Challenge Accepted

A few weeks back, one of dear SRB's colleagues who's staying at the Shangri La Hotel invited a bunch of us for a dinner at the hotel's restaurant that was hosting a Malaysian Festival - Malaysian food, Malaysian traditional dances, basically that whole 'Malaysia Truly Asia' showcase lah. We're thrilled of course, dalam kepala dah terbayang sate, laksa, bubur kacang merah, etc but to be honest, the food turned out to be a bit of a disappointment even though they were prepared by Malaysian chefs flown from Shangri La Malaysia, but oh well, better than nothing kan.

One of SRB's American colleagues who used to work and live in Malaysia for quite some time back in the early 90's was also very happy and excited to be eating Malaysian food again that night - "Makan timeeee", he said. Rupanya his wife later told me that he's been a big fan of beef rendang ever since he first had it in Malaysia almost a decade ago and not only that, she also asked me to teach her how to cook rendang so she could sort of surprise her husband. Say whattt? Me teach you cook rendang, like, manually? Not from Brahims packet or something like that? Ngaaaaa...

I have never in my life masak rendang from scratch, it has always been one of those complicated dishes that I categorized as 'tau-makan-je', so really, wrong person to ask m'am! But I thought it was beyond sweet of her, an elderly American, to want to learn how to cook a dish from a totally different culture just to make her husband happy that I didn't have the heart to completely say no. So as Barney in HIMYM would say it - CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Hehe.

Asked my mom for the recipe, decided to try and cook it myself first before ada hati nak ajar orang plak kan, and tadaaa...

First attempt berjaya yeehaaa! Tasted just like my mom's, if not better (ewahhh takkan nak lawan tokey plak kan hihi). Hopefully the next time around it will turn out as good, if not, aduiii malu lah daku sebagai tenaga pengajar hehe =p