When East Meet West

In the modern world today, we celebrate the advantage of free information. We were introduced to various cultures, civilization and way of life. We see the cultures of the people in Africa. We read about the Egyptian civilization and we learn about how European, American, British and Chinese live. I am not going to talk about any civilization or cultures but I am looking into the most favorite topic of all discussions. Everywhere we go, at any time (may be not when we are vast asleep but sometimes we dreamt about it), at any place we will not fail to talk about food.

I grew up in many places in Malaysia because my father was an air force personnel. Thus, I was exposed to thousand (okay, I might exaggerate there a little…okay, a lot) kind of Malaysian cuisine. I tasted food cooked by the Kelantanese, Johorean, the Baba and Nyonya Food and of course food cooked by the people from the North (not North Pole but a little bit down to the south. Yes, I am talking about food prepared by the people from Kedah, Penang and Perlis)

There are kind of food prepared by these people but let me narrow it down further. Let me tell you about the dessert. Well, I never want anything else everytime I go back to my hometown in Sungai Petani (it is approximately 370 km from the Kuala Lumpur City Centre and about 4 hours drive) but to indulge myself with the food especially dessert. They have “seghawa”, lepat” (pisang, liat, labu, ubi etc.), “tepung talam”, “seri muka”, “tapai” (fermented rice but it is sure nice), “beka”, “gedung chak”, “lompang”, “halua kundork”, “halua maskat”, “pulut kacau” (it is known as wajik by Malaysian) and not forgetting all the buburk (buburk kacang, buburk pulut hitam, buburk cha cha (yes its cha cha) and buburk gandum to name a few).

I had this idea to write this topic when I was treating myself with the good old buburk pulut hitam. My grandmother made the best buburk pulut hitam. It is a sweet porridge made from the red/black glutinous rice (in Malaysia, you can get it easily from the store but the quality differs from one place to another. I like the one from Pekan Rabu) with cane sugar or palm sugar and rich thick coconut milk.

First of all you have to wash the red/black glutinous rice (let’s call it pulut hitam after this) and boil it until it is soft. Then you add in sugar (for those who want it a little less sweet, you can reduce the amount of sugar but never replace sugar with any kind of sweetener because it is not nice. Believe me I have tried). Let it simmer for a while. When the sugar has dissolved and mixed well with the pulut hitam, add in the thick rich coconut milk. Let it cook until the pulut hitam porridge is thickened. Then viola, you got yourself your own buburk pulut hitam and that how my grandmother used to make her version of buburk pulut hitam. It tastes “wonderfool” (yeah it is so nice you can go out of your mind).

But when I started working, I went to a lot of functions where they serve buburk pulut hitam and some other stuff. I started mixing the traditional recipe with my own taste. Let me tell you what to do. First you have your own buburk pulut hitam, right. Chill it in the refrigerator for a while. After a while, add in two scoop of vanilla ice cream (I prefer the French Vanilla Flavor) and garnish with some sweet biscuit (those who have diabetes are not encourage to try this recipe and I will not take any kind of responsibility if anything (whether foreseeable or not) ever happens to diabetes patient when any of you were to try this recipe). To me it is the best dessert and that’s what I meant earlier by saying When East Meet West. I don’t think Marco Polo ever tried this kind of food before and of course the traditional recipe will be the best.