As I’m writing this, I’ve got a pot of beef curry bubbling on the stove. Just a few minutes ago I was contemplating on whether I should add some coconut milk, or should I just keep it “healthy”. And then it occurred to me, wait a minute, why would the coconut milk make it “unhealthy”?
You see, I’ve become dairy-free recently due to terrible lactose intolerances occurrences, and coconut-everything has been THE main dairy-free alternative go-to. Coconut yoghurt, coconut latte, coconut pudding, coconut cheese- I’ve embraced it with gusto for the sake of health. So why is that coconut in curries, rendangs, lemaks, opors, kormas etc deemed by so many as “unhealthy?” Is it because we were conditioned to think that way and if so, wait is that *shock-shock-horror* part of systemic racism?!
But I’m not qualified enough to give any sort of deep academic social commentary or even provide any nutritional insights. But I do have some experiences in the food, mostly, eating ways of society. Growing up in Kampung Kaki Bukit in Singapore in the late 70s-mid 80s, nary a curry was spotted. We had lots of fish, simply fried or grilled. Eaten with rice of course, and the simplest of dishes with names like lauk singgang, kuah asam, lauk air, asam pedas, asam rebus, masak kicap, lauk bening, sotong masak hitam. There was always a side of “ulam” or raw vegetables and the ubiquitous sambal belacan. Delicious, fresh, sumptuous. These were MY kind of Malay food and remains to be my favourite till now.
As a mom of 2 living in a more Western country, I try to have the old school dishes as part of our daily meals, as they’re relatively easy to prepare. Thankfully, my boys love slurping up lauk air with potato, broccoli and carrots. They scoff down lauk kicap ayam like there’s no tomorrow. Even the spicy asam pedas gets a warm reception when it makes an appearance. By the way, who else thinks that asam pedas has got to be one of the most versatile dishes around? Asam pedas with rice? But of course. Asam pedas with bread? Well, duh! Asam pedas with prata? Now you’re talking! And here’s a tip for the busy mamas: make a huge pot and freeze in batches. It’ll even taste better after a few days *winks*
So, where does that leave ayam masak merah and its BFF, the rendang? Growing up, I remember seeing them once, maybe 2- 3 times a year. We’d have them only at weddings and Hari Raya. They’re our festive food. So rich with coconut milky-oily goodness, delicious but only on special occasions! These are the foods of our celebrations. As they should be, cos the process of making them is not for the faint-hearted. The rendang is a labour of love itself, starting with a minimum 5 hours of slow stewing the meat with over 10 different spices. Ayam masak merah requires deep frying chicken pieces and then cooking it again with another complex composition of chilis, tomatoes, coriander and about 5 other ingredients.
Every culture has its own set of symbolic representations. In Singapore, the Malays have their weddings and Hari Raya. And I guess along with it, the food associated with these festivities as well. Thankfully, modern cooking applicances like the pressure cooker or a certain German-made wunder-machine (T*6) has made cooking complex Malay dishes like rendang a lot simpler and doable for the the everyday Mama, like me.
We cook it every year for our Hari Raya celebrations in Australia. In fact, if you ask anyone here who is not of Malay or Indonesian origin, they can all rattle off a list of “Oh I love rendaaang” in a myriad of accents. But that’s all they know.
Those dishes that were made to be the symbols of our culture, hence the assumption that we eat them all the time and that we’re all unhealthy MF-ers and need to be taught otherwise. See, they don’t know any better. My point is, I guess, if someone tries to teach you how to eat an ayam masak merah the healthy way, maybe just tell him, “Dude, you siaow ah, where got people eat like that at weddings? Maybe he’ll say “Huh, what wedding, I eat at hawker centre mah”. Maybe then we could start telling and sharing with them the other, the real, healthy Malay food that we enjoy.
Just my two-cents worth, at least.
Photo by qaz farid on Unsplash
Sharynn Sapari is an everyday mama, living and raising 2 boys in Brisbane, Australia. She
thinks kuih dadar and roti kirai will solve all the world’s problems but do not talk to her
before she’s had her morning coffee.
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