Malaysia: the Verdict, and some restaurant reviews

One of the best culinary treasures for me in Malaysia was Indian food for breakfast. Dosai with coconut sambal beats cereal any day!

I decided not to get up early enough to make curry for breakfast, and sadly I don’t know of any Indian restaurants that are open for breakfast in Brunswick. We did, however, try out a new Indian restaurant at dinner.

We tried Minerva, on Lygon st, and were pleasantly surprised. They have our favourite dish on the menu, Gobi Manchurian, a spicy, deep fried, seet and sour-ish fusion dish. We ordered it, and it was delicious, although very spicy, so the faint at heart might do well to steer clear or order it mild.

We also had a spinach dahl, and an eggplant dish, both of which were splendid, and roti, which is vegan (but be sure to ask for no butter). The atmosphere was warm and friendly, a little upmarket from our usual favourite dinner haunts, with red walls, candlelight and music.

All in all, it gets a big thumbs up from us, and we’ll definitely be going back (in fact, we already have been )

The other restaurant I feel I have to mention as part of Malaysia week is Nasi Lemak, on Grattan St in Carlton. It has been written up in the 2009 Veg Guide as the place to get a great vegan laksa, but its so much more than that. A definite favourite of ours, we love to order the Nasi Lemak for which it is named and enjoy the deep fried tofu (order without batter and eggs for vegans) and coconut rice. My personal top pick for Nasi Lemak is the Kway Teow, which is an oily, noodly, materpiece, with tofu puffs dripping in delicious sauce and spicy to your tastes. Its worth the trip to the city for dinner, or a walk across the city for a lunch that hits the spot.

The Verdict

To be honest, the verdict on Malaysian cuisine was pre-determined in my mind: Brilliant. Spicy, creamy, with lots of herbs, rice and tofu, and I’m sold.

In relation to cooking it, I’m still pretty happy, even given my sambal-mishap. The spice pastes look daunting, but really, with a good food processor they’re a piece of cake, and the results are well worth the extra dish to wash.

If you haven’t yet, you should definitely give Malaysian food a go.

Devil Curry and Ais Limau

After the disastrous attempt at sambal, I decided it would be wise to go back to the world of following recipes.

This one is a recipe from The Food Of Malaysia, by Wendy Hutton, which by the time you are reading this, will be back in the Preston Library for you to enjoy.

Devil Curry, called so for its chilli content, is a Malacca Eurasian dish, with Indian, Malaysian and Spanish influences. I followed the recipe, being a little shy after the sambal-incident, however of course I left out the chicken and replaced it with tofu.

Devil curry didn’t end up being all that hot. I don’t know why, it just wasn’t. Maybe because we’d been eating chillies all week, or maybe I used the wrong variety. In any case, it didn’t bother us, as it was delicious.

Yum, Devil Curry

Hearty and full of potato and tofu, spicy with chillie, ginger, turmeric, lemon grass, garlic (I love garlic!), and a little sour with the vinegar, it was a perfect meal when served up with rice.

I also made us some Ais Limau (Lime cordial) to go with it. There is no trick to this, but I’ll post the recipe for the syrup-ly challenged.

Ais Limau

Ais Limau

• 4 Limes, juiced
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 litre water
• 2 Limes, cut into wedges
• ice

In a small saucepan add the lime juice and sugar. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the water and stir until mixed thoroughly. Remove from heat, decant into a glass bottle, and cool.

When cool, add ice and lime wedges to glasses. Pour the cordial over and enjoy

Nasi Lemak, a cautionary tale

Nasi Lemak is probably the dish I think of first when I think about Malaysia. With coconut rice, peanuts, fried tofu, sambal, onion and cucumber, it may be one of the best breakfast dishes ever created. Okay, so its supposed to have tiny fish, egg and meat, but whatever, I like it with tofu.

Nasi Lemak... kinda

I have made nasi lemak at home twice now. It hasn’t worked very well. The coconut rice is easy and delicious, even without the pandan leaves, the peanuts are always good, and you really can’t stuff up chopping a cucumber and an onion. I fried up some tofu, or heat up some puffs, and its looking good. But then begins the problems: for me, it all falls to pieces with the sambal.

Now, sambal recipes make it look easy, like something that simply can’t be stuffed up by a well-meaning yet tragically uninformed cook such as myself. Well, that’s just not true. I can be stuffed up, and I’ll show you how.

So we’re all on the same page, check out this recipe, which I used as my guide (kinda).

How to stuff up a sambal

The recipe calls for you to combine:

• 10 chopped shallots, or 8 small chopped red onions
• 2 ounces or 8 fresh chilies, remove seeds and slice
• 5 cloves sliced garlic
• 1 stalk lemongrass thinly sliced (use only the bottom 3 inches of the stalk)
• ½ ounce tamarind (soak in a cup of water and pour the tamarind juice through a strainer before use)
• ½ ounce or 10 dried chilies (soak in hot water for 5 minutes), or 3 tsp chilly powder
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste

So, you don’t have shallots or red onions, having used them yesterday, so you use spring onions instead. You forgot to pick up dried chillies of any asian variety, so you use some ancho chillies you have left over from making Mexican Mole instead. You blend with the rest of the ingredients, but it tastes… well, not quite right.

You heat it all in a wok, having forgotten to do that with just the first three ingredients. Try to sniff it and burn your eyes on the intense onion/chilli fumes. Get your partner to take it off the heat while you lean over the sink, rinsing and swearing for a bit.

Get back to it and taste it. The ancho chillies have made it smokey and dark-flavoured, and the tamarind was too sweet and not sour enough. You can fix it though! You add some lime juice. It tastes a little odd with the ancho chillies, but you persevere. Add a little more lime juice.

It could be saltier, so you add some salt. You run out of salt though, but it requires more. You look around the pantry for something salty. Olives! So you add some olives. Now it is the right amount of salty, but a little brown… and western.

It still isn’t sour enough, so you add a little bit of pomegranate syrup. That was a BAD idea. Now the whole thing tastes like pomegranate, which does not work well with the garlic. You try to mask it with more chilli. It doesn’t really work.

Now its a litlle too strong for Mr with all that garlic and chilli, so you sneak in some tomato paste.

So you’ve got a paste-like substance that tastes a lot like pomegranate with garlic and chilli, and is an off-brown colour, like the brown spots on a tomato that’s getting dodgy. It ends up edible… just.

Thw offending "Sambal"

Serve it next to the other stuff for Nasi Lemak. Consider pretending you didn’t stuff it up. Decide instead to fess up and apologise profusely for the barely edible dinner. Eat your first mouthful. Giggle at Mr’s face as he tried to tell you that its ok, really. Marvel at just how bad it really is. Get out the chilli sauce, push the “smbal” to the side. Finish the dinner with the ready made chilli, and agree not to try to make it again.

Write “Sambal Paste” on the shopping list.

Fried Kway Teow

Kway teow is one of my favourite dishes in the whole world. I fell in love with it in Canberra, and used to get it from the famous Dickson Noodle House, pre and post vegan times. It is a truly fabulous comfort-food, all oily, starchy, salty goodness.

I had learned to call it Char Kway teow, but Mr has since indoctrinated me into the language mash-up of fried kway teow instead. I don’t know why. Its a Singapore thing, I think, and it seems to be what it gets called most in Melbourne.

Anyway, there are great places to get it here in Melbs, but I’m saving a few in-theme reviews for the last post, so I wont go into it now. Its easy to make though, and worth it for some quick and delicious fare at home.

Most recipes look alike, so I’ll post mine, with the caveat that I probably got it from somewhere else (years ago and I can’t remember). My fave version uses puffed tofu and some extra stuff, but you can use ordinary tofu, tempeh or whatever.

Fried Kway Teow with some greens beans and purple kale

Fried Kway Teow

• Fresh flat rice noodles (I stuffed up in a hurry and got rolled ones and had to shred them. Try not to do that)
• Tofu Puffs
• Pretend chicken and beef strips (I used Fry’s)
• 2 cloves garlic, miced
• chilli sauce (we like Sriracha)
• garlic shoots (or garlic chives)
• spring onions
• red chillies, chopped
• light soy sauce
• dark soy sauce
• Most people add beansprouts… we are beansprout-haters, so we don’t.

Fry the garlic in a little oil in the wok. Add the tofu and fake meats, douse in light soy, and fry until cooked. Add the spring onions, garlic shoots and chillies and mix through. Add the noodles, a lot of oil, and the dark soy sauce. Fry, mixing with a wok-stirrer, until noodles are warm and everything is a brown-ish colour (photo above is not representative – I ran out of dark soy). Serve on their own or with some vegies.

Nasi Goreng, aussie adaption

Nasi Goreng, fried rice, is Mr.’s favourite food in the whole world. His favourite place to get it is Singapore, not Malaysia, but I promised to make it during Malaysia week after he mentioned he was tired of unfamiliar food.

I make fried rice a lot and usually use it as an opportunity to use up whatever is in the fridge. This was no exception, and the result was an odd combination of Aussie vegies and the flavouring Mr likes from Beauty World (a shopping centre and food market in Singapore). I’m still not on top of this flavour, not quite reproducing it, but I’m getting close.

When we saw it we had a bit of a giggle, because it looked so much like the fried rice from Chinese Take-way places we had growing up in regional Vic and NSW: plain with tiny bits of frozen peas and carrots.

So, not exactly an authentic Malaysian meal, but still good food

Hngry people = Wok Photo: Fried Rice

Keira’s Mr’s Fried Rice

• Cooked Rice
• Garlic powder
• Soy sauce
• Tofu or tempeh
• Fridge dregs, diced (carrots, peas, celery, onion, greens, whatever you have)
• Tomatoes, cut into wedges
• Chinese 5 spice
• Vegan chicken stock (or some MSG would work, but we don’t eat it)
• Lots of peanut oil
• a little bit of sesame oil

This is easy. Cook the rice and, unless you are using left overs, let it dry out a bit in a sieve. In a big wok, fry the tempeh or tofu in a little bit of oil and soy sauce. Add the vegies and cook until tender. Add a lot of oil, then throw in the rice. Sprinkle chicken stock powder, garlic powder, soy sauce, five spice and sesame oil on top. Mix thoroughly until rice is warm enough to eat. Add tomatoes at the very end (we do this on a plate becase they tend to un-season the wok), and eat. Easy

Nonya Feast

Nonya refers to a culture that has evolved out of the marriages of Malay women to Chinese trading men, prior to the major immigrations of Chinese people into Malaysia. Nonya food developed as a mash-up of Chinese and Malay foods, as these women cooked the food they knew and adapted them to the tastes of their husbands.

According to  The Food of Malaysia, Nonya cuisine almost died-out, as Straits-born Chinese women (as Nonya women are called) marry non-Straits-born Chinese men and cook more traditionally Chinese food to suit them.

There are two main groupings of Nonya food: Malacca and Penang. Penang food is sour and hot, Malacca food is creamier and sweeter. This is easily seen in the two versions of Laksa, the most well-known Nonya dish. Laksa Lemak (the Malaca version) is the rich coconut milk and noodle dish we know so well here in Australia. Asam Laksa (the Penang version) is little known here – it is sour and fragrant, made without the coconut, and with herbs, tamarind, ginger, and chillies.

For my Nonya feast I decided to try my hand at the Asam Laksa, having eaten it in Penang and been impressed by its full-on sour flavour. I used a recipe out of the book, however I had to make some adjustments, as it usually relies on mackerel and black prawn paste. The recipe below is almost entirely from the book, The Food of Malaysia by Wendy Hutton, and credit should go to her. My changes are in italics.

Vegan Asam Laksa

• 1.5 L water
• 2-4 large pieces of wakame, not pre-soaked
• 5 tbs of tamarind pulp
• 3 cms ginger, sliced
• 3 sprigs laksa leaf (I used the big version of Vietnamese mint (not the little leaves from my garden), as it claims to be the same thing)
• up to 1 Tbs sugar (I left this out because my tamarind was too sweet)
• 3 tbs lime juice
• 1-2 tbs soy sauce
• 1-2 tbs vinegar
• Fresh rice noodles
• For the Spice Paste
• 5 shallots
• 2 stalks lemon grass
• 2.5 cm fresh tumeric
• 3 dried chillies, soaked
• 6 fresh red chillies
• Garnish
• 1 cucumber, sliced
• 6 sprigs laksa leaf
• 2 springs mint
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 3 red chillies, sliced
• some fresh pineapple

Simmer the wakame in the water for about 15 minutes. This gets a bit of a fishy taste, and its the closest thing I’ve found so far to actual fish sauce (once you add lime juice). Strain the mixture back into a saucepan and set the wakame aside. Add the tamraind pulp, ginger, sugar and laksa leaf. Blend of mash the spice paste ingredients together, and add these to the saucepan as well. Simmer for another 20-30 minutes. Blanch the noodles in hot water, then divide into bowls. Add the lime juice, soy sauce and vinegar to the soup. Pour the soup over the noodles, then add the garnish. Yum!

This worked well, but it still wasn’t as sour or as fishy as the version I had at a veg stall in Penang. I think they used fermented salty soy bean paste.

Vegan Asam Laksa

I paired the Laksa with some Nonya wedding rice, which is rice cooked with spices such as star anise, cinnamon, coriander seed and cardamon, and with Sambal Terong (eggplant with basil and spice paste).

Nonya Wedding Rice

I used brown rice, to add a bit of whole grain goodness, and I thought the rice was really good, loving the rich, warm, spices. Mr wasn’t that keen on it, he thought it was a bit too sweet, which is funny, because I forgot to add the raisins, which would have made it sweeter.

Smbal Terong

The eggplant was a hit with both of us. It was a good mix of spicy and sweet, using chilli, soy bean paste, garlic, sugar and lots and lots of fresh Thai basil. Its not very traditional, but I have found you can add a tiny bit of olive to make up for the little salty fish and dried prawns that are usually used.

It was a huge and very yummy meal. The laksa could have used more sour – my tamarind was really sweet! – but it was still a fun and different flavour.

Making Tamarind Pulp

Just as an aside, I made my own tamarind pulp for this recipe. This is mainly because a) I didn’t realise how much work it would be, and b) I couldn’t find the canned variety.

To make the pulp, you first shell the tamarind. You end up with squishy brown bits and left over shells. You then add some water, and squeeze the squishy brown bits in your hands, squishing the mush through your fingers until all that is left in your hand are the seeds and strings. You continue until you are left with a bowl of plain squishy brown, and a bowl o stringy, almost squishy brown. Its a lot of fun and very messy, and more than a little odd-looking (ok, its fecal).

If you want to have some fun, make a mess, or get the kids involved in something that will make them laugh, I suggest you try it If you’re after convenience, go for the pre-squished version.

Tamarind Pods

Leftover shells

The squishy bits, seeds still in

Malay Feast

The night of our first Malaysian feast, I made “beef” rendang, red cooked “chicken”, and some herbed rice, each Malaysian dishes, according to the book.

Beef rendang is ubiquitous, apparently, although I don’t think I had ever tried it prior to now. It is meat (or in this case seitan-ish stuff) cooked in coconut cream and spices such as star anise, cinnamon, clove, cardamon and lime leaf, until the liquid is cooked off, leaving moist, rich, coconut-flavoured wonderfulness. It is said to have originated in Indonesia, but is famously popular in Malaysia.

I used the recipe for beef rendang from the book, The Food of Malaysia, by Wendy Hutton, with a few minor changes to veganise. I used Fry’s vegan beef-style strips instead of cow-flesh. The recipe calls for a very long cooking time, however mock doesn’t tend to hold up to stewing, and I wanted to avoid ruining the texture, so I cooked the spices in the coconut cream without the strips, to release the flavours, and added the strips only for the reducing stage.

Vegan Rendang Daging, yum!

The rendang was easily the best part of the meal. So rich it was *almost* too much, but clearly the favourite, causing a small, good-natured skirmish over who would get the left overs for lunch the next day.

I’d spent up big with the Fry’s products, and used some of their chicken-style vegan strips to make Ayam Masak Merah (or Red-cooked chicken). This dish is said to be a Malaysian version of Italian chicken cacciatore: tomato-based chicken stew, with sour tendencies and a lot of chillies.

I found this dish at malaysianfood.net, and used their recipe, which you can find here. The only changes: vegan strips instead of meat, and I didn’t add pandan leaves, as I couldn’t find any at the markets.

This wasn’t as successful as the rendang. I forgot my own rule, and stewed the vegan strips for so long that they turned to loosely-held-together mush before I realised my mistake. The sauce was fantastic though, definitely one to try again. Mr ate it anyway, I am pickier, and ate the sauce and sort of avoided the bits with confusing and unpalatable texture. I think Mr ate them off my plate. We are complimentary, that way

Red Cooked mock-chicken

I had intended to serve these main dishes with Nasi Kerabu, or herbed rice, As with the pandan leaves though, I couldn’t find half of the herbs required, like turmeric leaf, zedoary, daun selum and daun salam (?). I don’t know if they’re not available, if I was looking for herbs with different names here than they have in the book, or if they were some of things I just don’t recognise at the market, with no signs, or signs in languages I don’t read. In any case, I made a sort of white-girl version, using corriander, lemongrass, Vietnamese mint, and Thai basil, which was still refreshing and tasty.

Yummy rice

The sour spiciness of the chicken was in contrast to the creamy, rich rendang and the fresh-flavoured rice, and it made for an interesting, satisfying and yummy meal.

Introducing Malaysia

This week we’re eating the food of Malaysia, by Mr.’s request for “more familiar food”. Having traveled in Malaysia and lived in Singapore, Malay food fits that bill perfectly.

There are a few cuisines that are prominent in Malaysia, due to a mixed cultural population: Malay, Nonya, Indian, Chinese, Eurasian and fusions of these. I plan to make some dishes from each, except Indian, as there’s a restaurant I want to tell you about instead.

The Menu Plan

I am pretty excited, and I’m looking forward to making some of my favourite foods, as well as some new and interesting dishes I haven’t tried before. I will be using some of my own recipes, one or two internet-provided recipes, and I will be also using a book, The Food of Malaysia, by Wendy Hutton, which Melbournites can borrow from the Preston City Library.

• Nasi lemak (tofu, sambal and coconut rice)
• Kway teow (fried noodles)
• Devil curry (curry)
• Ais limau (lime cordial)
• Nasi goreng (fried rice)
• Nasir kerabu (herbed rice)
• Ayam Masak Merah (red cooked “chicken”)
• Rendang daging (“beef” rendang)
• Asam laksa (sour nodle soup)
• Sambal terong (spicy eggplnt)
• Nonya wedding rice

The country: Geography

Malaysia is made up of the Malay Peninsula, between the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea, a number of islands in both the Strait and the South China Sea, and East Malaysia, which shares a border with Indonesia and with Brunei, on the island of Borneo.

On the peninsula Malaysia shares a border with Thailand to the North, and while they do not have a land border with Singapore, you can travel between the two countries via a Bridge that crosses the Johor Strait. The Capital is Kuala Lumpur.

Map, courtesy of http://travelmalaysiaguide.com/malaysia-maps/

People and Economy

• Population: 25,715,819
• Median Age: 26.5 years
• No of children born per woman: 2.92
• Ethnic Groups: Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8% (2004 est.)
• Religions: Muslim 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)
• Languages:
  Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
  note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan
• Literacy: male: 92% female: 85.4%
• GDP per capita: $14,900
• Unemployment Rate: 3.7%
• Gini Index (indicates equity wealth): 46.1, which is 36th least equitable in the world. (Fairer than Singapore, less fair than the US)

Other Stuff

Malaysia is the first place on this blog (other than Australia) that I have actually visited, so I’m gonna share a little of my own info. I have to say, it is on the whole, entirely awesome. The people are awesome, the food is awesome, the weather is hot and sticky (but I kinda like that if I’m on holiday), its easy to get around, and the buildings, cultural difference, and natural sites are great. We had a whirl-wind tour of KL, Penang, Pulau Tioman, and Johor Nahru (for a wedding), and I’m looking forward to going back to explore further.

For the vegan traveller food is not too hard to come by, if you know where to look. At lunch there is often a Chinese Buddhist restaurant or stall open, with yummy buffets of vegies, mock and tofu. You can also get snacks such as sweet biscuits, rice wrapped up in pandan leaves, and nuts, which you can take with you to munch on while you wander, and when you find them its worth stocking up.

At breakfast and dinner you’ll have better luck looking for some indian food – say you want Jain Food. Dairy can be difficult to avoid in Indian restaurants, as it isn’t common to avoid it, and there are various languages spoken: the trick is to ask a question where “no” is the answer you want, such as, “Does this have dairy”, rather than than, “can you make it dairy-free”, as most wait staff are eager to please, and may to say “yes” when they don’t understand or are unsure, as well as when they mean it.

If you get really stuck there is always fruit, Ais Kechang (a mountain of red beans, shaved ice, colourful syrups, jelly and fruit), and drinks available at markets, and nuts, tofu-dessert and other snacks are around at any supermarket/grocery store.

Also, you can get drinks in a plastic bag. Just saying, awesome.

So, clearly, I’m looking forward to this week, hope you can tag along