Malaysian & south Southeast Asian food

[shireen]

I was born and raised in Malaysia. It's a multicultural country, which means the food is utterly beyond incredible -- Malay, Chinese, Indian cuisine. But I'm a lousy cook, so for a long time, I went without. But recently, some pretty good food kits are becoming available at some online stores, mostly for Malay food. So if you like curry and spicy, you're in for a treat.

One good site is http://www.mytasteofasia.com/
I've ordered from them several times, and the customer service is great.
A few quick guides to get you started:

Baba's Curry Powder -- very good stuff! Very popular, super-easy to use. Just saute some shallots, add a bit of garlic, add in some curry powder to the pan and fry it it a little to bring out the flavor. Add chicken or beef, even lamb or mutton, some water, and some canned coconut milk. Let it simmer till the meat is cooked. At the end, add salt to taste. It's very good with Jasmine rice and sauteed veges.

There are also some curry kits .. I not tried most of it yet but it looks good. I'm cooking the "Claypot Beef Rendang" using a mix (it's a traditional Malay curry), and it's very good, I'd definitely recommend it!

Lots of instant noodles to try; the ones I've tried are much better than the usual ramen from the supermarket. You can get it as a soup or "fried" noodle. The IndoMie brand is terrific! My favorite cookies are the KLT Egg Rolls/Pandan flavor. Pandan is a fragrant leaf used in a lot of Malaysian and Indonesian desserts. There's also a pandan-flavored Chiffon cake -- just bought a package to try, can't wait! If you like curried soups, try the curry laksa kits (haven't tried it yet, but the brand Delimas has been pretty good so far).


Another online store, which has more Indonesian cuisine products is http://store.asianmerchant.com/
The customer service is also good, but I've not bought as much from this store. Fun to browse!


For Thai food, this is an excellent website: http://www.importfood.com/
Their customer service is outstanding. Not only do they sell a lot of good authetic Thai food ingredients, they also provide recipes and tips. A very user-friendly site. They have canned mangosteens. I've never eaten them canned, but eaten fresh ... wow! It is my favorite fruit! Too bad the fruit cannot be imported to mainland US. My next favorite fruit is the Rambutan (rambut = hair in Malay, so this is literarily translated as hairy fruit. :P) The canned fruit is fine, but if you can get hold of some good fresh rambutans (deep red when ripe), oh, it's heaven! They have canned longans with is a bit like lychee except it has a mellower flavor. There's a lot of fun stuff to try, like Pad Thai, etc... Don't forget to get some glutinous rice to make mango with sticky rice, one of my fav. desserts (btw. I've not been happy with mangoes from Brazil, anyone else had bad luck with 'em?)


Well, if you're looking for something completely different, check out these sites. I'm working my way thru 'em. (I'm not affiliated with them, just wanted to share ....)

[Warpy]

1. Nothing beats my favorite local restaurant

which is a combination Vietnamese Restaurant and Car Inspection Station.

I patronize both sides of the business.

The food is simply out of this world. The car inspection is polite and efficient.

[twenty4blackbirds]

2. IndoMie instant noodles has msg...

Hi shireen, Thanks for the informative post. I have been regretfully abstaining from delicious IndoMie because of the msg content. I wish they could come up with another recipe.

[shireen]

3. sorry, didn't realize that! Damn!

I love that stuff. Guess I'll have to give it up too. And take a closer look at those labels. :(

Thanks for the warning, twenty4blackbirds.

[Paladin]

4. Great Links, Thanks! Let Me Try To Return The Favor

My daughters gave me an outstanding cookbook for Christmas: "Best-Ever Curry Cookbook," by Mridula Baljekar (Hermes House, 2007). There are recipes from both India and South-East Asia (Malaysia included); I've made a half-dozen or so dishes so far (curries mostly; the book has a substantial number of non-curry recipes, as well)and they've all been fantastic.

The neat thing about this cookbook---as opposed to most other cookbooks I've tried---is that there has been no need to fine-tune or adjust the recipes to fit my taste; if you follow the recipes exactly as written, the dishes come out wonderfully. Lots of tips on spices, differences in regional cooking styles, a can't-miss way of cooking rice, etc. Highly recommended......

[shireen]

5. are there any vege recipes?

you could give me an e-slap for this, just like the V-8 commercials, but i hate veges. I think it's partly because I'm allergic to several types of raw veges. But hey ... i'm trying to love them, really! So far, I've found Indian vegetarian cooking to be most appealing, like spinach cooked with Indian cheese.

I have Yamuna Devi's Indian Vegetarian cooking. The book is amazing, a really beautiful volume of wonderful recipes. But they seem to require a lot of prep time. Ditto for Madhur Jaffrey's books. I live alone, so the ideal situation is to grab a portion of frozen veges from the freezer, defrost, and quick stir-fry or steam. Or do-ahead vege dishes that can be frozen in portions. Any suggestions?

[Paladin]

7. Lots Of Vegetarian Recipes

There's a stir-fried Indian cheese with mushrooms and peas dish that might interest you. And there's a curried kidney beans recipe that I'm dying to try. Lots of non-curry things, lots of vegetarian things, and the vast majority of the recipes are easy and quick---I think you'd like this cookbook.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Some of the more enjoyable meals I ever had were in Singapore

A wonderful culinary blend of Mandarin, Malay, Indian, and European. Two people in our party were natives and were most helpful and proud of their cuisine. Being in the food biz, we're all curious and ready to try anything.