Week 24: May 28 to June 3

It was a quieter week this week.

Lachlan played golf on a course for ASA this week, and had to dress in long pants and collared tshirt. Wednesday was the school walkathon to riase money for a school in Sabah, both Lachlan and Danae participated and they raised RM300 and RM 240 (thanks to those who sponsored them).
Friday night Steve and I had a function to go to, a dining out at Istana Hotel. It was a long night, but not too bad.
Saturday morning we went down to the school for Danae to try Netta Netball. They had a tryout morning to see if anyone liked it and wanted to do it for ASA next semester. Danae had a great time and really loved it, she also scored a goal! There were some other families we know there too.
Sunday we went to Bangsar to have brunch, pick up a few groceries and find new school shoes for Danae. Then we spent the early evening by the pool.

 
Other than a few meals out, we didn't really do much else. Speaking of food, it must be time for another little info section and I thought since it's such a huge part of the culture here I would talk a bit about the food here.

The Malay word for food is makan, and the variety and cost of food here is something that makes Malaysia such a special place. We eat out probably twice a week for dinner and another twice for breakfast or lunch. We probably eat more Western food, and by Western I mean the type of food you would see in almost any big city, including Japanese, Italian, American, German. I would say there is more choice here than Sydney, just for 'Western' food. The average we would spend on a Western meal out is around RM100 ($30) or RM150 with a beer and cocktail (wine is pretty expensive here, and a glass of wine costs about the same as a cocktail).

nasi lemak; char kwoy teow; carrot cake; chicken rice; roti canai; roti tissu; satay; cendol; kuih.

 But I wanted to talk mostly about Malay food. Like the population, the food is a mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay. There are hawker stalls everywhere selling all kinds of dishes. Some of the most popular dishes are:

Nasi Lemak, this is probably Malaysia's national dish. Nasi is rice and lemak means fat, so nasi lemak is 'fatty rice' because it is traditionally cooked in coconut milk. The rice is served with a mid-level spicy sambal, dried anchovies, roasted peanuts, a wedge of hard boiled egg and some cucumber. It is usually eaten on its own for breakfast or a snack but can also be served with some meat (quite often fried chicken or beef rendang) for luch or dinner. It is sold in the streets wrapped in coconut leaves. A nasi lemak costs about RM1.50 (50 cents) hawker style, or up to 4 or 5 ringgit in a food court served with chicken or beef.

Char Kwoy Teow, is a Chinese dish similar to Pad Thai but with a darker, less sweet soy-type sauce. It is one of Danae and my favourites. A plate of Char Kwoy Teow costs about RM6 ($2)

Another favorite of mine that we have just discovered is 'fried carrot cake'. Despite sounding like a dessert, it is acually savoury and even more weird is that it has no carrot in it! It is kind of similar to char kwoy teow, but instead of noodles it has cubes of a 'cake' made with daikon raddish (which has the same chinese name as carrot) and rice flour. These cubes are stir friend till nice and charry, then they add omelette, spring onions, bean sprouts and soy sauce.

Chicken rice is also a favourite and usually ordered by one or both of the kids, or me if I can't decide what else to have. Chicken rice is rice, with steamed or roasted chicken served with a bowl of clear chicken soup. It also costs about RM6.

Various types of roti are popular here, reflecting the Indian culture. The most popular is roti canai, nice crispy, flakey roti with three different type os sauce for dipping. One of my favourites is roti tissu, a paper thin crispy roti served as an upside down cone shape with condensed milk poured over. There are quite a few other sweet variations (Lachlan tried milo and banana for breakfast in Penang)

Satay is also something we like here, though we don't order it often. You dont see it as much in food courts, more in restaurants as an apetizer or at street stalls. A satay stick will cost 30 to 50 cen each.

Desserts are probably some of the most unique dishes. Two of the most popular are Ice Kacang (or ABC) and Cendol (chendol), both are made with shaved ice and variuos toppings. We have tried cendol in Melaka, but I don't think I can come at ice kacang.
Ice kacang is shaved ice topped with red beans, corn, cubes of grass jelly, condensed milk and rose flavored syrup. There are lots of variations.

Cendol is usually shaved ice topped with little worm shaped noodles made from rice flour and pandan, coconut milk and liquid palm sugar. Quite often it has red beans, the one we had in Melaka had red beans on the bottom, so we all just left them because none of us like them at all! The rest of it was nice, we all enjoyed it especially during a hot day.A bowl of cendol costs about 3 ringgit ($1)

Kuih are little sweets of any kind. There are many different types, but the common ingredients are rice flour, coconut, pandan, fruits like durian or mango, palm sugar, agar agar. My favorites are little chewy pandan flavoured rice flour balls filled with liquid palm sugar and rolled in coconut. They are kind of like mochi and are called onde-onde. They are similar to the balls in the photo above. The other one in the photo is fresh grated coconut mixed with palm sugar and wrapped in pandan or banana leaf, I'm not sure of the name of that one.