Christmas Season Meals

This Christmas season has been a lazy one. Daughter is home so that is nice but hubby was in Malaysia. It was just the three of us- mother, daughter and son. Just hanging out together, laughing, watching lots of tv and movies and eating what nots. We decided we would make one special dish a day for dinner to celebrate rather than one great feast.

Day after daughter L came home we headed up to Temecula. Her friend J joined up. I made Salmon en Croute up - a dish I just saw being made on that morning by Laura Calder on French Food at Home. It was good.

Tomato Coconut Drumstick Curry

Lucky me! I was about to walk out of the Indian grocery store when I saw a beautiful sight - a gorgeous pile of drumstick (botanical name: Moringa Oliefera) My Indian friends call them -Munaga Kaaya). They were absolutely fresh and long- possibly the longest drumsticks I have ever  come across! I grew up eating drumstick in Malaysia. My artichoke before I knew about artichoke.

Drumstick is the seed pod of a tropical tree. The seed pod are long. Some of  the pods I purchased this time were over long as 3ft!! Longer, than any I have ever seen in Malaysia. The vendor tells me in India, they have even longer drumsticks. The pods have a triangle cross section, splits open to 3 sections with a pulpy interior with winged seeds. When cooked, you scrap the delicious pulp against your teeth like an artichoke leaf, discard the hard outer skin. I remember a rented house we lived in for awhile, where the landlord would come each month to harvest the drumstick and collect the rent. You know me - at this point, I am not just thinking about eating the drumsticks but growing them!! A healthy bundle of drumstick followed me home............

Normally, I would cook the drumstick in a sambar/ dhall type curry. I decided I wanted to try something a little different. I remembered a tomato based drumstick curry I used to eat in Malaysia. A quick harvest of curry leaves from my garden, tomatoes purchased from the Farmers Market a few days ago and frozen grated fresh coconut from the freezer and I was on my way. I served it with Basmati Pilaf

The Roti Man

There were a couple of of Roti Man in my life but one in particular remains in my memory - the one from Lorong Dua, Eng Ann Estate Klang. He would come by around 5-6 pm in the evening, pedaling his bicycle and a big rattan basket with a domed metal top, behind. Loaves of breads, encased in plastic bags, will hang around the perimeter of the basket. He would press the horn on his handle bar and hoot his arrival, simultaneously shouting "Roti, roti", meaning bread.

Oh, how I am always lamenting that we as a family really did not take many pictures, if at all. I have no picture of my Roti Man. My Roti Man was younger than the man in this picture but his set up was very similar. A favorite treat of the family - but never mine - was the coconut buns. Freshly grated coconut cooked in gula melaka encased in a bun. He has Hainanese Bread - soft white bread, fabulous lightly toasted and smeared with Kaya (coconut jam). Roti Man in picture looks like he is doing just that! Hard rolls, soft rolls, buns with all kinds of fillings and monkey bread....... See how he uses the dome cover as working surface.

Talking about monkey bread - that is what makes this particular Roti Man special to me. Not the bread - the Monkey. Let me explain. Around this time, dad had bought me a pet monkey - a pig tailed monkey. Kiki. I would take Kiki out for a walk in the evening, just like you would a dog. Roti Man loved Kiki. He was always trying to get me to sell him Kiki. He offered me a lifetime supply of all the bread our family could eat if I gave him Kiki. I never ever took him up on the offer.

Roti Man would save stale bread for Kiki. Of course, he continued bribing me with extra or free bread every so often. Our street became his rest stop. He would take time off and walk Kiki while I tended to his bread. Ha,ha. I know - how simple life was then. I collected money from the neighbors for the breads purchased while he walked Kiki, all within my sight of course.

Roti Man said he wanted Kiki to pluck coconuts for him. That is what they train pig tailed monkeys to do in Malaysia. I could never give up my buddy and he knew it but Kiki was what linked us together. Sadly, I do not have a picture of the Roti Man or Kiki......

Putu Mayam Man and the Monster

My Putu Mayam man did not have a fixed schedule. You never knew when he would come so I had a standing order with my grandmother, if the Putu Mayam man came while I was away, please get me two Putu Mayam with fresh grated coconut and extra Gula Melaka - a most delicious deep caramel flavored sugar made from the sap of the coconut flower- there is no real substitute for it. I admit I use dark brown sugar as a substitute these days but I am far from Malaysia and it is near impossible to get the traditional Gula Melaka wrapped in coconut palm. I digress......The Putu Mayam is a vermicelli like rice flour noodle, made by pressing the dough through a mold with tiny holes. The strings are swirled in a circular motion to form a nest. These nest are then steamed. The combination of the hot Putu Mayam, sweet freshly grated coconut and gula melaka is out of this world! Love it. I think I am going to have to try to make it one day - Lily to the rescue.

I spy a picture of Putu Mayam man - not mine!! Mine did not have a dapper tartan cap. However, he did come on a bicycle with his metal treasure chest of delicious treat. Take a look at him at http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrosa/3007193732/


Pictures taken from http://eatingasia.typepad.com

These pictures here shows a Putu Mayam man pressing the dough out of the mould unto an upturned rattan basket. These Putu Mayam nests will then be steamed. He is serving the Putu Mayam topped with grated coconut - the green one is probably flavored and scented with Pandan leaves (screwpine), and gula melaka. Who remembers these delicious packets?

As I was driving back from dropping my son A at school today and thinking about the Putu Mayam man, I remember another Putu Mayam significant person. The Monster!! Were we just cruel when when we were younger??? The person my husband and I fondly call the "Monster" was the cleaning lady we had when we first got married and living in 10 Lorong Palas in Southern Park. "Monster" came to us via my mother-in-law, for whom she had been working. She came on Saturdays to wash our clothes and clean the house. I cannot remember why we started calling her the "Monster" but I can still picture in my mind, walking through the doors on Saturday, after grocery shopping and asking my husband, "is Monster here yet?" I think it was because Monster did whatever she wanted no matter what and how many times you told her the way you like things done. But she was trustworthy. We could leave her to the work (done her style) and just go out on our Saturday jaunts. What did we call her? Oh, how I wished I remember.... it will come to me. Come on, now people. We DID NOT call her Monster to her face. Besides, what is Monster in Malay? I can only think out names like hantu (ghost) and shiatan (devil). Help me out here, family. Ha, ha.... I do however see a picture in my mind of my mother-in-law scolding "Monster" ! There is no literal translation for that!!!! Love my mother-in-law.

As usual, I digressed. Putu Mayam man at 10 Lorong Palas had a habit of coming through the lane at the back of the house. We lived in what would be termed as town houses in this country. We call them terraced houses in Malaysia. Anyway, the back of these terrace houses rows faced each other. I guess he figured correctly, that housewives will be in the back of the house, cooking, cleaning or hanging out laundry and he would have better luck getting their attention coming though the back. I would tell her to hail down the Putu Mayam man if he comes by and get me some Putu Mayam. She took over from my grandmother on the standing order in my own household. I guessed after awhile, she noticed how much I liked them. One day, she surprised me. When I asked her if the Putu Mayam man had come, she said no but that she had made me some Putu Mayam. They were delicious!!! From that day onwards, she would treat me to Putu Mayam and other indian treats every now and then. Yes, my Putu Mayam Lady is also Indian.

Kacang Putih Man and Putu Mayam Man

I was just over on Lily's Wai Sek Hong blog and it brought back memories...... She talked about hawkers that came to her doorsteps - the Kacang Putih man ( literally translated as the White Nut Man) and the Putu Mayam man (the String Hopper man). Indeed, I thought they were my friends too! They came by when I most craved the delicious delights. And yes, my Kacang Putih man and my Putu Mayam man were Indian too.


I remember them most from the days we lived in the rented Semi-Detached house in Lorong Dua in Eng Ang Estate in Klang. I was 9 or 10 years old then. Kacang Putih man would come by with his green wooden table balanced on top of white turbaned head, his hands holding unto the legs of the table. Ha, ha.... I remember asking him from which school did he get the table from? He would shout "Kacang Putih! kacang putih!" Kids would pour out of houses on both sides of the street and hail him down. He would set his table down, flip over the plastic cover over and tempt us with those delicious nuts. Little did he know that he was way ahead of his time - these days we know the benefits of incorporating nuts into our diet. The top of the table would be partitioned into numerous sections, each filled with a different type of nut or similar nuts but prepared differently. Among the many delights were peanuts- boiled, deep fried or frosted with sugar, Broad or Fava Beans deep fried, toasty little lentils, crispy peas and my favorite steamed gabanzo beans with curry leaves and chillies. He also sold Muruku and different savory mixes that Chex Mix could only dream it could be. Yum! My mouth waters thinking about it.
He would roll up pieces of newspaper making little paper cones, fill them with our nut of choice. " Lebih sedikit, lah" you would often hear, meaning just a little more - we would beg. He would smile and shake his head, side to side and pop in a nut or two more. I do not know about the others, but I think I was his favorite. He would wait until the crowd disperse and turn to me smiling and shaking his head and say, "lebih sedikit" and give me a few more nuts. Sometimes, I would give him a glass of water and he would make me a paper airplane or a paper boat. Sadly, I do not see these wonderful Kacang Putih man traveling through residential neighborhood bringing treats to children.


Picture taken from http://blogofsorts.wordpress.com/category/history/
These days, if you are lucky you will have in your life a Kacang Putih man like in this picture, who parks his cart at a same spot. I do not know why but more often then not he is in front of a bank! So is the fresh fruit seller and possibly the Nasi Lemak lady. That is a subject for another posting. Check out the blog above and read about the life of the Kacang Putih man in the picture. He lives in Singapore a neighboring country to Malaysia.

In the past 20 years of my yearly visit back to Klang, Malaysia, I saw mainly in the Pasar Malam (night market) the new breed of Kacang Putih Man, more often than not, a Chinese man, very often wearing a white singlet, highlighting his pot bellied stature, selling his Kacang out of back of his parked van, housed in plastic jars and ladled into plastic bags. It is not quite the same. I hope somewhere in the small kampung-kampung (this is the plural for the benefit and delight of my daughter L) a Kacang Putih man or two continues to delight the young and the old.

My Putu Mayam man........ this posting is already too long as I reminisce about the Kacang Putih man. My Putu Mayam man deserves his own posting. Ha, ha.... when I first started down memory lane because of Lily Ng's blog, I was just setting the stage for the main Man Food man in my life then. It is taking longer to get there because I am having a food sensory memory overload!!! Can you guess which one of these Men I am thinking about. Sisters and my brother or Mom- any guesses??????? What about you, CS in New Zealand ??? Hint- it is not the Putu Mayam Man