Exotic Goodness #1

Hello everyone!! Happy New Year and welcome to 2018, time sure does fly doesn't it? I hope everyone of you had a wonderful New Year's party and are ready to rock 2018, as for me I will start to introduce the beauty of East Malaysia (Mainly Sabah). Today I am going to share a few exotic food that I have tasted from Sabah, there are many more from what I am about to share but don't want to overload you guys with information.

Tuhau

This when it is freshly harvested from the plant.

His mum removing the outside on the Tuhau and revealing the pink and white Tuhau meat.

A fragrant vegetable that has a strong fragrant pungent tart taste to it, the plant can be easily mistaken as the 'Bunga Kantan' plant or 'Ginger Flower' plant. This wondrous vegetable is very popular among Sabahans as a side dish in various meals like, Mee Hoon Soup, Ngiu Chap, and incorporated into daily cooking. Most food stalls in Sabah offers a tub of Tuhau along side with some local sambal and vinegar on the tables instead of the conventional Soy Sauce and Chilli Padi, the pickled Tuhau adds a slight sour-ness to each dish, I never thought that it could be this delicious with every meal. 

Fun fact, I've learn from my boyfriend (which is a local Sabahan Dusun) is that this plant can only be found in the hutan aka jungle but most families who live in kampung will have it planted around the house. He also told me that this is one of the 'Sayur Kampung' that they could get their hands on when times were bad and they had no money, among other vegetables that they can forage from the hutan. 

Tourist can also buy Sambal Tuhau ready on the road side stalls on the road from KK to Tambunan, i believe there are other places too, but can only get the fresh ones from markets or locals.

# Delicious as samba tuhau, cooked with soup and other dishes too #

Here's a simple recipe I can share will all of you, as this is how I like it.

* Use the back of the knife to break the Tuhau

* Use an acidic base, either Lime(Limau Nipis) or Clear Vinegar. Pour until 60%-70% of the Tuhau is submerge in the acidic base

* add 1-2 Chilli Padi (depends on how spicy you like yours to be)

* add salt & ajinomoto 

Here's a tip add and taste as you go, if it is too sour pour in some water to neutralise the sourness, it should be a good balance of sour and saltiness.

Let me know if you guys gave this a try and do share with me your experience, I would love to hear about it!

Thank You for reading!!
See ya on my next post on another exotic dish!
xoxo