Fruit From My Homeland 3

Ever heard of Breadfruit? Breadfruit or Artocarpus altilis is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry family, Moraceae. It is also known as "sukun". If you want to know more about this lovely fruit, there's plenty on Wiki, go check it out.

It's native to the region where I am, although now it has been widely planted in tropical regions elsewhere. This particular featured breadfruit is of course, native to my garden. Yes, we do grow all sorts around here that I've admittedly lost count of the plants/fruit trees that have been sown over the years. Occasionally, the trees surprise us with their offerings and we are at that moment reminded that these trees still do exist and that they, bless, still want to contribute towards our health and happiness.

Easiest is just to fry the breadfruit slices, like shown.

My naughty habit, though I doubt I'm the only one who has done this, is to dip the cooked breadfruit in thick, condensed milk! Just limit the number of slices, that's all. Remember, look like a Diva, not behave like one.

Breadfruit

Cuppa Tea?

My good friend, WL and her daughter Amy J came over for tea today. Diva D had kindly offered to teach Amy J how to bake some easy cookies in our fashionably Haute kitchen, and while they did that, WL and I were going to catch up on news because we don't get to see each other that often (she and familia live in HK in pursuit of a better[-paid] life).

Before they arrived, I carefully unpacked the beautiful china tea-set that my father had given me as a gift for my birthday a few years ago but had never been used. After all, it was not every day that I have my friends over to tea. Despite my being a very social animal outside my home, when it comes to my personal abode, my heaven, I'm fiercely private. I guess only my trusted inner circle of friends ever get invited over here, and that's probably once in a blue moon too. 

Well, out came the lovely, all-white tea set. I carefully washed and dried them myself because I didn't want them chipped or become imperfect in any way. I don't know many women (no one, in fact) who have received dainty tea-sets as a gift from their fathers, and I knew for a fact that my father had gone and shopped for these personally (my friend told me, it was her store that he bought them from). So of course, they had great sentimental value.

Anyway, while WL and I gossiped away and surfed the internet for business ideas, Diva D and Amy J got busy in the kitchen.

The cookie recipe was pinned under the bowl of flour (above)

That's Amy J in the striped tee.

Cookies baking in the oven

My lovely white china, I really should use it everyday!

When the bakers got bored, they made these extra large starry-eyed teddy bears with fangs. 

The German Shop

Last Friday, I discovered this gem of a foodstore called "The German Shop" (above) in Kg. Sg. Hanching in Jalan Muara. It seemed a bit strange why it was labelled that at the road junction entering it because the signage over the front of the store actually says "European & Arabic Food & Drinks". I'd actually passed by in front of the store once but was hesitant to go in, probably due to that rather conspicuous Brandenburg Gate banner serving as the store's frontage.

The other curiosity I had - why was there a store selling German foodstuffs in Brunei? The Arabic-food part is not really much of a surprise as this is Brunei, a mainly Muslim country. Then it dawned on me that we have quite a number of German nationals residing here! Yes, there's the Royal Aircraft servicing crew from Lufthansa and their families, the diplomats, BMW/Mercedes mechanics, even people working for Hyatt at the Palace. Yes, the demand is certainly there.

Well, we ended up with a number of goodies - all processed, of course, but who cares? Being in that shop reminded me of my time living in Germany. That was a wonderful period of really unhealthy eating for me, however on the positive side, I did end up making good German friends who call me till this day. So, yes the German Shop brought back a lot of happy memories for me.

The goodies we ended up with.

Is there a Her Cake? LOL... 'Him' is short for Himbeer, which is raspberry in German. I can still read and understand the language after all these years, what a blessing. Now, speaking it is a different matter altogether.

Diva D. came with us and she got some Rye bread flour which she turned into this lovely, crispy and slightly sourish bread.

She also made these potato dumplings from the packet. They were hmmm...ok, but just needed some gravy to bring them to life. 

Anyway, the proprietor of the German shop was a very friendly Arab gentleman married to a German lady, and they hailed from Dusseldorf. It's a real pity that our national Airlines, RBA, no longer flies to Germany because I recall that they used to land at the airport in Dusseldorf. Well, the shop owners have two very cute daughters named Nora and Aminah and they both attend Yayasan School in Jln Kebangsaan. Since they have been schooling here for nearly 6 years (since Kindy), their Malay was yes, very spanking Bruneian. I was rendered speechless in amazement and awe as the girls spoke to us! Wistfully, I found myself wishing I spoke German like a native, which was rather ridiculous considering I've been back here for so long already. Sigh.

Fruit From My Homeland 2

I bought these red fruits from the stall just down the road from my house. Ever curious, I asked the lady selling them what they were and she said they were wild fruits from the forest, though she couldn't tell me what they were called - she just couldn't remember the name. Ok, I clearly have less of a clue than her but I bought them anyway just to try them and I hoped they didn't have unpleasant side-effects or worse, some hidden poison if I didn't prepare them in the right way (much like the Fugu fish dish!).

I tried Googling but no luck as the fruits were currently nameless to me, and typing "red fruits, rainforest" just didn't conjure the same images. So if anyone out there knows what these red fruits are, please put me out of my misery and TELL me!

Anyway, to cook them, the old lady instructed me to peel the red skin, halve the fruit and discard the seed, then pour boiling hot water over them and cover for about 5 minutes until they are cooked. They taste like kembayau (below) or canarium odontophyllum, which is a fruit unique to Borneo and especially Brunei.

The delectable kembayaus

Fruit From My Homeland 1

Something else brought in from my garden yesterday morning, this luscious jackfruit or nangka. I can't wait till it's ripe, in the meantime, the jackfruit aroma fills our kitchen. The exterior of the fruit is not edible, but when this fruit has turned from green to yellow, the flesh and seeds are ready to be eaten. For the uninitiated, the ripening jackfruit has an odour which has been compared to the smell of rotting onions. What? Really?? If that's the case, then I love the smell of rotting onions....

The jackfruit tree is impressive in size and can grow to roughly 60 feet (18.29 m) tall. I bet you didn't know that the fruit itself is the LARGEST fruit in the world, did you?. It can weigh up to 80 pounds (36.29 kg) and be up to 3 feet (.91 m) long! That's slightly more than half my weight and height, peeps and I'm not exactly dainty.

When the jackfruit is opened, you can see numerous sweet, banana-like bulbs, and most people (me included) find them quite delicious. Some jackfruits have a crunchy rather than mushy texture, and can be used in desserts, salads and even as a savoury dish. Once you're done eating the flesh, don't throw away the seeds for they can be roasted or boiled and taste somewhat like chestnuts.

One thing I definitely don't enjoy doing is cutting and preparing the jackfruit as it's very sticky and "glue-like". Most people oil their hands to prevent some of the stickiness from transferring to their hands, but washing up afterwards is still a chore. Even though the fruit tastes heavenly, the smell, yes the SMELL of the rotting onions stay on your hands for quite a long time... eeewwww.

Ginger-Cinnamon Cookies

Here's another sweet treat I made for my bratty friends this morning ;-). The taste of the ginger and cinnamon nicely complemented each other and everything was held together with golden syrup and butter (below). Yummms....

Cute little dots of cookie batter.

I had no time to be fancy with this, I only had about 40 minutes before I had to get out of the house! All that hurriedness, and I was early while they were LATE. Again.

Hope you enjoyed them, guys!

Next time, they will be more chewy, I promise.

Mocha Macaroons

My weekly lunch with friends from my ex-workplace (different from my ex-colleagues) took place today, and being the spoiled people that they are - in the nicest possible way, of course - I brought along some sweet treats for them to bring back to the office post-lunch. My homebaked gift of choice were the devilishly delicious mocha macaroons and ginger-cinnamon cookies. They were a breeze to make and after eating a mere few of these, I knew my friends would have to sweat extra hard at the gym over the next few days... haha, sorry guys, for this pure and unadulterated sabo attempt!

This macaroon batter contained egg whites, caster sugar, ground almonds, instant coffee and melted  chocolate. No holds barred.

Right before they go in the oven

~Macaroona, Macaroona, Macaroo-na!~