6 reasons to love the place where you come from..
It’s been years; a decade and more, since I’ve returned to Malaysia. The last time I went back, everything looked so much smaller. The front gate of our family home was so fragile and thin looking, even though I’d always thought of it as a metal stronghold to our fortress of a house. The fortress itself, was stunted and stubby, with a modest patch of green for a garden. The driveway which my sister and I used to toboggan down in a rusty folded pram, was so short I wondered how it managed to sustain our downhill excitement at all. During this last trip back, I was constantly encountering mosquitos that prevented me from sleeping at night, and it was so hot and humid that I broke out in a rash and also lost my appetite completely. The good thing was that walking down the street, I actually felt less short, for a change.
I recall, 18 years back, when my parents announced that we were making the move overseas. I was over the moon, having visited Melbourne once before. In my mind, Australia was a land where pinecones and strawberries grew in the backyard, where we could eat apple pie every day for dessert and where seemingly, you could sit in front of the television forever if you wanted to, and always find something to watch (growing up in Malaysia, television only started broadcasting from 4pm onwards).
When we started living in Sydney, I worked hard at trying to fit in. My accent changed (sort of. B still laughs at the way I pronounce certain words). For the first few years, I wanted nothing more than to return to Malaysia on holiday. But gradually, as the letters to and from the Malaysian friends I had been so sorry to leave, decreased from a trickle to nothing, the country itself also became a distant memory and I was soon looking to Europe as my destination of choice.
Looking back now, I realise that I was pretty quick to forget the foods I grew up with. Things I loved then, that I haven’t eaten in a very long while include :
1. Haw flakes
2. Mo Far Kor – also known as tahi hidung, because it looks like nose pickings
3. Durian
4. Kuih Talam
5. Hokkien fried noodles – I think this is what the dish was called. I had it every time my family went for a meal at our local coffee shop. It was nothing more than noodles in a soy sauce, a few green stems and one or two pieces of pork. I think the secret to the dish was the generous use of lard.
6. Lotus seed buns – I prefered these over the red bean paste ones.
Things I embraced in their place :
1. Sara Lee Apple Pie
2. Muesli Bars and Fruit Rollups
3. Lasagne (so exotic, because Garfield loved it)
4. Mudcake
5. Conveyer belt sushi
6. Strawberries dipped in raw sugar
Lately however, I have been thinking about Malaysia and Malaysian food. I’m not sure what spurred it on. Maybe it was Mir’s gift of fried Tempeh all the way from Indonesia, or the Singapore edition of Food Safari, or an aunt’s homemade yam cake at the welcoming party for my sister and her family. It could also have been a very brief conversation that took place at work, when the chef had to organise a themed cocktail party for a Chinese New Year function:
You’re Chinese, aren’t you? He asked.
Yeah, sort of, I replied.
I want you to try my sweet and sour pork later. Let me know what you think.
Ok, but I didn’t really grow up eating stuff like sweet and sour pork.
Really? What did you eat then?
I can’t remember what my reply was, but what I really wanted to say was, it’s funny that people forget how complex the Chinese culture and their food is. When people say do you speak Chinese, they mean Mandarin, and usually when they talk about Chinese food, they mean fried rice, peking duck, salt and pepper squid and sweet and sour pork. Sometimes you forget that one single word encompasses so many other dialects like Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, … and their foods are equally as diverse.
Anyway, the conversation got me thinking about the food I grew up with. Usually if anyone ever asks where I’m from, I always say Malaysia, and second from being Australian, I’m also Malaysian Chinese. Apart from Malay food like satay, nasi lemak, beef rendang, roti jala and ketupat, the food I most loved was Nonya (Peranakan food), originally derived from the intermarriages between Chinese immigrants and Malays. My mom has lent me her copy of a definitive Nonya cookbook which I plan to use as often as I can find the time to.
Meanwhile, here are 6 things I have cooked recently, that remind me so much of the place where I came from :
1. Rojak
2. Bak Kwa
3. Sambal Ikan Bilis
4. Assam Fish
5. Pineapple Tarts
6. Acar Kuning
More details and recipes, another time..
wei said,
February 24, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
the food looks awesome!
i haven’t had it,but i guess it must be delicious!!
Belle said,
February 25, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
It’s so nice that you can remember those things from your childhood and reproduce them now (Food Safari is a great memory-jogger). And no matter how long you’ve been in your adopted country, your heritage usually manages to catch up with you. That’s a good thing, by the way!
Y said,
February 25, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Yeah, “‘Give Me the Child Until He is Seven, and I Will Show You the Man”, which can also be kind of depressing, because we are the product of our childhoods, whether we choose it or not. I think no matter how many stinky cheeses, Bistro Moncur-style pates, dolsot bibimbaps, katsudon, chorizos and sujuk I have in my life time, I will always find myself returning to Malaysian food in the end.
B said,
February 25, 2008 @ 10:15 pm
And I am happy to return with you. 🙂
bowb said,
February 25, 2008 @ 10:52 pm
wow. you made bakkwa! your version looks suspiciously healthy though. ;P i ate many pieces of fat, glistening, red bakkwa on buttered white bread while i was back in singapore. bliss!
Mir said,
February 26, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
You insane woman, bakwa from scratch! I have no idea how you did it. In my head they are made in tiny seedy little shop corners and yet there you are in your home kitchen making it!
Y said,
February 26, 2008 @ 8:23 pm
bowb: hehe. yes, well spotted. It’s a healthy version of bak kwa, as in, I used supermarket minced pork, which is terribly terribly lean. Too lean, for bak kwa, but it still turned out really well. My next mission after perfecting the sauce mix, is to add some extra fat to the mince. In the mean time, I actually quite like it this lean 🙂
Mir: It’s actually easier than we all think! I was surprised myself. Besides, my kitchen aspires to be a little seedy shop corner! 😛
chocolatesuze said,
February 27, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
ikan bilies! i like savagely biting of their heads… haha i eat hokkien noodles for the sole reason of loading up on fatty goodness mmm… im going to malaysia and sg in august any chance youll be holidaying there?
Y said,
February 28, 2008 @ 7:59 pm
I wish!! Unfortunately no plans for any overseas holidays this year. Spain is next on the cards though hopefully. I’ll just have to live vicariously through your holiday posts 🙂
W said,
August 20, 2008 @ 10:28 am
All those dishes look quite yum… although the pineapple tart looks suspiciously out of place. the sambal ikan bilis looks like the Japanese snack [sembei] with small fish you’d have with your beer
lili - pikeletandpie said,
February 23, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
5. Hokkien fried noodles
Like Wan Ton Mee, but without the Wan Tons? I -love- wan ton mee!
I just got back from a little holiday to Malaysia, and I swear I put on 10 kgs (most of it being roti fat and wan ton mee lard!), so delicious!
You are lucky to have had a food culture before you came to Australia.