Do you guys remember the first month i was here where i had just enough money to survive? At that time I resorted to fasting, and even going vegetarian for half a month (which was not too bad). However now that i get a full paycheck (minus 119 euros for KWSP an insurance) i can now be more creative in what i cook.
Last month my breakthrough was Original nasi goreng after almost a month of seri aji. Not that seri aji was bad, but even if u eat strawberry ice cream everyday, you will bound to get sick of it. Its a natural human need, the need for variety.
However, with the discovery of the asian market, more possibilities started to come to light. Although it does not have everything, but the essential ingredient's to create a very decent meal was there. Spices like curry powder, ginger, cardamoms and star aniseeds (i think its bunga lawang in malay) are very useful in creating a variety of gravy or "lauk-pauk". The past few weeks saw many successes in reproducing the Mamak stall and Restoran Noor. I have successfully cooked chicken curry, kuah kicap ayam and today, i successfully cooked kuah lemak cili api. Believe it or not i just found the recipe on the internet yesterday and decided to cook it today and i cant believe that it was so easy, i bet anybody can cook it. But it did turn out a bit too spicy since i put about 15 chillies in it. But as my mom would say, "lagi pedas, lagi bagus. baru ada kick!". haha. So the experiment to cook lemak cili api proved successful.
Talking about the asian market. Sometimes the products there quite strange in nature. for example, the star aniseeds (bunga lawang) has a packaging with an Indian woman on it. Thats totally normal since these spices usually come from India. A closer look shows that it is a product of China! It seems that the term "everything is made in China" has some basis. And to top that up, the importer is a British company, TRS Wholesales Co. Ltd. Im not surprised if this company turned out to be a subsidiary of the British East India Trading Company (the multinational company that used to set a regional office in Melaka some hundrad years ago) because most of the spices here are imported by this company. And the prices for these stuff are quite unbelievable. the cardimums costs 2.1euros (about RM10) for 50g wheres in Malaysia it would cost at most RM1 for the same amount. No wonder the europeans killed to get hands on the spice producing nations back in the good old days. Speaking of which, i think i can do business selling spice here. I mean, if it costs RM 10 here and RM1 in Malaysia, I can DHL a whole box here and can still make profit i guess. To save costs, maybe we shouldn't use DHL, maybe just by normal mail, or just "kirim" to anybody who is coming to Germany. Haha. Just a thought.
The past few days has been a bit quiet here in my hostel since most of the dwellers have gone for their summer vacation. That means i have a bigger dominance of the shared kitchen. FYI, I utilize the kitchen the most in my floor. 2nd is the Brazillian girl and her gang. They usually bake cakes and cook some western food.
I kindda like cooking. And being in the situation that i have to cook gives me extra motivation to try out different recipes to keep myself from eating the same thing everyday. I have also gained some unprecedented attention form my floor mates, and they have been somewhat acquainted with Malaysian food. Thats good. But im not implying that im an excellent cook. Let's just say its good enough to eat........twice.
To you guys/girls that claim that they cant cook, please get urself to learn to cook. Believe me its not hard. U just need the will power and some kiasu-ness. If i can do it u can too. Its not like i was born a chef. I started somewhere. Good luck!
Tchuss
Last month my breakthrough was Original nasi goreng after almost a month of seri aji. Not that seri aji was bad, but even if u eat strawberry ice cream everyday, you will bound to get sick of it. Its a natural human need, the need for variety.
However, with the discovery of the asian market, more possibilities started to come to light. Although it does not have everything, but the essential ingredient's to create a very decent meal was there. Spices like curry powder, ginger, cardamoms and star aniseeds (i think its bunga lawang in malay) are very useful in creating a variety of gravy or "lauk-pauk". The past few weeks saw many successes in reproducing the Mamak stall and Restoran Noor. I have successfully cooked chicken curry, kuah kicap ayam and today, i successfully cooked kuah lemak cili api. Believe it or not i just found the recipe on the internet yesterday and decided to cook it today and i cant believe that it was so easy, i bet anybody can cook it. But it did turn out a bit too spicy since i put about 15 chillies in it. But as my mom would say, "lagi pedas, lagi bagus. baru ada kick!". haha. So the experiment to cook lemak cili api proved successful.
Talking about the asian market. Sometimes the products there quite strange in nature. for example, the star aniseeds (bunga lawang) has a packaging with an Indian woman on it. Thats totally normal since these spices usually come from India. A closer look shows that it is a product of China! It seems that the term "everything is made in China" has some basis. And to top that up, the importer is a British company, TRS Wholesales Co. Ltd. Im not surprised if this company turned out to be a subsidiary of the British East India Trading Company (the multinational company that used to set a regional office in Melaka some hundrad years ago) because most of the spices here are imported by this company. And the prices for these stuff are quite unbelievable. the cardimums costs 2.1euros (about RM10) for 50g wheres in Malaysia it would cost at most RM1 for the same amount. No wonder the europeans killed to get hands on the spice producing nations back in the good old days. Speaking of which, i think i can do business selling spice here. I mean, if it costs RM 10 here and RM1 in Malaysia, I can DHL a whole box here and can still make profit i guess. To save costs, maybe we shouldn't use DHL, maybe just by normal mail, or just "kirim" to anybody who is coming to Germany. Haha. Just a thought.
The past few days has been a bit quiet here in my hostel since most of the dwellers have gone for their summer vacation. That means i have a bigger dominance of the shared kitchen. FYI, I utilize the kitchen the most in my floor. 2nd is the Brazillian girl and her gang. They usually bake cakes and cook some western food.
I kindda like cooking. And being in the situation that i have to cook gives me extra motivation to try out different recipes to keep myself from eating the same thing everyday. I have also gained some unprecedented attention form my floor mates, and they have been somewhat acquainted with Malaysian food. Thats good. But im not implying that im an excellent cook. Let's just say its good enough to eat........twice.
To you guys/girls that claim that they cant cook, please get urself to learn to cook. Believe me its not hard. U just need the will power and some kiasu-ness. If i can do it u can too. Its not like i was born a chef. I started somewhere. Good luck!
Tchuss
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