Grandma's Famous Khao Jam

One great thing about coming from a "rojak" (mixed) family background is that there are so many kinds of different customs, culture, and food you can find. One of them is food; you get to eat a wide varieties (although sometimes they can taste kinda weird haha!) of food, if the elderlies are willing to share the recipe with you and perhaps even better, cook it for you.

Technically speaking, I have Chinese, Sinhalese, and Siamese blood. Therefore, that should explain my physical features, in which I don't think I look like a typical Cina guy at all. However, I always believe that I look like Wang Lee Hom haha!

Alright, I shall return to the main topic. One of my favourite dish by grandma is "khao jam".

The ingredients used in preparing khao jam.

What is khao jam?

Khao jam is Thai, which comes from two words, "khao"(rice) and "jam" (mixed together). Hence, khao jam would mean a rice dish that has all the ingredients mixed together and eaten raw. In Malay, this dish is more commonly known as nasi kerabu or "vegetable rice" and is a very popular dish in the East Coast, especially Kelantan.

My grandma knew I would be taking photos of the food, so she prepared this for me. Isn't she so sweet? *hehe* : )

The various kinds of wild herbs to be added into the rice, which includes turmeric, kaffir lime leaves, bunga kantan (ginger flower), jambu air (water apple), shallots, lemon grass, turmeric leaves, etc.

Kerisik (grated, toasted, ground coconut paste), fried dried prawns and sliced half-ripe mango are also among the ingredients used.

Not forgetting, the home-made sambal belacan to give the khao jam that extra umpphh!

For anyone who has not heard or seen this rice dish before, khao jam looks like a colourful dish, mixed with rice. The most tedious and time-consuming part in the process of preparing the dish is the collection process of the many kinds of herbs. It is either you buy them from the market, or get them from the backyard garden. There are times where some of the herbs can only be found in the wild, and they are not sold even in the market.

There is no certain rule or a tied recipe that state what herbs must be used in the dish. Most of the time, it is entirely up to the individual to include anything available. Of course, some people may have their own preferences of a certain kind of herbs to add into the khao jam, and the ingredients also slightly differ from one region to another.

Here comes the chef doing a demonstration on the preparation of khao jam.

You need a happy chef to get a delicious dish haha!



All the ingredients were added and now all that's left is to mix everything!

After all the kerabu is added into the tray, it is time to mix everything with the rice together.



This is the final result, ready to be eaten. The effort and dedication that goes into cooking this dish is truly impressive.

Some people might not be aware that making khao jam would require the leaves of so many different herbs. The actual recipe requires over 100 kinds of herbs but it is just not possible for us to get them at one time. It will certainly make the khao jam tastes so much better if more herbs are used but usually, we just use whatever herbs we can find.

Among the herbs commonly used are basil leaves, lime leaves, kaffir lime leaves, ginger leaves and pandan leaves. Other ingredients include lemon grass bulbs, long beans, bird's eye chillies, lime, bean sprouts, cucumber, onion, ginger lily, grated coconut, dried prawns, half-ripe mango, and a pinch of salt and sugar.

The reason why they need so many kinds of herbs is because people in the olden days used to live in areas that were prone to floods. The weather was cold, so they would eat this rice to ward off the chills. This dish also helps to prevent rheumatism, a medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissues.

No cooking is required for preparing this meal but trust me, I am very sure anybody who tried this will want to have a second helping.

 

As for the rice, my grandma only use normal white rice. However, there are other methods to prepare the rice, such as cooking it using juice extracted from dozens of different leaves, which will give the green-colour rice a refreshing fragrance of the leaves used. Another method of cooking the rice is by cooking the rice in the blue extract of a kind of blue flower called bunga telang in Malay. This produces the classic blue rice of nasi kerabu, which is commonly seen in Kelantan.

One difference between khao jam and nasi kerabu is found on the rice. Khao jam is cooked using the juice extracted from herbs, whereas nasi kerabu is rice mixed with finely chopped leaves. Hence, it makes khao jam more fragrant. Even though only white rice was used by my grandma this time, the finely sliced herbs are enough to give every bite suffused with a tantalising herbal fragrance. It is certainly a healthy and hearty meal, especially for people who are on diet.

Grandma almost got choked while eating, and she said one old petua is to turn the plate around several times haha! I am not sure how effective it is,
but has anyone heard of this method before?

According to this source on how khao jam came about, I found out that in the past, most Thais worked in the fields for a living, they were farmers, they farmed chilies, working from dawn till dusk, so they spent all their time in the fields, which were wet. Thus eating this would help to ward off chills. Khao Jam first gained its widespread popularity in Kelantan; and this dish is actually less common in Thailand.

For desert, she prepared another kind of dish - tok (pronounced "talk"). The dish is a combination of krayasaat, Thai traditional popped rice and gravy made of durian flesh and coconut milk like what I had last time. This time however, she prepared a different version of tok.

 Grandma grates the coconut herself using these traditional grater. The one in front was hand-made by my late grandpa.

Instead of combining the popped rice with durian gravy, she used freshly grated coconut and mixed it with the popped rice. To give the desert that extra flavour, she added a pinch of sugar and salt. The result is a wonderful desert that not only smells good, but tastes really great!

Having a bowl of tok will never be enough. I think I had at least two to three bowls of it that evening haha!

Preparing tok is as simple as ABC. Just pour all the ingredients into a tray, mix them well and it is ready to be eaten.

Before mixing the popped rice and grated coconut.

In less than five minutes, the dish is ready to be served.

So, is there anyone interested to have a homestay at my grandma's place next time?

Capitol Satay Celup In Malacca

A visit to Malacca will never be complete until you take a taste of the popular satay celup. To people out there, especially non-Malaccans, who are still in the dark what satay celup looks and tastes like, let me give a simple description of satay celup. "Satay" is an authentic Malay food of grilled marinated meats (common meat used are chicken and beef), served on bamboo skewers, usually come with spicy peanut sauce for dipping. On the other hand, "celup" means "dip" in Malay language.

Combine the two words together and that is how the name "satay celup" came about. Satay celup is served and eaten like lok lok and steamboat, except the main difference in sauce. Instead of dipping them in a pot of boiling soup, satay celup is cooked by dipping or dunking sticks of raw food into boiling pot of aromatically rich and spicy peanut sauce.

The line of people queuing-up stretches along the row of shops leading to the restaurant; people standing by the roadside with cars speeding past them.

 

The first and only time I tried satay celup was more than three years ago in December 2007, when I went down to Malacca with Michelle. It was one of our first meal together and we were joined by a few classmates of hers. Our satay celup meal was at Ban Lee Siang at Jalan Ong Kim Wee, one of the two most popular satay celup places in Malacca.

More than three years later, we decided to try another place which is just as popular as Ban Lee Siang - Capitol Satay Celup, operated by Low Yong Cheng's family. They have been in the satay celup business since the mid-1950's. His grandfather used to use a kandar stick to carry his wares in two baskets, one for fresh food and the other for the stove and sauce. That is why Capitol Satay Celup is said to be the origin of satay celup in Malacca, before places like Ban Lee Siang existed.

One down side for dining here however, is the waiting time. Capitol Satay Celup is always full of crowds, especially during weekends and public holidays. Thus, you should always expect to queue, even at ten at night. We went there on a weekday but the line was still quite long. If you count by time, the line is about half an hour.

They have also made sure that all imposters are known as that; imposters haha!

If you ask me which one I prefer more, I personally think that Capitol Satay Celup is better than Ban Lee Siang. Capitol Satay Celup, being the pioneer of satay celup in Malacca, still remains good until today. Even Michelle and her Mom, who has never come to Capitol Satay Celup agreed that Capitol Satay Celup has the edge over its rival.

Comparing Ban Lee Hiang and Capitol side by side:

Ban Lee Hiang 

• RM0.50/RM0.60 per stick. 
• No extra bonuses. 
• Limited choices of food. 
• Popular among the locals. 
• Waiting time is comparatively short; no queue, or sometimes, shorter queue. 
• Restaurant consists of two shop lots; spacious and comfortable. 
• Peanut sauce tastes milder, but has the one bit of spiciness in it. 
• No medium and big sized prawns, only small sized shrimps (one per stick). 

Capitol Satay Celup 

• RM0.80 per stick.
• Extra bonuses like big-sized prawns, squids and etc.
• Huge varieties of food; over 80 types of seafood and vegetables.
• A favourite among Singaporeans and tourists.
• Expect to queue; long queues are common and usually extremely long.
• Restaurant has only one shop lot; there are approximately 12 tables.
• Peanut sauce has stronger taste and a little sweetness; strong ginger and lemon grass taste.
• Small-sized shrimps (two per stick) are fresher, juicer and tastier.
  

Finally, we were about to get seated.

One interesting thing about dining at Capitol is how they seat you. Here, you will get your own table to sit on, no matter how big your group is, or even if you come alone. There is no sharing tables at all, unless you make a deal with the other patrons outside to share the space.

While waiting until a table is empty for you, the waitress, who are mostly foreigners but speak fluent local dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese, will come to you and ask you if you wanna have the Muar bread, which goes perfectly with the peanut sauce. The breads are exceptionally soft and fluffy, coming at eighty cents a plate. If you choose not to have the bread, you will have a plate of cut cucumber for free.

With advantages as a pioneer, and flock of food lovers dedicating great testimonials (this entry being one of them), Capitol Satay Celup has gotten a comprehensive media coverage over tens of years. Part of these media exposures are featured on their wall of fame. By the way, price of each plate type is displayed on the wall.

Once you have been assigned to a table, the waitress will ask you to go pick and choose what you want from the refrigerated counter while they clean up the table and get the sauce ready. You place all your food on a tray that can be found next to the refrigerated counter. There will be a stainless-steel pot filled with boiling curry sauce in the middle of the table into the round hole by the time you're back from selecting your food.

Underneath the table is a gas cooker to continuously warm and boil the peanut sauce. As the sauce started to boil, the waitress will then come around with two huge scoops of freshly ground peanuts, brown sugar and various herbs and spices to mix it all right in front of you. She will also keep stirring till the bottom of the pot to avoid any sedimentation of the peanut chunks in the pot.

This restaurant certainly takes some pride as the innovator of satay celup in Malacca. Third generation some more. Don't play-play arh!

The secret of satay celup lies in the peanut sauce served. It is a thick sauce and full of crunchy ground peanuts. Comprising of 22 ingredients and spices (as reported by The Star Street Food guide), including peanuts, dried chilli, onion, garlic, lemon grass, brown sugar, turmeric, galangal and sesame seeds, they are cooked together to perfection.

As the sauce started to boil, a waiter came and added in more freshly crunched peanuts and brown sugar. 

With almost 80 types of skewered food to choose from, it is common to see large group of people going back for second helping.

The food are neatly displayed and you take whatever you wanna eat. You will be charged for what you have ate, not what you have taken.

At Capitol Satay Celup, there are more than four and a half rows of food, consisting over 80 types of skewered seafood and vegetables, ranging from chicken, cockles, abalones, fish balls, cuttlefish, mushrooms, vegetables, quail's eggs, shrimps, bean curds, fried bean curds, tofu, fried dough flour or more commonly known as "yu-char-kuey". Besides the aromatic peanut sauce, the galore of food they offer here is one of the factors that makes this place attractive.

They make sure the freshness of the food are maintained by keeping them inside huge refrigerators at the back and open fridges with shelves at the dining hall. Another important factor is the peanut sauce because no matter how fresh the food are, if the peanut sauce is not nicely blended, everything will not taste nice.

The bread with cubed cucumbers, to be dipped into the peanut sauce. 

The sauce is constantly on the boil, and the waitress will constantly go from one table to another to make sure that the sauce stays at the satisfying level of thickness throughout our meal, by blending the sauce with sufficient amount of savours and peanuts. The sauce is replaced for each new customer on table. However, I suspect that they recycle the sauce at the kitchen because after all, how many pots of sauce do you expect them to prepare in a day, right?

I digress. Everything is self-serviced here and it is a strictly no take-away place.

Some of our chosen food stuff, taken for three people.



The final countdown for the feast to begin.



Mini-sized century eggs with slices of ginger served in plates. Food in plates are priced differently, according to the plate colour.

Here comes the interesting part of dining at Capitol Satay Celup. When you table has consumed a certain amount of food, the waitress will give you the bonuses or mystery gifts, whatever you call them. Most of the time, they are in the form of big prawns, squids, scallops and etc. The price of these varieties are definitely more than RM0.80 but you are charged RM0.80 still. For example, the big prawns are said to cost about RM8.00 per stick, but the price stays at RM0.80.

It is another form of discount and giving back to the customer after eating a lot. In another way, they are encouraging you to eat more so that you can earn the extra bonuses and indirectly increase their profit at the same time.

Was halfway stirring the peanut sauce when Mich called me to turn over. 

Yup, just dunk everything inside the peanut sauce, but not your fingers, of course. Never leave them too long inside the boiling sauce 
to maintain the juiciness of the seafood.

These are the bonuses that I was talking about.

The big prawn, which is longer than my palm and here, I am gonna let it swim inside the peanut sauce haha!

The big prawn usually takes longer time to cook, maybe because it is more than six inches in length!

Once you are done, the waitress will come over to your table and count your bamboo sticks, and you pay. Try not to remain on your table and continue to chit chat after your meal because that will make others to wait unnecessarily.

So, whenever you are in Malacca and have never tried satay celup before, make sure you give it a try before leaving the place. This dish is considered a signature dish in Malacca, so complete your trip with this dining experience!

The ang moh couple who were seated just behind our table kept drinking water throughout their meal lol! 
The spicy peanut sauce might be too much for them, I guess.

Address: Capitol Satay Celup Restaurant, 41, Lorong Bukit Cina, 75100 Melaka, Malaysia  

Tel: +60-6-283-5508, +60-12-229-5505  

Third generation owner: Low Yong Cheng  

Operating hours: Daily from 5:00 pm (Closed on Monday)  

Price: Each stick costs RM0.80 and various plate types indicate different charges.  

Map, courtesy of Amazing Melaka.