My cousins husbands parents live very close by and I would often say hi as my cousins would come and go and was struck by the warmth and hospitality. The grand old man of the house arranged for some young coconuts (note the smooth skin rather than the hairy nut) a pineapple and other goodies from the garden to be given for the young grandkids and their cousins to enjoy. It is an art to watch someone hole a coconut so that a straw can be placed in it and the sweet coconut juice enjoyed. Once finished, the coconut is shelled and the beautiful young coconut is eaten with a spoon. Enjoy!

Fishmarket to Table

Now behind each fishmonger, at floor level, there are some workers (artists I call them) who for a fee, will clean and cut your fish. You see the general progression from a fish to pieces all in a minute or so. To watch these people work and a lot of the times look away and talk while making these strong and precise cuts is quite amazing to watch. The guy in the picture, does this for about 5 hours in the morning and then goes home to sleep. Nothing else, my uncle reckons he makes enough money to live from this work. The final picture is the fish made as a meen vechithe the following night. There is also a picture of the fish my uncle bought.

Information from Wikipedia

Hakkas form the 2nd largest subgroup of the ethnic Chinese population of Malaysia. A well known Hakka man was Yap Ah Loy, a Kapitan in Kuala Lumpur from 1868 to 1885, where he brought significant economic contributions and also was an influential figure among the ethnic Chinese. There is a large and popular Hakka restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

In East Malaysia, they form a significant part of the Bornean state of Sabah where most of the ethnic Chinese are of Hakka descent.

See the Hakka restaraunt is mentioned in Wikipedia!

Tiruvalla Fish Market

I went to Chenganoor, a lovely town in Kerala to attend my first cousin's wedding, the youngest of 4 daughters, I had been remiss (usually short of leave or money or both) to attend the earlier weddings and resolved not to miss this! A tradition is to buy fish at the market as there is a dinner on the night before at the respective houses and my aunty was preparing to cook for the many expected guests, both friends and family.
We went to the market at 6 am, and you can see the multitude of fish on offer just laid out on mats with each fishmonger having their own designated spot.
Some of the fish you can see are mathi or sardines(2nd picture) and karrimeen (a delicacyithird picture) and a marlin on the back of a truck.

Hakka Pork Belly

Hakka are an ethnic Chinese group that settled in south east Asia and are therefore a very common Chinese community in Malaysia. I grew up in Malaysia for the first 11 years of my life. Our family had a monthly ritual of going to the Hakka restaurant for Sunday lunch, which was then in a Chinese sports stadium. We always ordered the same dishes and my favorite was this pork belly dish called 'Hakka Pork Belly'!

Pork belly is a slab of bacon cooked for about 12 hours in soy sauce and whatever else and a preserved vegetable only available in China. The result is absolutely delicious. I go to the restaurant, now moved to the KL city, and order it every time!

There is another side to this story, I had gone to the Hakka almost immediately upon landing in KL but had forgotten to take a picture so when one of my father in law's acquaintances who is a senior lawyer in Singapore invited him to the Hakka for a meal and I was also invited, I jumped at the chance. The host is quite a guy, I will try and show you his very impressive card to the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs which is, this is taken from the Singapore web site spelling errors and all (he he) 'An international society devoted to fine dinning and the camaraderie of the table. For gastronomes and culinary professionals'.

Anyway I prevailed on him (and he very kindly agreed) to supplement the extensive menu he had planned with a dish of the Hakka pork belly.

Malaysian fruits

What can I say, just returned from a 3 week holiday in Malaysia and India, both were family events that turned out all great, more posts to follow as I document my travels from a food point of view, this was right at the start, one of the first things we always do when we land up at my in laws place is to find and buy the fruit that is in season. Now I'm not really sure, but a lot of fruits are available year round but some are seasonal. Here are some of the fruit we enjoyed.

Rambutans, Langsat and something called Dhuku (that I really liked). Its Langsat and Dhuku on top and Rambutans on the bottom.