A super sambal recipe

When you're miles away from home, sometimes all you want is a taste of it.  My husband longed for proper sausages and pork pies when we were living in Asia.  Similarly I find myself dreaming of the food of my homeland now that I'm here in Scotland.  I think of nasi lemak, lontong, char kuey teow... all the delicious smells of my country! - and I think of home.  I'm Malaysian.  All we think about is food.

For those of you faraway Malaysians looking for a super-easy, super-delicious sambal recipe, try this one here called "My Amah's Sambal Udang Petai".   This is the recipe I used when I made nasi lemak a week ago.  I can vouch for its authenticity and sheer syiok-ness.  I didn't have petai on hand when I made it so I just left it out.  I also didn't remove the seeds from the dried chillies as I didn't have time so it was like yowza! spicy.  To tone it down, I added in some brown sugar... I like my sambal  on the sweetish side anyway, just like how my mum makes it.

Just a warning:  My entire house smelled of belacan after that and I had to open all the doors and windows to try and air it out.  So be careful if you live with angmoh housemates/partners who aren't used to the smell of belacan.  Some foreigners find the smell quite objectionable.   I had to go pick Connor up from school after I'd cooked the sambal  and I was careful to stay away from the usual pack of parents because I didn't want everyone to faint as I knew I had to be smelling of belacan.

Happy cooking!

Paralympics 2012: Malaysia gets a silver!

Hurray Hasihin Sanawi!

He won a silver in the archery event.

Way to go, Hasihin... MALAYSIA BOLEH!

Very proud of you.

Click HERE for the full story.

Our new Malaysian currency notes

When I came back from a month away... WAH!  New currency notes have been issued!  I love anything new!  Especially when it's money!

Then a friend posted this on his Facebook page.

Suddenly, I'm less enthused about our new notes.... Banyak suey lah...



Info:  The money with the Chinese emperor image is what we Chinese call "hell money"... they are burned so that our dead will have money to spend in the afterworld.  I used to wonder why my grandmother bloody freaked out when she caught us using that to play Monopoly.

Foo-yoh assam laksa!

If there is any subject dear to a Malaysian's heart, it is food. Or more precisely, eating it. The best local eateries never need to put out any ads or signboards. Word of mouth is more than sufficient. How many of you Malaysians have directed friends to eat at some obscure place that has no name? You'd probably described it as something like "... aiya... that one lah... the stall under the tree, next to the car park? The auntie there makes the BEST char kuey teow ever!" And when you get there, it seems 50 other Malaysians knew about it before you did because there's a looooong queue.

There are numerous local blogs on eating. Where to find the best char kuey teow. Where to eat the freshest steamed fish. Which stall has the best nasi kandar. I asked Dear Hubby "How come the UK doesn't have its equivalent?" Of course, this was WAY before I went to the UK and tasted their erm... cuisine. Someone should teach Brits that there are more spices in the world than just salt and pepper.

So when Penang's assam laksa turned up No. 7 on the World's 50 most delicious foods survey carried out by CNNGo, you can imagine our pride and excitement. That it trumped Thailand's famous tom yam goong and left Singapore's chilli crab eating dust is a matter of national pride. I can so see the next Tourism Malaysia ad - Malaysia, Truly Assam Laksa. Has quite a nice ring to it eh!

We are so proud of you, Penang assam laksa!

Special Needs Children: Kits 4 Kids Malaysia

I had some parents writing in to ask if I knew of any playschools for children with special needs.

I took a look and I found this site called Kits 4 Kids. They have several branches - Bangsar (Jalan Penaga), Kota Damansara, Sri Damansara and in Melaka. They don't just take in children with special needs, they also take in mainstream children. They have programmes for children starting from 18 months old. However their special needs programme only takes in children starting from 3yo.

I hope this helps mums who were looking for some info.