Things you've never dreamed of

This is my last Malaysia post for this year, promise.

I miss banana fritters when I’m Sydney, because we don’t get the right sort of bananas and I can’t be arsed deep frying anything. Thankfully deep frying is a large part of any Malaysian household and is one of the easier things that my mum makes for breakfast. You read that right. DEEP FRIED BANANAS FOR BREAKFAST.

The batter is just plain flour, a bit of rice flour, water and a pinch of salt. Sometimes my mum adds a bit of turmeric for colour.

My mum has mad bling.

They start out healthy and end up DELICIOUS.

The bananas were “kelat” – there’s no exact word for this in English but it means bitter-ish… kind of – so I had it which chilli sauce. Ohhhh yeahhhh

Bonus picture:

Malay kuih made with glutinous rice flour.

My suburb is home to some delicious eats. One Sunday, my friend and I went out in search for things get fat on.

A buzzing food court (more like a food alley). Things start getting busy at around 9 AM.

How the fuck does this picture get blurry? Idgi. Anyway, we had delicious takoyaki…

…prepared with love by this uncle. Dodgy angle because I was trying to get a sneaky photo (too shy to ask). The takoyaki was pretty much perfect, crispy outside and pillowy inside. The tako piece was tiny and a bit chewy, but you can’t have everything – certainly not for the price we paid (cheap as, brah).

We also had chee cheong fun – the rice noodle is made to order! I wish I had a photo of the noodle-making process but the dude looked at me funny when I pulled out the camera. This was good, but the sambal that came with it wasn’t hot and was way too sweet.

I’ll be off for a two-week holiday in Malaysia on Friday. It’ll be the first Aidilfitri celebration I’ve been able to participate in since migrating to Australia 7 years ago and I’m very much looking forward to it.

The last time I was in Malaysia was two years ago – a short trip to Kuala Lumpur and then a longer stay in Kota Kinabalu, my hometown. I pretty much ate my weight in dishes I can’t get out here. Some highlights:

Breakfast with my partner and a friend in Kuala Lumpur – roti canai with curries, dhal and sambal. My friend had this disgusting concoction of tea and coffee with condensed milk (I forget what it’s called).

A must-have for me every time I’m back in KK – chicken soto. I love it with hot chilli sauce and a squeeze of lime. Chicken soto in KK is very different from the sort that you get in West Malaysia. Here, it’s a light, clear broth with vermicelli. In West Malaysia it’s a heavier broth similar to Indonesian style soto served with nasi himpit (“pressed rice”).

Selection of Malay kuih at Bits & Bites, one of my favourite places to get a quick snack. I always get the rightmost kuih on the bottom shelf – glutinous rice flour mochi-like thing stuffed with peanuts and sugar.

Friday lunch at Restoran Seri Malindo. You can get lunch here for about AUD $2, and this place is the more expensive one around.

I had ikan asam pedas (hot and sour fish), stir fried long beans and bamboo shoots in chilli coconut sauce.

Another must have – ngiu chap mee hoon (beef soup with rice vermicelli). It has beef balls, tendon, liver and miscellaneous cow bits. Kind of similar to pho.

Sneaky photo of the ngiu chap mee counter. This is just down the road from my family home.

Durian stall – this is in the same area as the ngiu chap mee place. Fuck I love durians. These are proper ones that actually smell like how durians should smell (I know some of you bastards will say “awful” but I love this stuff OK).

Sunday lunch. Food bought from Restoran Seri Melaka. We’ve been going to this restaurant since I was about 10. Clockwise from top left – deep fried squid, Chinese beef steak, stir fried veggies with black fungus and lemon chicken (no yellow food colouring in this one, bitches!). Not shown: sweet and sour fish.

Beef rojak for breakfast. Yellow noodles, cucumber, beef slices, hardboiled egg and tofu topped with spicy peanut sauce.

Mee bandung at the Marina Resort. Yellow noodles in tomato-based spicy sauce.

Curry laksa at Marina Resort.

I can’t wait to be back!