How Do I Live Without You...

I couldn't agree more when I read a recent article in one of our local dailies about smart phone addiction, about how people are using their phones overzealously.  Somewhat quite true, a lot of people seemed to communicate more on their phones than with real people around them.  A scene where you see a group of people around a table but each busy with their own devices instead of talking to each other is not uncommon these days. Do I see this scene in my family? I will be in denial if I say it doesn't, it does happen occasionally.   I speak for myself but I have to acknowledge that I can't do without these devices, they are indeed extremely useful. For convenience, safety, communication, entertainment, information etc, etc, etc.   I guess the trick is to make sure we know where to draw the lines.

Wondering what smartphones have to do with this dish?  Nothing! Just that it reminded me of  how my sister and I were laughing about it over our phones.   Had it not been the phone and the internet we wouldn't be able to keep in close touch frome where she is now.  So, I have technology to thank for it.  We were "What's App"ing each other the other day when she asked what I made for dinner last night.  I said "Chili Babi" which is what you are seeing here :) 

She said WTH was that? Chili Babi literally means Pork cooked in Chili.  Probably because she has never heard of it and to hear a Malay name for a dish which main ingredient is forbidden to them is a little weird.  In fact, being in a muslim dominant country, we rarely used the word 'babi', somehow it it perceived as impolite.   However, we (my sister and I) have this habit of peppering our conversation with words from different languages (a result of our education system, i blame :p), so that's how I ended up with this name!   Actually, it's not so uncommon after thinking about it, the Nyonyas  and the Indonesians have Malay names for their pork dishes too (think Balinese Babi Guling and the likes of it).

Ok, now about this dish.  It's a simple dish but it's a nice dish to go with rice.  Another unique ingredient used in this dish is palm sugar syrup.

Ingredients

• 150g belly pork
• 3 tbsp chilli paste (blend of dried and fresh chili, garlic and shallots)
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 30g palm sugar chopped 
• Oil

1. Cut belly pork into small strips.
2. Heat oil, fry chili paste until fragrant.
3. Add in pork strips followed by fish sauce, dark soya sauce and palm sugar.  Fry for around 5 minutes until pork is cooked.  
4. I added in some pre-fried arrow root slices (to clear off the leftovers from Chinese New Year)
5. Serve hot with rice!

Posted in: Chinese Dishes