Some Like it Hot

By: Eamonn Sadler

One day, in the middle of the summer of 1976, my step father decided we were going to have a dinner party. He fancied himself as something of a gourmet cook and he decided that he was going to impress everyone with his worldliness and his international culinary expertise by cooking a Nasi Goreng. I had no idea at the time what this exotic sounding dish was or where it came from, but I knew from previous experience that he was bound to screw it up in spectacular fashion so I watched intently as he lined up his ingredients in the kitchen and started to cook. He pranced around from pot to work surface to chopping board and after about two hours ended up with a huge frying pan full of rice and lamb and vegetables. It looked nothing like the Nasi Goreng I know now, but it looked good. I must admit I was very disappointed that nothing had exploded in his face and nothing extremely hot had contacted him in the groin area. In fact nothing at all of any note had seemed to go wrong at all. But there was still time.

Recipe: Sambal Tumbuk with Salted Fish

By: Erna Dyanty

When I wrote my first food article for Latitudes, on masak lemak recipe, I had already planned to write a complimentary side dish as my second article. The best condiment to pair up with masak lemak has got to be the one and only sambal tumbuk.

Sambal is a chilli based sauce, which is made by either sautéing blended chilli or just consumed fresh by pounding it to a paste in a mortar. It is a local condiment that is usually an appetiser which is native to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and even Sri Lanka. In each country the sambal is never a like. Tumbuk means to pound.

Here in Malaysia the most common sambal tumbuk you can find will be sambal belacan, which is fresh chillis pounded into paste with fermented dried shrimp powder. The paste is usually a mix of red chilli, small green chilli, dried shrimp powder and sometimes the use of fresh lime juice or tomatoes. For that salty and rounded flavour in the sambal, it is common to add dried shrimp powder or freshly grounded, into the paste.