My Sunday Diary

As usual I was wide awake before 6.00 am although it’s Sunday and since I already had attended sunset mass, I was in town by 7.00 am. I was at the Sunday market (Tamu) by 7.15 am looking at the many kampung vegetables, fruits and kampung fresh water fish. There were many kampung foods that can be selected to suit our individual taste.

There were rows of food and kuih to pick from, be it fried noodles, nasi lemak, kuih cincin or tau fu fa. I let myself missed my usual breakfast of fish noodle soup and opted for a simple Hinompuka. There were 2 version of the Hinompuka, the usual glutinous rice flour and the other one mixed with banana, a very delicious cake to be taken with a cup of steaming Kopi O or Tea O or with milk.

I decided to pick a very appetizing vegetable, when fried with dried shrimp and Belacan (I use Maggie belacan granules) it’s really yummy. I don’t really know what they call the vegetable but it was a mixture of daun bawang kampung, yellow chili and some pungent flower (maybe bunga kantan).

To make my complete Sunday lunch, I bought ready to cook winter Melon and decided to cook it with chicken. Although the soup was simple, it really tasted delicious for a kampung chef like me.

There were many fresh water fish to choose from and it has been a long time that I didn’t eat this type of fish which was what we call ‘TUONGOU’. The fish was already cleaned and ready to be cook. It can be cook simply by adding dried takob-akob (lime), turmeric root or powder and salt. To put more aromatic flavour and taste, I added turmeric leaves which has a nice smell.

For my 3.00 pm tea time, I found two types of corn, the Taiwan type and the other one was the kampung types which have a very aromatic smell. It was really simple to cook the corn, just put in the microwave oven for over 7 to 9 minutes and it's ready to be eaten.

That was a very healthy and traditional kampong food that I selected this Sunday which was really delicious. We should go for a simple and healthy kampung food for a change.