When I was in Penang for the holidays, there was a variety of food that I had sampled but none was as distinctively memorable as the apom telor. The RM1 "mee mayat" was the all-time classic while the apam balik with corn and sugared grounded up groundnuts was holistically the food grail of traditional desserts or sweeties but it is the apom telor that made me go crazy if I didn't make an effort to learn on how to make it. So, like all good things, I researched and poured my energy laboriously over the electronic media and even asked some Indian friends on the recipe for it. Finally, after some tweaking of ingredients and quantity, I managed to churn out some decent apom telor a few hours ago.
Yup, it was fun as I gathered all the ingredients which were simply rice flour, dry yeast, salt , sugar, eggs and water for my little experimental adventure. I even got the portable stove ready together with the small kuali bought during one of our night walks at the Indian street in Penang. When SYuen handed me the wooden small spatula for the evening, I am all ready for the experimental culinary adventure. In many ways, I am a food freak. I always try to get the good food taste which had lingered in my taste palate and try re-producing them with slight twist of taste. I must admit that some turned out okay while some turned out with disastrous results. All in all, I try refining and I like food experiments. What can I say, I just love food. I taste it, I see the ingredients; I see myself doing it and then I go right ahead to get the ingredients and just whip the dish out. My family seemed to like it and so, I must be doing something right.
Anyway, for apom telor, I just mixed all the ingredients together and everything seemed to be alright. They turned out okay but it is really hard work especially the swirling of the hot small pan and turning the apom to ensure an even cooking area. Anyway, I learnt a lot by watching the seller in Penang doing it. BTW, the Indian seller in Penang uses 3 small black round bottom kuali and with charcoal flame stove! I struck a conversation with the Indian apom telor seller and though he did not divulged the ingredients of his mixture, I could smell some of the ingredients and how expertly thin the concoction was spread over the kuali. For commercial purposes , the mixture was more watery but if you were to make it yourself, might as well indulged a little bit. I guess, it is actually the technique of making the thin crispy apom that makes it such a crazy dessert with quite a price tag too for wafer thin desserts! Frankly , I think, it all boils down to technique of getting the ingredients in balance, control of fire and steady hands. BTW, apom telor is as traditional as it can get and one of my childhood desserts in those years. Never forgot the taste and never want to forget it. I am really very happy being able to make this dessert or tea fare. 
Anyway, the apom telor comes out fine as far as I was concerned and I am happy. SYuen and SLing are happy with me and that is mighty fine with me. Why? Simply because they are my fiercest critics, I tell you! Sub-standard foodstuff will not be tolerated and will end up in the bin! Yup, these are tough food tasters, I tell you. Anyway, it was really fun for me to play with the ingredients and get my saliva and taste bud up there again. I feel pretty good being able to churn out some nice dessert fare. Hopefully, I could learn some more other food stuff because we are all learning each day and there is no shame in learning something new each day lest these traditional food fanfare will die off soon. Let's make an effort to try to make some of these traditional kuihs or foodstuff. Sure, we can get them at the markets and so on but it sure taste better when you make it on your own and you could spend more time with your mom, grandma. auntie and so on. It helps to build relationship too and at the same time, it helps to maintain a small part of our culture. My next project.....well, I want to make rava thosai since SLing & SYuen liked it so much. Actually, this afternoon, I saw the rava thosai mix in the supermarket. As always, it was tempting enough but I want to do my research on the ingredients, the cooking techniques and so on before I actually get down to it. Yes! I've gotta get the flat hot plate for this but then again, I could always improvised, right? I also have to learn to cook the dhall curry or sambal would do nicely. Either way, I like dhall curry a lot but I always get mixed-up with the spices and the quantity of it. Well, I'll cross the bridge when I come to it!
So, go out there and horned your culinary skills. Yes, it helps you to be relaxed, laugh at yourself more often and at least, get one meal ready for your missus and the family. That should make her very happy especially if the guys take part in cooking something nice even if it is just the ABC soup-lar. Cheers and looking forward to Rava Thosai making!~
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