Soul Food

I can't help you if you won't help yourself - Amy Winehouse

No matter where I go, no matter where I stay, I always miss my home town food. Actually there’s nothing to be brag about this ‘home town food’.

What is 'home town food' anyway, well i was born in Jakarta but both of my parents and my elder brother born in Borneo, Pontianak a.k.a Kuntein to be precisely and yes we are all Teo Chew in dialect (I am so proud of it) 

So basically I grew up with Teo Chew food that has been modified in Pontianak..hmmm sounds interesting (nodding). I will briefly explain of why its such a interesting combination.Teo Chew Cuisine is a well known type of Cuisine for being healthy because it use of flavouring is much less heavy-handed than most other Chinese cuisines and it's depends much on the freshness and quality of the ingredients for taste and flavour. The terms of being modified in Pontianak that have such a rich ethnic diversity make this an exquixite exotic mixture. Herbs, spices and sauce blend together with so called a healthy simple plain Teo Chew dishes. Could'nt been better...nyummm

My mom is not a great cook, but she always tried her best to cook us what called home food dinner. She can be amazingly quick in preparing it and she surely talented in multi-tasking (she can cook, do cleaning and nag us in the same time ) Tsk tsk tsk heheheheh

She normally cooked our dinner like fried hekeng which is made from minced shrimp and lard rolled with soya been sheets or semur; dark black soup cooked with potato, chicken, star anise, shallots and cinnamon or another dish that as simple as fried ku-chai egg.. love this alot

When i was in my younger age, my dad would never missed a day to asked me to had supper (look how ‘prosperity’ i become now) we often to explore the Kuntein food hawker market that is only open during evening time, how cruel they are. 

One of my favourite dish is Pork Satay top with sprinkle fried onion and crispy chips (cracker) made from dried Melinjo, i still can remember the smell of it's peanut sauce, so thick and when after I squeeze the fresh lime juice all around the sauce, the food become more irresistible. The smells of it can literally give me an aromatherapy treatment. I think i can eat 15 sticks.sshhhhh

Well I can tell you tons of our preferably food, but I only highlights what I like (grin)

• Fried flat rice noodles with beef a.k.a Stir-Fried Beef Kway Tiaw, one of my routine activities whenever I visit Jakarta. There’s nothing special about this dish, it’s just a normal stir fried noodle with slice beef, but the way of they cook this dish, with the right heat temperature, the right wok, the right method of swinging the wok, to create the magic in this kway tiaw dish, its fried together with garlic, bean sprout and smooth tender beef slices. It’s remarkable of how this dish can be transformed to. 
• Siomai a.k.a Siobi the mixture of dried shrimps, minced pork and they will shape it like an oval covered with tofu skin, method of cooking: steam, the sauce is the mixture of black soy sauce, mustard and chilli, quite interesting concoction isn't it?! Once I deep it I will never stop. ( that’s why I would prefer to do take away for this to avoid further self embarassement hehehe)
• Chicken Rice a.k,a Koi Peng not any Koi peng that I can found in Singapore, this traditional Koi peng I only can found it in a small alley of one of the crowd-est, not so hygienic place in Jakarta, but yet this dish never ever let me down. I go there religiously whenever i return back to Jakarta. Surprisingly yes! This koi peng consists of Roast Pork, Char Siew, Roast Chinese Sausage, Roast Chicken, and a hard boiled chicken egg cooked in soy sauce broth, with a salted veggies, cucumber on the side and cover with white thick sauce and the last one but not the least, my favourite chillies made from super green chillies. I can’t really describe of how comfort the taste is, as every time I had that dish, it took me 10 minutes to finish it and I don’t think I am starving cause I believe that my parents have a mission every time i go back is to feed me with most wonderful local delicacies and my mom always use the same tactic which is she going to whisper to my ear, “eat now and diet start on Monday”, sigh and believe me she never failed, i  caught in her trap again and again in a good way though, I knew that I'll be back to the cruel earth, feel regret and dreadful afterwards especially when I am face to face with mirror in the gym trying to have a solid run on treadmill hehehehe

Home town food is like a comfort food to me, it’s not a fancy dish that have different stages of cutleries on the dining table or need to be pairing with a wine vintage. Only my tummy, brain and tongue understand the craving for the above foods hehehehe. Where ever i am, it will always be miss. (right hand side is the picture of Koi Peng, sorry half eaten, i cant resists)