Malaysian Food Festival

As far as I know, there is no Malaysian Restaurant in Brazil (maybe in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro; the largest cities). Thus, I was really looking forward to try this country's cuisine when I learned about a gastronomic festival held by the Malaysian Embassy.

So, there I was in a hot saturday afternoon ready to try anything that would come my way. And so I did. The menu was extremely diverse, with a wide variety of dishes. Many vegetables, meat, chicken and fish were available with exotic sauces.

The peanut and coconut sauce was particularly savoury. It made a perfect combination with the curry puffs filled with potatoes and vegetables, very similar to Indian samoosa. The prawn fritter was very good as well. There was also a sauteed beef with spices (lemongrass and star anis, I think), a sweet and sour fish and a shrimp salad named "Ulam with Sambal Belacan". All of thoise had me coming back for more... I tried the traditional "Roti Canai"-malaysian pancakes, very similar to a pancake my grandmother used to make when I was a child. It was really delicious.

Roti Canai

The pink cake is made out of rice flour. As for the yellow one, I have no idea what it was. 

For the dessert, there was a wide variety of cakes, including the "ant-hill cake" (kek serang semut), which has drawn my attention for being a very common cake in Brazil as well. This is probably a common portuguese heritage?

Finally, they served their traditional tea, the "teh tarik", wich means litteraly "pulled tea". It is a mixture of black tea with milk, with a smooth and foamy texture because of how it is made: the person quickly pours the tea from one jar to another repeatedly, untill it gets the desired constitution. Hence the name "pulled tea".  

Ilex Paraguariensis

...is the scientific name of the plant known as "Erva Mate" (Mate tea). It is a shrub that grows in southern and central area of Brazil, being found in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina as well. The Guarani indians used to mix leaves and other parts of this plant with water to make a bitter-tasting tea out of it.

Legend states that the plant was offered to an old indian hermit by a stray emissary of God, in exchange for generous shelter and food offered by his host. The plant, named "Cáa Yaráa" would be a past time for moments of solitude, as a healthy and tasty beverage could be made from it.

According to the tradition (drinking mate is a true ritual), tea can be consumed hot, inside a recipient named cuia. In this case, it is known as chimarrão (from the spanish word cimarrón-wild cattle) and the herb used is very powdery and lush-green. When consumed cold, it is better known as tererê. It is served inside a guampa-a slice of a bull's horn with a wooden bottom. The horn has 3/4 of it filled with a roughly cut herb (slices of leaves and wooden sticks). After filling it, one has to lay it horizontally, covering the open part with his hand. Thus, the herb will be disposed in a way that water can be poured in. Finally, one has to place the "pump" (bomba), a metalic straw-like tool used to filter and drink the water.

Cold tererê inside the guampa. Ready to drink!

You cannot move the pump once it is placed or the herb may block the passage of water, making it difficult to drink. The one who prepares the tererê drinks the water until a loud noise can be heard, meaning it is empty. This act is called "making the guampa snore". Then it is filled again and shared between friends. This usually happens in the countryside, where cattle herders get together around the fire at night to tell stories, sing, eat and drink.

A drop of tea.

In Brazil, tererê is very common in the Central Region, specially in Pantanal. It is also widely consummed in Paraguay. As for the hot variety, chimarrão, it is more common in Uruguay, Argentina and the Southern part of Brazil. I am more of a tererê drinker myself, though I appreciate a hot chimarrão from time to time...

That's how the erva mate for tererê looks like.