Category Archives: By Ingredient

Chinese, Fish

Salmon Fried Rice

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I’m baaack!

Now that we’re back in the Bay Area, I had to go visit the Saratoga Farmer’s Market that Nate mentioned in a previous post. One of the usual things I always get there is the salmon collars that we’ve blogged about before. They’re still there and even though the price has increased to $5/lb, they are still a good deal and I snagged a few bags.

My whole family enjoyed eating them in the way I usually prepare them (broiled with a simple seasoning of salt and pepper) but, having been away in Asia for so long, our appetites were smaller and we actually had some leftovers. The leftovers weren’t really enough for another whole meal on its own so I decided to try something new. I decided to go with fried rice.

Salmon Fried Rice

Salmon Fried Rice

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Fruit, Malaysian

Making a Sarawakian Treasure: Dabai Paste

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I can’t believe it’s been 9 months since we left Sarawak to return to the States! While we are settling in to our new home, we still keep in touch with our old friends from Kuching, through Facebook, email and WhatsApp. They’re always sending pictures of the yummy Sarawakian food that they’re eating, like Sarawak laksa and kampua mee. The good thing about dishes like these, though, is that we can make them at home, as the ingredients are not impossible to get.

One thing we cannot get, though, is dabai. Dabai, also known as “Sibu olive” (though it is not a true olive but a completely different species, Canarium odontophyllum), is grown only in Sarawak, generally in the central part of Sarawak around the town of Sibu. Over the years that we lived in Sarawak, we grew to love eating dabai. It’s one of the foods I really miss.

Fresh Dabai, “Sibu Olive”

dabai sibu olive

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Bay Area, Vegetables

Catching Up at Saratoga Farmer’s Market

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We’ve been back in San Jose for a few days now, and we are slowly getting over the jet lag (not easy when there’s a 16 hour time difference between here and Malaysia). It’s been pretty smooth so far, thanks in large part to our good friends who helped to ease us back in. I got a head cold the first day back, and experienced some troubling heart palpitations as well, but they couldn’t stop me from taking us out to our favorite Saturday morning destination: the farmer’s market at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA.

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Fish, Indian, Malaysian, Tomatoes, Vegetables

Indian Fish Curry Recipe

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I love Indian food and mamak food in particular. We often go to one particular place in Kuching almost weekly for roti and thosai. The thosai comes with dipping sauces of dhal and coconut chutney but we like the fish curry sauce the best.

One day I got some pieces of fish to go along with the curry. It was delicious! But then we got the bill and it turned out that the fish pieces were 5 ringgit each! Being the pake person that I am, I decided that I should learn to cook fish curry for myself because then I could buy a whole fish for 20 ringgit and save some money.

Armed with just my instincts and the flavor profile that I got from having this fish curry over several visits I decided to try to recreate it.

Indian Fish Curry

indian fish curry

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