How did you see yourself at the age of 11?
I, for one, thought I wouldn’t get married until the age of 30 due to being the high and mighty career woman I was to be. I never dreamed of a big, poufy wedding dress, never wanted a sprawling buffet or an equally horrifying seven-tier wedding cake, and I definitely did not want the gushing bridesmaids. No, thank you. Your cue to laugh is coming up.
I’m a 26-year-old stepmother of two and wife to one. It isn’t recent either. We’re counting up to four years as a modern blended family. The quixotically romantic 14 year old in me, who dreamt of boys, cheered me on as I left my celebrated career in advertising to dance with my husband on the pavements of rainy Kuala Lumpur, when he’s not working that is.
The monsoons trapped me indoors long enough to allow me to face up to my fear of the kitchen and now I’m here as I have been for a while. So how is living in Kuala Lumpur? Confusing enough to misunderstand the meaning of the word “breakfast.”
I woke up to a friend calling me at 8 am. She had already gone for her morning swim and was bringing “a yummy-licious breakfast over.” In all seriousness, that is the way she speaks.
My mind, already crawling towards the coffee maker, decided to simultaneously flick through its countless albums of sticky and not-so-sticky pastries; or maybe a panini laced with grilled aubergine and peppers. That morning, unlike other mornings, I couldn’t wait to eat. A brief 10 minutes later, my dreams were deflated like a badly beaten soufflé.
My breakfast buddy showed up with a grin and a Nasi Lemak, Malaysia’s national dish, a concoction of rice soaked in coconut milk then steamed and served with compulsory condiments: a hard boiled egg, crunchy roasted peanuts, dried anchovies, a spicy sambal sauce, a piece of fried chicken and some cucumber slices to cool you down. The condiments that are optional, in case you’re interested, range from pickled vegetables to beef stew.
“The trick is to mush it all up together with a fork. That’s the way my grandma used to feed it to us when we were kids,” she continued to chirp as I secretly cried at the fate of my street corner croissant being attacked by a Chinese school boy.
The thought was quite endearing really that she would bring me a part of Malaysia’s heritage for breakfast — a dish they were happy to devour happily at any time of the day, a dish that made her talk about her grandmother. It was then that I had the feeling I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
There weren’t any marketing executives on power trips judging my breakfast choices over morning briefings for the next campaign and there certainly wasn’t any sugar in my tea, anywhere. Sugar in your plain, beautiful, fragrant tea? Are you mad? Things are different here in Malaysia.
You lose touch with your senses as they blend into the cornucopia of cultures and thus cuisines, and rediscover them all over again when you’re hit with a smell of the downright bizarre amidst a city embedded in the jungle.
The one thing you learn about local friends is that they come with offerings of stingray, tofu, variations of tamarind sauce and an intriguing interest in yams, not to mention the durians, but that’s for a later date. What happens after three years of tamarind and turmeric?
You start shifting your eyes towards your own culture and begin to wonder why we don’t have the passion to experiment on our own; that is assuming no one is doing it for us: the newest imported chef carrying the freshest imported produce, the composed restauranteur who holds the key to the bounties of the city along with other cities, the people who “know how.”
With the influx of trendy new eateries in Cairo, I’m surprised that most of us haven’t chosen to start branching out in our own kitchens.
Can I make a deal with you? I’ll follow the self-help books and let the change begin with me. I’ll give you a recipe every week and you promise that you’ll try to branch out, just a bit. That’s all.
And as is tradition, I’m breaking bread with you — in the form of a sandwich. We can all make a sandwich, can’t we?
Recipe
A Mediterranean Panino
You’ll need:
4 slices of good bread (I’m using ciabatta)
3 teaspoons of pesto Genovese
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 handful of rocket
1 small aubergine, peeled and sliced
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 medium yellow pepper, roasted and sliced
2 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper
A splash of balsamic vinegar
A few slices of Gruyère
Salt to taste
(Serves 2)
? Spread the pesto on the bread — 1.5 teaspoons per sandwich.
? Heat up your pan or griddle to medium heat. Add the olive oil, aubergine, zucchini and black pepper and cook for 6-8 minutes or until tender and nicely colored. Remove from the pan. Add salt to taste when you’re done. You don’t want to draw out the juices while cooking by adding salt. Alternately, you could also slice fresh peppers and add them to the pan to cook out if you’d prefer not to roast them.
? Wilt the rocket in the same pan for 5-10 seconds and remove from the heat.
? Assemble your panino. The rocket goes first then the aubergine, zucchini and roasted pepper follow. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar in between.
? Top with Gruyère and melt by placing the sandwich in a clean pan or griddle on medium heat until the bread is toasted.
? Serve with a baby spinach and walnut salad drizzled with a basic vinaigrette.
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Food blogger Sarah Khanna of Buttered-Up also writes a food column for Daily News Egypt.
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