HIKING THE PETRONAS, MERLION and BRUBUDUR

By Michael Billones and Hanna Navarro

In this session of our asiacui class, we were assigned to be the executive chef (Michael Billones) and sous chef (Hanna Navarro) for Malaysia, Indonesia & Singapore. Since our schedule is not enough for the whole term, another country was assigned to merge with us which is Thailand. In this blog, we will be focusing more on Malaysia, Indonesia & Singapore because those were the countries assigned to us and our Executive chef knows a lot about this country because he grew up in Brunei which is beside those countries.  Malaysia, Indonesia & Singapore use the same ingredients which makes their food the same or a like in taste because they were influenced by the same countries and they also influence each other. The taste profiles of their food are a mix of spicy, sweet and salty. They were also influenced by China that’s why they have lots of dishes which are stir fried and noodle - based. Examples of these are char kwayteow which is stir fried ricecake strips &Nasigoreng which is fried rice. Our menu for today is: NasiGoreng, Chicken Satay, Beef Rendang, Almond jelly with longans& Roti.

The Food:

In places like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, NasiGoreng is something everybody knows and has eaten more than once. To the rest of the world, NasiGoreng is fried rice. Nasi means rice and Goreng means Fried. It is a dish that uses sautéed vegetables, KecapManis for flavor and most importantly rice.

Beef Rendang, is one of the prominent dishes ever to be made in South East Asia. The dish uses Beef, coconut milk, spices and herbs like Ginger, Lemongrass, shallots and Chilis and it is slowly simmered for a period of time so the meat would absorb the flavor of the other ingredients. In South East Asia, Beef Rendang is a dish that is commonly served on celebrations like Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Chicken Satay is one of the popular food in South East Asia. It is skewered and marinated meat on wooden sticks and grilled till cooked. After being cooked, it is usually served with a nice peanut sauce on the side which complements the meat nicely.

Roti is basically a flatbread cooked on a griddle. It is prepared in many ways like eaten with condensed milk or curry, rolled up with other ingredients or fried together with egg.

Almond Jelly with Longans was our dessert. It is a Singaporean dessert that could be made from scratch or from using instant mix from the grocery store and it has non-traditional recipes.  In this dessert, it uses Almond extract, Longans, milk and more. Sadly, it didn’t end well during the function and was made into this mush of a dessert.

EXPLORING THE AYUTHAYAN EMPIRE

By Bea Visque and Charlene Bartolome

Last week, Charlene and I were assigned to hold the Thailand function. We were able to plan a menu that we thought would represent the authenticity of Thai cuisine.

Thai cuisine is known for its balance of flavours. Just like in any other Asian countries, rice is their staple food and they can’t live without having it in their meal. They are also known for their spicy food. As with other Asian cuisines, balance, detail and variety are important with the Thai people.Thai cuisine is known for having the balance of three fundamental taste senses: sour, salty and sweet and sometimes bitter. The complexity of flavors in the dishes is what makes Thai cuisine unique compared to the neighboring countries.

In our function today, our menu consists of the following:

Tom Yam soup

            It is a hot and sour soup. The broth is made of stock and fresh ingredients such as lemongrass, lime leaves, galangal, lime juice, fish sauce, and crushed chili peppers.

Spicy Pomelo Salad

            It is a sweet and spicy salad. It is made of pomelo, shrimps, and shredded coconut. The dressing was composed of lemon juice, fish sauce and sugar. We also added parsley for garnish.

Thai Style Steamed Seabass

            It is basically a steamed fish. It is composed of Seabass, chicken stock, garlic, bird’s eye chili, lime juice, fish sauce, tamarind juice, sugar and spring onions for garnish. 

Pork Belly with Chili sauce

            It is a grilled pork belly that is marinade with garlic, coriander root, black peppercorn, oyster sauce light soy sauce and sugar. The sauce is composed of shallots, chili powder, lime juice and fish sauce.

Chicken Satay

                It is basically a grilled chicken marinated in peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, curry powder, garlic and hot pepper sauce.

Thong Yod

                It means golden tear drop. It is usually served as a dessert in traditional Thai weddings and it is not easy to make because it is very hard to get a perfect teardrop shape. Thong Yod is composed of egg yolks, Thong Yod flour (white and rice flour mixture) and castor sugar.

Roti

                It is flat bread that is usually dipped in condensed milk.

Thai Iced Tea

                A tea made from black tea leaves, star anise, ground tamarind, cardamom, sugar, condensed milk and coconut milk.