Familiar Food in a Foreign Land

The others roped me in to cook for them :S

Tried out Mum's daun kaduk fried rice! Think Singapore doesn't have daun kaduk? Think again! They grow at the most unlikely of places, by the pavement outside my hotel, outside SE's place like a whole swamp!

Funny story is when we were trying to collect these leaves. We were walking past a walkway on the pavement when SE commented that she's seen those plants and asked us if those are daun kaduk. They sure looked like them, and I plucked one out, smells like one! 

So in order to pluck a whole bunch out without getting caught, three of us, MCC, SE and I pretended to stroll outside the hotel and later acted like we'd seen something interesting in the bushes. Then we started plucking whole bunches of the leaves. I think it would be downright ignorant of the passer-bys to not have noticed us as we were making quite a ruckus, giggling and all hahahah. There was this one apek who kept looking over at us and walking back and forth. Damn kepo ish.

We told Mum about our little act of thievery and she sent us an email, asking us to really make sure they are daun kaduk and edible if not we'll lose our voices lol.

Slaving in the kitchen one and a half hours later,

Ta-da!

MCC's herbal soup on the left, then clockwise my yummy stir fried pork slices with taters, daun kaduk fried rice, cashew nuts garnishings and stir fried sawi :D

Everyone said the fried rice was yummy! Though there were a few ingredients from Mum's recipe I left out because I couldn't get them, it was still very fragrant and best suited for the Penang Nonya tastebuds.

This shall be the bane on those hungry nights! Potatoes practically melt in your mouth, the onions so sweet...bliss!

One and a half hour of preparation and cooking. Less than half hour to wipe all clean :S But home -cooked food is worth it!

Second round:

Steamed fish Thai style. Couldn't get bunga kantan though, so the fish lacks the oomph, but nonetheless, all gone....

Jiu hu char that Sien Ee cooked and left frozen. Wrapped in lettuce with spicy sambal belacan (superb and authentic, from a jar, if you can believe it!), steamed egg and pork meat.

Survival skills 101: Must know how to cook! Or else you'd die from cravings and lack of appetite. :D