Does an 'Asian' eat 'Asian' food at home? (2)

Continuing from Does an ‘Asian’ eat ‘Asian’ food at home? (1)

Talking about Indonesian food, there’s one of my favourites, the incredible gado-gado. It’s the magnificent Indon salad with quartered hard-boiled eggs, fried or steamed tofu, salady stuff like cucumber, barng kuang (jicama*), tau geh (bean sprouts), kacang panjang** and anything that fancies one, even the rich avocado - all smothered with generous helpings of rich thick slightly spicy (satay-ish) peanut sauce - yummmm.

* for years I (and I wouldn’t be surprised if most Malaysians still do) called barng kuang turnip or Chinese turnip, the latter term having gained local recognition through incorrect naming. Then I saw in a couple of highly reliable cookbooks that it’s actually jicama (pronounced in the Spanish manner as hecama) or yam bean (pachyrhizus erosus) or Mexican turnip. It’s only in the root that jicama is edible as the rest of the plant is very poisonous - its seeds contain the toxin rotenone, which is used to poison insects and fish.

** directly translated from Malay, many Malaysians call this veggie (or fruit) long beans or Chinese long beans. In Penang Hokkien it’s of course ch’ai tau; in Cantonese I learnt it’s tau gok. But when I was in Australia I found out that it’s called snake beans, with the origin of that appellation rather obvious. Then the cookbook tut-tut-ed my mistake by advising that it’s asparagus beans (vigna unguiculata ssp sesquipedalis) or yardlong bean or long-podded cowpea. But I am sure all the above have names been accepted by now.

Kacang panjang is one of my favourite ulam, a Malaysian veggie that one eats as a raw accompaniment to, say, steam rice and fried fish or nasi padang. Traditionally it forms part of a salad the Malays called ulam - it's usually taken after being dipped into sambal belacan. I'll describe what ulam comprises of in a subsequent paragraph.

Then of course there’s satay and, indeed ... why not, nasi padang as well.

But I have to say, having eaten satay all around, nothing beats a Malaysian satay. We are still the best, and I am not being just patriotic (scary word this ‘patriotic’).

But look, there’s something special about Indonesian nasi padang. There is a fantastic warung (stall) in Jakarta that serves up the most wondrous Sumatran-style curry of various dishes including babat or perut (beef tripe), grilled terung (brinjal or egg plant) smothered with ground (from fresh) red chillies sautéed in oil, and fragrant rice, accompanied by sambal terasi or as we Malaysians call it, sambal belacan - a side-dish of fresh pounded chillies mixed with grilled belacan (prawn condiment) and lemon juice with just a wee sprinkling of salt, and if one is from Penang, a dollop of the incredible hare-koh, a prawn paste but different from the belacan/terasi.

By the way, I discovered that if beer has to be avoided, nasi padang would be wonderfully accompanied by a refreshing iced makisa (passion fruit) juice or just plain ais kosong (ice water).

The only way to do justice to the sambal terasi (sambal belacan) is of course to have ulam with it.

Now, earlier I did promise to elaborate on what ulam is - hey, not meant for you SE-Asians lah ;-). This salad, with of course its regional variation, seems to be common in SE Asia (Malaysia, Indon, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Kampuchea or Cambodia, yes Brunei of course – I would assume Burma has the same stuff, but forget about Singapore - those Sings eat McDonalds only).

So it's a SE-Asian salad, with plenty of cashew tree shoots (pucuk ménté or pucuk monyet, or in Malaysian, pucuk janggus), cucumber (timun), kacang panjang (Chinese longbeans), 4-angle beans (kacang botol, winged beans princess beans, Goa beans, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus), slices of cabbage, green mango, carrots, onions and any raw crunchy veggie and zillions of other delectable herbs like mint. The mix depends on the regional availability and use, and of course the diner's preference.

There is a restaurant in Bogor (near Jakarta, Indonesia) that does an incredible grilled sweet-sauce-coated carp dish served with rice, ulam and sambal terasi.

When I was last there, I saw a particular hugh fat golden carp swimming around happily in the pond under part of the restaurant (yes, it was on stilt).

Cheryl (btw, that’s the name of the carp – all carps have names starting with ‘C’) swam hopefully in circles beneath me expecting that I would throw some food to it. There and then, I was reminded of the Malay fairytale of Bawang Merah & Bawang Putih, where the evil but gorgeous stepmother turned the poor mum into a carp and imprisoned her in a well – maybe some other time for this fairytale.

Before long, after a couple of refreshing drinks, I walked up to the dining table and discovered to my horror that Cheryl had ended up on a plate before me. I pretended not to recognise her, and in fact had to rotate the plate around so that her accusing eyes weren’t fixed on guilty me. But in honour of Cheryl I partook of her body with great relevance, with the regular pinch of sambal terasi, jasmine rice and ulam. I celebrated her by respectful mouthfuls.

I am sure by now you would have realised kaytee just love ulam. Yoohoo ladies, that's the green way to my eco-friendly heart ;-)

‘Ere I completed my recollection of the (slightly sad, because of Cheryl, but mostly enjoyable, because of Cheryl also) piscatorial feast, I once again allowed my gluttonous imagination to …

To be continued …