Jun brought some of his ASEAN friends home for an overnite stay.Great to be near young adults with boundless energy and curiosity except that I was a tad overanxious that the gals should go home with nothing but good memories (what lately with rampant snatch thefts on women ,our neighbourhood roads barricaded with road blocks and high fences and the petty crimes increasing).Luckily,they got to see what they wanted to see without any mishaps.I cooked a lunch of Nonya pie tee,ayam pong teh and assam prawns with pineapple cubes,bought some nyonya kuih and made cendol for them.Not surprisingly,the condiment they enjoyed the most was the sambal belacan with pounded dried shrimps.ASEAN cuisine shares a lot in common with fermented food like tempe,fish sauce,budu and fermented shrimp or fresh herbs like thai basil,daun kesum,lemongrass etc and spices like pepper,clove,star anise etc.Some curries are coconut milk based,some tamarind based and some tomato based.
What typical street food represent my country?
I would choose grilled satay with the piquant peanut sauce,curry laksa with prawns,chicken,cockles,brinjals and long beans and banana roti canai, nasi kerabu/ulam,pasembor,penang loh bak,and ais kacang.
Since the only thing I can cook at home is the curry laksa,I would need to look for a good food court that serves all of the above except that nowadays,half of the local hawker stalls are not manned by locals and the quality of food prepared nothing like what the old sifu prepared so I would need to master the art of cooking street food. There is a skill in control of the flames,the timing and the meticulous attention to cooking which is not found in foreign cooks.Aiya!Noone cooks like those old timers.I miss the food of the good old days.
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