Merdeka Open House 2009: My Sweet Malaysia Round up

Updated 14 Sept 2009

Erina from Penang of Sembang and Talk, made this Red Bean Soup but she added a special ingredient inside which is alkaline dumpling. My mom does this too! It makes the soup super smooth and the chewy dumpling bits added great texture to the soup. Yeah this is a late entry due to streamyx issue. Thanks Erina for the effort even though you're so busy now.

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Updated 12:31pm

I'm so daft hahaha I've put in everyone's entries except mine!!! So here we go I added mine right at the end.

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Just like our previous open house, let's pay respect to our country first by singing the National anthem - Negaraku.

NEGARAKU

Negaraku
Tanah tumpahnya darahku
Raykat hidup
Bersatu dan maju
Rahmat bahagia
Tuhan kurniakan
Raja kita
Selamat bertakhta

Rahmat bahagia
Tuhan kurniakan
Raja kita
Selamat bertakhta


This is the fourth installment of Merdeka Open House that I've hosted. I'm glad that I soldiered on this year even though I was a bit lazy earlier and now I'm really swamped with work. It's really crazy busy!

For our first open house, we came up with the theme Recipe Long Forgotten where we made recipes of our grandparents era. The subsequent year we have a Muhibbah themed affair. Last year we have a fantastic Mee and My Malaysia with a record of 27 entries.

This year we're going on a very sweet theme of My Sweet Malaysia. Actually I would really apologise for choosing this theme without knowing there will be a shortage of sugar in the country. It's funny but I guess someone's hoarding the load to inflate the price for the start of our festive seasons.

Without further adieu, let's sweeten up this 52nd Independence Day (Hari Merdeka Ke-52) with the following entries that I've received...

FoodnTravella of Kuala Lumpur made some Sweet & Colorful Glutinous Rice Balls for the occasion. In Cantonese, they're known as Tong Yuen or for the Nyonya it's Kuih Ee. These glutinous rice balls are served with sugar syrup. Do check FoodnTravella's version of the colourful glutinous rice balls.

Jin Hooi who is residing in Melbourne owns Smell & Taste Are My Memory attempted Ondeh-ondeh. I love how I could stuff one whole ondeh-ondeh inside my mouth waiting for the burst of gula melaka!




Lianne of Imbi n Itchy has recently married and shifted to Ahaus, Germany came up with a beautiful Honeycomb Cake. I tell ya, it's not easy to achieve the honeycomb texture but she had done it so well. Atta girl!



Alice hails from Malaysia and blogs at Bits of Taste. She concocted our fave dessert of Sago Gula Melaka. It's hard to say no to this dessert of pearly grains topped with thick gula melaka syrup and creamy fresh coconut milk.



We have our second Onde-onde recipe submitted. Sam residing in Adelaide, Australia blogs at Come Have a Bite made these lovely chewy textured balls coated with grated coconut with a melted gula melaka filling.



Nyonya Food is a very young blog even though it's owner has been blogging at a different blog for years. She's very famous and this Penang lass stays in Irvine, CA, USA. Yes, I know she hardly make sweet stuff but I can count on her to cook up something for My Sweet Malaysia. She submitted one of Malaysian's favourite tong shui (sweet soup), Bee Koh Moy (Bubur Pulut Hitam).




Another USA resident but from Pennsylvania, Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets submitted Kuih Koci. This kuih is wrapped individually with banana leave and once you open the parcel, you'll find the kuih of glutinous rice flour with a gula melaka flavoured grated coconut filling.


Tummywise from Penang cooked up a delish looking Kaya, a spread made of coconut milk and eggs. Seriously, I could hardly find anyone who makes their own kaya these days as it's rather tedious to keep stirring the concoction for hours :P since we could easily buy them off the shelves but of course homemade ones can't beat the commercial kaya. Well done Tummywise!

Sam of Adelaide, Australia sent me a second submission. This round she made a Kuih Bakar. I'm not really a kuih fan but I liked this kuih bakar. Perhaps the action of baking make it really fragrant coupled with the usage of pandan juice got me hooked.


I would like to apologise to Little Chef of Yau Tuck Sek from Kuala Lumpur for rejecting her entry earlier as her Mama's Moist Chocolate Cake is not something traditional. I was in a dilemma actually but what the heck, we'll accept this huh in the spirit of Merdeka. This is her Ma Ma's recipe which looked so simple to make, perhaps I should try this one of these days.


Ching of Little Corner of Mine resides in Colorado Springs, CO, USA, made everybody's favourite Red Bean Soup but her version have homemade glutinous rice balls also known as tong yuen which add a rather Q texture to the soup.


I tell ya, I always look forward to Kong Kay's submission cos he always spring me surprises. Who can forget the year he submitted the sago worms??? That post was a hit with foreign bloggers! Kong Kay from Kuching made a very very apt dish this time to celebrate Malaysia's 52nd birthday. A T'nee Mee Sua (Sweet Longevity Tread Noodle) is basically mee sua served in sugar syrup with red hard boiled egg. According to him, this noodle is a traditionally served to the elders in Hokkien households where the daughter-in-law would need to cook this up in the morning and serve it ala tea ceremony. Do hop over to his blog to view the step-by-step guide to make this special dish.


Thanks to Sugar & Spice for kicking my butt this year to make this open house a success. If not for her, I would just let this year go by just like that. Sugar & Spice from Kuala Lumpur blogs at Masala Heaven made a very delicious and creamy Kulfi. Seriously, I never realise Kulfi is so easy to make!!! Do you think this will be nicer if made in an ice-cream maker? I've been itching to lay my hands on one of this machines!


Dedicated mummy, Sue Momster from Kuala Lumpur who blogs at Cookingmomster made these beautiful Kuih Gula Hangus (Steamed Caramel Cakes). I can imagine sinking my teeth into these soft cakes with sweet caramel taste.


Reese from Boston sent me the recipe for Kek Pisang (Banana Bread) which I've posted on my blog on her behalf. Thanks Reese for the lovely looking loaves.


From Vancouver, BC, Canada, Angie of Sea Salt With Food cooked up Bubur Ca Ca. Bubur Ca Ca is another Malaysian favourite tong shui (sweet soup). Capt'n Hook will be crazy enough to drive to Pulau Tikus, Penang for a bowl!





Hahaha Sam of Come Have a Bite equalled my record with 4 entries! She made two tong shuis (sweet soup) - Sweet Potatoes Soup and Bubur Cha Cha! Thanks Sam for being such a sport ;-). I hope you can break this record next year!


Newly wed Daphne from Perth, Australia who blogs at More Than Words made Bubor Char Char as well. Told ya it's a Malaysian favourite, so good enough that there were a total of 3 entries!


Pei-Lin who was studying in USA but should be back home in time for Merdeka celebration blogs at Dodol & Mochi. I'm impressed that she took the effort to make Tambun Biscuits (Tau Sar Beng). I guess when you're overseas and crave for some, the only way is to make them yourself huh but for us who stays in the country really take these widely available biscuits for granted heh :p


By now Nate and Annie from House of Annie should be settling down in Kuching. I can't imagine how they manage to cough up with a Honeydew Sago dessert in the midst of packing. I guess it must be so hot that they have to make one to cool themselves down. Well, I wish both of them great new adventures especially in terms of the discovery of Sarawakian food.







Baking Quinn who is currently in Adelaide, Australia made it just in time for the event. She blogs at Quinn's Baking Diary. She submitted two entries. One of them is Angku Kuih in the shape of Disney's characters! She uses her Peranakan grandmother's recipe. The next entry is Kuih Seri Muka which is basically steamed coconut milk infused glutinous rice topped with a sweet pandan custard. I recently tasted a good Seri Muka at my cousin's wedding party, she got them from Lulu Kueh (you can find the kiosks at various malls).


Lisa all the way from Netherlands of Lekker lekker lekkerste made one of my fave kuih raya - Kuih Makmur. I liked it just the way she did... the pleasure of the sweet melt-in-the mouth dough followed by the exploding texture of crushed peanuts!








On my side, I've made my favourite kind of doughnut, Kuih Keria that is made up of sweet potatoes. For prosperity, I've cooked up a pot of 8 Treasure Tong Shui (Sweet Soup), something very different from the ordinary red or green beans.


Thank you to all participants for being such a sport to cook up such a feast. To the readers who feasted their eyes on our virtual open house, thanks for coming by. Till the next installment of Merdeka Open House, Selamat Hari Merdeka to all Malaysians.



Note: I've merely crop your pics into squares so that they looked uniform. Hope you don't mind.





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