After my brief but intense love affair with Japanese food, I am ready to get back to my culinary root. I miss my savory, fiery, rich, sweet, sour, salty, and pungent Malaysian food. As much as I love other cuisines and am constantly infatuated with various exotic dishes from other countries, I am not about to ditch the color and taste of Malaysian food anytime soon. Fret not, I am back and will be serving up even more Malaysian delights.
I made this dish but I am not sure what to call it. My mother and aunt call this “masak berana” which is supposedly a type of Nyonya cooking style with tamarind juice and onions as the two main ingredients. However, “berana” doesn’t make much sense to me literally but I have no way to prove it. The other challenge to verify the real name is that–other than my parents’ and my aunt’s home–I haven’t seen this egg dish elsewhere, except at Cafe Sambal (a very popular Malaysian restaurant) in Beijing. If you do make this at home and know its name, please drop me a comment and let me know. (The real name of this cooking style is called “Masak Branda/Belanda.” Pixen – Thanks for leaving me a comment; mystery solved and I am forever thankful…)
This is easily one of my favorite egg recipes. A few eggs drenched in the ever-appetizing sweet and sour sauce served with steamed white rice plus dollops of sambal belacan (a Malay style sambal with roasted shrimp paste), I am in food heaven…
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Based on 4 Review(s)
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Teo Lily
I think i try to cook it also … i am a chef students.. i try cook ur dished for my pratical class ya… i will let my chef taste too… thx for ur recipe ya… if u dont mind we can share some recipe…
Rasa Malaysia
Sure, let me know how it goes and I hope your chef likes it.
Joyce
OMG this is a wonderful dish., I ate this some 40 years ago during my mum time when she was alive. I just forget about this simple dish which my mum used to prepare during my younger days. Now that I have yr receipe I will definately prepare for my family this simple dish. hmmmmmm droollllllliiiiinnnnggggg now. Never imagine how can I misss this mouthwatering dish.
Li Kheng Poh
I have also been wanting to understand the origins of the Dutch word (Belanda)in this dish. I read quite a lot on historical stuff and since I am obssessed with food and have a horticulture background, I have read quite a lot on origins of food. I don’t know if the Dutch cook meat with vinegar but in Portugal/Spain the idea of cooking meat (e.g. pork) with vinegar, in a historical sense, is common. Vinegar preserves the dish at a time when there was no refrigeration. Hence, you see the European influence in Chicken Adobo (dish form the Philippines); and in the Malaysian Eurasian dish, Devil’s Chicken Curry. However, the idea of cooking seafood with sour tamarind comes from Southern India; and if I am not mistaken, primarily from Kerala, even though it is pretty universal in Southern India for those who do eat and cook seafood to combine sour tamarind with seafood. So, my speculation is that the Masak Belanda name might be a name made up by the nonya because the concept of cooking with sour tamarind originated in Southern India but the concept of combining meat with vinegar came to Southeast Asia via Europe. As in all things “ROJAK” in Malaysia, somehow in that translation/passage across several cultures, we get the name “Masak Belanda” based on the two borrowed ideas/technique of Southern India and Europe!
Rasa Malaysia
You might be right. I for one can never understand why this cooking style is called Masak Belanda because there is nothing Dutch in it. Anyway, a great dish is a great dish, regardless of its name and recipe.
Christina
I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for months and finally got to make it recently. I also added some plum sauce, chili sauce and a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce. It turned out great, and so easy to make. I’ll definitely be making this again :)