of cencaluk and budu

Variousness of things - Part 2

Previously,I ve posted an article on variousness of languages,dialects and slangs in Malaysia.In this Part 2,I d write on the variousness of dishes in Malaysia.


Mixing the budu(anchovy juice)

A combination of Johorean,Kelantanese and Kedahan dishes; fried tempe(fermented soya bean),curry prawn,budu(anchovy juice) eat with ikan cencaru or keronge and ulam-ulaman.I seldom cook as many dishes as these unless my children and other half are back.




My other half mixing and processing the budu.My youngest just couldnt wait..has started eating first.



One good thing about moving around so much is you get to taste a variety of dishes, from Melaka authentic Nyonya style dishes to Kelantanese traditional dishes.Due to its multi cultural society, Malaysia is blessed with zillions of mouth-watering dishes and appetisers.Thanks to the Al Almighty for we are still able to savour the many dishes unlike some of our brothers and sisters in war torn countries.Now with the influx of the immigrants, you can even find bakso and tanduri in your neighbourhood easily.

The dishes from my kitchen would change too, depends on our stop.Being born and bred in Johor,I grew up eating tempe,sayur lodeh(mixed vege cooked in coconut milk)tumis asam pedas,sambal belachan(pounded chilies with grilled prawn paste), mee bandung and sometimes beryani gam .

After I got married, my other half was posted to Melaka, luckily the dishes there are not much different.I could still enjoy tumis asam pedas ikan parang, but my sambal belacan had turned into cencaluk.In the market the types of fish sold are of the same species as in Johor.

However, my menu at home took a different course when we moved to Kedah.The sight of ikan parang and ikan jenahak is almost nil.Whenever, I went to the night market, I could only see a plentiful of fresh, sparkling ikan temenung or in the south it goes by the name of ikan kembung.What did I do with ikan temenung was making a curry out of it since any type of curries are very popular in the northern states.When I got enough of curry, I d just grill the fish and ate with ayak asam (a small bit of prawn paste mixed with tamarind juice,onions and chillies).Sometimes, when my kids got bored of eating rice, I would blend ikan temenung and make laksa penang.Now I can cook laksa penang better than laksa johor.

Then we moved to Kelantan, again our food changed depends on what are being sold in Kelantan market .Since there are many ikan ayo or ikan kayu, or commercially known as ikan tongkol,so I learn to cook singgang,a simple dish where you just boil the fish and throw in some ginger,onions,garlic,pieces of dried mango and galanga.In Johor we call asam pindang, but the galanga is replaced with tumeric.This dish is better eaten with grilled fish and budu.The budu must be processed first by adding onions,lime juice and lots of chilli burung to give an awesome taste, if not you would throw out the moment it reaches your taste bud!Well , you might be wondering what chilli burung is, in Johor it s called chilli padi and in Kedah it is chilli Melaka.

I think the Kelantanese are very creative when it comes to food.They can make out almost everything from a single slaughtered bird.Minus the meat, they make kerabu kaki ayam,satay kulit and satay perut and other inner organs.

Even the names are interesting. I flinched the first time I heard kueh tahi itik, but after tasting it for the first time as one of the desserts at Raja Kelantan's bitrthday banquet thrown at his palace, I kind of like it.If you have sweet tooth, you would enjoy jala emas,buah tanjong and akok..Though the names are not very becoming,these types of traditonal kueh are desserts at hotels and grand dinners.

What we have for breakfast is different here.Early in the morning we already have a choice of rice..either nasi kerabu(my favourite),nasi dagang, nasi berlauk,nasi tumpang or just plain rice with a variety of dishes to choose from.There are also pulut pagi(brown glutinous rice eaten with grated coconut and sweet red beans) and also pulut ikan kering(glutinous rice with dried fish and grated coconut)In Johor, pulut ikan kering is never heard of these days, so I was kind of surprised when I first bumped into this dish here. My breakfast also changed from a piece of roti chanai or a bowl of nasi empit to a plateful of nasi kerabu with grilled chicken marinated with honey or sometimes nasi berlauk and at lunch I would take rice again...

Kelantanese dishes have done wondrous to my appetite and luckily my taste bud is adaptable too!