I love the CNY season because we can get all the vegetables like arrowhead and lotus roots and the different types of dried mushrooms.The best part is the lokam.We have bought our third box of lokams now.
During the Hari Raya season, I often see all Malaysians, regardless of whether they fast or not in the month of Ramadhan, rushing to grab offers in the hypermarket. Similarly during the CNY festive period, everybody will be flooding the hypermarket aisles as if there is no tomorrow.The other day, I smiled to myself when I saw a Malay family of 4 trying CNY clothes for each of them. Well, they must be getting ready to join their Chinese friends during the CNY open house. Likewise, during Hari Raya shopping, I often see Chinese ladies trying on the Malay baju kurung or baju kebaya.
This year we have not had a single invitation to toss yee sang yet. Maybe because times are bad.
If you ask me which do I prefer, Chinese or Indian food? I would say, Chinese if it is halal. I remember during my visit to Los Angeles way back in 1999 with my husband, we were treated to a vegetarian dinner at a restaurant owned by a family of Chinese Muslims (from China).In Malaysia up until now, I have never set foot in a vegetarian Chinese restaurant.Vegetarian Indian yes, but not Chinese. The vegetarian meal I had in LA is still the best among the meals I had tasted. The other best meal is at the sushi bar also in LA. The latter was a small bar operated by a Japanese man. I do not know what made me eat the raw sushi and oysters.The wasabi went up to my ears.Somehow the Japanese fare in LA is not the same as the ones back home. Maybe the fish is different. It is not the normal salmon that we have here. And the fact that everything was prepared as we went along, unlike here,which is mostly pre-prepared.
The current trend nowadays is for Malays to open a Chinese restaurant and employ cooks trained by Chinese Muslim chefs. The popular Malaysian singer, Amy, of the rock group, Search, has opened one in Wangsa Link, a new neighbourhood in Wangsa Maju, KL. A friend of mine also opened a Chinese restaurant in Taman Melati Utama, not far from my house. I have yet to pay either restaurants a visit.
The Chinese fried rice is a favorite in Chinese dinners. Often it is served as the last course after a series of courses, when one is already too full to enjoy it.
During the last Hari Raya, I prepared Chinese fried rice for breakfast when a group of relatives visited us.
The recipe I used was as follows:
( You can use 1/3 of the ingredients if cooking for a smaller group)
Ingredients:
9 bowls of precooked rice from the night before.
600g prawns, shelled and deveined
500g diced chicken meat
300g mixed vegetables
6 eggs fried as omelette
4 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp garlic chopped and crushed
1 tbsp black pepper powder
10 tbsp cooking oil
100g butter for flavour
Mix A:
3 tsp Knorr chicken powder, (I use Knorr powder that does not have MSG)
2 tsp cornflour
Mix B:
3 tsp Knorr powder
1 tbsp black soya sauce
1 tbsp cooking oil
C: Garnish:
the omellette,cut into thin strips
some diced spring onions
some sliced red and green fresh chillies
some fried shallots
Method:
Marinate the prawns and chicken meat with A for 20 minutes.
Heat up the oil and butter in a wok and stir in garlic and cook till fragrant.Add marinated chicken and stir till cooked.Add mixed vegetables and fry for 2 minutes before adding the cooked rice and mixture B and black pepper powder.Fold in the beaten egg and mix well. Fry till the rice is dry. Taste. Add more seasoning if necessary.
Dish into serving dish, sprinkle C on top to garnish.
The rice is best eaten hot.
Tips:
- Avoid putting in too much pepper powder as too much will not make the rice tasty. You can also use white pepper if you like.
- Use less garlic if you don't like the garlic taste.
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