Keropok Lekor in Jubail, Saudi

Date : 19 February 2015

Heard that one of our fellow Malaysian here take orders for Keropok lekor here in Jubail. We ordered 25 pieces of Keropok lekor which cost us 50 Riyal - 2 Riyal each. After 1 day of ordering, the keropok lekor finally arrived. 

But no keropok lekor sauce provided. After google-ing, I found a few recipes for the sauce and I combined them together. This is my version of the sauce - Terengganu style

Ingredients:

Half Gula Melaka (Nissang in Terengganu dialect)

3 Tablespoons Blended Dried Chili

2 Tablespoons Tamarind juice (add water to tamarind paste to get juice)

2 Tablespoons Vinegar

1 Tablespoons Corn flour (diluted in water)

1 teaspoon of salt to taste

2 Cups Water

**Note - Gula melaka is not available in Saudi. You will have to bring from Malaysia. I got mine from my neighbour kak Maya who has quite plenty of the Gula Melaka. Alternatively, you may substitute with brown sugar for the caramalised taste.

** Tamarind paste could be found at asian stores in Jubail.

Cooking Instructions:

1. Place the Gula Melaka in a saucepan with water. Allow the Gula Melaka to dilute.

2. Add on blended chili, tamarind juice, vinegar, salt and cook at medium heat for 3 minutes.

3. Add cornflour and stir until the sauce thinkens.

4. Wait until the sauce has cooled down if you want to keep in a container for future dippings.

I deep-fried the Keropok Lekor. Sliced them into bite-sized pieces for my children to eat. Ok let's eat. Yummsss.

My family loves the keropok lekor and enjoy every bits of it. Might have to consider ccoking the keropok lekor as it might be cheeper cooking at home. Bye for now. 



Note : Lekor or Keropok lekor is a traditional fish cracker snack for the Malay people in the county of Terengganu, Malaysia.^[1][2] It is also called fish sausage, fish stick, or fish fritters. It is made from fish and sago flour and seasoned with salt and sugar. It is slightly greyish in colour and tastes fishy  [ Information sourced from Wikipedia]

Asam Pedas for Dinner

18 February 2015


I cooked Asam Pedas i.e Hot Asam Fish today. Was cleaning through the kitchen wardrobe and found the Adabi Asam Pedas paste which I sent to hubby last year which is still unused. Was thinking that might as well that I cook simple Malaysian delicacies for today by using this ready made paste. 


The recipe to cook Asam Pedas from scratch is pretty simple actually. We inherited the recipe from my late grandmother (Nenek Uteh) and also my grandmother (Nenek Endon ) as my family originated from Melaka. Asam pedas is my parent's favourite dish. I really missed the Asam Pedas that my mom, my neneks, my auntie cook already. Sigh..

The kitchen wardrobe full  with lots and lots of ready made paste which I posted to my hubby before this. Well it's time to cook and finish up all these. There are many Adabi pastes, Brahim's pastes. Waaaaa so many treasures for lazy people like me. 

Adabi ready made Asam Pedas paste that I've found.

Frozen "daun kesom". This fragrant leaves is an essential ingredient to cook Asam Pedas. It 
has to be frozen since it is not available in Jubail and was brought from Malaysia. Courtesy by my neighbour kak Hasni who gave this packet to me. ( The benefit that I get when the compound neighbours are all Malaysian - just a shout for help or WhatsApp away and the ingredients is delivered- yeay!) Thank you kak Hasni and Suzy for the help. 

You can also bring the dried version of daun kesom as well. 


Tips : You should bring loads of Daun Kesom from Malaysia as a stock if you like to eat Asam Pedas ok!

To cook the dish using readymade paste is super duper simple. Heat up the cooker, then saute the onions until browning. Add fish, asam keping and vegetables. I used eggplant, but the original recipe uses ladies finger. Pour in water and wait until boiled. Include tomato if you like. Season with a pinch of salt and sugar for taste. Tadaaaa... it is that easy and now ready to eat.

The look of my cooked Hot Asam Fish dish.

I will update the inherited Asam Pedas menu when i had the chance to cook it. For now, will have to finish up all those paste treasures in the wardrobe first. 

"Ready Made Paste- Life made easy". haha

Air conditioning units installed

Date : 17 February 2015


Weehoooo. We had our air conditioning (AC) installed at our home last night. Alhamdulillah we bought 3 sets of second hand aircond units from one of our fellow Malaysian who is about to go back to Malaysia for good (final exit). Bought the AC at 250 Riyal each. Alhamdulillah that price is considered the cheepest in town. Normally price for a new AC unit is 1500 Riyall ++ or the single typed AC. Whilst second hand AC units bought from second hand shop ranges around 700 Riyal onwards per unit.


We were lucky that we managed to grab the AC from our friends. Went to their house to view items that they wanted to letgo which is quite a lot but my husband had already bought some of them before we came to Saudi. Dangggg not our rezq to get cheeper priced item. 


Some of the good bargain items are a king sized bed with matress complete with matching wardrobe, 2 Single beds with mattresses, vacuum cleaner, full room U-shaped sofa set which is super nice, fridge and also dining table. Well, basically all basic amenities needed for a new comer. We only grabbed 3 out of 6 AC units, Electric stove + electric oven, water dispenser unit as the above good bargain items has been bought earlier at new price. Dangg... Imagine how much money could be saved for saving purposes or a brand new handbag (perhaps - haha I vowed not to be spendtrift anymore since 2 years back, so no new handbag certainly).


Tips - for new expatriates coming to saudi, try not to buy new items as it is very expensive. We will be staying away for a while anyway - not forever. If you are looking for furnitures, household appliances - buy from seniors on final exit or at second hand shops which is widely availble throughout your locality. Or if you fancy online shopping, you can  browse  http://www.expatriates.com/classifieds/riy/appliances. But of course buy at your own risk lorrr  as those are second hand items.


Ok, coming back to the AC story, the electrical shop picked the AC sets from our friend's house and did some servicing before delivering the AC sets to our home. All in we were charged 300 Riyal for the servicing, installation and delivery. 


Total cost 750 Riyal + 300 Riyal + 20 Riyal generous tips by hubby for the AC set.


Owh owh.. if you haven't noticed, the AC set that we bought is a single AC set. Hubby said that single AC sets is more widely used here in saudi. No need piping and the installation is pretty simple. Just plug them in the ready made holes/ allocated area for the AC and wallah... it is ready to use. **Note - most Saudi houses already has allocated holes on the walls.


There are several types of AC that are widely used at homes in Saudi

• (i) Window Airconditioner - which is what we had i.e 1 lumpsum set will all the components enclosed in a single box.
• (ii) Split Airconditioner - the normal aircond that we normally have in Malaysia whereby it comproses of 2 parts - indoor and outdoor
• (iii) Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) - whereby both Air conditioner and Heater set embeded on a same unit

Yeay... We are now ready to face summer time. I am not normally an aircond type of person. I prefer natural air or the most a fan. But, my hubby as well as neighbours said that it could go up to 50 Degree heat in summer. Yikesss.. It will be burning if it is really that hot. Here are some photos about my aircond.

The aircond already being placed in its casket.

This is how the cage to place the single unit aircond looks like.  Without the cage, that is an empty- see through space on the wall.

My hubby placed a plank box to cover up the hole on the wall. In Saudi, most houses has been drilled with holes to fix the AC unit. 

Without the AC attached, we would hear the wind whistles every time it blows. haha scaryyyyy.

We bought the aircond set from this family - Kak Norma's family. Thank you so much for letting go the many many items to us (fress items too..muahsss).  Attached on the wall is the original unit from its original origin. haha. 

Notice the glowy item on the floor? That's a heater. We get that for free. Will blog about heater sets after this later. Heaters are essential for us at the moment as the temperature is still cold here in Saudi.

We are sorry dear pigeon. Had to close the hole to insert our aircond unit as summer is approaching. Do find other place to build your nest, ok.

Trip to Jubail market

Date : 6 February 2015 (Friday)

We went to the market for the first time. The market is huge with several areas such as vegetables, fish market, meat market and a few others areas. 

We went there with kak Maya and her daugther. Faiq do not want to follow as it is 7.30am in the morning and he wanted to play xbox with his friend, Qashi - kak Maya's youngest son.

The market is situated near a Saudi Army based camp and it took us estimated 7 mins to reach there from our house by car. The road where the market is situated is King Faisal East Road.

I bought some fresh prawns, squids and fish on this very first market trip. Listed below are the details of what we get for our fridge.

(i) 1 kg fresh water Prawn @ 45 Riyal per kilo - the prawns are fresh and of the size of typical "udang harimau" in Malaysia.. yumsss
(ii) 1 kg Squid @ 25 Riyal per kilo
(iii) Fish = we bought 2kg ikan "selar" ( will update the name later) @ 10 Riyal per kg; 1 kg Ikan "Kerisi" @ 12 Riyal per kg and 1 whole Baracuda fish (according to kak Maya, the Baracuda is nice being cooked in Curry brooth, which I did cook and hubby loves it - will update the recipe in another post ok peeps !!).

Total cost for all the fresh Seafood is 130 Riyal. Which is reasonable for such fresh seafoods. I am happy with the trip. Yeay!


** Note : What triggerd the trip to the market? It is simply because a few days before this date, I followed kak Maya to mini Panda which is 5 mins walk from our house and bought myself 1 packet of frozen shrimp. I wanted to cook something seafoodish as we have been eating eggs, meat and chicken only since our 1st day we arrived in Saudi which was 2 weeks back.

MashaAllah, the price is 29 Riyal for a small-medium sized packet. The shrimp is stale, not fresh, frozen with lots of ice coating each shrimp - which initially gave me an impression of a big sized- shrimp. After being thawed, the size is very very small. Yes, the shrimp has been cooked and has been de-shelled - but why soo small mehh??!!  So that is why my husbund and I decided to buy seafoods straight from the market from then on. Am not complaining - only stating out my unmet expectation.

Ok here are some pictures to savour about my 1st market experience in Saudi. Enjoy!

Baby is still sleeping when we brought her to the market - hence the milk bottle picture is there.

The Army base camp nearby the market 

They even have a Fish auction area. By the time we get there all fish were sold out - khalas.  

Medium sized squid which is like 50 times the normal size of squid that I normally eat in Malaysia. I only bought the small ones as am too afraid to eat the big ones. gagagaga

Kak Maya brought us straight the shop that Malaysian normally buy fish . Why? because they understand some Malay and can converse in English well. Shop number #68. and #64 ( which we did not went on that day) 

The long fish is Baracuda Fish. I bought 1 whole fish and cooked Fish Curry. Yummsss. My hubby loves the curry. Yeay!

My 1kg squid being prepared by the fish monger.  

Bought 1 kg of 'Ikan Kerisi as well and cooked "Ikan belah belakang dish" with this fish. 

There are a few Philipino/asian restaurant available around the market area for those who wanted to eat freshly cooked seafood. Mainly male are seen eating.   

  

Frozen prawn at mini Panda. Do not be tempted by 'big' illusion. Once the ice surrounding each prawn melted the size of each prawn is beyond comparable. (too small i mean). Sobs sobs. Felt cheated.