My comfort foods

We all have our comfort foods that somehow give us immense pleasure when eaten, especially when we are not having a good day. Here are mine:

1) Thosai :

Thosai is a crepe made from lentils and rice blended with water and left to ferment overnight. Normally served with curry, chutney and other condiments. I learnt to like thosai after I got tired of the common roti canai (an Indian flat bread), but it is impossible to find thosai in Lahad Datu today. There used to be a place selling it but no longer.


2) Har Gow:

Har gow are a type of dim sum that are made up of prawns, seasonings plus some other veges such a bamboo shoots and wrapped in a gluton-free wheat flour based wrapper and steamed in a small bamboo basket. The perfect har gow's wrapper will not break up when picked up with chopsticks, and the filing should be slightly chewy but not mushy. I am still on my quest to find the perfect har gow. Not many have even came close.


3) Fish and Chips :

Fish and chips needs no introduction right? You know what's the problem with the fish and chips served in Malaysia? The accompanying sauce. It should be a tartare sauce, not some white stuff made mostly from mayo. Restaurants here in Sabah almost always serve a mayo based sauce and when I ask for tartare sauce, the waiter sort of have that glazed look in his eyes... and those fish & chips serve up by the Greek chips shop in Melbourne Australia? Terrible!


4) Cream of Mushroom Soup :

I have always liked cream of mushroom soup. Best one I have ever had was in this little restaurant at Kinabalu Pine Resort. The mushrooms they used are the fresh ones grown just across the road on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu. Heaven.


5) Dried Pork:

Dried pork or Bakkwa are thin sheets of meat made of barbecued pork, salt, sugar, seasonings. Very similar to beef jerky but not as tough. A very highly addictive snack. I once finished a kilo of this in one night and my cholesterol level was shot to hell.


6) Fried Scallops & Chips :

The Greek chips shop in Melbourne serve one helluva fried scallops & chips. The scallops are almost the size of hockey pucks and are juicy and tender. Scallops in Sabah? Size of poker 20 sens coins.


7) Char Siew Pow :

Char Siew Pow is a white steam bun filled with mince pork with various spices and seasonings. Best when they just came off the steamer. About the size of a small apple, one can polish of 10 of these if one is really hungry.


8) Four & Twenty Chicken Pie :
I had zillions of this during my five years in Melbourne. A lot of people prefer the normal 4&20 meat pie but not me. The meat pie is too salty, while the chicken pie is just right, and great for cold winter nights. Can't get them in Malaysia at all.


9) KFC Coleslaw :

I love the simple coleslaw they have at KFC. I nicked this photo from KFC USA menu. The Malaysian version does not have the green stuff.


10) Curry Mee :

Noodles with a curry gravy, served with chicken meat, prawns, fried bean curd, and other yummy stuff. People like their curry mee with sambal, but for me, a dash of lime juice is good enough. Still has not found my perfect curry mee though.


11) Beef noodles :

Noodles in beef and soup. The trick is in the beef. Get the right meat texture and everything falls into place.


12) McDonald's Filet O'Fish :
My ultimate comfort food? The Filet O'Fish! I first had it in 1980 when the first McD opened in Singapore. I once polished off five of this over one night.

The best thing thing about it is consistency. I had Filet O'Fish in Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Genting Highlands (all in Malaysia). I had it overseas in the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and China. They will be the same in terms of taste and ingredient quality.