In our local Sarawak Malay dialect, we say gohead meaning to go on and do what one wants to do or to move forward like when one is driving a car or riding a motorcycle. I guess that is derived from the phrase in English, go ahead but to reverse a vehicle, we say gostan. Now how did that come about, I wonder?
Anyway, I’ve noticed that in our local ethnic Dayak cuisine, there is hardly any use at all of wheat flour or soya sauce, so my girl can gohead and eat what she likes without any worries about what may trigger her gluten intolerance…like the other day, when we went back here for lunch, the mum had this…
…while she also had the pansoh babi and the tapioca leaves and she also picked the cangkuk manis with pumpkin, one meat and two vegetables…
…and together with the mum’s one meat and two vegetables, the total came up to RM13.50.
Of course, she cannot gohead and eat what I had – I decided to try something from this stall in that same coffee shop…
…but I did not want the kueh chap – I’ve had before when they were at their previous location and yes, it was quite good.
I decided to try the lor mee, pardon the spelling but I think that is the transcription from how they say it in Mandarin, to see if it was anything like what we used to know and loved…
…but no, it was like kueh chap minus the white pieces of kueh and adding our not-so-yellow noodles and some strips of kangkong…
…instead. That sure was a huge bowl, the special (RM8.00) with a whole lot of the usual kueh chap ingredients and yes, I would say it was very nice just that it wasn’t exactly like the lor mee I was looking for – the one with the slightly corn starch-thickened, slightly sweet gravy with a little bit of egg and a very mild hint of five-spice powder in it. Of course, my girl can’t gohead and eat this – there is soy sauce in the soup/gravy.
This is all right though – the peri-peri grilled chicken rice (RM9.00)…
…that she had here. The mum also had the same and we noticed that they had gone back to grilling the chicken which we would very much prefer. The last two times, the chicken was fried and though it was quite all right done like that it would be more or less something one would get at those ayam penyet places all over town, nothing really special.
I went to the nasi campur stall beside it and this was what I had…
…for RM9.00, 5 meats and one vegetable – two pieces of fish and two halves of salted egg plus one serving of umai (our Melanau sashimi)…
…and the sambal buah emplam. Yes, my girl would be able to gohead and eat all that I have picked that day and quite a lot from such Malay food stalls, I think but there would be some that she would have to avoid – things in soy sauce or coated with batter and fried…like the very nice nasi kerabu that we had…
…here. The mum went and asked and was told that yes, they would coat the chicken or the fish before frying so my girl had to eat it without the meat…nor the keropok (prawn cracker). Should we go for this again, we probably would ask for one fried egg…or maybe a bit of their curry or rendang for her to eat with her rice.
As you can see, it is not much of a problem and all it takes would be a little bit of awareness and it sure is not so bad after all – there are actually quite a lot of things that my girl can gohead and eat!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Haha! Gostan, kinda common to say that in our daily life, but I try to say reverse instead to my kids, wanna teach them proper words 😉
The lor mee looks a bit different, got ‘tao pok’, I don’t like :p
Yes, if in English, we all say reverse these days – gostan is more in colloquial Malay or slang, used in speech.
Yup, the lor mee is kueh chap without the white rice sheets and with noodles instead. All the added ingredients are the usual kueh chap ones including the tauhu pok. Can’t say I am all that fond of that but my girl loves it.
The grilled chicken rice looks like a dish I would enjoy! 🙂
You would, I’m sure. It is not spicy at all, not hot or the chili kind of spicy, I mean. Lots of spices used in the cooking of the rice though, very fragrant.
“Gostan” comes from the English “go astern”.
Ah yes! Thanks! I heard that before but it has completely slipped my mind, old man, me. More a word we use with ships, and for one thing, we never ever say that, normally we just say reverse.
P.S.
You’ve been here before? Probably, seeing how you did not have to await moderation. Thanks for commenting. Incidentally, somebody else also made this same clarification in his comment, a rather rude and nasty one, unfortunately. I wonder why there are people like that and of course, that kind of uncouth people are not welcomed here – they will never get past moderation.
I recently learned that hoppers or appam are traditionally gluten-free too as they’re made with coconut and rice. Lots of expats are often looking for gluten-free options.
Yes, tosai too…but not roti canai. Lots of Malay delicacies made of rice or glutinous rice flour.
Yea, wonder why they call it “gostan”, i’ve stopped using that word many years back… only my parents would use that LOL!
Old folks like us, eh? LOL!!!
I will gohead and eat everything in this post today. All ngam me.
Dont ask me where the word “gostan” derived from. Haha.
There are more! Like words that the mechanic would use – sobar, ribet…all derived from English words.
Haha. I know. My dad is a mechanic. Used to be; he knows cars well. Most of my uncles own and know car fixing. My dad has his own spare parts shop. He only fix his own cars mostly now unless too big to handle, he will pass to other workshop. He is no longer young and strong so we dont want him to be too physical fixing cars. My car, I pass to him to check and fix.
He uses all those words and make them very Chinese. Translate and write in Chinese words since he doesnt know English. Lol. I learn some words from him. Hehehe. After all I am a mechanic’s daughter so need to know something about car.
Oh yes! Runs in the family. Other names taken from English are more obvious like compressor, filter, crankshaft and all the rest.
Those words, Gohead & gostan sounds familiar. All the food looks great. Love them heaps.
Having a great time going round with my girl, letting her eat what she enjoys, just that some, she cannot eat anymore. 😦
See the salted egg makes me crave for it, didn’t eat it for quite sometimes…
I just had some again yesterday. Love salted eggs. Hehehehehe!!!!
I read, quite a long time ago, that “gostan” may have come from ship captains’ command to “go astern”.
I hear there are nyonya dishes with names that are linked to those early seafarers too, like inchi kabin and kapitan curry.
Ooo, I’ve never heard “gohead” before … it would make sense to say “go back” more than “gostan”, I’ve always thought! 😉
I guess so, unless we’re navigating a ship.
Gohead is the opposite of gostan, so cute 🙂 Come to think of it, there are still many things that Melissa can eat.
Indeed. She was saying something about a 60-day period after which eating anything gluten “accidentally” would not bring about the horrible side effects but then again, best to just avoid unless one cannot help it.
Hope one day your girl will be able to enjoy all types of food… my SIL is also on gluten free these days, she told me that her skin will be super itchy if she accidentally take gluten kind of food, something to do with flour, she cannot take now. I wonder what triggers the body system to reject this…
Quite a lot of things to stay away from – go google and see the list. Thankfully, there are also quite a lot of things that people like them can eat, so it is not too bad.