Who says Gawai only happens in Sarawak?? Aussie also can k... :P
So after months and months of anticipation, *cough*ReubenStephSherwynnaBryanshouldknow*cough*, the big day finally arrived. Started of with journeying all the way to Inala (1 hour bus ride from where I live) to go get the ingredients for food with Bryan and Uyen on the Saturday morning before the dinner.
On Monday morning (the big day), before uni started, I got up to marinade the pork. So I marinade it with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, soya sauce and pepper... I was pretty happy with the smell. It smelt perfect like home... :)
After uni that day, Bryan came over and we started marinading the chicken for the pansuh and prepared the belacan paste. Because we didn't have pestle and mortar, we had to improvise with a Smirnoff bottle filled with water and a chopping board...
Aren't we smart? Haha!! I actually had to pound my pork marinade as well, I felt so bad, 'cause I didn't wanna wake my housemates up. But apparently I didn't make a sound.... LOL! When Bryan was pounding the belacan paste, if you close your eyes, you could just imagine that you're being transported back home... plus the smell really enhanced the experience as well!!
By the way, I REALLY did throw the garlic!! Just to set the record straight!
I have to say that the ayam pansuh (chicken) was really good, considering the fact that we couldn't find turmeric leaves, or tapioca leaves, or bamboo. Instead of cooking it in bamboo as it suppose to be, we improvised again with aluminum foil.
Maybe more salt should have been added, but the lemongrass, garlic and ginger was really strong... So it was good. :D
Oooh, did I mentioned we managed to find kangkung? Yup, you guessed it! That's belacan kankung there, cooked to perfection by our chef, Bryan Wee! It was the most popular among our friends, well done!! :D
That's the pork you see cooking there! We tried to make babi bakar, but obviously this is the closest thing you can get to babi bakar without a fire. For a first try, it was really very good. I was surprised I managed to pull it off!
End of product! Of course only the best part of the pork was used... the BELLY!!! :)
Because it was also Kaamatan, it should only be right to have some Sabahan dish... This is guo tie, made by Steph... She says it's appropriate 'cause she's Sino Kadazan... ookayyy Stephhh... Haha! It was sooo good tho!
Dinner set on the table, babi bakar, belacan kangkung, ayam pansuh in aluminum foil, ulam (cucumber and cincalok sauce) and guo tie which was being warmed up at the moment this photo was taken...
And of course, what's a celebration without people eyy? I would say we did a good job considering there were no left overs... Yummmmy!!
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