this past weekend my visiting grandmother returned to malaysia. i spent the weekend before at my aunt’s house, where my grandmother was staying for the month.

my grandmother makes the best otak otak, and is none too shabby (read: really good) at chicken curry, acar and ang ku kueh, of which vast quantities were made on the weekend. happily, i was the young apprentice, relegated to such tasks as cutting decorative peaks on banana leaf packages and pressing balls of mung bean-filled dough into a wooden turtle-shaped mould, before knocking each little jade green turtle out onto even more banana leaves, for steaming.

everything took hours and hours. everything was damn tasty. when i caught the train back to the city on monday, i had packages upon packages of everything, as much as i could carry. and now i am torn between wanting to eat it all right now, please, and wanting to only nibble a tiny crumb each time, so that it lasts a little longer.

p.s. my grandmother gave me some birthday money, so now i have one of these. thanks, yinma.