I have two blogger-friends from the Philippines – bluedreamer and Ishmael Ahab…and I’ve found that we have some similarities in our languages. After all, aren’t we all under the same sun?
Correct me if I’m wrong but we call a chicken “manok” in local Sarawak Malay and also in the ethnic languages and so do they…and our bean sprouts or taugeh, they call “to-ge” while our”siew mai” is “shoh mai” to them…and male is “lalaki” in Tagalog, almost the same as our “lelaki” in Malay….and I just learnt the other day that jackfruit is “nangka” in both our languages. Amazing…but true eh?
Well, I was watching Tablescapes – the Filipino food, cooking and travel show and I saw an old lady cooking balao-balao fried rice. Wait a minute! Balao-balao is in fact, fermented shrimps or what we call cincaluk…and we do have that here as well. It had been quite a while since I last cooked my cincaluk fried rice, so I decided to have that to go together with my baked pandan fish that I had featured in yesterday’s post.
These were the ingredients that I used…
– sliced onions and finely-chopped garlic, thinly-sliced chillies, prawns and two stalks of serai (lemon grass)…and of course, some cincaluk or balao-balao.
I fried the onions and garlic in oil till brown, added the chillies, serai and prawns and stirred till the prawns were cooked and then I added two tablespoons of cincaluk…plus half a tablespoon of sugar to counter the saltiness of the cincaluk. Next, I added the rice and mixed it thoroughly with all the ingredients. Finally, I broke two eggs into the wok and blended that into the rice and added half a teaspoon of msg.
After giving it all a really good frying in the wok, the cincaluk fried rice was soon ready to be served – with a sprinkling of chopped spring onions on top…
Looks good, doesn’t it? Tasted good too… LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
π¦ I want the lesung tumbuk. π¦ Lost mine in the house fire last year. π¦
Hehehehehe!!! Dream on. We got that in the late 80s when we moved into our present house. Took a while to “season” it, pounding used grated coconut. My mother has a bigger one and one that’s smaller and as she doesn’t cook anymore (being bedridden), she asked me to take home the big one…but I said no need. I think what we have is good enough for me.
π¦ Yeah, can dream on. My mum got one pair or the lesung and the mangkuk extra and home. But beg and whine as I might, She refused to hand it to me. *SIGH* Stingy!Ish.. told me to buy one myself…she must be nuts! Those old lesung are way better than newly bought. Smooth smooth batu…. tumbuk that time more flavour. Argh… so frust!
Smooth only after you’ve seasoned it by pounding used grated coconut. Have to do that to remove the “sand” from the stone…and keep pounding to get it smooth. It gets better and better over the years, of course… Doesn’t mean that if it’s new, it’s nice.
Cleff…wait la…i go pasar malam and find one for u.
Or better still…we book air asia and fly to see STP. Ask STP to feed us π
Can ah? STP
Yes, yes…get online, quick and make your bookings. I am waiting…. π
Oh my !! This is to die for !!! I mean it ! Hahah, cincaluk’s one of my favorite poisons! Yum yum
LOL!!! poor girl! You can’t resist dropping by, eh? But I think they do have cincaluk there – at the Asian shops. Those bottled ones – Tan Guan Hock’s perhaps – not as nice as our fresh local made ones here…but beggars can’t be choosers. π
Cikgu you’re very jahat. Kesian her la… drooling over there…*evil grin* Esok make sambal belacan or sth… let her drool more. LOL…
Hahahaha!!! Now, look who’s jahat!!! Ya, it’s part of growing up…and leaving home, especially if going overseas. Have to go without a lot of things and make do with what one can find. Sometimes, can cook up really nice stuff too! π
Ohhh… I don’t know Bluedreamer is a Filipino, no wonder he looks so handsome!kiahahaha!
Btw, your fried rice really nice! Gao wok hei (sufficient wok breath):)
Yup…he’s a Pinoy! Handsome eh? I told him that but he shy-shy said not really, the little brother’s cuter. LOL!!! π I find that if you keep frying a bit longer, it will become like that – the grains of rice would stand out individually….
*paying attention* “…the little brotherβs cuter…”
Chup! Chup!!! Notty! Notty! That one only he knows…and for you to find out! LOL!!! π
*stare* Sounded so wrong! LOLOLOL~
Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Don’t you come and stoke the fire… Hahahahahaha!!!! π
U really ‘rajin’ ha,using the ‘chengkui’ to pound! Mine is gathering moss. :)! ‘Moulinex’ is my buddy! Another great recipe to ‘simpan’! Now have to go for my fitness class, how to exercise now ‘paktor yaw’ looking at the fried rice! :(!
Not nice lah – use blender! Old lady uses blender all the time, so halus – where got the same? Certain things – just have to pound and pound baru syiok!!!! Hahahahaha!!! π
I agree with you.. blender makes everything easier but sometimes the traditional way is still better… Somehow the taste/smell of the food is different if we pound it instead..
The texture also. If it is too fine, it is not nice… Like sambal hay bee – the blended one nowhere as nice as the pounded one!
Not a fan of cincalok eaten just like that with sengkit, but cincalok fried rice looks yummy! Now I’m craving for your udang galah with cincalok & tempoyak. Hehe
LOL!!! With tempoyak only lah. I cooked that the other day with some not-so-big prawns I found in the fridge. Nice!!! Yum! Yum! Cincalok…I used to steam pork with ginger (and can add red wine – quite a Foochow dish, this one)…
OMG!!! Looks so enticing! *drool drool* Come to think of it, it has been a long time since I last fried rice or had cincaluk. BTW, my dad liked the cincaluk fried rice at Cafe Cafe when we went there a few years ago. I did try a mouthful or two but I kinda forgot what or how it tasted like already. Never mind, I already drafted my to-eat list and Cafe Cafe is on the list π
Yes, I remember that post of yours. I’ve tried theirs…but I think it is just fried rice…and then they give you cincalok by the side together with the rice. Quite nice…but the rice by itself is nothing special. So when are we going to Cafecafe?
Sunday or Monday lunch? When is their off day hor…
Mondays closed for lunch, 6.00 pm. to 11.30 p.m. only. You can check their profile on Facebook. π
I am sure they tasted good.. all my favorite ingredients are there .. lemon grass, i love the smell and the aroma… my girl loves fried rice with ikan bilis or tom yam paste.. maybe i buy a bottle of cincaluk and try it out one day. .
Yahor! Tom yam paste! I still have that in the fridge! Will try… Yesterday, I fried leftover rice…using belacan and ikan bilis instead of cincaluk – also very nice! Not going to post on that – otherwise, people will complain – fried rice, fried rice…all the time! LOL!!!
If fried with tom yam paste, throw in some bunga kantan. Harum! π
Aiyayai..gonna rummage d fridge n see if still got d cencaluk hidden somewhere…
Get from the market…but don’t think it’s the season right now.
ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT!!! And yeahhh, i watched the show last time, and heard about balao balao, which to me looked like cincaluk. And the guy made a pasta dish with it =/ wonder how it tastes like
You saw it on AFC too? Why don’t you give it a try? LOL!!! Hey! You’re part-Filipino too, aren’t you? Oops… π
Cincaluk…hmmm..i don’t like.
But your fried rice look good, don’t know how it taste. hahhaa
Hah!!! Typical Foochow…you don’t like belacan too, right? Nor tempoyak? My father would not touch these things with a 10-foot pole! The rice tasted nice – very light, not much cincaluk taste as I only added two spoons – maybe next time should add more… I like! LOL!!!
look good – can omit the serai?
AGREED with you its better to pound the ingredients it taste better..usually I blend first then pound a bit – old already – arthritis problem.
Can. Didn’t get much taste of serai… Aiyor…if I were to use the blender, I would not bother to pound anymore – have two things to wash in the end. Arthritis – try using these bands that you can buy from pharmacies like Guardian – U-Bene or something like that. I use for my ankles – now no more pain. Different for different parts of the body e.g. elbows, wrists, knees…
hahahaha. i’m err 1/8 filipino! pinoy power!! =P
Hah!!! Mabuhay!!! But looks like you’re more Chinese than me – I’m 1/4 Melanau. LOL!!! π
cincaluk fried rice? aiyo.. so dun like u ler! i like cincaluk and i love fried rice. u go combine them both for wat?? aiyo.. salivating!
Like I said in my previous post, it only takes a little imagination and creativity to cook great dishes… I have been cooking cincaluk fried rice or even bubuk (the dried version) fried rice for a long time now…even before my blogging days. For cincaluk lovers, I would suggest adding more…to make the taste stronger…and make it pedas-pedas, baru ada kick!!! π
I am sure it tasted good. π
If you like cincaluk… I love it! π
yeah looks good but next time get bigger prawns?!! hehe
Hah!!! I’m dependent on what I can dig out from the freezer. My missus does the marketing… π
u can become a chef dy, hope can c u in AFC soon! hahahaha!!
LOL!!! Then everybody will have to buy widescreen tv, otherwise can only see my tummy! Hahahahaha!!!!
The similarities in language are amazing. I think that the Filipino language is in the same language as your language there.
I know that Balao-Balao. ^_^ It is really good. Too bad I hadn’t seen that episode you are talking about. Thanks for the mention.
Ah, Ishmael!!! I’ve been waiting for you to drop by. I wonder where bluedreamer is…no sign of him at all. Ya…we are the same in many ways, aren’t we? Hah…you like balao-balao, eh? Then you will love my cincaluk fried rice! π
Aha…I just read some error in my comment.
What I am saying is that the Filipino language is in the same langauge family as your language.
Oh, you are looking for Blue? I had read in his blog that his grandma just died. He says that he will not be blogging for a while. He want to take some rest.
Haha…I think I would like that cincaluk. ^_^
It’s ok… Didn’t notice the error. Oh dear! Poor Blue, think I will drop him a condolence message in his blog. Ya…I’m sure you’ll love cincaluk since it’s the same as the balao-balao that you have over there.
it’s look yummy.. and i love cooking cos i love good and yummy foods…
Oh? Then you should drop by often – mine are usually very easy to cook recipes – for lazy people like me. Hehehehehe!!!! But sometimes, I guess you will have to substitute the meat used. Well, welcome and thanks for dropping by. Do keep coming! π
P.S. I’ve linked you in my blogroll. π
i’m lazy too.. my fav would be 15 min dish.. LOL! thanks for the link..
Oh? Looks like there’s more than one of me then? π
aha!! this is what i am waiting for… so sad i failed to comment here the day you posted it…
oh i agree .. many words pronounced as the same… only the spelling differs..
like togue and Cho Pao and Siomai…
so funny isn’t… but it is an advantage for us because we can easily understand what each of us were saying
Ya, who was it that said “All men are brothers”? We are all the same and wouldn’t it best if all men can live together happily in peace and harmony?