Soy Sauce Seared Pork 【酱油煎肉】

Long/summer holidays were mostly spent playing with cousins at grandpa and grandma's house when I was young. Having meals with my beloved cousins was one of the fondest memories I have.

This Seared sliced pork is one of our favourite dishes made by grandma, I could eat so much rice with it, it has been years, so I am making it for lunch today!

小时候的长假基本是和表妹们在外婆家过的，外婆家在马来西亚南部的一个华人新村里，小小的村落有我们满满的记忆。

和弟弟妹妹们一起热热闹闹地吃饭是儿时一个很温馨的记忆。外婆经常做这道酱油煎肉，是一道很下饭好吃的快手菜。小朋友们有了这道菜，都能吃好些米饭呢！

Seafood Tomyum （Tomyum Thale）ต้มยำทะเล 【海鲜东炎汤】

I planted lemongrass and kaffir lime tree this year and have been waiting for it to be ready for a good pot of homemade tom yum soup. Thanks to a good amount of rain and sunshine lately, my kaffir lime tree is thriving well.

I woke up to pouring rain today and immediately decided it's time for a good hot bowl of tom yum soup, I ran to my garden, cut two stalks of lemongrass in the rain and quickly snipped a few Kaffir lime leaves. 

Off  I go to work on my seafood tom yum soup !

我一直很想做一次传统的东炎汤(冬荫汤)。今年种了香茅，还从朋友处得了一棵疯柑树，终于等到两棵植物都可以收成了，买齐了材料。

今天一早起来就是阴阴沉沉的雨天。冒着雨出去割下两根香茅，剪下几片疯柑叶。

回家做一碗香辣清爽的海鲜东炎汤，喝下去暖暖的，很舒服喔！

Bak Tong Gou (Steamed Sweet Rice Cake) 白糖糕

One of my mom's childhood friend sells Kuih/cakes at the morning market. Her White Sugar Sponge Cake is exceptional, very crunchy, sweet with a touch of sourness.

I have to thank my sweet friend Bobo selflessly shared her recipe with me, this Bak Tong Gou (白糖糕）turned out exactly like I remembered.

Note: The original recipe was written in February 2011, updated with new photographs.

我妈有个朋友是在早市卖糕点的，她做的白糖糕特别好吃，口感爽脆，甜味合适，加上白糖糕特有的微酸，常常让人欲罢不能。

昨天跟好友Bobo聊到了白糖糕的做法，她无私的跟我分享了她的食谱，我马上就动手了。今天早饭吃的就是这个。一入口，就感动得想哭。就是这个味道和口感。。。。真的很谢谢Bobo呢！！

注：原食谱写于2011年2月10日.

Kuih Lapis (Malaysian Steamed Layer Cake) 【三色九层糕】

Kuih lapis means layer cake in Malay. It is a common steamed cake sold at the roadside stalls in Malaysia. I was not crazy about this cake before I left Malaysia, but for some reason, I can't stop thinking about it lately.

Since I have a gathering over the weekend, I decided to make this beautiful cake to share with my friends.

My version of kuih lapis is made from scratch using rice (instead of rice flour) and natural coloring (Ang Chow and Pandan Leave). It tasted real good and it is all natural.

九层糕是小时候街边卖糕点的摊子上一定有的糕点，小时候随处可得的东西总是不太懂得珍惜，出国后一直想做一次九层糕尝尝。终于等到一个朋友要带糕点去聚餐，让我一起做点什么，就想起了这个九层糕。

我这次用米磨浆，然后用红糟和班兰叶汁染色，出来的效果还是很不错的，天然又好吃哦！

Nyonya Dumplings 【娘惹粽】

According to Wikipedia:

Peranakan Chinese or Straits-born Chinese are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to the Malay archipelago including British Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, where they are also referred to as Baba-Nyonya) and Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia; where they're also referred as Kiau-Seng)[4] between the 15th and 17th centuries.[5] Members of this community in Malaysia address themselves as "Baba Nyonya". 

Nyonya is the term for the women and Baba for the men. It applies especially to the Han populations of the British Straits Settlements of Malaya and the Dutch-controlled island of Java and other locations, who have adopted Nusantara customs — partially or in full — to be somewhat assimilated into the local communities. Many were the elites of Singapore, more loyal to the British than to China. Most have lived for generations along the straits of Malacca. They were usually traders, the middleman of the British and the Chinese, or the Chinese and Malays, or vice versa because they were mostly English educated. Because of this, they almost always had the ability to speak two or more languages.

Sweet Potato donut （balls）【番薯蛋】

This sweet potato donut is a very common snack in Malaysia, it is mostly available in pasar malam （night markets）and food stalls, a good snack over afternoon.

I bought very good sweet potatoes few days back and made these balls for teatime. I sent a plateful over to my neighbour, her son had a bite and said “This is Malaysian donut, nice!".

番薯蛋是家乡一个很普遍的零食，是每次去Pasar Malam或者斋戒月的开斋摊子一定要买的一个甜食。 今天做好了给隔壁阿姨送了一盘过去，她的儿子拿起来吃了一口就说。。。“这是马来西亚甜甜球哦！好吃！"

我觉得它比donut要好吃啦！

Mushrooms egg Stir fry 【三菇炒鸡蛋】

My diet normally consist more of vegetables and less meat. Thus mushroom became a very common and versatile cooking ingredients at home.

This is a recipe I came up with the two of my favourite ingredients: Egg and mushroom, it's easy, quick, and goes well with rice and porridge.

我很喜欢吃菌类，所以经常买新鲜的菇类做菜。这道菜用了泡发的干香菇，香菇炒起来比较香，让这道菜的口感和味道都更加丰富，配饭下粥都很香喔！

注：也可以用任何新鲜的菇类做，一样好吃。

Palak Paneer (Spinach with Cottage Cheese) # 2 【菠菜奶豆腐 # 2】

My family in Malaysia loved North Indian Cuisine, there is a very nice Indian restaurant that sells naan and Tandoori chicken name "Pak Putra" in Melaka. It is a roadside hawker style restaurant, they have all the chairs and tables lined up at the roadside in front of the shop every evening.  

We made special trips there when N and I visiting Malaysia, he is always delighted to go there for his Indian food fixed. 

Pak Putra made very good spinach curry without paneer, I find it very funny at first, they called it "Palak", without the word paneer. I guess it is because fresh Indian Cottage cheese is hard to find in Melaka.

So my family in Malaysia are so used to the palak gravy that they thought it is how it should be eaten. They have no idea about the famous Northern Indian dish called Palak paneer, until mom and brother visited US and I made it one day and they were like :" Oh this is the real thing?". 

They liked it very much though mom couldn't really get along with the idea of eating "tofu" with spinach. She has learned it somewhere on the internet that calcium in tofu will react to oxalate in the spinach and promotes the formation of kidney stones or some sort of rumor like that.

So, even though I have repeatedly told her that it is just a myth and paneer isn't really tofu, she still eats only the spinach gravy but not the paneer. I guess old habits die hard then.

我的家乡马六甲有一间北印餐厅叫做 "Pak Putra" ， 是一家把餐桌和椅子摆在路边的路边摊式餐厅。他们家的印度馕和各式咖喱都很不错，烤鸡更是远近驰名。不少到马六甲玩的外国游客都闻名去尝鲜呢！

我和N回国探亲的时候大多时候都会去那里吃几次饭。他家有一款我家人非常喜欢的咖喱叫做“Palak”，第一次去吃的时候我就有点奇怪了，因为这不是印度那里的吃法，后来我想大概是因为马六甲买不到新鲜的奶豆腐所以把驰名的菠菜奶豆腐做成只有菠菜的咖喱了吧！

后来我有一天做了这个菠菜奶豆腐，我妈一吃，说：”唉呀！这就是Pak Putra的菠菜咖喱嘛！“。看来我的猜测不错哦！