This pandemic is really getting quite tiresome, but I guess we all still need to keep safe. Do take care, John.
I’m hoping the world will be a safer place when most countries achieve herd immunity once they’ve vaccinated most of their populace.
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It’s been a mind-numbing 480 days since Malaysia instituted the Movement Control Order (MCO) to handle the COVID pandemic crisis back on 18th Mar 2020. Since then, we have gone through a cycle of loosening and tightening of the social distancing/mask-wearing/business operating SOPs.
Today’s Day 61 of the current MCO 3.0 Lockdown where, again, all eateries are not allowed dine-in customers, but only do take-outs.
Lunch for me today is a quick, home-made hummus dip, with store-bought pita bread. I love hummus to a fault, and never could have enough when dining in restaurants. But, made at home, I usually end up with more than I can possibly eat.
I’m also pretty lucky that there is an itinerant hawker who sells freshly-steamed chickpeas in my neighborhood, so I don’t have to prepare my own (canned chickpeas can also be used, but the difference in taste can be pretty vast!).
I followed this online recipe, but would recommend halving the fresh lemon juice and the cumin used - a little goes a long way here.
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Day 63 of the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 Lockdown, and 482 days since MCO began on 18 Mar 2020.
Breakfast was home-cooked vegetarian paruppu using veteran Singaporean chef/cookbook writer, Devagi Sanmugam’s recipe, from her “The South Indian Cookbook” (Published 2001). “Paruppu” is Tamil for “dhal/lentil curry”.
For my paruppu, I boiled moong dhal till it’s soft, then added all of it (including the water it’s boiled in) to sauteed minced onions, chilis and ginger, and a mix of eggplant, long beans, carrots & potatoes. I season it with Alagappa’s curry spice mix, turmeric powder and fresh curry leaves, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
I serve it with crisp, pan-fried store-bought paratha:
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Day 64 of the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 Lockdown in Penang, and 483 days since MCO began on 18 Mar 2020.
Lunch was nasi kunyit, literally “turmeric rice”, but in Penang-Nyonya parlance, is actually steamed glutinous rice, tinted yellow using fresh turmeric, scented with whole peppercorns, and flavored with coconut milk & a pinch of salt. We usually serve it with Nyonya chicken-and-potato curry and hard-boiled eggs - match made in heaven.
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Day 68 of the Malaysian MCO 3.0 Lockdown. 487 days since MCO began on 18 Mar 2020.
Breakfast this morning was durian with glutinous rice and sweetened coconut milk, Kelantan-style. Kelantan was part of the Siamese kingdom (modern-day Thailand) until 1909, when King Chulalongkorn relinquished it, together with 3 other Siamese states, to the British in the Anglo-British Treaty.
Subsequently, Kelantan became one of the states in the Federation of Malaysia, when the British granted independence to the disparate collection of colonies and protectorates which used to be part of British Malaya. However, as a consequence of its history, Kelantan has a strong Siamese/Thai cultural presence within its identity to this day.
The Malays and Chinese of Kelantan call this dish “pulut durian”, whereas the Siamese in Kelantan call it “khao niew thoorien” (Thai: ข้าวเหนียวทุเรียน).
Basically, I soaked the uncooked glutinous rice grains overnight. The next morning, the glutinous rice was steamed till it’s half-cooked (around 15 minutes). Then, stir-in coconut milk which has been sweetened with sugar and a bit of salt, and continue steaming for another 15-20 minutes till the glutinous rice is fully-cooked.
One can also add yellow split peas or mung beans (soaked to soften, then pan-fried till crisp) to the dish for added crunch.
The durian I had was a Penang genre called “Lin Feng-jiao”, named after Jackie Chan’s wife. Its custardy flesh has got a bitter-ish flavor - probably how Lin Feng-jiao is feeling right now as Jackie Chan had left two companies owned by her recently. Their relationship had been pretty rocky for years:
“The Chinese media reported on Saturday (June 19) that Chan, 67, has left the supervisory board at the Beijing Zhongtai Longwei Real Estate Consultancy and Yifangzi (Beijing) Cultural Communication. both of which are fully owned by his wife, former actress Lin Feng-chiao, 67.”
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Day 69 of the Malaysian MCO 3.0 Lockdown. 488 days since MCO began on 18 Mar 2020.
Lunch today: home-cooked “kiam hu kut gulai” (Penang-Nyonya salted fish bones curry), using salted “ikan kurau” (English: threadfin, Hokkien: “ngo hu”) fish-bones, with long beans, eggplant, tofu puffs, and shrimps.
I served it with nasi lemak, cooked using brown rice.
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Cooked salted fish-bone curry again today, and paired it with the Nasi Lemak take-out lunch set from Viva Victoria, which delivered it promptly at no extra charge.
The pairing worked beautifully, as the salty tang from the curry complemented the richness of the coconut milk-infused rice perfectly.
Nasi Lemak lunch set from Viva Victoria, with (clockwise from left): “ikan sumbat” (grilled scad, stuffed with chili-spiced onions), grilled slipper lobster topped with “sambal belacan” (chili-fermented shrimp paste), “ayam goreng berempah” (fried, spice-marinated chicken), cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and “sambal udang” (shrimp in spicy chili sauce)
Home-made “Kiam Hu Kut Gulai” (salted fish-bone curry), consisting of salted fish bones, shrimps, eggplant, long beans, cabbage and pineapple in a spicy curry gravy
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If you use banana leaf to wrap hot rice and curry the banana leaf would infuse the rice a really great flavour. Put that rice and prawn curry while they are really hot, and make a parcel, and eat after an hour. That will raise the flavour to a new level. 
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I’m late to respond but among the best breakfasts I’ve had when abroad has got to be sinangag accompanying friend milkfish (bangus) through the Philippines. I’ve tried to replicate sinangag to no avail; your version looks awesome. I won’t even go near bangus because I know it will end in abject failure.
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With sinangag, there is only one rule you must follow: use insanely more chopped/minced garlic than you intended. Works for me every time. 
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Totally agree.
Breakfast today was home-cooked pork curry, which I had with store-bought paratha by 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲. This is the first time I see a familiar brand from Singapore being sold here in Malaysia - I usually could only find local Malaysian ones like Kawan.
I love having roti paratha with pork curry, but we cannot find this commercially outside the home here in Malaysia, as most roti canai places are either Muslim (Malay or Tamil-Muslim/“mamak”) where pork is non-halal, or else Hindu-Indian who also won’t cook pork (generally, in India, except for places like Goa, pork is not regarded as an edible meat).
So, we’re left with no choice but to cook our own pork curries. I cooked my curry Penang-Nyonya-style: we blend Malay cooking techniques - chili paste, minced lemongrass, belacan/fermented shrimp paste, lots of shallots and thick coconut milk, with South Indian curry spices (I used a special spice mix by Alagappa’s, a Penang Indian curry brand which I’d relied on all my life) to obtain a spicy, yet rich-tasting curried pork stew. I used cubed pork loin, together with potatoes and tomatoes.
Singaporean “Popiah King”, 𝗦𝗮𝗺 𝗚𝗼𝗶 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝘂𝗶’s 𝗧𝗲𝗲 𝗬𝗶𝗵 𝗝𝗶𝗮 food manufacturing giant first pioneered the frozen paratha back in 1999.
Since then, their paratha products had joined their global-leading frozen popiah skin in being marketed under the Spring Home brand-name the world over.
They are available in every Chinatown across the globe, from London to New York, and Sydney to Johannesburg.
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Decided to cook Greek moussaka this afternoon:
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Drain, pat dry and fry the sliced eggplants in olive oil.
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Preparing the meat sauce, which is quite similar to bolognaise sauce, but with key differences: the use of bay leaf and cinnamon stick to give the sauce the “typical” Greek moussaka scent and flavor.
The meat sauce included caramelized onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and red wine. The sauce had to be cooked till fairly thickened, so it would not “leak” through the eggplant layer during the baking process.
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The béchamel sauce, made from butter, flour, milk, egg yolks and hard cheese.
It’s cooked to a thick, creamy consistency, so the top layer will be light and custardy at the end of the baking process.
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Layering the dish: first, the eggplants, followed by the meat sauce, another layer of eggplants, and finally topped with the béchamel sauce, followed by a sprinkling of grated cheese.
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Bake for an hour at 180 deg C/350 deg F
Moussaka, ready-to-serve.
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What to do with leftover prayer food offerings for the Hungry Ghosts Month? Last Sunday, 8 Aug, coincided with the 1st Day of the Chinese Seventh Lunar Month, i.e. the Hungry Ghosts Month.
I usually pan-fry the leftover mee koo, ang ku kueh and huat kueh (sometimes dipped into beaten egg).
Mee koo is usually made into French toasts, and eaten with granulated sugar, or else pan-fried till dry and toasty, to be dipped into tau ewe bak (soy-braised pork).
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Day 517 since Malaysia started its Movement Control Order (MCO) back in 18 March 2020, and Day 97 of the current MCO 3.0 which has kept most shops and businesses closed.
Today, I decided to cook one of Singapore’s iconic dishes: Mee Siam, a spicy noodle dish using rice vermicelli, drenched in a spicy gravy.
I used the recipe from Mrs Lee’s Cookbook, written by Mdm Chua Jim Neo, the mother of modern Singapore founder, Lee Kuan Yew.
I’d been using the same recipe since the early 1980s, but have forgotten the last time I cooked this dish.
I started off frying the tofu till they are crisp and golden on the outside:
Blended the “rempah” spice mix (I remembered the first time I cooked this in 1985, I used a granite mortar and pestle to pound the ingredients): dried chilis, dried shrimps, toasted belacan (fermented shrimp paste) and shallots. Then, saute the “rempah” till fragrant.
In a gravy pot, boil coconut milk, “taucheo” (fermented soy bean paste), sliced onion, sugar, and 5 Tablespoons of the sauteed “rempah” mix.
Soak rice vermicelli for 5 minutes till softened.
Add the cooked rice vermicelli to the remaining “rempah” in a saucepan, together with beansprouts and chives. Add as much gravy to the saucepan as required, cooked till rice vermicelli has obtained the right texture.
Garnish with cooked shrimps, hard-boiled eggs, fried tofu and calamansi lime halves. Serve with remaining gravy on the side.
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I’d be more than happy to eat that.
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Hey, John, I’d gladly cook this for you.
When I made this dish for the first time back in the 1980s, I was a student at the University of Western Australia. Although I used the same recipe, the chilis here in Penang were way more explosively hot than I’d expected. Comparatively, the ones in Perth were mild, almost sweet, like Hungarian paprika.
Also, back then, it was difficult for me to find Chinese fermented bean sauce or taucheo, as there were hardly any Asians living in Perth, except for the odd Vietnamese or two. So, I substituted that for Japanese miso which, although is also a fermented soy bean product, is much less salty than taucheo. So, overall, the mee siam I produced in Perth had a much gentler, milder flavour compared to the in-your-face version I made today in Penang.
Whilst I was back in Singapore in the past, I’d intentionally used miso for my mee siam - perhaps the ONLY person in all of Singapore to do so. My attempt today followed the original recipe in the 47-year-old cookbook to the ‘t’. I think my tongue still felt anaesthetized! 
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Are the shops and restaurants still able to hang on?
Some are, but barely. I estimate a 60% attrition in Penang - it may be as high, if not higher in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca.
The Malaysian Prime Minister just resigned yesterday - as the pandemic crisis had exacerbated the political turmoil in the country.
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It’ll be a real shame to lose some of those multigenerational restaurants that have been around for decades.
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