: : Nasi Ulam : :

Granny was so excited today. After watching Chef Wan’s cooking show on the telly last evening, she decided to make some Nasi Ulam @ Ulam Rice today.

I’m giving to you a translated version of the Malay Wikipedia of Ulam. I hope I managed to translate it properly. I paraphased the information a bit.

Ulam is a name given to a group of herbs and vegetables that are eaten raw or blached (quickly dip in hot water) that are eaten with rice. It can also normally eaten with some side seasoning like budu (grinded dried anchovies @ ikan billis or dried prawn @ udang bari), cencaluk (a spicy sauce made from tiny baby prawns, cillis and other seasoning) or sambal belacan (chilli paste made from dried fish or prawn paste); eaten with rice. Ulam is famous as daily fare for the Malay community in villages. Ulam is taken from many different portions of a plant. This includes the shoots, leaves, umbut (someone help me with this translation please, thanks), seed, fruit, root and sometimes the flower. Common vegetables such as cucumber, lettuce and eggplant is also used to make an Ulam dish. Traditional medicinal herbs are also used.

Here is the Nasi Ulam @ Ulam Rice that Granny prepared. There is no frying involved other than having to cook the rice.

Ingredients

Daun Pegaga @ Centella asiatica, Urban Spadeleaf (although ours does not grow in the wetlands)

Daun Cekur @ Aromatic Ginger Leaf, Lesser Galangal

Daun Kedom / Kadok @ Wild Pepper Leaf, known to the Chinese as “Young Sirih Leaf”

Daun Kesom @ Laksa Leaf, Vietnamese Coriander

Daun Pudina @ Peppermint

Slices of Onions (raw)

Salted Fish

Chopped Chillis

Lime Juice

Pepper to taste

Rice

The Ulam herbs were sliced into small strips and the salted fish was grinded using a pestle and mortar. Squeeze some lime juice into the mixture. Now, mix everything together in a bowl until it is well mixed.

It is a fresh and tasty dish. I certainly felt a lot better. It’s a dish that is without much preservatives except for what is used in the salted fish.

If you’re in Asia, you would be able to find the herbs at the wet market. It took me quite a while to find the correct internet links that had some useful pictures in them. Even then, I wasn’t too sure whether it was the correct information or not. There are a huge variety of spices used in South East Asia that to classify every one of them. So, to help you along, here are some pictures from my Granny’s garden.

Daun Cekur @ Lesser Galangal

Daun Kesom @ Laksa Leaf, Vietnamese Coriander

Daun Kaduk / Kadok / Kedom @ Wild Pepper Leaf

Daun Pudina @ Mint Leaf

Daun Pegaga @ Centella asiatica, Urban Spadeleaf

I hope you enjoyed this posting as much as I did. Here is Granny’s joke for the dish :

Granny : Jaga ah! (Careful ah!) Afterwards you bang pui too much! (Flattulence!) But good to clean stomach woh! (BIG HINT about bowel movement!)

: : Nasi Ulam : :

Granny was so excited today. After watching Chef Wan’s cooking show on the telly last evening, she decided to make some Nasi Ulam @ Ulam Rice today.

I’m giving to you a translated version of the Malay Wikipedia of Ulam. I hope I managed to translate it properly. I paraphased the information a bit.

Ulam is a name given to a group of herbs and vegetables that are eaten raw or blached (quickly dip in hot water) that are eaten with rice. It can also normally eaten with some side seasoning like budu (grinded dried anchovies @ ikan billis or dried prawn @ udang bari), cencaluk (a spicy sauce made from tiny baby prawns, cillis and other seasoning) or sambal belacan (chilli paste made from dried fish or prawn paste); eaten with rice. Ulam is famous as daily fare for the Malay community in villages. Ulam is taken from many different portions of a plant. This includes the shoots, leaves, umbut (someone help me with this translation please, thanks), seed, fruit, root and sometimes the flower. Common vegetables such as cucumber, lettuce and eggplant is also used to make an Ulam dish. Traditional medicinal herbs are also used.

Here is the Nasi Ulam @ Ulam Rice that Granny prepared. There is no frying involved other than having to cook the rice.

Ingredients

Daun Pegaga @ Centella asiatica, Urban Spadeleaf (although ours does not grow in the wetlands)

Daun Cekur @ Aromatic Ginger Leaf, Lesser Galangal

Daun Kedom / Kadok @ Wild Pepper Leaf, known to the Chinese as “Young Sirih Leaf”

Daun Kesom @ Laksa Leaf, Vietnamese Coriander

Daun Pudina @ Peppermint

Slices of Onions (raw)

Salted Fish

Chopped Chillis

Lime Juice

Pepper to taste

Rice

The Ulam herbs were sliced into small strips and the salted fish was grinded using a pestle and mortar. Squeeze some lime juice into the mixture. Now, mix everything together in a bowl until it is well mixed.

It is a fresh and tasty dish. I certainly felt a lot better. It’s a dish that is without much preservatives except for what is used in the salted fish.

If you’re in Asia, you would be able to find the herbs at the wet market. It took me quite a while to find the correct internet links that had some useful pictures in them. Even then, I wasn’t too sure whether it was the correct information or not. There are a huge variety of spices used in South East Asia that to classify every one of them. So, to help you along, here are some pictures from my Granny’s garden.

Daun Cekur @ Lesser Galangal

Daun Kesom @ Laksa Leaf, Vietnamese Coriander

Daun Kaduk / Kadok / Kedom @ Wild Pepper Leaf

Daun Pudina @ Mint Leaf

Daun Pegaga @ Centella asiatica, Urban Spadeleaf

I hope you enjoyed this posting as much as I did. Here is Granny’s joke for the dish :

Granny : Jaga ah! (Careful ah!) Afterwards you bang pui too much! (Flattulence!) But good to clean stomach woh! (BIG HINT about bowel movement!)

: : Errata on the Blogspot Hijack : :

As with cases of inaccurate translation, here is an errata for the previous posting.

Comments from posting :

so stupid! this girl wasn’t asking for a laptop….(LaptoP is not the SAME as PORtOlA!!!) portola is the can where the sardines live!!!…. please get a translator and don’t say stupid things!…

Well. My apologies then for posting the wrong information since I got it from another posting who refer it to another posting where a translation was posted up by an anonymous reader who volunteered for the translation.

Anyway, I’ve had enough of this matter on my blog. The comments for the previous 2 posting about Ailin’s blog is now switched off. Any future comments about this matter will be deleted.

: : Quack quack : :

Duck stew with dark soy sauce, eggs and mushroom.

It’s fairly easy to do. Granny took a wok and on a medium fire with some oil, she put a whole duck into the wok. She then kept turning it until it was half cook. After that, she added in some water and some dark soy sauce. Turning the flame down to a low level, she simmered the duck in a wok. The wok also needs to be covered. The duck was cook for about 30-60 minutes until it was completely cook.

The duck was then left to cool down so that it was easier to cut it into smaller pieces after that. The smaller pieces were then put into a claypot which was filled some water, more dark soy sauce, sugar, Chinese 5-spice and some dried orange skin. Also, a pinch of MSG was added in as well. The whole stew was left to cook for about another 30 min.

Oh, the egg was boiled separately until it was hard. Once cook, she put it into the claypot as well. As for the mushroom, the Chinese dried black mushroom was soaked in hot water until hydrated. Throw away the water to get rid of the preservatives. Repeat a few times until the water is clear. Cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces and throw it into the claypot.

The duck stew was eaten during the Mooncake Family Dinner. Nice.

: : Blogspot Hijack Saga : :

Blogger came to AiLin’s rescue and resetted her userID and password. Good for you hon!

And surprisingly, the hijacker left a message in my Comments Box. Here it is below :

pinches malasios de popocita verde… me qitaron mi blog robado, al carajo, ya no los quiero!

ah, y tu blog también está de hueva… igual que el de chia… que mamadas son esas… esas fotos de comida me provocan ganas de guacarear

Translation anyone? The babelfish translation doesn’t come out so well.

For reference, please goto this posting.

It’s also not very nice to call her a b*tch in the first place and then attempt to be nice about it later. Ah well. Reap the consequences afterwards.

Although, it must be said that the quickest way to fame is to be bad than to be good.

: : Diary : :

Two new places that I heard that just opened recently. Mind you, recently as in the past few months. That’s how long I’ve haven’t been out eating.

Bollywood Cafe at Carpenter St. : Heard that one of my collegue’s Dad opened up a little cafe along Carpenter Street that serves Northern Indian cuisine.

Mango Tree at Crookshank Road : Previously know as Kikyo-Tei @ Japanese Restaurant, it is now the posh Thai restaurant that is a franchise around the world. One thing about having a food blog is that one always ends up arranging for gatherings. Am arranging for a farewell dinner for some friends. Here is their UK website. I remember finding their corporate website but now, can’t seem to find it again! Google is giving out too many hits on reviews rather than their official site! Although it is an expensive place to dine, they came up with a great menu within the budget that I asked for which was RM30 – RM35 per head (USD7.90 – USD9.21). It’s what you order that gives you an indication of the final bill. The ambience has been raved about a lot so worth to check it out.

BTW, if anyone is impatient for updates on food places in Kuching, check out Huai Bin’s site. He’s been going around to more food places than I have recently.

On another note, I heard a rumour that some shipments of freshwater prawns @ udang galah to the USA were rejected by the FDA. Reason being is that there were too much antibiotics in the prawn that was deem more harmful to health than normal. Hence, a lot of freshwater prawns are going really cheap in the market. Note that this is an UNVERIFIED RUMOUR so it’s anybody’s guess. I heard this from a colleague who mentioned it to me after I recount my dinner at the Junk with Baked Prawn (yeah, freshwater prawn) and Cheese. Both the freshwater prawn and tiger prawn is cultivated in “farms” in Sarawak. Suffice to say that I’m still hale and healthy.