Jemput-jemput Pisang

My parents never came to visit me whilst I was studying in Perth. When mom and grandma finally did come over, it was during convocation week. I guess all the times my mates family came over and spent time with them, I was a tad envious and wished my family was there too.

Anyways when mom and grandma came, they started cooking on the get go. I was a senior resident advisor in Trinity a residential college in Perth, I had the choice of spacious rooms, but I chose to remain to my good old Hull Wing where a beautiful old oven and stoves resided. I had two rooms, a tiny room and another room filled with all sorts of spices and herbs and belacan which i used as a lounge.

Mom and grandma cooked up a storm that week in Perth. Cooking Asian home style favorites like Assam Pedas Ikan, Singgang Serani, Sambal Tumis, Fried Vermicelli and the most memorable of all the jemput-jemput udang(prawn fritters), that week my mates were always in my lounge room eating. We’d all pile up on the mattresses on the floor and watch bollywood movies on my Compaq Laptop. Memorable times! Home cooked food in a long while soothes homesickness. One of my kids Raj, still can’t forget mom’s jemput-jemput udang and when he finally came down to Singapore, he was hugging and gushing to my mom how he missed those jemput-jemput.

Mom made jemput-jemput pisang (banana fritters) today, and it made me remember all these memories and how much I missed my friends.

Kerupuk Kulit And Satay Padang

Crispy cubes of deep fried cow/ox skin and sticks of beef and beef tongue skewered on a stick, that’s what the title of the blog is talking about today. Kerupuk kulit is like the epitome of my childhood, I think that’s probably one of the few snacks that I actually enjoyed as a kid whilst back in my grandma’s village in Sipirok, Sumatra. Apparently all I wanted to eat was french fries and not brown rice. But kerupuk kulit, gosh I could just munch on those and be happy. Mom adds these crispy fried squares into her fermented black bean beef stew, or taucheo daging. And those crispy cubes become gelatinous chewy awesomeness. Uugh I want some now.

Another delicious dish from my childhood is Satay Padang, whenever we would drive up from Jakarta to Bandung or vice versa we would stop along the way and have this delicious skewered meat that has a thick spicy yellow meaty sauce. The ones that I find in Singapore is just made from slices of beef. I miss the ones from Kuala Lumpur near Kampong Bahru that has cubes of beef and beef tongue. And the sauce was just perfect, the meat tender and simply delicious. I wish I was back in KL!

Brekky should be available all hours of the day

I can wax lyrical about the most important meal of the day, breakfast. Places like Swensens & The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf serve all day breakfasts. Swensen’s breakfast set is huge, you can choose eggs however you want it, choice of herbed or cheese sausages, apple or orange juice, coffee or tea,thickly sliced toast and hash browns. I love to pour syrup on all the savoury bits, yum. I especially love to order this for dinner.The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf serve a wide array of breakfast munchies all day, my favourites have got to be their salmon scramble, club sandwich & eggs benedict. I <3 hollandaise sauce! The best place to find these brekky munchies would be at Terminal 2 as they'll be open 24/7. Best place to have a quiet leisurely brekky on a Saturday morning, would be Vivocity's Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Another brekky favourite is KFC's American twister. It's sort of like a breakfast burrito, with scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese & hashbrown rolled into a soft warm tortilla. Breakfast menu is offered till 11am only.

My last trip to KL my friend Chris took me to The Loaf, where we had the freshest baked breads and the yummiest pineapple lavender jam. At about 2am in the morning, my friend Sharan's cousins took us out for Nasi Lemak bungkus which I've never tried before. A typical Malay rice dish usually eaten in the mornings or at all times of the day as and when you like it. It's just coconut milk infused rice that's been steamed with pandanus leaves and served with a sweet sambal tumis & half a hard boiled egg wrapped in banana leaf. That was the best nasi lemak ever!

Irregardless what time of the day it is, brekky would always be perfect to be enjoyed. Eat what you love, when you like it. Don't be confined to eating brekky in the mornings, it's perfect all day.