บท 55: Mystical Potent Chili and a Taste of Coconut Apple!

"Two coconuts, three lemongrasses, an inch of galangal, an inch of turmeric, two tiny onion bulbs... What else do I need. Oh yes! Salt, asam keping (1) and some chicken stock!" In the middle of the cave, three different animals were observing Hana every movement as she arranged the herbs she needed to use on her favorite pinkish 'tava' cum plate. The unlikely combination was a small black snake, a fluffy white fox, and a pink football-sized tilapia fish, suspended inside a bubble filled with water mid-air.

At first, when Hana brought out her favorite plate, Ara gasped with surprise. She didn't know her great grandfather's protective treasure parts could be used in such a way. She smiled and make a mental note to bring Hana some when she brought the pearls over in the future.

The aunty was busy checking four slightly rotten-looking mini pumpkin-like fruit on her shelf with an exasperated look. A few days of dilly dallying had made these unfortunate fruits show signs of deteriorating and mouldy at certain areas.

[Damn, I should've slice them and sun-dry them earlier.] She mentally face-palmed herself. Some parts were still salvageable; hence the aunty wasn't really bothered. There's always tomorrow to pick a few more. This time she promised herself to immediately process the fruits once she got them. No more dilly dallying. The four asam gelugor (1) could've easily provide her half a year's supply if she had processed them properly in time.

Hana sighed, "We're lacking chillies." She fondled her chin while thinking back to her mom's suggestion to omit the spice during their earlier chatting session.

[I'm sorry I couldn't find it, Mommy.] Kuro whispered guiltily. [However, I did try searching high and low for it for quite some time when I was handling the coconuts.]

"It's alright, sweetie. Maybe next time. After all, if I put some chilies in, I'm not too sure you guys can handle the heat or not. For first timers, it might pose as quite a challenge." Hana chuckled lightheartedly while sighing in her heart. Without chilies, the 'kick' she loved in the dish she's going to make won't be there.

"Challenge completed!" A loud chirp resounded from the cave opening.

In her beak, Markisah was holding a green branch containing two tiny green chilies and one red chili.

The catch was, the chilies were translucent like gems, and emitted a soft white light.

...

Hana scrunched her brow while she turned the peculiar green chili in her palm again and again. It was around one and a half inch long, and a little chubby; just like a slightly fat pinkie. The color, texture and size were right; the bird's eye chili she used frequently had the same morphology. What bugged her the most was the translucent crystal-like nature the peculiar chili exhibited although the texture was soft when she tried to pinch it lightly. There seemed to be light emitted from within. She could even see the seeds suspended within, lightly connected to the vein-like structure in the middle of the chilli.

Actually, it looked beautiful; just like an ornament. She had heard about counterfeit viral plastic chilies (2) but had never seen chilies in gem form yet. Additionally, in jewellery stores, there was no depiction of chili; only of flowers, fruits or animals. This was a first for her.

[Can this thing really be eaten? Is it being genetically modified? A mutant maybe?]

[Mommy, the bird said she was not sure. She had seen this 'chili' you mentioned in a very remote location and plucked them for you. She herself had not tasted it.] Kuro helpfully added after observing Hana's hesitation. [If you don't want it, you can just toss it away, you know.]

[Aiyahhh. How can I do that? She'll be super hurt. You sure she said she plucked them off a tree branch and not pick them randomly somewhere on the ground?]

[Positive.]

Both Hana and Kuro were discussing telepathically while the aunty was pretending to arrange her other cooking materials and piling rocks near the fire to make a stand for her pot after placing down the 'chili' Markisah brought back.

Hana didn't want to hurt Markisah feelings for being too blunt. Additionally, the bird had disappeared for more than three hours after Kuro returned. It meant that it had spent that amount of time to fetch the spice for her. So, as usual, the thick-skinned aunty gave all the dirty works to her faithful little snake to maintain her pristine image in the eye of their new friends. Kuro did his job so well by covering all his bases while asking; the bird didn't even suspect that the aunty was the one who wanted to know the details. She was even getting increasingly aggrieved from all the over-the-top interrogation, which deepened her contempt towards the overly suspicious snake.

Since Hana had confirmed that the chili did grew from a tree and not an ornament, she braved herself and pulled off the cap from the top of the chili and giving it a lick before her two pets could stop her!

[Even if the chili is stolen from someone's backyard laboratory, I still need to confirm the taste! Eating one shouldn't have affected us too much!] Hana could only turn her imaginative mind towards sci-fi for explanation.

A few seconds later, the brash aunty suddenly shed some tears.

"It is chili." It was even a few levels hotter than the bird's eye chili (3) she used at home.

[Then, why are you crying, Mom?] Shiro whined worriedly while sending his thoughts over.

"It's a little hotter than expected." Hana laughed shyly after a few hasty gulps of water. It was common practice to taste the cap of a chili to judge the level of hotness. This time it was the hottest she had ever tasted. She just shrugged it off positively and thought how lucky she was. Since it's so hot, there was no need to put in so much to achieve the taste she likes. Usually, she needed a handful of bird's eye chilies for a pot of soup of this size. Now, she only needed to use one chilli.

All four animals made a quizzical expression, implying that they didn't understand Hana's plight. Seeing their expression, the scheming aunty was eager to start cooking so that they could taste what does it means to burn your tongue but couldn't stop eating while sweating your armpits out.

...

Hana start off with prepping the coconuts. First, she needed to find a way to turn the coconut into coconut milk. At home, it was way easier with the invention of a blender. God bless the smart dude who made her life easier. She just needed to buy fresh shredded coconut flesh from the grocery shop and blend it a little with water. After that, she only needed to squeeze the murky mesh with a napkin to get all the milk out. The milk was the base for her coconut soup.

But now, the million-dollar question was, how to shred the coconut?

While she was thinking hard, her hands automatically cut off the husks of two brown coconuts in a languid motion. Since her knife was so sharp, she couldn't even feel the slightest resistance. Just a few seconds were needed to clean off the husks of two coconut shell. She then cut off the middle part of the coconuts and pour out the water into her already prepared pannikin. Very little water came out, which made Hana smiled a little wider.

Once she cut the coconut into two parts, she plucked out a plum sized white ball from within and gave it a bite while grinning, "You see this? It's the best part of an old coconut. Yummy! Tastes just like a water chestnut! At home, we called it 'tombong kelapa' (4) or coconut apple." Munching sound resounded as she noisily chewed the delectable morsel. The 'apple' was partially spongy and partially juicy as the juicy parts retained a slightly sweet aftertaste from absorbing the coconut water. The first bite was akin to biting on cotton candy with coconut flavour. Her actions made the others salivate. Naughty Hana .

After taking another bite with satisfaction, she broke off a tiny bit to her two pets as usual to feed them. While feeding Kuro and Shiro, she asked her guests, the bird and the fish, "Do you guys want to try too?"

Both the bird and fish nodded vigorously. Hana laughed and broke a tiny part to the two animals. She tossed one to the bird as she flew upwards and catch it midair. The fish came near and made a bubbly incomprehensible sound. Hana just dipped her right hand into the watery bubble to feed the fish directly before giving her a gentle pat on the head.

[These animals are too cute!] Hana was amused.

She tossed the rest of the coconut apple into her mouth and continued scraping out the white meat out from the shell using the fox-claw knife. It was so easy! Once she scraped out all the meat from one coconut, she started on the second one. To everyone's disappointment, no coconut apple was found this time.

Hana smiled, "It's alright. Later, when we need more coconuts to cook, we can always try our luck again. Not all mature coconuts will have tombong inside, dearies. By the way, if the tombong is smaller, it is usually crunchier as it didn't absorb too much coconut water yet. It'll be absolutely delectable!"

She herself had not eaten tombong kelapa for a very long time since the invention of instant coconut milk in the market. On the rare occasion of her going to the market for real shredded coconut, all the coconuts were already opened and drained off their juices. She was pretty sure all the tombongs has been hogged by the coconut seller. She only had a faint memory of it when she was little. Madam Shaza had given her some after the first harvest of the coconut tree planted for her.

After the minor distraction, she continued preparing her coconut shavings, she collected all of the hard coconut meat that she had carefully loosened using the edge of her favorite kitchen knife and scooped them into her only cooking pot and called for Shiro.

"Sweetie, I want you to knead gently, using your claws only. Be gentle. Do not break my pot. And especially make sure no fur enter the coconut flesh, alright?" Hana had no choice; she could only use Shiro's claw as a 'blender'.

Shiro tilted his head to the side with a confuse look, unaware that his adorable gesture made Hana nearly unable to control herself. Mom, how to 'knead' something? He had not come across the word before. It sounded very foreign. He only knew claw, slash, cut, swipe or bite.

Hana knocked her own head while laughing sheepishly, "You just need to press and squeeze the white flesh using the edges of your claws. Or just move your claws in random motion like this." Hana wriggled her fingers in front of Shiro to show him how it should be done. She added, "The objective is to grind them as tiny as possible so that Mommy could press out the milk afterwards." She rubbed the fluffy head dotingly, "Can you do it?"

[Sure, I will have a try then.] Shiro nodded after practicing the wriggling motion a few times.

"Oh! Wait wait! Let me clean your claws first!" The aunty quickly stopped the bewildered fox from proceeding and took out a precious piece of her antibacterial baby wipe and gently cleansed the claws with plain water. Fur and hair inside a dish is a major taboo!

"Proceed with caution." Hana reminded Shiro while feeling worried for her only cooking pot.

[I can only believe in him now.]

...

Author's Note:

(1) Asam keping (also known as asam gelugor) = as a reminder, brindleberry

(2) counterfeit viral plastic chilies = a lot of fake imported agriculture product entered M'sian market. If you unfortunately bought a pack, the chilies had a very glossy plasticky layer with a slight mush inside. However, Mrs Mooncat had only ever heard of it as Mrs Mooncat prefer green bird's eye or green thai chili for cooking.

(3) bird's eye chili = a type of chili that all Malaysians typically use. It was as small as bird's eye (0.5-1 inch), tasted fiercer than cayenne (3 inch) and thai chili pepper (1.5 inch). We called it 'cili kampung' [lit translation = village chili]. For taste, Malaysian will use either fresh Thai or Bird's eye. For garnish, we use fresh cayenne. Sambal is usually made from boiled and blended dried chilies (usually as much as a pot of chilies) sauteed with a lot of blended onions.

(4) tombong kelapa = also known as coconut apple, during early stages it was crunchy, later stages, the texture turned spongy. This part will turn into a new coconut tree emerging from the matured coconut fruit (that is if you don't break the coconut and it eat haha)

Additional random chatter by the authors;

The info about tombong kelapa is real. Mrs Mooncat had thicken her face to ask for some at the groceries since it had been too long. It took a few days as it is truly depended on luck whether we could get it or not..and yet we did!

The grocer thought Mrs Mooncat had bouts of pregnancy cravings and went for the extra mile for us..he didn't even charge us anything.. (face-palm, I know I'm quite chubby...a little hurt over here..)