I got a phone call one day from an ex-classmate of mine asking me and my family out for dinner as an old friend of ours, also an ex-classmate, would be home for a while from Australia and we took him here for the best exotic delights that would be hard to come by anywhere else.
They had something new on their menu – chicken curry…
…which I thought was not bad, different from what we would cook ourselves at home and from those I would find elsewhere but no, I did not think I liked it more than their Bangladeshi lamb curry…
…which would be dry/thick with not much gravy but bursting with flavours and tasting absolutely out of this world. They really do it so very well that it certainly would difficult to top that.
It so happened that I went to Kanowit with my friend, Philip, home from the US, that morning and I bought a kilo of dabai (local back olives) so I brought them along with me and I told the boss to help prepare some for us to enjoy…
…and keep the rest for himself and his staff. Gosh!!! These were so very good and even though they did not come cheap, RM20 a kilo, they were worth it as I had not had any so good probably since the time when I was much younger. The quality of the fruit varies from tree to tree and very often, the sellers would let you try the good ones but in actual fact, in their baskets, they have mixed the good ones with the not-so-good ones so when you buy some home, you would end up so very disappointed when you sit down to enjoy them. Thankfully, the Iban lady that I bought these from did nothing of the sort and without doubt, they were all from one very very good tree.
To reciprocate, the boss gave us this dessert…
..made from steaming buah sukun (breadfruit) and coating it with grated coconut and sugar. It was nice – I thought it tasted something like those Malay or nyonya kuihs.
Of course, we had their other favourites as well including these belimbing prawns…
…and their otak-otak…
…and not forgetting their very special rojak, our Malaysian salad…
For dessert, they had the durian ice cream…
…which our Aussie friend enjoyed to the max and he kept having photographs of it and also of him eating it taken to post on Facebook to tag and torture his friends Down Under. LOL!!!
My missus had their jelly pisang while my daughter ordered her favourite, their kahlua ice cream…
I asked for their banana cake with ice cream to share…
…as my friend was telling us about how bananas there cost more than AUD$20 a kilo, almost AUD$30, so I thought he might want to have this to enjoy but no, it was quite obvious that it was the durian that made his day.
That certainly was a delightful dinner – great food, great company, thank you so much, Robert, for the invitation and it sure was nice seeing you again, Michael – you’d probably be back again next year for our biennial high school reunion so we’ll get together again then…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 