Okra with Spicy Caramelized Onions - Beans # 1

First and foremost, okra is not a bean.  Botanically it's a fruit, being in the same family as Hibiscus.
But generally, here, culinary wise,  it's called a bean due to it's longish shape. Just like pine nuts are not real nuts, but are called nuts. Same goes to macadamia which is a kernel and not a real nut. If you watched Masterchef Australia 2 you would've remembered the day Marion, Jonathan and Aaron were tested their 'nut' knowledge.

A dish that I made up out of nowhere since many years ago.

Cinnamon Fried Plantain @ Horn Banana - Local Fruits # 3

Have you ever tasted a Ham Chin Peng (咸煎饼Chinese fried “bun”) flavoured fried banana? Haha, this is one.

When I saw a bunch of plantains at a Malay stall, I immediately wanted to buy one. Just this one cost me RM3. It seemed pretty expensive for just 1 banana right? But when I asked Mike’s worker, who owns a banana plantation herself about the plantain I just bought, she said, it’s usually sold at RM5/kg. So, the one I got was worth the price. But she also commented my banana was not mature when picked. She said, the rear end of the fruit should be more enclosed.

Old Fashioned Jackfruit Popsicles - Local Fruits # 2

When I was a kid, there were some homemakers trying to make an extra buck by selling popsicles.

We will either call from the door or the window in Cantonese, “ Aunty, Ngo Ngoi Mai Suit Tiu” ( Aunty, I want to buy popsicle, 阿姨，我要买雪条)

Then someone will answer us, maybe not the Aunty, maybe their kid or any other person in the house. “Ngoi mat yeh mei?” (What flavour do you want? 要什么味?)

Then we will ask back, “ Kam Yat Yau Mat Yeh Mei” (What flavour do you have today? 今天有什么味?)

They might answer us , “Sarsi, Oleng, Laici, Mei Look, Kopi” (Sarsaparilla, Orange, Lychee, Milo and Coffee), with only one place that might say “MangKat!!!” (Jackfruit)

And this place that has “MangKat” flavoured popsicle is at Golden Dragon Garden’s flats, one of the ground floor units.
The Aunty or whosoever will then hand us our popsicles, with the top cut, and we will pay them either 10 sen or 20 sen, depending on flavour and the place you bought it. It was far far cheaper than buying ice cream at grocery stores.

Stir Fried Fish with Wax Apple Slices 水蓊炒鱼片 - Local Fruits #1

Currently I’m living in a town where the food sucks. Sucks BIG TIME!! Wedding dinners here are either avoided by the younger generation or are forced by parents to be held at community halls, which is a far cry from prettily decorated dining halls in cities. Usually KK folks travel to Sungai Siput for restaurant cooked meals and they taste a lot lot better and are a lot cheaper than in KK.

This dish that I’m sharing today is a very weird dish that I once ate at a restaurant in Sungai Siput's Tai Chong. I was surrpised at the ingredient, wax apple. And to my surprise the taste and texture complemented well with the fish. With lovely wax apples bought from Jusco, I tried to recreate this dish, and I’m glad I did quite a good job on it.

Char Kway Teow @ Hum Darn Fun with Video 炒粿条@蛤蛋粉

Char Kway Teow (Fried Flat Rice Noodles) is how the world knows it.
Hum Darn Fun (Cockle Egg Rice Noodles) is how we Kamparians call it. FYI, Kampar is a small Chinese majority town in the state of Perak.

I grew up not knowing what is Kway Teow. More so know I didn't know its Cantonese translation as Guai Diu
I grew up eating Hor Fun or some call it Sar Hor Fun, that's how the Cantonese call those flat rice noodles.
I can recall how I laughed while holding my belly when my KLite Uni room mate called those noodles Guai Diu (like how you would pronounce 贵鸟in Cantonese）. She was just plain unlucky to have 2 Perakians as room mates and both of us were rolling on our beds laughing. We found the Cantonese translation of the Hokkien name for this noodle to sound vulgar (Ghost F***).