi Lemak Bungkus"
So, while I
was in KL, I spent quite a lot of time hanging out at Chawan, the one which is
located in the Jalan Telawi area of Bangsar (99% of my friends have to go
through some form of traffic jam just to get to Bangsar). This is the location
of the original Chawan kopitiam. It has opened a branch in Citta Mall, Kelana
Jaya but being in a very central location, this remains the preferred venue to meet
up with friends and hangout.
Just to clarify
my position, I don’t LOVE Chawan. In my opinion, as a Kopitiam, it’s pretty
decent. The food there is good without being outstanding, the atmosphere is
friendly, although on hot days, try to find a seat in front of one of their
industrial sized fans, and the prices are quite reasonable. Even though it’s
not my favorite place to hangout, it IS a place I go to whenever I can’t think
of any other place in a central location to meet with friends. So in my book,
Chawan is a “when all else fails” kind of place.
Although it
falls into that category, they do serve a very nice nasi lemak. If you look at
the menu, you will find 2 different versions of nasi lemak. The first is the “Nasi
Lemak Bungkus” which is the meal that I always order whenever I’m at Chawan and
looking for something a bit heavier to eat. Then there is the “Nasi Lemak with
Chicken Rendang”, which is your standard kopitiam nasi lemak.
Unwrapping the "Nasi Lemak Bungkus"reveals a delicious meal
The “Nasi
Lemak Bungkus”, is just your basic nasi lemak which is essentially made up of
rice, sambal, cucumbers and boiled egg. At Chawan, the portion of the nasi lemak
bungkus is much bigger than what you will find elsewhere. The rice although a
bit lacking in terms of richness, is nicely cooked and is quite flavorful. The
sambal has the right balance of sweetness, sour and salty, with a twinge of hot
to give it a bit of zing. The cucumber and boiled egg is just that, you won’t
get any kind of variety anywhere else.
The "Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang", equally as good
I find
myself ordering the “Nasi Lemak Bungkus”at Chawan on almost every visit. It’s a
simple meal but delicious nonetheless. It’s been creeping up my “list of top
places for nasi lemak” for quite some time now. Not bad for a place which falls
into my “when all else fails”category.
I am not a happy bunny. I am so disappointed that I have to write this post now on my 4 inch android smart phone screen rather than wait till I get home and type it nicely on my 15 inch screen notebook.
This is what happened. I haven't been sleeping very well since I got to Malaysia. I had a couple of hours sleep the first night I arrived, and since then, about 4 to 5 hours a night. This morning, my body.decided to retaliate. By the time I woke up, it was already 10.00 am (all my plans to go out for an early morning run went out the window by then).
In school, my teachers always told me that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So I always treat the first meal of the day as breakfast, no matter what time of the day it is. Following that, at breakfast, I must have a breakfast meal. So a juicy piece of steak is not an acceptable breakfast meal. Neither is nasi kandar or tomyam. Unpleasant things might happen if I don't follow the proper protocol (however, a breakfast meal can be eaten for dinner as my tummy loves breakfast meals).
Since breakfast had already shifted into brunch's area, I had to get breakfast pretty quick. I decided that a roti canai at Raju's would go down very well, so I jumped into my car and started to make my way there.
Now, anyone who has spent at least 2 weeks in Kuala Lumpur will know that you do not take the Federal Highway from Subang to KL during peak hours. But since it was already 11.00, I thought it would be.pretty safe, I was wrong. It looked almost like a carpark (don't these people have jobs they should be at).
Since breakfast was perilously close to trespassing into lunch's territory, I had to take drastic action. A light bulb went off in my head and when I saw the junction to the LDP. I realized I was close to one of my favourite places for nasi dagang and laksam (both of these are perfectly acceptable breakfast meals).
Restoran Jaya in Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya, specializes in Kelantanese dishes. It serves a variety of meals but I particularly love their nasi dagang and laksam. Sometimes on weekends, they will also have pulut lepa (or pulut panggang to those who do not understand Terengganu speak). Since I was in the neighbourhood, I thought I'd drop by for some nasi dagang.
Restoran Jaya in Kelana Jaya
When I got to the restaurant, I immediately went to check out their food counter. They had run out of laksam, but they still had some nasi dagang left. Wonderful. I ordered a plate and took a seat, while the waitress started to spoon out the rice onto a plate. As I was sitting down, the girl came up to me and told me that they were out of fish. All they had left was chicken.
No Terengganu born person will eat their nasi dagang with chicken. We Terengganu born and bred will only eat our nasi dagang with fish. I was disappointed, and to express my disappointment, I told the girl to forget about serving me nasi dagang with chicken.
Since I was already in lunch territory, and my tummy was already expressing its unhappiness at not being filled, I decided to order a nasi lemak. I've never had nasi lemak at Restaurant Jaya but I do know some people who like it.
It wasn't bad actually. The sambal was a bit too hot and it didn't have enough anchovies. The rice wasn't as creamy as the rice that I usually cook, but overall, it was pretty tasty. It wasn't outstanding but still a thumbs up to them.
The nasi lemak
My tummy doesn't like it when I change my mind about what I want to eat. Once I make my decision on what to eat, I have to stick with it (better I don't decide on anything until I look at the menu). It tolerates it when I change my mind once, but it gets very unhappy when I change my mind twice. And it expressed it's disappointment 30 minutes ago. I just about made it to the toilet.
P.s. I don't know the address of Restaurant Jaya but I can describe how to get there or better yet, I can take you there. All I want is a plate of nasi dagang in return. For a description of the directions or to arrange an excursion, please leave a comment with contact info and proposed date of excursion so we can meet there or we can go together so I can collect on my payment.
I've been living away from Malaysia for about 18 months now. Although by some standards, that isn't a very long time, for someone who has hardly left the country in the past 20 years, it sometimes feels like an eternity. Moving to another country, there are so many things that you leave behind. Before moving, you experience the excitement of being able to travel and live in another country, but there's also the dread of leaving behind family and friends, places you go to regularly, and in most cases (especially for Malaysians) the food.
Nowadays, you can find a Malaysian restaurant in most countries. If you're ever in London, you can enjoy a mouthwatering "daging salai masak lemak cili api" at Bonda Restaurant and in Luxembourg, you can start a fire in your tummy with a "sambal sotong" at Restaurant Malaysian. Every major European city now has a Malaysian restaurant, so there's always a place where you can get the flavors of Malaysia whenever you don't feel like cooking.
However, to me, it's never the same as being home. Maybe it's the environment, maybe it's the weather or maybe it's the company. Eating a tomyam in Den Haag never feels the same as the superb tomyam I get at Restoran Sri Melaka at Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya even if the ingredients are the same.
So now that I'm back in Malaysia for a week, you would think I would have a "things to eat list". Surprisingly, no. It's 3 a.m. in the morning of my first day back in Malaysia, and I can't decide where or what I'm going to have for breakfast. Shall I go to "Raju's" in Jalan Gasing for roti canai? Or maybe to "Ulik Mayang" for some nasi dagang (But then again, I had that a couple of weeks ago in Den Haag)? Or, maybe since the main topic of this blog is about nasi lemak, maybe I should go have that.
Oh well, I'll make up my mind when I get up in the morning. I might be spared the agony of indecision anyway since I am still awake at 4.00 a.m. so maybe, by the time I wake up, it'll be lunch time.
Yes!!! You
can get nasi lemak in Luxembourg. BUT, (and that is a very big “but” as
indicated by the size of the font) you either have to be the Prime Minister of
Malaysia, or part of a tour group with 10 or more other people.
I spent the
weekend in Luxembourg with my wife and our friends SHA and SI with their 18
month old son Khaleef. We went on a shopping expedition to Mettlach, which is a
small town in Germany, just 30 minutes across the border from Luxembourg. For
Malaysians who have lived in the Netherlands for a period of at least 3 months,
you will know that Mettlach is the home of “Villeroy and Boch”, or V&B for
short, the makers of fine tableware and other ceramic and crystal products for
over 2 centuries.
SHA and SI with Khaleef
In all
honesty, we didn’t really spend that much time in Luxembourg. We arrived on
Friday afternoon, walked around for a few hours and stopped for some delicious hot chocolate at the "Chocolate House", spent the night, and left for
Mettlach at 10.00 the next morning. We had planned to return to Luxembourg
before the shops closed (maybe we thought we wouldn’t get enough of shopping in
Mettlach), but by the time we got back to Luxembourg, it was already dark. We spent
a total of 9 hours on our shopping expedition (that includes the drive to
Mettlach and back).
A Collage of old pictures from the "Chocolate House"
When we got
back to Luxembourg that evening, we were all hungry and tired and just wanted
to grab some dinner then head back to the hotel for some much needed R&R.
Prior to leaving for our shopping expedition, I did a Google search to find out
if there was a Malaysian restaurant in Luxembourg.
Hey presto!
There was one, just 2.5 km from the city center, the “Restaurant Malaysian” on
the Rue de Rollingergrund, Luxembourg. My wife suggested that we head there for
dinner before we go back to the hotel. Since all of us were tired and had
pounding headaches (my wife and SHA from all the dilemmas they faced while shopping, SI and me from looking at the bills) we decided Malaysian food would
be a good choice.
Restaurant Malaysian on the Rue de Rollingergrund, Luxembourg
When we
stepped into the restaurant, the first question we asked the Maitre d’ was “Are
you Malaysian” (this is a very important question to determine the authenticity
of the food). He replied that the chef was Malaysian and offered to call out
the chef when we wanted to order (apparently the menu was not good enough for
us).
The decor of the restaurant, your usual Malaysia poster and the "Wau Bulan"and something different, a picture of the butterflies of Malaysia
The chef,
Chong came to our table and suggested a few authentic Malaysian dishes. We
agreed on sambal sotong (squid), sweet and sour fish, udang (prawns) cooked in
tomyam gravy (usually a tomyam is in the form of a soup but this time it is
much thicker) and some veggies. We were hoping the seafood was going to be
fresh and asked if he could make butter prawns instead, but since Luxembourg is
a land locked country, they had so source of fresh seafood so they couldn't make any butter prawns. No matter, if the food was good we’d be happy anyway.
Surprisingly,
the food was excellent. Even though the sambal was a too thick and you don’t
get much of the delicious gravy, the sambal sotong was superb (I’m not usually
a big fan of squid. Too rubbery for my taste). Cooked to perfection, it had
just the right amount of hot and sweet. The prawns were my favorite The
tomyam gravy with its wonderful mix of lemongrass, tomatoes, chilies and
cabbages were a perfect blend for the prawns. I've always liked sweet and sour
fish and this one didn't disappoint. Although they used fish fillets instead of
fresh fish, they were fried to a crispy golden color before being doused with
the sweet and sour gravy.
The veggies, Sambal Sotong, Prawn Tomyam and Sweet and Sour Fish. Yummy!
All in all,
it was a wonderful meal. After the meal, the chef spent some time talking to us
and telling us about his experience in Luxembourg. It was then that he told us
his experience of cooking breakfast for our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr.
Mahathir Mohamed, when he was on a state visit to Luxembourg. Tun had insisted
on having a Malaysian breakfast so Chong had prepared some authentic Malaysian food
including nasi lemak and murtabak for our former premiere.
He also
told us that he had Malaysian groups in his restaurant before, visitors from
Malaysia on official business in Luxembourg, embassy officials,
and once in a while, people like us, Malaysian tourists exploring the culinary
delights of the city. From there, I deduced that Chong could make nasi lemak
for me if I was part of a tour group, or maybe, if I called in advance and made
a special request. Next time I make a trip to Luxembourg (and I am very sure there will be another shopping trip to Mettlach) I'll call him in advance and find out if I can get some nasi lemak.
