sambal belacan (chilli and shrimp paste relish)

It hit me a few days ago, that sambal belacan or sambal terasi as it's known in Indonesia, keeps popping up on my blog, as a suggestion with this, that and the other dish. How could I not keep bringing it up, when sambal belcan is one of the cornerstones of Malay, Nyonya, Indonesian and to a slightly lesser extent, Kristang (local Portuguese descended Eurasian) cuisine?

five day supply of kristang crack

The fact that it is the common thread running through these cuisines speaks volumes about how closely linked they actually are, though to the casual observer, they may appear distinct from each other. 

eurasian oxtail stew (kristang oxtail stew)

The rains have come earlier this year, not that I’m complaining. I love rainy days and find great comfort in the sound of raindrops pelting my windows. Maybe it’s because having the sun’s scorching rays bearing down on your back, putting even more freckles on your face and bleaching the very life out of your hair, most of the year, makes you grateful for the mitigating coolness of the rain. To me, cool, wet weather means one thing – stews, of which this is my favourite. It's so good, I'm happy to give the oxtail chunks a miss, in deference to my meat-loving dinosaur children, and just dunk my bread chunks into the richly savoury and sticky gravy.

Veering off the subject a little, you might be wondering what “kristang” is. It literally means “Christian” in the creole form of Portuguese spoken by the Portuguese descended Eurasians in Singapore and Malaysia, which is half of what I am. My mum is a Portuguese descended Eurasian and my father is a British descended Eurasian. Most Kristangs are Catholic, hence the spiritual slant of the term.