Monday, December 04, 2006

My top ten Malaysian's foods

This morning, woke up a bit late, and naturally was late for office. Habitually, it doen't really matter what time I reached office. The first place of visit during weekday is to go to the coffee shop to have my breakfast. Breakfast for today ? Funny, my favorite fried koayteow ( fried rice noodle) is not available today, and I can't decide what to take for breakfast today. Probably a bit bored with all those other usual hawker foods around the vicinity of my office. Maybe I will change my venue for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe I will have Dimsum for a change tomorrow. Maybe I will shift my office to somewhere where there are more varieties of foods . Why not ?
Talking about foods, what are my top ten favorite foods ? Here goes my choices :

1) Charsiew & Siewyoke (Barbecue Pork & roasted Pork). Halal or non halal, who cares ? I am not a Muslim. Barbecue Pork & roasted pork are my favorite and most popular in Malaysia, Go to any coffee shop in Malaysia, there will be at least one hawker stall selling Charsiew and Siewyoke Fun (rice). There are easily thousands of hawker stalls in Malaysia specializing in this gastronomic fares.

2) Instant Noodles would probably rated number Two in my Malaysians' top ten foods. Go to any Malaysian's home, you will probably find packets of instant noodles of various flavours in the Kitchen. I grow up in a generation where I am constantly being bombarded with TV advertisement by Maggie Mee's "cepat di mask, sedap di maken" or "fast to cook, nice to eat". Believe me, in another twenty years time. Instant Noodle will become part of our culture and the national diets.

3) Bak Kut Teh. Stewed pork in black herbal soup. This has been my favorite Sunday breakfast for the past "many" years. Friends and family members has warned me that this soup is extremely high in cholesterol, and at my age, I should reduce consumption of this sinfully delicious foods. But who cares ? There are many type of foods out there that are much more dangerous than my pot of harmless looking bak kut teh.

4) Poh Piah. Mixed vegetables stuffed in thin bread spread or commonly known as Spring Roll. When I was broke and living from hand to mouth in Penang. I befriended a hawker selling spring rolls. The daily unsold Spring roll was my daily diet for many months. The humble spring roll nurtured my characters ! However, my opinion is, the best Spring rolls are from Ipoh and Taiping.

5) Sweet potatoes porridge. This is one of my favorite weekday lunch. You usually eat the porridge with side dishes such as fried eggs with salted white carrot, stewed pork, deep fried pork intestines, etc. Sadly, there are not many restaurant serving this type of porridge anymore. But I recently found one new restaurant in Shah Alam serving sweet potatoes porridge, and it has been one of my regular lunch venue.

6) Chap Fun aka Economic Rice, Mixed rice, etc. One of Malaysians' favorite DIY lunch and dinner usually served in Coffee shops. I acquired the taste for Chap Fun when I first started working in Penang. Nowadays, I eat chap fun for lunch when I am indecisive of what to eat. Chap Fun gave you the freedom to mixed whatever dishes you fancy at less than RM 5.

7) Toasted Breads with Black Coffee. How simple can life be ? Occasionally I love to start my day by tempting my senses with the smell of freshly toasted breads spreads with margarine and the aroma of hot black coffee.

8) Roti Canai with Curry gravy. Indian pancake made of wheat flour, best taken when hot. This is one of my favorite breakfast. Watching the dramatic and acrobatic preparation of roti canai is an experience by itself.

9) Nasi Lemak. Coconut milk rice served with spicy side dishes and Sambal belachan. The Malaysian Indians made the best nasi Lemak.

10) Curry Fish head. The Malaysians of Indian origin served the best curry fish heads. This is one of my favorite dinner time dishes. Many verbal wars has been conducted with my wife over my urge for curry fish head. I am a negotiable and amiable person, but when I have the urge to eat curry fish head, I shall have my way, no further discussion is needed, and definitely no compromise. Either I have my curry fish head or no dinner for everybody !

It is very sad that my religious obligations forbid me to eat beef. But who cares ? Occasionally I do take beef, not as an act of religious defiance, but out of convenient. I seriously doubt God is going to punish me for eating beef. Food is food. I think my God understand. Do you, Mr God ?

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