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Thai Muslim foods versus others

I went to Satun which is in South Thailand twice in a month and notice the uniqueness of Thai Muslim foods compared to the normal Thai foods sold in Hatyai.

thai yellow sticky rice

On this trip, I went to Koh Lipe and explore their local foods instead of the cafe foods or the regular BBQ seafoods. One of the most common Thai Muslim food is the yellow sticky rice, very much like our nasi briyani. The packet of rice is accompanied with one piece of chicken. Taste wise, it has a very mild spicy taste.

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Meanwhile, we tried another unnamed food foreign to us. It is like kerabu with white fungus, chicken feet, green mango, instant noodle, peanuts and other interesting stuffs in it. I was already too tired to bother taking a close up shot of the little bowl of kerabu thingie. But it is really fun eating the crunchy white fungus with chicken feet.

bbq chicken

This couple here speaks Hokkien like Penangites. So I am not sure if they are Muslims. Some of the stalls have a sign that says their foods are Muslim foods but I doubt our more conservative Muslims from Malaysia dare to try them because their ’standard’ of halal is definitely not like our Malaysian ones. They even serve halal and non-halal foods from the same plate and where their chicken comes from is another big question..

But, the BBQ chicken which costs B10 is very nice. It is nothing like our satay, yet rather interesting. The other thing that we ate a lot was the fried chicken with the Thai chillies sauce and skewered of funny looking balls and sausages.

tomyam goong

We are glad that all of us have very ’strong’ stomachs and no one get any tummy aches from eating at those tiny, roadside stalls. There are some decent restaurants and cafes on the Koh Lipe island as well. We had some pretty good meals at the hotel we stayed, Varin Beach Resort. We also tried out an Italian restaurant mentioned in many foreigner blogs.

The above bowl of tomyam goong is smashing good. It is only B300 (abt RM30) and is loaded with very fresh prawns, squids and fishes. It is enough for three of us, eaten with white rice.

pizza

The Italian restaurant (well, it is more an open air cafe) also serves good handmade pizza which costs B300. (non halal)

The beer on Koh Lipe is cheap as well so it was Chang Beer or Fanta for us at every meal.

We love Thailand because their foods are always so unique to us. They have a lot of pancake shops but unfortunately I was either too tired or too rushed to sample it. However, my children did enjoy the various types of pancakes they have which are usually served with lots of condensed milk.

Oh did I mentioned that many of the Thai Muslims on the island and also at Satun speaks Bahasa Melayu? We feel so at home with BM and Hokkien speaking Thais.

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Recipe : Inche Kabin or Enche Kabin Hainanese/nyonya fried chicken

I think my Hainanese ancestors will be utterly proud of me today. While I was having dinner with my family, I boasted about how great Hainanese cooks are.

I made Inche Kabin fried chicken today. My eldest son probably have never heard or eaten this before. I too had not seen this dish around as we don’t often go to Hainanese or Nyonya restaurants. The reason is, why bother when I can cook better tasting dishes?

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(chicken has to be seasoned for long hours or even better, overnight. Keep in the fridge though)

I told my son that Inche Kabin orginated from the colonial times. Our Hainanese ancestors cooked for the British. That’s why the dish use Worcestershire Sauce.

Usually, a plate of Inche Kabin is served with it’s signature dipping sauce and prawn crackers.

RECIPE FOR INCHE KABIN

Dipping sauce :
1 tablespoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon HP sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon hot water
1 lime, extract juice
1 large tablespoon of sugar
A few cili padi or red chillies, slice finely

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Mix all the ingredients, making sure the sugar is dissolved. Taste and adjust flavour.

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The sauce is a delight to accompany other meats or fishes as well. Goes well with white rice. Writing about this makes me salivate again.

RECIPE FOR INCHE KABIN
To be frank, this recipe is not my original idea. Yet, it is not taken blindly from recipe book. It was inspired by a Nyonya cookbook I bought in MPH for RM15. I adjusted the quantity of seasoning as it seems to be overly salty.

Chicken – 3 thighs cut into 3 pieces each (about 1 kg)
Oil for deep frying
Hup Loong (or cornflour) flour to dust on chicken pieces just before frying

Seasoning
1 tablespoon ginger juice (pound ginger for the juice)
1 tablespoon Allagapa meat curry powder (add 2 tbsp if you prefer spicier chicken)
1 tablespoon Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1 piece red fermented beancurd (ang tau joo)

The recipe calls for thick coconut milk. However, I used only evaporated milk (the can milk with no sugar?) I use enough to moist the chicken (like 3-4 tablespoons)

Method

Season the chicken pieces in the fridge as the milk will cause the chicken to turn bad easily. Usually, Inche Kabin is very flavourful as the chicken is marinated for long hours.

Heat oil in wok. Just before frying, pour away the liquid from the chicken. Add some flour to coat the chicken.

Deep fry for about 20 to 30 minutes.

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I found many restaurants over cooked their chicken, making Inche Kabin a nightmare dish with tough chicken and almost no flavour. However, my homecooked version is delicious (I steal a bite to know how it tastes like. Am on vegetarian still).

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The portion of chicken costs me about RM7. I get a huge plate of chicken, freshly fried. Too bad I do not have those Made In China prawn crackers or the dish will be almost perfect.

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Do try the seasonings and adjust accordingly. I didn’t guarantee this Inche Kabin tastes like original Hainanese prepared for their British ship captains. (I remember the kabin comes from ship cabin) But still, it is an interesting dish, made really tasty by the dipping sauce.

If you have an original recipe from your grandma or something and wish to share, please do! I have looked at the internet and it seems that some of those recipe sites are just con jobs. It is a disgrace that some do not even put the right recipe and didn’t use Worcestershire sauce. My poor Hainanese ancestors will be scolding phulangkang from their graves. :)

Langkawi Kilim Geoforest park – Hole in the wall Malay seafoods

The other day when I was in Langkawi, we decided to charter a boat to take my whole family for a 3 hours ride. I think it is RM300 for the ride. They took us to several places like eagles feeding, bat caves, fish farm and etc. One of the attraction is the Hole in the Wall Malay seafoods restaurant.

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It is a floating seafood restaurant. The food is just so-so only but the fun of taking a boat to the restaurant makes it worthwhile. If you are not taking the mangrove tour, you can phone the restaurant and meet at the Sungai Kilim pier. They will send a boat to fetch you to their restaurant free of charge. (search for the phone number yourself hehehe)

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When we start our mangrove tour, the boat man took us to the restaurant first. He asked us to pre-order our foods so that when we return 3 hours later, the meals are ready. There are lots of tourists so it is a wise thing to do.

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My two city boys had such thrills catching a fresh fish from the waters for our lunch. The fish is about one kilogram and costs RM65.

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Poor fish ended up on the lunch table, steamed.

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The kerabu mangga is also so-so.

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The crabs are solid though. It was cooked sweet and sour style. No such thing as baked crabs or steamed crabs.

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We asked for ayam goreng and this is the ayam goreng kunyit that they served. *roll eyes*

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There are other exotic seafoods like lobsters, slipper lobsters and etc. The above is the horseshoe crab. However, we didn’t order anything fancy as the prices are not that cheap either.

Still, it is quite a fun to take the mangrove tour as we had such lovely time floating down the river. The sky and clouds were so beautiful that morning.

Next time, if you have ran out of things to do in Langkawi, book one of those mangrove tour and enjoy nature.

Thailand’s foods are always so colourful

Chinese New Year is almost over. And this food blog didn’t feature a single Chinese New Year dish! How horrific!

Yet this CNY is one of the busiest for me. There was this one day where I have a few hours notice to cook lunch for 30 pax. And that falls on the same day when I was planning to cook dinner for another 30 pax.

All that cooking, rushing and stuffs eventually wore me out. I fell sick since last Sunday until now. So, that’s why I didn’t update a single post during this festive season.

night warong at satun, thailand

We went to Langkawi for a short holiday and decided to be adventurous and drove up to Satun in Thailand. Satun is the getaway to some really beautiful islands but unfortunately, the websites ‘ignore to mention’ that one needs a three hours boat ride to these islands.

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Anyway, now we know where to drive to if we want a nice island gateway. We no longer need to drive to Terengganu for Redang. We can go to Satun and head to Koh Pileh.

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Satun is a majority Muslim Thais so their foods are halal, mostly. But the weirdest thing is, even at Tesco Lotus (a huge modern hypermart), they have non-halal stalls side by side with the Muslim stalls. They serve from the same plates and cutleries too!

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We had two meals at the foodcourt in Satun Tesco Lotus because the stalls by the roadside were rather dirty.

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As I am on vegetarian fasting (with an occasion bites of fishes), my choice of foods were pretty boring.

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So, I could only droll when my sons tucked into some delicious Thai fried chicken while I ate somtam or green papaya salad.

I will post about the Hole in the Wall restaurant in Langkawi next.

Recipes for Chinese New Year cookies

My son came into my room, asking me if I have any good recipes for cookies. Well, I told him, go Google it. Your ma’s recipes are all online. Just google malaysiabest cookies recipes and you will find them.

So, here are some of the recipes which I have tried and tested.

Melting moments – This is a very crispy and buttery cookies. However, piping the dough is quite a chore because your hands get all oily and handling the thing is rather messy.

The compulsory Chinese New Year peanut cookies. Nowadays, I prefer the green peas or almond cookies rather than the peanut ones.

Recipe for green pea cookies.

Almond cookies

And another recipe that I like is the sugee or suji cookies.

All the above are guaranteed to work. Try it!