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The mercury level has been hovering around 35 ͦ C during the hottest hours in Kuala Lumpur. It's also humid. I'm effectively being stewed but undeterred, I went out marketing two days ago. It seems the current heat wave had led to a bumper harvest of some vegetable crops. So it was I found myself buying lots of tomatoes and cucumbers at a cheap price. I do so love a bargain.
My mum took one look at my purchases and went, "Eh?"
"Don't worry, Mum. I'm gonna make a tomato-base tom-yam," I assured her. She would've been if I'd also bought all the other ingredients that typically go into the spicy stew. Well, I'd only just thought of it. So I'm off to the market again later. This time I have a mental shopping list and on it is tom-yam paste (a shortcut snob I'm not), torch ginger flower (bunga kantan in Malay), chillies, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, tamarind slices and fresh ginger.
The tomatoes, bunga kantan, chillies and ginger go into a blend before I add it into the stew with all the other above-mentioned ingredients. And this is just the soup base. Mouth-watering (maybe eye-watering for some of us) spicy? You bet. To cool things down a notch, a salad is called for. For that, I'll slice cucumbers and Granny Smiths (just added to mental shopping list) and have them drenched in a yoghurt dressing blended with mint leaves and sprinkled with a pinch of cumin.
Sounds like a plan. Now, I've got to get back out there in the heat.
Postscript added on 10 Oct 2023: Note: Thank you to those who have written to let me know you enjoy reading my column but daren't take a lesson because there are parts you don't really understand. I assure you we'll always speak at a level which suits you so that we can enjoy a casual conversation. Also, we can go through words and sentences that are difficult so that we learn together. Perhaps, they will be easy then and we'll always have something to talk about. No stress!
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