Today’s lump or two of kwailo food hackery is claypot lao shi fun for the main course with acar as a dessert. What’s that, acar is not a dessert? OK, I know that now, but this was Kwailo Lumpur’s first impression, kan? You can’t tell me this cute car above isn’t sweet, surely?
A picture of Claypot L S Fun could never compete with the one above, which embodies my so-called dessert’s pun. I’m not sure I’ve put all my sense of fun into this piece on lao shi fun below here, but that’s probably the point, as I consider it to be a comfort food. Compared to chillies especially, bland is cool.
I’d even nominate this claypot dish to be one of at least four national dishes, to represent the several main communities living here; either lao shi fun or lei cha – yes, really, as I’ll explain later in the lei cha post.
Claypot Lao Shi Fun
It could be another word for everything you’d want in a meal: marinated minced pork, half-raw egg to stir in, shiitake mushrooms and dry, springy noodles. Get that down yer neck lah!
With pieces of pork crackling as well, it’s comfort food for the generations. I tell everyone about this dish, but is it really rats’ tails I’m eating or semi-opaque tail-shaped noodles?
The tiny pieces are easy to entertain, flash-cooked hot enough to caramelise the bits on the bottom a little, soy- and sesame-seasoned. Stir-in egg, raw for seconds, keeps the noodles from burning.
I swear there’s something else going on in this single-pot dish; the proof’s in the eating. Something comes out in the steam and that smoky smell (while also pulling you in) that escapes when you uncover it.
It had been a while since I’d had any acar (or since I'd driven a car for that matter), so I bought some from my local banana leaf, Murthy’s Mathai near Taipan. Writing these pieces has been great for plugging me back into several foods in that way.
If Acar hasn’t changed a lot in the last few years, it must be my tastebuds that have. I find it quite dramatic, the difference; I’m thinking of salted egg and fried lettuce too – major revelations to me, both of them begging to be adopted into UK consumption.
The first time for tasting many things, is the light switch that can’t be found again.
A Poem for Acar
I like acar: the tangy pineapple
plus cucumber, carrot, white vinegar,
salt. This pickle trips your tongue
and tilts things sideways up.
Happily, I haven’t tried the one
with prawns and fish stomach (I don’t think
I could stomach it). I know prawn paste’s
the answer to all life’s problems, but still…
Let’s not confuse it with the Hindi word
for OK or aha: acha. Acar’s better
than OK, by far. Get off your murtabak
and get into acar. Start it up
and it’ll get you there; enjoy the ride.
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