Tilapia is an evil fish

I'm turning this blog into a food blog, surely. I guess my need to channel as much positive energy by writing all the good things in my life would mean I would always be talking about food. Food makes me happeh. 'nuff sez. 

This is lunch ibu cooked today. What are those mysterious things in the bowls and plates. Look quite alien from here ;) 

The lighting is bad, the angle could be better and I only use a 3MP camera phone, so bare bear with me. 

Top left is familiar, no? That's right! It's yesterday's lunch... my family excel in leftovers and recycling food. There's still lots of yesterday's pari, which has been reheated. Ocras were added in because masak asam podeh is nice when you put ocras in, its like PBJ - they go together. 

Top right is Tilapia masak lomak cili api. Tilapia is a fresh water fish. My sister hates it. The smell she can't take. Its not exactly the fish's smell, its more like the smell of mud that would stuck on it. Ibu is particular of this she would have her vinegar or lime arsenal to make sure this fish ain't stinkin' up her dish! 

Tilapia image borrowed from here

The flesh is white and soft and I would say in term of taste, its quite plain. It basically absorbs the herb and spices used to cook it. Which is why it is important to make sure that it is thoroughly cleaned because you may ended up with a pot of mud smelling fish. 

Tilapia has a nice texture and is not fatty at all compared to fresh water fish like Baung (fresh water catfish family) Tilapia to me is not merely tasty but it evokes fond memories of growing up through hard labour (the hard labour did not involve me though, I just watched) The masak lemak this time is with tempe (soybean cake), which is great! 

Tempe image borrowed from here

You can also accompany the fresh water fish with acidic accompaniments such as belimbing sayur or young mangos. 

Belimbing sayur image borrowed from here

Young mango image borrowed from here

Tilapia is also good by just frying. The rule goes that when the big ones are cut into two, the top part including the head is best to be cooked as masak lemak, while the tail part can be fried, which is the bottom right dish. For those who can't stand the spiciness of masak lemak cili api, can also eat Tilapia by frying with tumeric and salt. Its a simple, innocent dish which I always mentally connect to children. Such a no fuss food. 

Bottom left is sambal ikan bilis. Its green. I know. A sambal ikan bilis by any other name would taste as hot.

Ibu calls it sambal orang gila, referring the cook as the madman =P . So is a neighbour who did this dish recently. Because normally it would be red right? Like the sambal I ate with the nasi lemak at KFC. 

This version is green instead because its purely made of cili padi/cili api. I imagined it would taste different or would kill me in a few seconds once it touches my tongue but frankly, it tasted just like the red hybrids. I guess because Ibu made sure that the chilly paste is thoroughly cooked. Your tongue might be able to take it but not your stomach if its not cooked well.  This one had ikan bilis (anchovies), onion, and special guest star, petai!

Petai image borrowed... from somewhere. 

I don't eat petai on weekdays because I don't want to stink up the stall for the next person when I do the business at work. 

What can I say, ibu is the queen of sambal among other things (rendang, dodol... and on and on and on) Sedap sampai petala langit kelapan. I don't know how to describe it. Its perfect, everytime. The heat, the ikan bilis, the onion, the oil. Everything seems to be like in perfect harmony in your mouth. 

Btw, I left work after 3 hours in. Mom had her hypo spell today. She cooked these and she had a hypoglicemic spell. Mom don't enjoy her own cooking, and believe it, she is a picky eater. Nothing must be too sweet to her palate. It must be just nice so any Kelantanese food she will not take, except for the kuihs.

If not because of an urgent meeting, I skipped work entirely today. I hate to use the excuse but seriously family is number one on my list. I drop everything else when my mom needs me. And the fact that the office people excused me to go home so easily is a plus point that makes me stuck there. Such an agonising dilemma. 

Oh well, that is a different story. Since mom not up to her own cooking, dinner I took her out to her favourite makan place. We had laksa, nasi goreng USA (which is Nasi goreng daging merah plus bulls eye egg makes it a USA fried rice XD  ) and tomyam campur. No picture because my phone went dead.