It would be a simple night. Nothing fancy. Nothing flashy. Now if you were my friend, you'd easily have caught me saying that with a difficult expression on my face. I don't like "nothing fancy, nothing flashy." But then there was no really big reason or occasion for this gathering. Just satisfying my urge to cook and feed on the gossips!
Anyway, I went to a wine shop and got a bottle of Chilean Cono sur Merlot. A soft, smooth, velvety and rich red I delightedly found later that night. Alas, I bought only a bottle (in keeping to the idea that the night would be simple and small) and I found myself sharing the bottle with four others. I anticipated only less my usual partners in crime to turn out that night! I made a mental note to make a better judgement in future.
For the night, I planned to cook chicken curry. Curry dish, as always I know. I also put on the list fried tuna and kangkung fried with belacan (shrimp paste). On top of that, I was serving cincalok. A special type of food that turned out to be the star of the night, for me, at least.
Cincalok is made of fermented small shrimps or krill. It is usually served with thinly sliced chilli, shallot and lime juice. It can then be eaten with sliced cucumber. It goes very well with cucumber. I must say that cincalok is an acquired taste. Even Malaysians won't eat cincalok. When I was small, I hated the smell of cincalok. It is also always very salty. But since I had a taste of it, I knew I will always love this food.
Anyway, that night my love affair with cincalok was brought to a new level. I got to know something more about cincalok. Not a new taste. Not something more about how to eat cincalok. How to prepare cincalok. Though then again, it does have to do with how to serve cincalok without exposing yourself to domestic catastrophy, or worse, embarrassment!
Like I said, cincalok is an acquired taste. You stumbled upon it one day and liked it. Someone served it to you somewhere. You never serve it to anyone. Never bought a bottle (as it is normally sold in bottle). And one day you decided to keep stock at home, just in case you want to make a statement when entertaining. Well, not everyone will serve cincalok at dinner. I'm not talking about your everyday dinner. I'm talking about dinner, as simple and small as I may planned it to be at first, a well orchestrated dinner nevertheless, with invited guests.
So I was busy preparing that afternoon. I went to the supermarket to get some ingredients. It was a real pleasure to be able to pick the right curry powder for chicken, meat and fish. I waited till it was after 6pm to go to the night market to get the vegetable and fish. The kangkung must be fresh. The fish was cheap from this night market too. And the choices ... I could get spoilt with choices. If I didn't have to cook that night, I might stop at every stall and pick up something. Thing was, this night market only available once a week. Other than that, we have to make do with the supermarket nearby, and that's not always a good place to get fresh vegetables. Never a good place for fresh seafood, too.
Chicken curry was easy to prepare. I cook curry all the time. I could close one eye cooking curry. The fish I fried, and the kangkung was cut ready to be fried with the pounded chilli, shallot, garlic, anchovies and shrimp past, of course. This is also a local delicacy. Easy to prepare, and for me, everybody will eat this.
One by one, two by two, my guests arrived. We talked. Catching up. In between, I still had to get up and prepare the dinner and the table. One by one I put the food on the table. I decided to prepare the cincalok. There was a bottle in the refrigerator, never been opened before. And the second I turned the bottle opener, I was covered with cincalok. My small kitchen was splattered with tiny pink shrimps! They were on the cupboards, on the walls, the ceiling! There were more on my newly cut and coloured hair! When I looked in the mirror, I must say the pink of the shrimps compliment the purplish of my hair hi-light! My green H&M t-shirt was like the new collection by the British colour connoisseur Matthew Williamson. I immediately inspect my newly acquired Galliano belt, it was spared! I could imagine the creases on the designer's forehead if he found out that his belt was covered with cincalok! And the smell, the pungent, salty smell of my beloved cincalok!
If you'd like to imagine the situation, think about opening a bottle of champagne - when the bottle was shaken too much, not chilled enough, the wire cage removed. I'm not going to tell you about opening a bottle of champagne, but like in a bottle of champagne, there is pressure built up in a bottle of cincalok too. If the bottle is open carelessly, unlike champagne, the sight that you'll see (if you can see it at all) will not be the sexy way the bottle of champagne spill will be like. It's simply just disastrous. And it kept on spurting out even after you fully open the bottle.
My friend told me later that I should shake the bottle a bit before I open it. I'm not sure if that would help. I think the best way is to put a towel on the cover while opening it slowly. And always do this with GREAT care!The night went on smoothly after that. Everybody liked the food. I met my friends and we talked more. I decided to open the wine after the dinner and we watched Underworld, Rise of the Lycans. Everyone ignored the smell of the cincalok and just had a good night. I had a great night.
