LAISI: Food Of kelantan

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Food Of kelantan - Part 2

aMiR who is a Malaysian In Riyadh made this comment on my blog Food of Kelantan Part 1.

The followings are what he wrote:

Zawi

I love to play these riddles involving Kelantan Food with our daughter:
Papa: Tahi apa yang sangat sedap dimakan? (Name the faece that is good to eat?)

Ainaa: Mana ada (No such thing).

Papa: Kuih apa yang lagi kedut lagi best? (Name the food that the more wrinkled up it is the better it will be?)

Ainaa: Semua kuih kedut tak best, tapi siku papa lagi kedut lagi best kena squeeze. (All wrinkled food are not the best but if papa's elbow is wrinkled up, it is best (for us) to squeeze)

aMiR

For that I am going to dedicate this post to aMiR of A Malaysian In Riyadh, this second part about Kelantan food.

For most people even Kelantanese themselves will answer 'tahi itek' literally translated as duck's faeces. That is the correct answer that aMiR was expecting from Ainaa.

This is how the delicious tahi itek look:

They are made of egg white plus some other ingredient and made into balls the size of a small baby's fist. It is so named maybe due to its colour which resembles that of the real thing.

Those who had lived through the period when coconut oil was the only oil available for cooking or for those whose mother still makes their cooking oil from coconut will be able to give an additional answer in the form of 'tahi minyak' meaning oil faece or sludge will be more like it. I asked my son in law Lokman if he knew of 'tahi minyak' and got the surprise answer of 'yes'! It seems his mother still make them. So I got his mother to make some for me to photograph.

The one on the left is coconut oil. When I was small such oil was used to oil our hair. The excess oil come in handy to make tracing paper by rubbing a piece of a white paper against the hair make it translucent. Traditional masseurs still uses coconut oil as lubricant.

Tahi minyak can be eaten with a Kelantanese kuih called K'oleh as seen in the photograph below.

The 'k'oleh' in the 'boko'

As to the second question, the answer is ofcourse 'akok'. Only egg white is used to make akok and the best eggs are ducks egg which is said to produce the best wrinkle.

If only the egg white is used to make akok what happens to the egg yolk which is egg yellow? It is used to make jala mas or buah tanjong that is why such kuihs are golden yellow in color. No coloring is necessary for jala mas or bunga tanjong.

Jala mas

Buah tanjong

So what other food that I havent shown you since part 1?

To begin with me asking you what kuih is named after a big animal? The answer is badak which look like a dough nut but instead of flour, beras pulut (gluttinous rice) is used instead.

Another badak is made from pulut hitam so it is called badak pulut hitam.

Badak pulut hitam

Buah peria of course look like a small peria (bitter gourd). They are made into many colours now to make it attractive to a child. Inside it contains inti kacang (green peas cooked with coconut sugar). The skin is again made of gluttinous rice and made to look like the real fruit with straits and all.

Dodol comes in different flavours and colours too depending on the ingredients used. Dodol manisan is brownish and sweetened with coconut sugar while dodol pandan is greenish and sweetened with cane sugar.

If you have read Awang Goneng's Growing Up In Trengganu, you must have heard of buah gomok which is callad buah beluru in Kelantan. Buah gomok in Kelantan is made of shredded coconut flesh cooked in coconut sugar and made into a ball and rolled in finely grounded white rice powder.

Awang Goneng also mentioned beluda in GUIT. Red coloured beluda are common. Watch out for the colouring used, if it looks opaque as in this picture, dont buy it as it tasted funny. Maybe the colouring used to make it red is not the permissible kind.

Couldnt find the nekbat which looks something like baulu soaked in thick sugar syrup. This was mentioned in GUIT too. Its too sweet for me and I guess for you too.

Cendol is available everywhere in Malaysia, except that cendol can be white too. Like it or not they will put in some of the white ones for you unless you tell them not to. Red coloured sagu balls are sometimes mixed to add some colours and flavours.

Butir nangka is a kuih in Kelantan. I have reduced the gravy to make it visible.

The chicken feet is delicious if made into kerabu kaki ayam. To me the hotter the better (makin pedas makin sedap).

How on earth did they come up with such a name as lompat tikam? The white sauce is santan and the red sauce is gula melaka syrup. The red one is pulut.

Boiled corn or jagung rebus is usually on the cob. Here the corn seeds are seperated from the cob and boiled till soft and taken with shredded coconut flesh with salt and if you like some sugar added.

This year the Chinese New Year is celebrated with lots of merriment. Kuih bakul is a standard fare. I bought a piece from a stall in Pasar Siti Khadijah from one of the stalls there. I took the one wrapped in banana leaves because thats the original way its made and not in plasctic film. Cost me RM2.00 a piece.

The chinese new year coincided with the months of asyura. This is how a bubur asyura look like when cooled down. Of course it is sweet in Kelantan with ample sugar and gula melaka added beside other ingredients such as beef or chicken.

Today 15th February 2008 I saw a chinese family is cooking bubur asyuria in their home with assistance from the Malays in the neighbourhood. How much more muhibbah could that be? I guess that should give me an idea when doing Fauziah Ismail's muhibbah tag which I havent been able to do till now.

Kelantan's laksa differs from laksa Penang and laksa Johor. All are delicious and taste differently. Why not give it a try when you are in Kelantan.

Laksam uses the same gravy and ulam as in laksa Kelantan. aMiR of A Malaysian In Riyadh loves to cut his own laksam when he was a kid. A scissor is best used to cut it as it is safer.

Kerp (ph.d) asked me to mention something about etok. I can mention it in passing since I will be doing a blog on etok which I would like to dedicate to kerpie. Would you believe that etok is almost extinct in the Kelantan River? If so where does the etok comes from now? Read about it when I blog about etok. Meantime enjoy the sight of delicious etok salai below.

Ubi gadong is rarely found in Kelantan nowadays. Many of the younger generation havent tasted gadong in their life. Ubi gadong must be treated after slicing them into this pieces by soaking in water for many days to remove the hallucinic agent inside it that can cause dizziness when taken. It can be taken by steaming it with gula melaka and gluttinous rice. I bet Elviza of Write Away or Akmal of Wiseup has never tasted ubi gadong in their life.

Slices of uncooked ubi gadong.

Kelantan food will never be complete without the mention of nasi kerabu, nasi dagang and nasi berlauk. This stall in Pasar Siti Khadijah sells nasi kerabu hitam and nasi dagang. There are several varieties of nasi kerabu. Nasi kerabu putih uses white rice, nasi kerabu kuning uses yellow coloured rice, nasi kerabu tumis will have tumis made of santan with shallots and grounded dried chillies.

The nasi dagang of Kelantan uses a different kind gluttinous rice compared to the white glutinous rice in nasi dagang Terengganu.

Indulge yourself in sumptious large prawns in the food section f Pasar Siti Khadijah. A large prawn can cost upward of RM15.00. Ask for the price first before ordering.

The sight of a crowd indicate the place is popular. That means the food is good. Just follow the crowd, you can never go wrong.

Whenever we travel overseas where halal food are difficult to get, we never fail to bring serunding along as many things beside rice can go with it. My wife's favourite is sambal (serunding) daging as the Kelantanese call it, while sambal ikan is mine.

Sambal daging

Sambal ayam

Sambal ikan.

The most often photographed section of Pasar Siti khadijah Kota Bharu (below).

Mat Salo of Borneo blues requested me to put some pictures of beautiful people from Kelantan. Not wanting to disappoint him, here are some of them which has been beautiful to me and never failed to let me buy anything from them.