She does it best…

My missus cooked this dish of phak lor too kha or stewed pork leg…

…that other day and yes, she does it best – nobody does it better…and yes, she got the meat from that shop round the corner that I blogged about the other day. They do have a lot of things there, no, not everything but a whole lot.

My mum’s pork leg was exactly like that too and my mother-in-law’s as well and there was this old couple running a restaurant in Kanowit when I was there, 1978-1982 – the wife’s stewed pork leg was the same too. I used to go there for my meals, RM60.00 for two meals a day and whenever she cooked this favourite dish of mine, she would serve me the too khai pui (pork leg rice) instead of the regular one meat and one veg plus rice that I would get every meal. They’re all gone now – they have all passed away and sadly, though there are some nice ones at some places in town, they are simply not quite there.

I don’t know how to cook it myself but I did catch some glimpses of my missus at work. Shudders!!! Anything that entails so much work is definitely not for me! LOL!!!

It seemed that she used a whole lot of garlic, some cloves unpeeled, some peeled and finely chopped. Hmmmm…at the price of garlic these days, I am not surprised if the people at the shops would scrimp on it. Besides, theirs tend to be somewhat diluted whereas my missus simmered hers for hours till the meat, skin, tendon and all became nice and soft and tender and the gravy got a bit thick and a little sticky.

But to be fair to those people going all out to make a bit of money, I have tried stewed pork leg cooked by other people but yes, theirs were nice too but no, I did not think I like theirs as much either. I suppose this goes across the board – my mum’s curry is better than your mum’s kind of thing.

Of course, while my missus was working on her stewed pork leg, I pounded some chilies and Bintulu belacan (dried prawn paste)…

…to eat the pork leg with. It sure would bring it to a whole level and if you have never tried, it does go very well with siew yoke…or even, boiled pork – just boil the whole chunk, no need for any ingredients, and slice and eat with the sambal. It is so very nice!

Well, since there was the sambal belacan and my missus had so much to do, there wasn’t any need to cook a vegetable dish. We just boiled some ladies’ fingers lightly and had that…

…ulam-style and what is stewed pork leg without the stewed eggs…

No, we did not forget those, not at all.