Curry

InsyaAllah, come this weekend, I will move into my new home. The house is in Altona, a sub-urban areon the southern part of Melbourne, close to the bay. I will be sharing the house with two mainland Chinese; of of them of whom I've met at the airport previously.

I was a bit skeptical sharing a house with a non-Muslim due to dietary purposes. However, we came into an agreement regarding my diet, and that it shouldn't be a problem. However, I'm not sure about the other chap, as I've not seen him yet. I hope it won't be a problem for him too. May Allah show His guidance.

And so, after unpacking my luggage prior to arrival in Melbourne, it's time for me to pack again, plus all items I've bought here.

One other thing I had to do, was to finish up all my raw groceries. While some can be stored over a long period, the same can't be said towards the rest. Among those that I have to finish up are the chickens and vegetables.

This afternoon, after having ended my lectures for the day, I went into Footscray town. I was looking for matches. The one I had had gone all soggy due to my stupidity of having left it next to a wet sponge. However, while browsing around in a Vietnamese minimarket, I came across a wide variety of spices.

I suddenly remembered that I had bought a packet of Korma curry powder last week. And so, I had an idea of how to finish up those bunch of raw groceries back at the Village.

After Maghrib prayers, I went down to the communal kitchen to cook. I took out the chicken pieces, defrosted it in the microwave and gave them a good run under the tap. Previously, I marinated these chicken pieces with tumeric powder, chilli powder, salt, and pepper. The intention was to fry one at a time without having to defrost and refrost the pieces each time I wanted to cook.

Somehow, during the marinating process, I somehow spilt a large portion of tumeric powder. So, the pieces had a heavy tumeric taste. At one time, I became hysterical over the sight and smell of tumeric.

However, while I was cooking, heads popped out from behind the wall.

"Smells nice, mate..." they would say.

A Chinese girl came up to me. I thought she was wanting to share the stove as usual. I said to her,

"I'll be over in a few minutes..."

"No, no. It's OK." she said while peeking into my frypan,

"What're you cooking?"

"Curry," I said, while still debating whether or not to specify that it was Korma.

"Hmmm...smells nice..." she said.

I thought to myself, haven't these people seen curry before? Or is it due to the fact that the Village students do not cook curry? Or that they seldom go for Indian cuisine? Never mind. Concentrate on the cooking, else you'll be eating bananas tonight.

While eating, I remembered a conversation on Yahoo Messenger; I was asked whether I miss all the dishes back at home. Of all the dishes I missed, the one I missed most, was Gulai Tempoyak. I had thought about cooking it here, since most of the ingredients are available.

But then, when it comes to the tempoyak itself, I ain't gonna be easy looking for a durian fruit here. Maybe there have it up Chinatown way...because I remember Abah buying durian from Chinatown when we resided in London years ago.

Hmmm...I think I'll pay a visit to Chinatown on Little Bourke Street. Hope they sell it, or at least when the season comes.

You know, all those years smoking the kitchen back in Malaysia really helped me in maintaining my budget in this foreign land. Although sometimes, I would look silly spending my time in the kitchen, but hey! Who gives a damn.