Satisfied…

I heard people praising it to the skies and so I tried cooking it myself once…but it did not get me jumping up and down with delight. I just thought it was nice and I quite liked it but it would not be something I would want to cook again. After all, there are many other ways in which I can cook using cincaluk (fermented shrimps) and derive a lot more satisfaction from what I can dish out.

Then, the other day, when I went to that nyonya restaurant in Malacca, I did not hesitate to order their cincaluk omelette as I wanted to see how they did it and whether there was anything that I had missed. I must say that I was quite disappointed as it turned out to be just omelette with a teeny-weeny bit of thinly sliced long bean and carrot…and just a little bit of cincaluk, so little that I had difficulty tracing its taste in the egg…and when I did, I was not too thrilled either as I guessed they had used the bottled variety which was a far cry from the best we can get around here – the homemade ones from Bintulu which I had used when I cooked mine and that, of course, made a whole lot of difference in the taste. I made my mind there and then that I would try cooking it again –  my own version this time and it would be a whole lot nicer than my first attempt.

I put two tablespoons of cincaluk in a bowl and squeezed four calamansi lime into it for the juice and I added eight cili padi, some thinly-sliced shallots and bits of serai (lemon grass) as well. I did not slice the serai thinly so that it may be removed in the process of eating – I like the taste and the fragrance but I do not quite fancy biting into it, you see…

Then I beat two eggs and threw in some Thai basil/mint leaves, sliced chilies (more for the colour than anything else as the current ones that we can buy from the market aren’t hot at all) and a pinch of msg…

Ah yes! I also scooped out a bit of the cincaluk, around two teaspoons, and added it to the egg as well.

After that, I heated up some oil in a pan and poured in the egg along with the ingredients in it. When it had started to cook especially at the bottom, I added the cincaluk like this…

…and then I folded the edges in to sort of roll it up.

When it was cooked, I took it out and placed it in a long dish, ready to be served…

So, was it good? I would say that it was really very very nice with all the exotic tastes and fragrances of the ingredients used…but I would reduce the amount of cincaluk used the next time around, maybe by half so that there would be just enough to apply a thin layer of it to the egg in the pan like a spread of jam or peanut butter. As it was, I found it a bit too salty and though it went perfectly well with rice, one would not be able to eat it and enjoy it on its own.

On the whole, I would say that I was very satisfied with my version of the cincaluk omelette but there is still some room for improvement and I certainly would try cooking it again. I am pretty sure the next time around, it would be just right…