Curry at Na Na Fish Head Curry Restaurant.

Figure 1.0

Curry for dinner! That's a tremendous reason behind on why out of sudden curry was struck to my mind and craving for it for my dinner. Was spending my sweet time at home on a lazy Monday where everyone was busy with their work at own cubicle at office. The feeling was awesome though people often called it as "Monday Blue". I would say life is great why not making your everyday colorful? Even a "Blue" day you should also make it great too because it is not just something black and white exist in your life.

It was so great that when looking out from the windows, only those houses with maids or housewives busy with their house chores and nothing more than that you could see except a peaceful garden or park. When it was noon, around the time for usual typical Asian lunch time (12 ‐ 1pm), you could start to smell various types of dishes flowing from the window. The smell of spices flowing from my neighborhood was a strong and thick Curry smell! That's the reason which makes me searching for curry as my dinner after all.

I remember my friend once rattle on how impressive the curry from Na Na Fish Head Curry restaurant was, then I decided to travel all the way to the restaurant at Marina South in Tanjong Pagar.

They have ala carte and set meals. So I ordered their set meal as it seems more worth it with a complete set of drink. From the look of the curry dish itself, it looks not as spicy as expected, but when you taste on it the spiciness is hot to the max, especially their red curry. Maybe it taste very spicy for me but not for those who able to take high level of spiciness. They have 2 types of curry, one is yellow curry and another type is red curry. Yellow curry is the mild type of curry, while the red one is more spicy type.

Therefore, we decided to order two different types of curry to give it a try. However, for me it's just the difference of color yellow and red, because both also taste very spicy to me.

The funny thing is the restaurant is actually famous with their Fish Head Curry, but because I don't really eat fish head, so we ordered curry fish fillet and curry chicken instead. If you like spicy then you can go for it but it is too spicy for my taste bud. I can even feel the spiciness and hotness of the curry in my stomach throughout the night after we finish the curry.

Overall we enjoy the curry in a comfort of air conditional but yet we still sweat on such cooling environment. Maybe it could make you imagine on how the spiciness beats such cooling environment.

Understand that the spiciness is due to the recipe mixture that makes the curry itself unique than other restaurant. I ever wondered that why not the restaurant come out with something special for their recipes which allow customers to choose the degree of spiciness just like how the buffalo wings customization on the level of spiciness selection. Then it would be something that everyone can try on especially those who can't take spicy food. Isn't it a great thing for consumer? Perhaps it could create a longer queue with that, as customer always prefer something special and customization based on own favorites.

Tea break at the food stalls.

Figure 1.0

Malaysia is always famous with its variety of foods. You can easily find any of the stalls around you for a tea break and with some traditional road side foods. I always love the famous traditional fruit mix with a combination recipe of the sweet and spicy sauce. It is also known as Rojak in Malay, where it means wild mix. It is a mixture of a prawn paste sauce which taste sweet and added with chili (it is optional) into a varied assortments of fruits, and also with crispy homemade biscuits. 

Usually the Rojak seller will add a lot of cucumber instead of more fruits, which I often requested to exclude cucumber, so that they could give me more fruits. We often discussed that maybe because cucumber is cheaper than fruits, so they put more cucumber so that the portion looks big, but actually with a lower cost of it. Perhaps, those smart seller with some business minded would do so.

I would normally requested to add more peanuts and the crispy fried chips, as the peanuts are finely chopped and roasted, which gives it an ample texture and a lovely crunchy bite.

Don’t mess up with another type of Rojak, because there are two types of Rojak commonly sold in Malaysia. One of the type which I described above and also shown on the photos above is adapted from the combination of Malay and Chinese cuisines, while the other type of Rojak is the Indian version. That’s the reason why Malaysia is a country with multiple races, and have various types of foods.

Not to miss out a great combination during tea time when having those nice foods with the combination of Ice Cendol. Cendol is a famous Indian traditional dessert that often sold on pushcarts during the old days, but nowadays, it is sold on a mobile small lorry. Sometime, it you are lucky, you might found a Cendol seller carrying the equipment around selling the Cendol on a bicycle, but it is rare nowadays. In case any of you do not know what is Cendol deserts, but no worries I could probably describe it in a simple way. Cendol actually contains the basic ingredients of coconut milk, green starched noodles with artificial pandan flavouring, and palm sugar (or brown sugar).

When comes to having such a great foods in Malaysia, I always never miss the chance to try on each of the stalls. We even ordered soya bean drinks, curry puff, keropok lekor, and some other Malay fried food, where we often called “gorengan”. 

Ginger Candy from Macau.

Figure 1.0

Ginger candy, also known as "姜糖" in Chinese, which bought from Macau. Ginger, by its nature, is considered a warming and spicy flavored herb that can be used against various illness caused by cold. I like ginger very much since I was small as my family often include ginger in most of the dishes cooked.

This brand of ginger candy is the hard as rock type candy, instead of like those usual chewy or gummy types. So you won't find it stick on your teeth. The candy is neither too sweet nor too spicy. It just fit the balance taste of sweetness and spiciness.

The candy is potent and less spicy. I have read from an article once that the taste of ginger candy is usually made accordingly with the season. The taste is adjusted to suit with the season, where during winter the candy is made with a spicier taste to help to warm up the body, while during summer it is made sweeter.

Ginger candy is better known for its wide variety of health benefits. The most common benefits of ginger candy is it helps with digestion and soothe your tummy, and also useful as a natural breath freshener as well. That's the reason why ginger is often used as one of the ingredient for cooking meat as it helps to give a better smell to the dish by reducing or eliminating strong meats smell.

Usually I will bring along some ginger candies in my bag, in case for an emergency use. It is great for calming an upset tummy and I also found that it’s useful for soothing a sore throat. It has become the alternative of throat lozenges. Sometimes I will just pop in one of the candy in my mouth after taking my meal, especially after eating seafood because it helps to curb with bad breath. Since decades ago in ancient China, ginger was popularly used in traditional Chinese medicine for coping with food poisoning and nausea.

Furthermore, it is adopted in reducing the toxicity of other herbs, absorbing and neutralizing the toxins in the stomach.

There is one very famous brand of ginger candy, named Ting Ting Jahe Candy which originated from Indonesia due to its excellent quality of the products.

Some of the researchers suggest that ginger may aid in lowering cholesterol, preventing clogged arteries and killing cancer cells.

Ginger candy is in fact a great way to consume the goodness of ginger, especially for those who could not stand with the sharp smell of fresh ginger. Ginger has indeed amazing healing powers and it works wonder as treatment for girl’s sickness, from morning sickness to menstrual cramps.

Since ginger consists of various health benefits, even with the consumption of ginger candy, it is still a good amount of ginger to stay healthy. Try out on the scrumptious ginger candy if you have not taste any of it before!