Ikan o ikan

Auntie baru jek on de phone with kawan auntie mamachupan lamenting how we don't have enough hours in a day to finish out work, tup, tup, auntie decide to blog plak. So, mencapai impian apex university has to take a back seat sekejap le (dan hopefully the unversity will can the idea of the VSS-like employment options for unproductive lecturers).

Sebab auntie need someone to blame for this unproductivity, auntie nak blame Ms Hart, auntie's friend, kerana memberi komen dalam auntie's last entry and tanya pasai lauk ikan yg auntie kata auntie nak masak. Hehehe.

Inilah lauk ikan tu:


Chop! Gambar tu bukan gambar sebenar lauk yg auntie masak tapi telah dicedok dari satu website. Oleh kerana camera auntie dah kong and camera AH terlalu canggih utk buat immediate download to blog, auntie kena pinjam gambar orang lain. Mintak maap la kepada tuan punya gambar yg auntie tak kenal. At least auntie boleh tolong promote ikan patin temerloh (link dia guna these words) and alas meja kaler-kaler dia.

Ikan patin masak tempoyak ialah makanan kegemaran masa kini ahli keluarga Hj Endut (kecuali Hj Endut sendiri) dan juga ahli keluarga AH. Masa kecik2 dulu we all jarang makan lauk ni. Our meals consisted mostly of nasi, ikan goreng, telur goreng dadar (ada citer interesting pasai pergaduhan auntie and satu ustaz pasai apa org putih panggil telur dadar, tapi tu nanti auntie bubuh dlm entry lain), ikan singgang or ayam goreng (on a good day). On weekends we may get to eat Wan's now famous nasi minyak and korma ayam. Tapi, as we grow older and mix and marry with people from other places, our palate has grown a bit and become a bit sophisticated. And we are sometimes introduced by our friends and spouses to lauk yg sepatutnya we all dah kenal coz our home state is famous for it. This is the case with ikan patin. Somehow, over the last few years, masak tempoyak ikan patin becomes the 'in-thing' for us. Maybe it can be attributed to Umi Ina coz auntie remembers that dia rajin masak ikan patin ni bila balik Kuantan or when we go to her house and also because her mom is a constant supplier of very good tempoyak to the family.

Satu masa dulu, TESCO and other supermarkets pun began to stock up on ikan patin so auntie pun venture into cooking ikan patin masak tempoyak for AH and family. It was a hit with everyone and we all pun become regular customers of TESCO's very cheap ikan patin. Of course, not as delicious as freshly caught ikan patin of orang asli or even the sangkar ones we got in markets in Kuantan but beggars can't be choosers. Tapi, pada satu hari ada org beli Harian Metro and ada news kata ikan patin from a kolam in Perak (sorry, org Perak) diragui kebersihannya kerana food yg diberi kepada ikan patin tu berasal dari Ms Piggy's family members. Whether dari segi hukum dia halal ke tak, tu auntie blom pi tanya mana2 ustaz la lagi tapi, we all decided not to have our dose of ikan patin from TESCO lagi coz bila auntie tanya org kat TESCO ikan patin mai mana, dia kata "Ipoh".

As a result, agak lama jugak la auntie and AH tak makan ikan patin. Bila we all balik Kuantan baru2 ni, we decided to buy ikan patin ala2 ori kat market utk bawak balik Penang. In fact, we managed to buy ikan yg hidup lagi and the fish monger actually 'sembelih' ikan tu depan we all. Masa dia slice ikan tu pun, the head and tails were still flapping. Sounds gross, but like Anthony Bourdain, we feel a kind of satisfaction thinking we'll be eating something this fresh. Kekekeke. We packed the fish (without washing to ensure freshness) into plastic bags and freeze it at Wan's home before taking it with us to Penang. Bila sampai Penang, terus, masuk freezer lagi. That's as fresh as we can get la, before cooking it for the Penang parents.

On Saturday last week, ikan telah selamat dimasak dan di enjoy. AH's dad puji masakan auntie walaupung auntie rasa lauk tu sedap because of the fresh ikan. Anyways, auntie takyah bagi resipi la coz auntie sure semua pelawat blog auntie tau macam mana nak masak tempoyak ikan ni. Cuma, walaupun Wan kata, authentically, masakan ni nak tak leh bubuh bawang (coz org ulu Pahang dulu2 takde/ or susah access to bawang), tapi auntie masuk gak sikit bawang and auntie rasa jadi lagi cun. So, what if auntie's dish is not authentic? The enjoyment is authentic, what?

Auntie ingat next time nak cuba ikan patin masak steam plak coz auntie pernah makan this dish in one conference in a hotel and tasted sooo delicious.

Oh, perut ku yg lapar (auntie puasa hari ni), sudah berkrok-krok mengingatkan lauk ni!!!!

PS: Hari tu mamachupan kata dia masak ikan jelawat masak lemak cili api. Auntie nak try to convince AH that ikan jelawat from TESCO is ok so that we can try this.

Have a nice day everyone!