Malaysians EAT WHAT, OK COOK?

       We Malaysians are a HUNGRY bunch. Twelve of us in my Mandarin class had lunch last Chinese New Year. It was a nine-course meal of (top left to right) crabmeat fake shark fin soup, fried fish, steamed glutinous rice with pork floss, steamed prawns, bean curd, broccoli with dried oysters and mushrooms, dessert, stewed pork and "yee sang."

      With a multi-racial population, our food is “rojak” (mixed and matched). Meal times can be a random of Indian curry, Malay sambal and Chinese stir-fry vegetable.

"Rojak" meals suit me real fine as I am just OK COOK. I seldom let the family know what I am dishing up cos’ it seldom tastes like what it is suppose to. Yesterday’s lunch was mee siam (spicy rice vermicelli). Gizmo Man went, “You used glass noodles. How can? Mee siam is with

mee hoon.” Savvy K exclaimed, “it’s the wrong colour, can you please learn from YouTube.” “EXCUSE ME, you two can EAT it or LEAVE it.” So they ATE it. But, not everyone is like OK COOK, many of my friends/family are Master Chef ingredients: 

Drum roll please ... coming at number one is my sister-in-law, Irene Fraude. Did you say you wanted Western,

Italian😋😋? Just ask Irene. You want M'sian "apam balik" pancakes oozing with cream sweet corn? Ask Irene 😍!

Her daughter baked this incredible masterpiece. Ha, this proves cooking genes are heritable!

  Ta-da, coming close at number two is Moo Eng, the 🐳 seafood 🐟 chef . She is equally good in the laboratory and kitchen.

 

Moo Eng even packs

 helluva gourmet work meals.  Wonder if a 😴 snooze 😴 follows such satisfying lunches? Compare this with 

my pathetic lunch. Coffee is not even on.

     My neighbour Sweeny is a patissieredisguised as a pharmacist. She bakes for her family - a good 14 b'day cakes yearly. 

 Prof. Elizabeth makes pretty decent Saturday breakfasts and salads.

Joan prepared a "nasi lemak" (coconut rice) feast which she coloured with "bunga telang," (clitoria ternatea/butterfy pea flower). The fried chicken, "sambal," fried anchovies and peanuts, eggs and "kangkong" (water spinich) complement the rice. A painstaking effort, good j👩‍🎨ob.

Malaysians use the "bunga telang" for a natural blue food colouring. It is a creeper and I have it on my back yard rails.      When any of my dishes come out real tasty, Savvy K advises, “Daddy you better enjoy it, she will never get it right again.” I am not grand on presentations, my food comes from pan to table.

Haha, when the 2 pests hassle me, OK Cook just throws everything in 😝.

     “Oh Mann ... Shhh Daddy, just eat little bit OK. Later when she watching Netflix I heat up pizza for us. Which one you want, Daddy?”

OK daddy, pizza's ready, "cepat makan" before someone eats it.

Breakfast from the kerb

Pak Cik (Uncle) gets his stall ready by 7 am. He is meticulous laying out the pink table cloths. A large variety of dishes are available - from noodles, rice, chicken to kuih (Malay cakes).
His customers are mainly students from colleges, schools and people just driving past on their way to work, note his large red tub of warm freshly cooked rice.

Motor-cyclists will stop when they know the food is good. It's a Help-Yourself service.
Breakfast for most Malaysians isn't quite the same as in the West with cereal, fruit, toast or eggs. We kind of love our rice and noodles and we like it hot with lots of chilli. Just as many Westerners have breakfast on the run, we have adapted our lives to start each day fed and happy. We get our complete breakfast from the many stalls that "mushroom" from the kerb in the mornings. Under tress and umbrellas, entreprising housewives and the men too set up their "instant stall" early to catch the school, college and office crowd and "close shop" by mid morning to return home to take care of their families. These "instant stalls" do supplement family incomes as the owners can make between RM70 - RM 200 a morning.
Another stall under a shady tree by the kerb, note the car parked just next to the stall for easy transport of good and equipment.
Food is feshly cooked very early in the morning.Puan Normah sells "Nasi lemak" - rice in coconut milk, fried anchovies, boiled or fried egg, cucumber slices, roasted peanuts, chicken and "sambal ikan bilis" (anchovy chilli paste).
My breakfast all wrapped up in grease-proof paper.
All of this for RM 4.00 (US $1.11 cents), what a great way to start the day. I can't vouch for high work efficiency after breakfast, all the blood gets drained from my brain to digest this. Yawn...wake me up for lunch and don't tell the Bozz!