This super easy chicken soup will make you feel warm all over.
A few of our friends here hail from Sarikei, a town about 5 hours’ drive from Kuching. They are quite proud of their town, especially of some of their well-known food products such as mee sua noodles, Sarikei pineapples, and kompia bread. What really piqued our interest, though, was mention of the special “Sarikei chicken”.
Simple ingredients, combined in a delicious, easy to make dish for weekday meals.
Now that Annie and I are both working, we have a helper, Jessie, who picks the kids up after school a few days a week, brings them home, and tidies up the house a bit before we come back from work. She has been a real blessing to us! Jessie was recommended to us by one of our friends, who buys lunch dishes from her. It turns out that she is also a pretty good cook!
One evening, Jessie let us try a sample of her braised squash with lemongrass. It was so delicious! When she told us how easy it was to make, we decided we would have to try to make it ourselves.
Here’s another quick and easy dish I learned to make here in Kuching.
Cangkuk Manis (“Chong-cook Ma-Niss”, meaning sweet leaf) or Mani chai in Hokkien is a vegetable that is very common here in Kuching. As a matter of fact, the same day that we arrived here and were introduced to paku, we also got introduced to Cangkuk Manis. Its texture when cooked is like spinach, but without the bitterness. This vegetable has a natural sweetness to it (which is why it’s name has the word “manis” – meaning sweet – in it).
“Guess what I’m craving?”
I asked Nate this the other day. The only time I say this is when I’m craving fried chicken so it was a no-brainer that Nate responded with, “Fried chicken! …KFC?”
I almost said yes to KFC but when I thought about it, I responded, “maybe I’ll just fry some chicken at home. Some belacan fried chicken?” “Yum!” was his reply. (yeah, he’s so not typically American—doncha just love him?!?).
Annie is mistress of the kitchen while Nate is the master of the grill and smoker. We cook the homestyle Asian and Hawaiian foods of our younger days while also exploring the wider worlds of Western foods.
Learn more about us by clicking here: About House of Annie.
