The world's best recipe site: http:\\rasamalaysia.com.
Malaysian food has influences from all over Asia, including Taiwan, Thailand, India and China, so these recipes are pretty authentic, though often with a Malaysian twist (chilis, for example).
I'm trying this Three Cups Chicken recipe tonight, a quintessential Taiwanese dish also found in Malaysia due to the large population of immigrants from the southern Chinese province of Fujian, the same place a lot of (real) Taiwanese people came from 300 years ago.
I don't remember my mom ever making this at home; it's one of those dishes that I only came across at large gatherings or special occasions - dinners at other people's houses, church lunches, buffets, etc. Three cups chicken was never really on my radar screen until a few years ago when I was living with a Taiwanese American woman in Brooklyn. I came home from work and she was cooking it for a dinner guest. Mmmm. Soy sauce, sesame oil and a flood of memories filled my kitchen.
Oddly enough, it's incredibly easy to make, which is probably why Taiwanese people always make it for large gatherings. I'm not sure why they don't seem to make it at home for themselves as much. It's always a dish for special occasions. It does taste just like a celebration.
Ohh man! Looking for recipes online turns up more and more good stuff. I just came across this Thai recipe website. These dishes are the real deal, researched, written, tested (and eaten) by an American expat. I find that it's easier to find Thai vegetables* and ingredients in San Francisco than it was in New York, so I may be trying out some of these recipes soon.
(*Except for banana blossoms. These amazing things are always served with pad thai in Thailand but I've never seen them anywhere in the US. They fall in the same category as Australian Tim Tams: Why in the land of plenty don't we have banana blossoms or Tim Tams? Sadness ensues.)
These recipes take me back to the too few months I spent in Thailand wandering night markets, eating unidentified deliciousness, and wondering what it all was.
This spicy shrimp paste was one of my daily staples, perfect for setting my face on fire after dipping raw or blanched vegetables and my daily fried mystery fish. As in,
Me in my broken Thai: What kind of fish is this?
Lady at the market: Thai thai thai thai thai.
Me: I see.
Oh, hello. I just reached back into the photo archives and discovered that I had brilliantly thought to take a picture of the fishy dippy yumminess back in the Thailand days. Oh, pornographic food memories.
And speaking of things not found in the land of plenty, when I was in Thailand some of my Burmese friends got wind of the fact that I am a fan of fermented tea leaf salad. They were mainly just thrilled that I had even heard of it. They invited me to a Festival of Lights celebration at their temple, sat me and my visiting American friend down and served us tea leaf salad...from a pre-made package. It was delicious. Then they sent me home with five more packages of this pre-made, do-it-yourself tea leaf salad. The packages were all in Burmese, but I gathered from the pictures that there were three different flavors. To me they were the pink flavor, the green flavor and the blue flavor.
"You can buy them anywhere in Thailand," my Burmese friend Caroline told me. "Just go to a Burmese market."
Burmese markets, it turns out, exist mainly in Thailand and Burma. If I had know I'd never find these pre-made tea leaf salad packages in New York, I would have gone through them more sparingly.
Fortunately, though not particularly conveniently, it seems that there are some not-quite-underground packaged tea leaf salad suppliers in the Bay Area, of the "go into the jewelry store and walk to the back and ask for Kyin" variety. I may be sleuthing for these things soon.
Malaysian food has influences from all over Asia, including Taiwan, Thailand, India and China, so these recipes are pretty authentic, though often with a Malaysian twist (chilis, for example).
I'm trying this Three Cups Chicken recipe tonight, a quintessential Taiwanese dish also found in Malaysia due to the large population of immigrants from the southern Chinese province of Fujian, the same place a lot of (real) Taiwanese people came from 300 years ago.
I don't remember my mom ever making this at home; it's one of those dishes that I only came across at large gatherings or special occasions - dinners at other people's houses, church lunches, buffets, etc. Three cups chicken was never really on my radar screen until a few years ago when I was living with a Taiwanese American woman in Brooklyn. I came home from work and she was cooking it for a dinner guest. Mmmm. Soy sauce, sesame oil and a flood of memories filled my kitchen.
 |
| My first ever attempt at Three Cups Chicken was a success, but I'm still wondering how this chili got to be the star of my photo. |
Ohh man! Looking for recipes online turns up more and more good stuff. I just came across this Thai recipe website. These dishes are the real deal, researched, written, tested (and eaten) by an American expat. I find that it's easier to find Thai vegetables* and ingredients in San Francisco than it was in New York, so I may be trying out some of these recipes soon.
(*Except for banana blossoms. These amazing things are always served with pad thai in Thailand but I've never seen them anywhere in the US. They fall in the same category as Australian Tim Tams: Why in the land of plenty don't we have banana blossoms or Tim Tams? Sadness ensues.)
These recipes take me back to the too few months I spent in Thailand wandering night markets, eating unidentified deliciousness, and wondering what it all was.
This spicy shrimp paste was one of my daily staples, perfect for setting my face on fire after dipping raw or blanched vegetables and my daily fried mystery fish. As in,
Me in my broken Thai: What kind of fish is this?
Lady at the market: Thai thai thai thai thai.
Me: I see.
Oh, hello. I just reached back into the photo archives and discovered that I had brilliantly thought to take a picture of the fishy dippy yumminess back in the Thailand days. Oh, pornographic food memories.
 |
| 1. Dip. 2. Bite off delicious fish head. 3. Feel face catch on fire. |
And speaking of things not found in the land of plenty, when I was in Thailand some of my Burmese friends got wind of the fact that I am a fan of fermented tea leaf salad. They were mainly just thrilled that I had even heard of it. They invited me to a Festival of Lights celebration at their temple, sat me and my visiting American friend down and served us tea leaf salad...from a pre-made package. It was delicious. Then they sent me home with five more packages of this pre-made, do-it-yourself tea leaf salad. The packages were all in Burmese, but I gathered from the pictures that there were three different flavors. To me they were the pink flavor, the green flavor and the blue flavor.
"You can buy them anywhere in Thailand," my Burmese friend Caroline told me. "Just go to a Burmese market."
Burmese markets, it turns out, exist mainly in Thailand and Burma. If I had know I'd never find these pre-made tea leaf salad packages in New York, I would have gone through them more sparingly.
Fortunately, though not particularly conveniently, it seems that there are some not-quite-underground packaged tea leaf salad suppliers in the Bay Area, of the "go into the jewelry store and walk to the back and ask for Kyin" variety. I may be sleuthing for these things soon.
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