Indeed. Itโs especially bad in Kuala Lumpur, where many, many old names are disappearing every other week.
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Day 519 since Malaysia started its Movement Control Order (MCO) back in 18 March 2020, and Day 99 of the current MCO 3.0 which has kept most shops and businesses closed.
Lunch today is homecooked ๐ฅ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐๐, a Mumbai street food which owed its existence to the American Civil War.
I was just reading about the history of the ๐ฅ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐๐ the other day in an article entitled โWhat Mumbaikars owe to the American Civil War: Pav Bhajiโ in a Delhi-based Indian e-paper, Mint.
It talked about Gujarati cotton traders in Mumbai back in the mid-19th-century, and how they stepped into a supply vacuum when the Union naval blockade of the Confederate ports disrupted trade with the Manchester cotton mills.
Mumbaiโs cotton industry upped its game to fulfill Manchesterโs needs, and its textile workers, working long into the nights, required sustenance. That was when the street stalls in that district invented the ๐ฅ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐๐, a spicy mรฉlange of mashed potatoes, beans and vegetables in a tomato-inflected curry gravy, served alongside soft buttered buns (an adaptation of the Portuguese Jesuit missionariesโ Pรฃo de Deus).
The soft buns are slit in half and pan-fried in butter.
One can find ๐ฅ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐๐ practically everywhere in India these days. Although the north-west Indian metropolis, Mumbai, supposedly has the best ones, my first encounter with pav bhaji was in Bangalore back in 2004. Never looked back since.
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I love pav bhaji. Our favourite Indian restaurant serves mainly Mumbai street food. I had no idea of its history and, in particular, how it touched our city. The effect of the war on our cotton mills is, of course, well recorded. It devastated the industry but the blockade was generally supported by both workers and mill owners. We have always been a politically left leaning city with many of the middles classes coming from a Methodist religious tradition that found slavery abhorrent.
The growth of textile production in India eventually caused the demise of it here but, again, I had no knowledge that the War was at the root of it.
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So, itโs come full circle - the street food invented to feed Indian workers in 19th-century Mumbai servicing Manchesterโs cotton industry back then, is now available in Indian restaurants in Manchester!
Neither did I, till I was reading up on the origins of the pav bhaji and came across this article:
Itโs an interesting read, Peter. I love to learn about the history of food in a culture.
The mention of the Irani cafes was also interesting. The chap who owns the restaurant I mentioned has a business partner who is from Iran (she came to the UK to study opera). Once a year, they set aside a week to offer as โspecialsโ dishes from the Mumbai community originally from Persia. Unfortunately, weโve been away both times theyโve run it and, of course, itโs not run for the last couple of years.
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Like their Parsi cousins, the Iranis are Zoroastrians - they had to flee Persia to escape persecution by their Muslim conquerors. The Parsis had been around in India longer, since the 14th-century. Trekking across deserts, over mountains and traversed rivers whilst carrying with them their sacred eternal flames, which they had to keep burning since their first temples were built. They finally settled in Northwest India - the flames that they eventually placed in the Parsisโ newly-built โfire templesโ (or agiaries) in Mumbai had been burning for over 1,500 years.
The Iranis came to India later - in the 19th-century. The Parsis and Iranis are very closely-knit as Zoroastrians are not allowed to marry outside their religion, so thereโre quite a bit of inter-marriages between the two communities in India, and anywhere else in the world where they both are.
Iโd have loved to try Irani dishes anywhere theyโre offered - because they are so very rare! I think there are only up to 200,000 Zoroastrians worldwide, and Britain has probably the 5th or 6th largest community (about 50,000).
We have a tiny Parsi community in Singapore (around 500), but I donโt know about the Iranis. I have a book on the Singaporean Parsis that I referred to when I was once commissioned to write an article about Singaporeโs different communities and religions:
They are a very sociable and fun-loving group of people, and extremely charitable as thatโs one of the foundations of Zoroastrianism.
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Next time youโre in London, you might want to check out Cafe Spice Namaste which is owned by a Parsee. I had a lamb dhansaak which was wonderful. The chefโs wife, who runs front of house, had described it to me as the Parsee equivalent to a British sunday roast. They are currently closed and between premises so they have nothing of interest on their website for me to link to just now. But they are doing meal boxes to finish at home inlcuding a Parsee one - https://www.mrtodiwalas.com/collections/mr-todiwala-at-home/products/the-parsee-box
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Oh yes, Iโve heard so much about Cafe Spice Namaste and must go there on my next trip to London. Iโd been wanting to go there for years, but always ended up distracted by other Indian spots: Moti Mahal, Benares, Gymkhana, Tamarind, Trishna, Quilon, Veeraswamy, Amaya, Zaika, Indian Zing, etc.
Chutney Mary was another Indian spot Iโd always wanted to visit, but never did.
My first time having that dish was at a Chowdown organised by ex-CH, Howler, at the Bombay Brasserie back in 2012. Heโd even managed to persuade Bombay Brasserieโs executive chef to procure goat-meat for the dhansaak dish!
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Iโve wanted to go to Veeraswamy since I was in my early teens in the 1960s and still havenโt made it. My late cousin, much older than me, used to visit London for business reasons from time to time and would always have a meal there. His stories made it sound so exotic - food that hadnt yet reached northwest England and wouldnt do for at least another decade. And the sheer style of the place, right down to the turbanned doorman. I think it may have been listening to David that fired my interest in food, although that didnt really surface until a goodly number of years passed.
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Iโd not been back to Veeraswamy for ages - the last time I was there was way back in Nov 2008, but it was a disappointment. I was giving a newly-wed London-based cousin and her Scottish husband a dinner treat one evening.
Iโd carefully selected 4 types of curries which I was sure would have distinctively different flavours: a paneer one, a red meat (I think it was lamb), a chicken and a mixed vegetable one. But we ended up with 4 identical-looking and uniform-tasting curries on our table! I didnโt have a very good photo here:
Iโm pretty sure Veeraswamyโs food would have improved drastically by now, since itโs still around and competing with the likes of excellent newbies like Gunpowder:
Day 531 since Malaysia started its Movement Control Order (MCO) back in 18 March 2020.
My stay-home Sunday lunch is crisp-fried Indonesian tempe (fermented soybean cakes) with fried rice.
Tempe is one of my favourite food items in the world. It was first introduced to me by Indonesian classmates in university back in 1983. That year, I made soybean and its products my first-year environmental science project.
I like my tempe deep-fried till golden-crisp on the outside, but still moist inside.
Drain the crisp tempe batons on absorbent paper.
One can find tempe all over Indonesia today, but the best Iโd ever tasted is from Malang, an East Javanese city 95 km from Surabaya.
Serve with fried rice/nasi goreng. I also liked to have tempe with a โkicap manisโ (sweet soybean sauce) dip on the side.
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Day 533 since Malaysia started its Movement Control Order (MCO) back in 18 March 2020.
Itโs the Malaysian independence day today, but I decided to stay in and cook one of my favorite childhood dishes: Tauhu Titek, a savory soup which consisted of shrimp-pork meatballs and tofu, in a salted fish-shrimp broth flavored with โrempah titekโ spice blend.
All the ingredients needed to cook tauhu titek:
-
De-shell the shrimps. Do not discard the shells and shrimp-heads - boil them to obtain the shrimp stock for the broth.
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Mince the shrimp-meat with pork. Form into small balls
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For the soup base, one needs to prepare the โrempah titekโ spice blend - pound candlenuts (buah keras), toasted belachan, chilis and purple onions.
Sautรฉ (โtumisโ) the โrempahโ in oil till fragrant.
Strain the shrimp stock and add to the pot. Bring to boil.
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Add the shrimp-pork meatballs, salted fish and tofu. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add Chinese parsley and scallions, and cook for a couple of minutes more.
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Serve โtauhu titekโ hot, with steamed white rice.
My go-to Nyonya cookbook is by Mrs Lee Chin Koon, the mother of Singaporeโs late Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew. First published in 1974, I first used her โtauhu titekโ recipe to cook this dish back in 1983, when I was still a student in Australia. Her cookbook was my life-saver back then.
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Day 534 since Malaysia started its Movement Control Order (MCO) back in 18 March 2020.
Since a disconcerting number of people (Singaporean Peranakans, i.e. people from my own community, no less) mistook my ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ ๐ง๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ธ dish yesterday for ๐ฃ๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ต๐, I decided to cook the latter today, just to illustrate the differences. 
Some basic differences:
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๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ ๐ง๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ธโs broth has a โrempahโ spice mix, called โrempah titekโ which consisted of chilis, candlenuts, shallots & belachan (fermented shrimp paste), plus salted fish. ๐ฃ๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ต๐โs broth, on the other hand, has โtaucheoโ (fermented soybean paste) & bamboo shoots. Very different taste profiles for the two broths.
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๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ ๐ง๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ธโs meatballs consisted of minced pork & shrimps, whereas ๐ฃ๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ต๐โs meatballs has minced pork, shrimps, crisp-fried garlic, minced โtau-kwaโ (hard tofu) & egg, and are hence also lighter in texture, and larger in size.
Ingredients for cooking pong tauhu: shrimps, minced pork, tau-kwa (hard tofu), bamboo shoots, golden-fried garlic and egg.
To make the minced pork and shrimp meatballs, one also needed to add crisp-fried garlic, egg, minced tau-kwa (hard tofu, minced and liquid squeezed out) & chopped spring onions.
Prepare the broth from simmering pork-bones or chicken pieces. Add โtaucheoโ (fermented bean paste), julienned bamboo shoots and bring to a boil. Add meatballs and cook for about 5 minutes - meatballs will float to the surface once they are cooked.
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surf nโ turf, gotta try that soon! 
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Lunch today was a childhood favourite:
๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด, steamed crabmeat-minced pork-shrimp meatballs, in a bamboo shoots-fermented beanpaste soup.
My recipe:
๐ฆ๐ข๐จ๐ฃ ๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐๐
1 chicken
1.5 litres water
๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ช๐ญ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต 1.2 ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฆ๐ต ๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ.
๐ ๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐ฆ
2 Tbspns cooking oil
5-6 pips garlic, minced
150g minced pork (make sure about 30% fat)
150g minced shrimp-meat
300g crabmeat
1 egg
2 tspns white pepper
2 Tbpsns light soy sauce
(The recipe also calls for 1 Tbspn fish-paste/scraped fish-meat, but I omitted that - it has very little effect on the texture or overall flavor).
๐๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด - ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ญ๐บ-๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฑ-๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด. ๐๐ช๐น ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ-๐ด๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด. ๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ค๐ณ๐ข๐ฃ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ง๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ณ๐ข๐ฃ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ด.
๐ ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด, ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ.
To prepare the overall dish:
2 Tbspns cooking oil
4-5 pips garlic, minced
1 tspn taucheo, mashed
1 pack bamboo shoots, cut into strips
Coriander leaves
๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ต. ๐๐ต๐ช๐ณ-๐ง๐ณ๐บ ๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ต. ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ช๐ญ.
๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด & ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ๐ด. ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ด๐ข๐ญ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฐ๐บ ๐ด๐ข๐ถ๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต.
Our meal also included take-out lunch-sets from Hainan Town restaurant at its new Jalan Kajang location.
๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐ป, ๐น๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ธ & ๐ท๐ถ๐ ๐ต๐ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐น๐๐ป๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐ฒ๐
๐ก๐ฎ๐๐ถ ๐น๐ฒ๐บ๐ฎ๐ธ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ณ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ด & ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐บ ๐ณ๐ถ๐๐ต
๐ก๐ฎ๐๐ถ ๐๐น๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐บ ๐ณ๐ถ๐๐ต
Dessert was an excellent:
๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด๐ผ ๐๐๐น๐ฎ ๐ ๐ฒ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฎ
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Home-cooked pork curry for lunch today.
Madam Yew is an energetic 86-year-old patisserie chef extraordinaire, famous in Penang for her Indonesian layer cakes (also known as spekkoek or lapis legit), and a variety of butter cakes and fruit cakes. Besides her cakes, Madam Yew also prepares a selection of her own curry spice blends.
A KL friend whoโs a serious gourmet once visited Madam Yewโs home-cum-workplace 2.5 years ago, and came away with an armful of her products. He gave me a packet of her special blend of curry powder, as a thank-you gesture for having recommended Madam Yew to him.
I forgot all about that packet of curry powder - until this morning, when I was plumbing the Stygian depths of my overstocked larder in search of an elusive pack of black pepper which a Bornean friend had sent to me last year. I couldnโt locate the black pepper, but decided to use the newly re-discovered Madam Yewโs curry powder to make a pork-and-potato curry for lunch.
Madam Yewโs curry spice mix has a licorice-like Hainanese curry flavor.
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I love that flavor profile.
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