Fixi Buka Kedai, Yo

So, Fixi has a store. Hooray!

And it has an Apple store vibe to it.

Kedai Fixi at Jaya Shopping Centre, which is not Jaya One or Jaya 33

But, considering how big this indie book publisher has become, setting up a bricks-and-mortar presence sounds logical. Even Lejen Press, another indie publisher, has a store in Subang Jaya.

Which, according to Fixi's Amir Muhammad, kind of helped him get a lot for the shop in the fourth floor of Jaya Shopping Centre, near the landmark Digital Mall. "Jaya Shopping Centre originally offered a shoplot to Lejen Press, but Lejen said their shop in Subang Jaya was sufficient for the time being, so Fixi came in," said Amir.

He stressed at least once that Jaya Shopping Centre was not Jaya One or Jaya 33.

Some of the wares on sale at Kedai Fixi

Besides publications by Fixi, the store also retails stuff from Lejen Press, Dubook Press, Maple Comics and Moka Mocha Ink. The store was officially launched on Saturday, 11 April, though the atmosphere was anything but "official".

In an impromptu speech, Amir thanked the representatives of Jaya Shopping Centre and writers and staff of Fixi, including writers who "defected" to other publishing houses (it's okay, they can write for anybody).

Fixi author Nadia Khan (centre) with a couple of attendees of the event.
The guy on the right is Richard Wong, but other than organising events
for British Council KL, I'm not sure what else he does

Some of the writers who were there included newlyweds Nadia Khan (Kelabu, Gantung, Cerpen Nadia Khan) and Mamü Vies (Dog Pound), Anuar Shah (Pinjam, Pentas), Mim Jamil (Lari), Ridhwan Saidi (Cekik+Amerika, Brazil) and Muhammad Fatrim (Asrama, Patung).

Thanks also went to media people who supported Fixi and spread the word about it and its books, especially BFM Radio's bookmaven Umapagan Ampikaipakan and journalist and author Bissme S. I think Linda Tan Lingard from the Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency was also there.

Fixi boss Amir Muhammad (picture on the right, third from foreground) is
flanked by by several authors: Mim Jamil (foreground), Anuar Shah and
Ridhwan Saidi (background) as he delivers his speech and thanks those
who made the day, the shop and Fixi possible.

ASTRO Awani covered the event (Kedai Fixi - "premis bergaya hipster"?) and spoke to Amir (of course). The segment has been YouTubed and posted on Fixi's Facebook page.

I found this bit interesting: "Actually, what surprised me is the response from not only readers but writers as well," said Amir in the video. We receive 20 to 30 manuscripts every month, mostly from new writers who never thought of writing a novel until they read novels from Fixi or similar publishers. So these books speak to them, telling them that they also have stories to share."

Part of the crowd that came for the launch. The gentleman on the
extreme right is the representative from Jaya Shopping Centre.

There's also a story about how one of the Fixi store's staff got a job there. I believe the word Amir used was "blackmail". The female staff, who's waiting for her SPM results, was working at a restaurant in the premises - until she saw the Fixi hoarding in front of the shoplot while it was under renovation.

"She quit her job on the same day," Amir marvelled, "and told me, 'I just resigned from my job; please give me a job.'" Of such stuff are indie publishing legends made of.

Several Fixi authors also signed copies of their latest books for buyers. To commemorate the launch of the Fixi store, those who bought books from it can take their receipts and claim a free "freezie" from the nearby Fresh Code juice and smoothie bar.

Though I got a signed copy of Brazil, I passed. Not my thing. And I had a mango juice from the juice bar.

Congrats, Fixi, for the launch of your first store. May it lead to even better things.


16/04/2015   The Star covered the launch and has a story on the new outlet.

Adventures In Bolognaise

Emboldened by the relative success of my attempts at making purple carrot soup and mushroom soup, I moved on to another challenge: pasta bolognaise.

So I'm a little late to the bandwagon.

Several meals of lamb bolognaise spaghetti at a nearby café sort of convinced me that hey, this is doable (not to mention the expense). But not with lamb. Not yet.

Thank goodness for the YSK meat mart nearby for this straight-up pork bolognaise I attempted one fine weekend.

First, season the mince. Salt (not a lot), pepper and mixed herbs by McCormick, and work it with the hands until they are all evenly distributed. These three seasonings should be okay for whatever four-legged animal you'd want, or even chicken.

Pork bolognaise cooking away, while the cooked pasta waits
impatiently; sorry, no pictures of the interim steps

Then, ball it up and smack it down into the bowl several times; this tip came from Mom, which I assume was primarily for meat balls, but it's quite satisfying to lay the smackdown on the mince anyway.

Heat some oil in a pan and drop the meat in. No fear of it clumping into a grotesque misshapen burger patty if you stir it often to break up any huge bits. If your meat is frozen (like mine), you might want to cook it just a wee bit longer, but not too long, because it's going to bubble along with the sauce.

Take it off the heat when thoroughly brown and plate it. Might be good also if you lined the plate with several paper towels to catch any fat that would otherwise pool at the bottom or be absorbed by the mince in the lower layers.

Now, the tomato-based sauce.

Toss in one yellow onion, chopped, and sauté until soft. Then add the aromatics: chopped garlic and shallots, and sauté for a few minutes. The kitchen should start smelling real good.

Then, in goes two chopped tomatoes. I didn't bother with skinning or removing the seeds, since they were small (should've bought two more at the market). Smoosh the tomatoes as they cook.

After a few minutes, in goes the stock or water, followed by two heaped tablespoons of Hunt's tomato paste. Stir and let it boil. When the sauce starts to bubble, dump the mince in, and stir. Let it boil a bit, then reduce to a simmer. Depending on how thick you want it, simmering time could take between 30 and 45 minutes. Stir the sauce from time to time.

With this, the number of pasta-serving places I tend to visit
went down by ... three quarters?

In the meantime, cook your pasta al dente. I made the mistake of making the pasta almost after I set the sauce to simmer, but since I was the one eating it...

When the sauce has reduced to your liking, take it off the heat, taste and adjust seasonings. Making it a habit of adding less salt helps. Heap your sauce over your pasta and serve.

It came out fine, because I didn't overdo the salt and continually tasted the sauce at almost every stage of its preparation. Some things to note, though:

• Probably too much minced pork for one serving. Stomach's not the near-bottomless pit it used to be. Should've also put it on a plate with several layers of paper towels after browning to absorb the excess fat.
• Used too much water, so the sauce took longer to simmer down. In the end, the bolognaise was wetter than usual and not very tomato-ey. And there's still a small bowl of leftover sauce in the kitchen.
• Pasta was too soft because I cooked it too early. Should've waited until the sauce was ready first.

This whole dish, sauce and all, took me about an hour and 15 minutes to prepare. Crazy! But worth it, I guess.

Since then, I've made this dish a couple more times, including a version where I blended the cooked sauce ingredients in a blender before bringing it up to a simmer and tossing the mince in. This version cooked a bit faster and yielded a thicker sauce, but didn't taste quite right after I allowed a lot of the meat juice and fat from the mince to drain on paper towels.

The third bolognaise followed the first, albeit with the addition of a little butter and cheese that was shaved from a block of mature cheddar that flew out of London - thanks, Melody! Don't ever do this with the individually packed "cheddar slices" - it won't be the same.

So ... if any of you restaurant owners are wondering why you don't see me around these days - not that you often do - wonder no more.

Sir Terry Pratchett (1948–2015)

Oh, bugger.

Author's photo (left) from Penguin UK; The Truth was among the
first - and, perhaps, among the best - of his books that I'd read

I first knew him and his works through my sister's copies of The Truth and Witches Abroad, years before I ventured into journalism (briefly) and publishing. Who knew I'd go into both?

"He will be missed" is an understatement.

...Oh dear L*rd, someone wrote this eulogy of sorts and it's awesome.

Book Marks: Being Opinionated, Fifty Shades Banned

John Scalzi thinks "you won't sell books if you have an opinion a reader doesn't like" is "terrible advice".

It’s terrible advice in part because it's simply not true — there are best selling writers in every genre who express opinions that outrage and annoy whole packs of people, and have since before they were best sellers, and yet they sell books nonetheless — and in part because it's reductive. It's an argument that posits that once a writer enters the stream of commerce, the most important thing about that writer's life is their ability to sell books. Everything else about that writers' life suddenly takes a back seat to that single commercial goal.

So what if a writer is or has written or said something that's "polarizing"? Big deal, Scalzi seems to suggest, and not just because he feels that writers are supposed to have something to say.

To write publicly is to be judged and to be criticized and to be polarizing. If one avoids speaking on public issues in social media only out fear of alienating readers, all one does is possibly delay such judgment. Judgment will happen for what you say and also what you don't say. Judgment will happen for what you write in your books and what people assume you meant when you wrote those words, regardless of your authorial intent. Judgment will happen based on who people think you are based on the fantasy version of you they have in their head, which is almost always more about their own fears and desires than anything that has to do with the actual person you are.

So you might as well say whatever the hell you like, if you like. If nothing else, then the fantasy versions of who you are might be closer to the person you actually are.

Word.

---

After much has been made about the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey - both the books and film - is now banned in Malaysia.

Note that it has been several years since the trilogy was released in the country, where dozens of households might have read or owned at least one volume. That's like closing the barn door after the horses have bolted, headed for the hills, grazed and sired three generations.


Also:

• H is for Hawk: A Q&A at National Geographic with Helen Macdonald, who also sat down with Salon for a tête-à-tête.
• The longlist for Bailey's (hic!) women's prize for fiction is out. It's a strong one, according to The Independent. The Bookseller has a bit more about the selection and notes that, among other things, half the books are published by Penguin Random House.
• A conversation with author Hanya Yanagihara and her editor Gerry Howard about author-editor relationships.
• Peter Hessler went on a book tour in China with his censor. It's just like you'd imagined it.
• If I get to read Cat Out of Hell I won't review it; after Ron Charles's take on it, who could do better?
• Jeffrey Archer accuses Bollywood of stealing his bestselling storylines ... which Bollywood tends to do on occasion.
• Kazuo Ishiguro on memory, censorship and why Proust is overrated.
• Bill Bryson's new book, The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island, is coming soon.
• Mein Kampf to be reprinted in Germany for first time since World War II as an annotated historical document. Of course, not everybody's happy.

My Overseas Union (Coffee) Garden

first published in The Malay Mail Online, 24 February 2015


Last year, when makan kaki Melody pointed out that PJ Section 17's marquee café Butter+Beans was opening a chain in my neck of the woods (now you know where I live), such was my disbelief that I had to see it for myself.

Butter+Beans' new branch at Overseas Union Garden, saving my
fuel money for more coffee

I've been in and out of this steeped-to-the-roots Chinese neighbourhood for years and I never thought Third Wave coffee would arrive here before all my hair turned white.

But Butter+Beans isn't the only Western-style café nearby.

---

The first to open was Doors Café, an offshoot of Doors Music + Tapas in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The weird murals of caffeinated three-eyed aliens and various doors of different colours lent more quirk to Doors, making it more of a hangout and a "chillax" joint.

I'm confident whatever they serve at Doors won't turn you into ... those

Melody and I returned for a peek after a huge dinner (elsewhere). Since I last visited, they've added lots of items on the menu: pastas, sandwiches, baked eggs... those kinds of things. Unfortunately, the kitchen closes at 6pm, so no dinners.

But the iced chocolate, with a scoop of chocolate ice cream, was still as good — and sweet — as the last time, and the coffee was just right.

Doors' all-day breakfast is particularly filling: puréed sweet potato (I think), pan-seared Russet potatoes with rosemary, two slices of toasted baguette, a pork sausage, two strips of bacon and some salad and sautéed mushrooms (no baked beans).

Several bar seats at the window now had headphones plugged into what look like prototype iPods, offering music in lieu of the food and beverages, but there's no indication of which unit plays what.

I picked one and switched it on according to the instructions and my ears were filled with Mandarin-language café music. In spite of the caffeine, I found myself getting sleepy.

It's enough to make me want to freelance and set up shop here.

---

The interior of Midsummer Night Café at Jalan Awan Hijau (same row as MyBurgerLab OUG) looks more like a schoolroom, with its desks and chairs of recycled and smoothed cream-hued wood. Seemed apt, considering the boss, Jon, was formerly a lecturer at a college. The chairs' thick seats are hollow, to house a magazine or book.

The interior of Midsummer Night Café

From what Jon said, what he used to teach has little to do with the décor. One wall was decorated with miniature versions of movie posters, most of which were of Hong Kong films. The selection is changed every couple of months.

Coasters, to prevent condensation from cold drinks staining the wood, are actually laminated screencaps from HK films, complete with lines from the depicted characters.

"Why tell people? It's fine as long as you're happy," goes Chow Yun-fat in An Autumn's Tale.

From its Facebook page, interior and overall feel, I thought this was more of a hangout for a Sinophone crowd.

When Jon started Midsummer Night, he was on the brink of quitting his day job and could, therefore, only open in the evenings on weekdays, hence the name. He heard the calling to do something for himself — and maybe other people — after teaching for years.

The menu features a small selection of beverages and several kinds of cake. Specials are written on a board near the counter. One item is called "Dream": frozen coffee cubes served with a pitcher of milk and gula melaka syrup.

The fine coffee and yummy iced chocolate at Doors Café (left); coasting
the afternoon away at Midsummer Night Café with Leslie Cheung and
some strong iced coffee

Another distinct feature was the lack of a voice like Pixie Lott's from the sound system, breathing lyrics about life, love and the universe. What patrons got — the day I was there, at least — was ambient sounds. Right now, it's rain with a bit of thunder, which does little to calm my nerves, jangled by my cold-brewed Colombian coffee with milk.

Four more glasses of lemon-flavoured water later, I feel much better but a bit out of place without a book or homework to occupy myself with. Maybe next time....

---

"Stop it," Melody chides, after I poke the bear-shaped bean bag (which I named Gilbert) for the umpteenth time while making what I thought were pitch-perfect bear grunts.

Don't feed the bear ... or poke him too much

Some days I prefer simple pleasures.

Then there's Butter+Beans' pastry selection.

We are back here again, weeks after our first couple of visits. Melody, a free-spirited freelancer who often works out of cafés — preferably with free wi-fi and conveniently placed power points — is smitten with her latest "office."

They even brought Food Foundry's famous mille feuilles here, on top of the salmon quiche, fig tart, the kaya and coconut danish (my favourite) and a selection of boulangerie loaves.

Finally, I thought, bona fide treats from a Western bakery and espresso-based coffee, all within walking distance.

So many choices, only one stomach. Oh, the agony.

For a while, the breads disappeared. "They didn't sell well," said the manager on duty. "So we stopped stocking them." But she also told me that the central bakery had shifted to bigger premises somewhere in Kuchai Lama, and we could place an order if we were hankering for a baguette.

Why here, of all places?

Yong, one of the partners who brought Butter+Beans to this part of KL, felt it was time for the Third Wave in coffee to arrive in this neighbourhood (ditto, Yong). "We didn't know about Doors when we picked this spot," he said.

Speaking to Melody, Ken, the other partner, divulged a need to do something more fulfilling than his high-flying job in the financial sector. He used the term "humanist", which delighted Melody no end.

And few things are more humanistic than caffeinating, feeding and bringing people together under one roof — preferably with free wi-fi and music.

---

Doors Café KL

No 51, Jalan Hujan,
Overseas Union Garden,
58200 Kuala Lumpur

Non-halal

Mon–Wed, Sun: 10am–10pm
Fri–Sat: 10am–12am

Closed on Thursdays

+603 7972 2779

doorscafe.kl@gmail.com

Facebook page

Midsummer Night Café

36A, Jalan Awan Hijau,
Overseas Union Garden,
58200 Kuala Lumpur

Tue–Fri: 7pm–12am
Sat–Sun: 3pm–12am

Closed on Mondays

+603 7971 2345

Facebook page

Butter+Beans @ OUG

No 53, Jalan Hujan Rahmat 3
Taman Overseas Union
58200 Kuala Lumpur

Now the site of Chaplang Kafe

Some Feathers In My (Mushroom) Cap

At every Western cuisine outfit I patronise, mushroom soup is often a go-to thing, especially if it's my first time there and if it's available.

So it's only a matter of time before I made my own Western-style mushroom soup.

Main ingredients for mushroom soup

What kept me back was my paranoia of mushrooms. These look dirty - how do you clean them? Do you even need to? Should I remove the stems? These look like a lot - should I use them all? What if the factory accidentally slipped in a poisonous one?

I know, silly me. But to me, these were valid concerns.

While mulling a method to help me shop for groceries better (like recipe cards), I decided to do a mental one for the day I tackle my favourite appetiser. Once I do mushrooms, I might end up putting it into every other thing I cook: Stir-fries, pasta sauces, sandwiches, curries...

Earlier, the mushrooms filled about half the pot

Right, the ingredients. Brown button mushrooms (200g), some Portobello mushrooms, shallots, garlic, mixed herbs and 500ml of pre-packed liquid vegetable stock. This recipe is loosely based on this one.

Prepping the mushrooms was a bit tricky. Several recipes I referred to don't mention washing the 'shrooms first, but one said to remove the stems from Portobellos (which can be woody and tough, I reckon). So I just showered them with water. Rubbing a brown mushroom cap caused the brown to come off, so I stopped.

ROILING HELLBROTH; note the clean stovetops and the saved
mushrooms, chopped (should've saved more)

When the pile of sliced mushrooms got uncomfortably big, I saved the last three Portobello for later. I used these instead of shiitake for the extra flavour and meatiness, but as I learnt later, it's fine for them all to go into the pot - after the aromatics (chopped shallots and garlic) were tossed in and sautéed with a little oil.

Watching Jamie Oliver cook mushrooms, I learnt that the fungi are like sponges that release their own water into the pot, while absorbing other flavours you throw in. And these 'shrooms release a lot of water. As I stirred, the huge pile shrank by at least half, while a puddle of liquid slowly pooled at the bottom of the pot.

I wasn't sure if I should save it all, so I took the pot off the heat and poured put most of it in a bowl; the rest went into the sink, which, in hindsight, was not a good idea.

Bubbly blended fungal ambrosia, peppered with black pepper

Then the pot went back onto the flames. Several minutes is all is needed, then the veggie stock went in. As it started to boil, I tasted the mushroom water.

Mm-mmm, good.

So back into the pot it went, along with a bit of salt, pepper and mixed herbs. And- uh oh, maybe 500ml of vegetable stock was a bit too much. But getting some of it to boil away would take too long. So I killed the heat and waited for it to cool before blending it up.

Oh yes, save a bit of mushroom to chop up for texture.

Almost like how they do it in restaurants

I made a similar mistake with the "ancient carrot" soup: to get as much soup out of the receptacle, I used water, which went back into the pot for a final boil and a swirl of milk - no cream on hand, and I thought with extra mushrooms, why bother?

Yes, the soup was a bit salty on top of being slightly watery - no cream. Perhaps a future version would also benefit from it, plus more mushrooms and less water.

But it is still good, and it was a huge bowl. But at RM18++ for all those mushrooms and almost RM10 for the veggie stock, the cost of raw ingredients is a bit steep.

Still, I've made something with mushrooms. I can see myself doing this again.

The remaining Portobellos went into a (yummy) mushroom pasta dish

As for the remaining Portobellos, they ended up in a yummy home-made mushroom pasta dish the next day. They're not cheap, okay?

...Yes, this is starting to look like a cooking blog. Maybe it's because I find cooking therapeutic - at the moment. Glad the title still applies, though. (Books? No. Maybe. Later. Kitchen? Yes.)

Book Marks: Watchdog, Books On Fire, And Apa Lagi Mau?

So this online translation service got the attention of Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware and they don't like it. The quality of some sample translations as well as the language in the replies Strauss received to her queries ("...your 'watchdog' is the more stupid thing I have ever seen in my life. Go away you and your dog.") should've been a huge red flag.

Start-up or not, when you launch a translation agency, your people should already be sufficiently competent in the original language (Spanish, from the looks of it) and the language to be translated into. People expect a certain degree of quality in your work almost as soon as you open up shop. The market will not allow you to grow into your role with time.

But going after Strauss because she had reservations about their translation service? Talk about barking up the wrong tree.

---

"Apa lagi yang JAWI mau?" asks Azrul Mohd Khalib, after hearing that the Federal Territories religious department is seeking an appeal against a court ruling that says its arrest of a bookstore manager was unlawful.

A brief recap: Borders bookstore manager Nik Raina was detained by religious officials for selling the Malay-language edition of Irshad Manji's Allah, Liberty and Love - which was not banned (I think) until several weeks later.

But it seems that ban was eventually set aside after the Court of Appeal ruled that "a ban on the Bahasa Malaysia translation was illogical" since the English version was being sold. Also, she is not the owner of the store and has no control over what goes on the shelves. Borders does, but JAWI can't charge it under syariah law.

It's not just Azrul; many here are probably wondering why as well. "After all," he writes, "not only is the right to be protected from retrospective criminal law a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 7 of the Federal Constitution, it is also a basic understanding of justice that you cannot be charged for an offence that was not yet deemed an offence at that point of time."

• RIP Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds.
• The anti-vaccine children's book, Melanie's Marvelous Measles, gets trolled on Amazon, like it should be. This book came into the spotlight after the Disneyland measles outbreak, which has been blamed on the anti-vaccine movement.
• From the Penang Monthly magazine: Gareth Richards of GerakBudaya PG, "the bookman who embraced Penang"; and Cheeming Boey says there's "no such thing as failure" and "even when I failed – I tried to do well."
• Publishers want all books to be GST-exempt to avoid confusion over the current method of categorising GST-taxable books.
• Reclusive author Harper Lee is releasing her first novel, possibly a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird - and she reveals why.
• Seems Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiography, Pioneer Girl, is a big hit in the States.
• Almost as bad as the beheadings: ISIS raids Central Library of Mosul and takes 2,000 books they say are not in line with their values. The confiscated books might be burnt, and they're not stopping at immolating only inanimate objects. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) said this: "Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned too."

Ancient Carrot Soup

It never occurred to me to revisit my recipe for carrot and potato soup until I spotted something at the Cold Storage in the "new" Jaya Shopping Centre.

Purple carrots.

Lead "actors": potatoes and purple carrots

Oh, how novel, you might say. But I remember reading from somewhere that carrots come in several colours, like corn and rice, and was apparently what the ancients used to eat. And it seems that the lobak ori were mostly purple ones, and the modern orange carrots are mutants, widely cultivated for economic reasons.

The colour of purple carrots indicates its anthocyanin content. Reputed to be a powerful antioxidant, anthocyanins are also found in a variety of food, such as purple corn, blackberries, eggplant peel, Concord grapes, black rice and black glutinous rice. However, the actual contributions of food-based anthocyanins to one's health haven't been concretely substantiated.

Veggies getting tossed with the aromatics before the main event

But, mmm, purple carrots. And a purple carrot soup makes an interesting talking point, even if the nutritional value is hyped up.

Three small potatoes, three small purple carrots (not expensive), shallots, garlic, mixed herbs and the usual seasoning, plus a little pre-packed vegetable stock (250ml; they ran out of bigger packages).

First, the sautéing of the aromatics. After which, the vegetables - peeled and diced - were added.

When the veggies were ready, I poured in the vegetable stock plus some water and brought the whole thing to a boil. After which, it simmered for about 10 or 15 minutes, during which I added black pepper, a bit of salt and the mixed herbs.

ROILING HELLBROTH (and yes, the stovetops need cleaning - done that)

Getting it to cool before the blending took longer. What you get is something that resembles black glutinous rice dessert, albeit a few shades lighter, due to the potatoes. The spuds also provide the starch to thicken it, so no need for cream, yogurt and the like.

The blended stuff goes back into the pot and heated up till it bubbles. Don't let it bubble for long; as soon as you see a few of those pop, stir and stir for a bit and take it off the heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

The soup, like Zhang Ziyi says in her Visa commercial, was a bit "too sahltee." I think the heat must've dulled the tastebuds; the saltiness was more evident when the soup cooled. Should I have tasted the stock first to check? Maybe.

I think the soup also needed more carrot, less potato, and a shorter cooking time. A few bits of raw purple carrot on top - plus some croutons or toasted baguette slices - wouldn't have been out of place, either.

Blended and brought to a boil: Carrot Soup of the Ancients

So yes, ancient purple carrots. I think they should be on supermarket shelves - and salad bowls - everywhere.

Currying Flavours With Egg And Bacon

I am fond of curries, even those that don't necessarily qualify as such by Malaysian standards.

Some of my favourite dishes are the curry rices some tai chow restaurants prepare, which are more like the Japanese curry rice that I'm also fond of. But sadly, very few places that sell this dish are nearby; the nearest one closed shop weeks ago.

Curry pasta sounds like a poor choice in comparison.

It's a bit more involved than my sunshine pasta, in that I use more herbs and spices and add some bacon and a poached egg for good measure. Non-spaghetti-type pastas like fusilli, shells and penne work better with this, but I'm not laying down laws here. Use whatever you like.

Curry sauce fusilli with bacon and poached egg; the bit of yolk is what
remained of a botched poach - let's not speak of it again

For better results, I'd mix a little grated ginger, grated garlic and grated shallots with the curry powder, a bit of salt and water while the pasta cooks (in salted water) - but you can do without the wet spices in a hurry, like when you're so hungry it feels like you're about to give birth to a chestburster.

Then again, there's the bacon and poached egg. You fry the former in oil (or without, and let the fat render for use later, though this is pointless if you're not using a whole lot of bacon) and put it on a dish with a paper towel to catch the excess grease. I could write a whole post on the latter, which I won't because HUNGRY, yo.

Just poach the egg, fish it out of the water and put it on another dish lined with a paper towel to soak up the excess water. If the poached egg still has some water in the pockets of cooked white, it'll seep into the pasta and dilute the curry.

Once the bacon's done, you use the fat left behind to fry up the curry paste. I didn't bother with the oil-separating thingy, so I waited until the paste is fragrant before I tipped the pasta in.

Few things approach the sanctity of liquid ambrosia than the
fluid yolk of a poached egg

Stir to coat, adding a little water if necessary. Add a tablespoon or two of yogurt to cream up the sauce, mix well and plate. Push the pasta up into a pile or make a nest of sorts where the poached egg goes, then sprinkle with bacon bits and serve.

...This happened late last year. But what the heck.

Book Marks: Copyright Fight And Stuff

The author of Malay-language novel Aku Bohsia is reportedly suing a film production firm for allegedly plagiarising the novel for the film Bohsia: Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam. I was surprised this suit was filed. Because:

[...63-year-old Elias Idris] said he wrote the novel in 1995 using the pseudonym, Anne Natasha Nita, and obtained a copyright on it.

As I understand it, the term bohsia (literally, Hokkien for "no sound" or "voiceless") is usually synonymous with "slut", one that tends to hang out with gangs or prostitutes herself.

So ... yeah ...

Also:

• Spirits Abroad (Fixi Novo, 2014) by Zen Cho won the Crawford Award (for first fantasy book) in the United States. Cho's book shared the award (full name: the William L. Crawford Fantasy Award) with The Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman (Ecco, 2014). Congrats!
• From the Penang Monthly magazine, "The new wave of Malaysian Fixi-on" by Marco Ferrarese. I had no idea this publication existed. Also in the current issue (January 2015), a profile of Ismail Gareth Richards, who runs the GerakBudaya Penang bookshop.
• "Being critical of made-in-Malaysia books is all about being supportive." Daphne Lee returns to The Star in a new column on local books.
• So you think you know Chaucer, do you? Paul Strohm's The Poet's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury tries to uncover more about the author of The Canterbury Tales.
• Is this the world's first gardening manual? I'm not really sure. Some of the gardening advice is just plain weird, hucksterish, even.
• A load of malarkey (come on, who could resist?): How "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" came to be.
• Fifteen words that actually came from literature. Turns out the term "unfriend" is a lot older than thought.
• Scopes trained at apparent half-truths in the novel American Sniper.
• Why Indian author Perumal Murugan quit writing: the furore over the translated edition of controversial novel Madhorubhagan.
• When Oxford University Press issued a an advisory on the inclusion of pigs and pig-related things in children's books, people naturally had stuff to say, including Ron Charles. OUP has since clarified its stand, saying that it does not ban porcine material from its books but does provide "guidance to authors on a range of areas that might cause offence in specific markets. This does, amongst other things, include advice around the use of images of pigs."
• Why John Murphy's grandfather translated Hitler's Mein Kampf. The story of "the first unabridged version in English, which was eventually published in London in 1939 - is an intriguing one. It involves worries about copyright, sneaking back into Nazi Germany to rescue manuscripts and a Soviet spy."
• When it's time to let go of a book, how to decide what stays and what goes?

Book Marks: The Late, Late Year-End Wrap-Up

The local social media scene was briefly set alight (as usual) when news of a wild boar in halls of the MMU Cyberjaya library emerged. The creature was said to have wandered out of the wilderness bordering the township and ended up in the library, where it was eventually subdued and carried off. A news portal had a great headline for the story, which was proven real. The fate of the boar isn't known, but things don't look good for it.


Plus:

• The religious raid and book seizure at Borders, over the Malay translation of Allah, Liberty and Love, was ruled illegal by Court of Appeal at the end of last year. Even more recently, the government failed to keep the ban on the Malay translation of Irshad Manji's Allah, Liberty and Love, published by ZI Publications.
• Malaysian National Laureate Datuk Abdullah Hussain (1920-2014), passed on at the end of last year. Sad news.
• Zen Cho, author of the anthology Spirits Abroad (Fixi, 2014), is interviewed by Daphne Lee on writing, SFF, Western vs Malaysian publishing and more.
• "Making Malaysia’s literary capital work": A Q&A with the curator of the 2014 George Town Literary Festival.
• A well-travelled food historian studying urban food culture in the Asia-Pacific is starting a new blog (h/t Robyn Eckhardt). Should be worth following as it fills up.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s first novel, Mycroft Holmes, written with screenwriter and producer Anna Waterhouse, will be published in fall by Titan Books. It stars Sherlock Holmes' brainy older brother.
• UK bookselling chain Waterstones noted that sales of Amazon's Kindle ebook reader had "disappeared" after seeing higher demand for physical books. The resurgence in demand for print was also credited to Waterstones's refurbishment of some of its shops and giving managers more control over their stores to cater to local tastes.
• Annie Proulx regrets writing Brokeback Mountain because it seems many readers wanted Jack and Ennis together - which wasn't what she had in mind. Well, if this back ain't broke, don't fix it.
• The sad fate of a best-selling young novelist, who died alone in a house along a windswept Irish coast.
• Mark Zuckerberg starts a book club and its first book, The End of Power by Moisés Naím, sold out on Amazon.

Book Marks: #GTLF2014, Battle Diary, And E-Book Fatigue

Writing chose us, say author Susan Barker and poet Sudeep Sen. A lyrical piece on the recently concluded 2014 George Town Literary Festival. The writer who gave us the above also wrote about how writers Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh, Marco Ferrarese and Shivani Sivagurunathan create a sense of place in their works during the Festival.

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Publishers told Chantelle Taylor no one wanted a war story by a woman and asked her to sex it up with romance. Good thing she didn't listen. Despite other publishers' - ahem - misgivings, Taylor's battle diary was well received.

Also in the annals of "publishers who don't know what works and what doesn't", Amazon rejected a book for containing too many hyphenated words, only to put it back on sale later.

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Data from Kobo reveals readers couldn't finish some e-books. According to The Guardian, "The Goldfinch may have won Donna Tartt the Pulitzer, praised by judges as a novel which 'stimulates the mind and touches the heart', but the acclaimed title's 800-odd pages appear to have intimidated British readers, with less than half of those who downloaded it from e-bookseller Kobo making it to the end."

Proofreading a 250-plus page e-book on-screen hard work. I can't imagine going through something almost as thick as The Kindly Ones or James Clavell's brick-thick novels.


Also:

• RIP Shirley Hew, veteran Singaporean publisher. The executive director of Straits Times Press was credited with discovering award-winning writers Suchen Christine Lim and Colin Cheong.
• The Japanese version of Lat's Kampung Boy won second place in Japan's Gaiman Award for the overseas comic category. Yay, Datuk Lat! Omedeto gozaimasu!
• They're expensive to produce and harder to sell. So, is there still a point in publishing academic books?
• Publishers talk about the hits and misses of 2014. Andrew Franklin of Profile Books deviated a little to tell us he was "most proud NOT to have published" Girl Online - and "most ashamed for my fellow publishers for signing up."
• A new book reveals that Beijing's claims to the South China Sea are a recent invention. Ooh, won't this raise a few hackles in the mainland.
• Why we should write in books: the case for marginalia. The points in that article are interesting and kind of valid, but I don't have any compelling reason to start scribbling in books - especially those priced over RM15 and above.
• Someone wrote some thoughts to The Malay Mail Online about "why many Malaysians still cannot converse in English". One Tweeter (can't remember who) noted the irony.
• The future of books and bookstores looks bright to James Daunt, chief executive of Waterstones. I think Daunt sounds a bit optimistic in this article, but if he feels this way....
• When I first got into blogging, I came across quite a few good blogs, and Michael Ooi's was one of them. Glad to see it again (H/T Suanie), and glad to see him keeping it real after all these years. And I can relate to this.

It's What We Say And Do

This afternoon, I went to donate stuff for the flood relief efforts - and became a beneficiary of the kindness of others when my car battery died at the underground parking lot at IGB Tower, TTDI.

Two foreign security guards tried to push my car in an attempt to jump-start it. It failed; I was told later this evening that such emergency jump-starts only worked with manual vehicles. Eventually, one of them looked under the hood and concluded that the battery was gone. He pushed my car into another parking space while I looked for help.

Luckily there was a car workshop nearby. The chief foreman and possibly the boss drove me back to my car with a new battery. I also learnt a bit about my car: seems you can change the battery while the engine's running (it's not battery-operated), and one should, to keep certain settings in the car's electronics from being re-set, like my clock and saved radio channels.

"No good deed goes unpunished", some might say. But I should note that the battery's about two years old, at a time when many other batteries warrant replacement.

In the face of misfortune or a force of nature, what or who we are is nothing. What stands out most is we say and do. And what the volunteers were doing at the donation drop-off point at TTDI is great.

Some of those who formed human chains to convey donated goods into vehicles for transport included migrant workers at the restaurants/drop-off points, like the guards who helped me out.

Let's be like this all the time, rather than during emergencies only.

Faking It

Outraged over Girl Online? Scott Pack doesn't think it's worth exploding over, because it's nothing new. Many famous people don't write their own books, but theirs are keeping bookstores afloat.

"Because the truth is the other books, the 'worthwhile' ones, aren’t popular enough to sustain our industry," he blogged. "And they never will be. The festive boost that the likes of Zoella, Jamie Oliver, underwater dogs and that bloke from Westlife provides is often the difference between a bookshop existing and not existing."

Was it so long ago since everybody was rattled by another ghostwriter's confessions?

Over at Salon, Laura Miller delves into the reason why Zoella's teen fan base feels "betrayed" that she did not write her own book.

From what I understand of Ms Miller's piece, Zoella's fault, if one can call it that, is that she made authenticity part of her brand. People like it if you're "real", especially those who are young, impressionable and bone-tired of faking it - and dealing with fakers - to get through the day.

So I guess her biggest fans should feel cheated - because if plain old Zoe Sugg didn't write her own book, what else did she not do?

A writer (let's call her "Gem") with whom I discussed this feels ghostwriting non-fiction (memoirs, textbooks and the like) is fine; "authors" of such books are often non-writers and have little time to write or research beyond their day jobs. Given the nature of our work, I could commiserate.

Writers of fiction who employ ghostwriters, meanwhile are the real pretenders, said Gem - like artists who don't paint or sculpt their own works. While non-fiction involves stringing together facts into an attractive and engaging narrative, fiction, she feels, is more of creating original material, even if the underlying concepts or ideas originated elsewhere.

Still, James Patterson's books are pretty hot, even though word is that he doesn't really write his own books anymore. But you know, it's like Danish butter cookies. Once someone hits on a winning formula, you can't stop the copycats and you're all, "Screw it, bad mood. WANT."

And for similar reasons, I think we can also give "Katie Price" a pass.

It Huffed And Puffed And Filled My Sails

For the past several years, worn down by tons of reading I've had to do for work, I couldn't bear to look at another printed page after I clocked out.

And the thought of being in a vast hall full of cheaply priced books failed to excite me.

But this Thursday, as I swept my gaze across rows upon rows of fiction titles at this year's Big Bad Wolf sale, I felt strangely refreshed - and it was just the third table. Well, it was a really long table.

Could it have been the stirrings of a second wind?

At least I made the cashiers happy.

"Oh my, I was shocked," squealed one of the sales assistants at the till as I deposited the two Terry Pratchett titles on the counter and began emptying my backpack. "I thought he only had two books!"

Definitely more than two books; at right is Jamal Mahjoub @ Parker Bilal's
The Golden Scales

A day earlier, a former colleague at the distributors' side became a bona fide colleague again. This time, she occupied her former boss's office. But it also meant that - hooray! - I was getting free books to review, after a months-long drought.

Maybe the second win began blowing earlier than that Thursday morning.

So, yes, I ended up with more than just two books.

First, the Terry Pratchetts. Feet of Clay and The Fifth Elephant are part of the series featuring the Discworld's Watchmen, led by Sam Vimes. I've begun following the series after Guards! Guards!, but too bad they didn't have its immediate sequel, Men at Arms.

Surprisingly, MPH Mid Valley has begun stocking up some of the Pratchett titles in the old Paul Kidby covers, including Men at Arms.

Following the passing of British crime writer PD James, I'd begun searching for her books - like the worst kind of reader. I regretted not picking up the one title I'd found one or two BBW Sales ago.

This year, however, I found two: Cover Her Face, part of the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries; and the more well-known Death Comes to Pemberley. Where should this go in the reading queue?

I was kind of curious about African stories after reading Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's piece in The New York Times. What have I been missing, I wondered.

So I picked up a few: Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go, Nii Ayikwei Parkes's Tail of the Blue Bird and The Spider King' Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo.

I gave The Granta Book of the African Short Story a pass because it was a hardback and the pile was getting too heavy. Guess it was a missed opportunity.

Other books I'd dumped included the English translation of Excursion to Tindari by Italian Andrea Camilleri, two of Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe novels: The Kalahari Typing School for Men and The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending, Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel and Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan.

Not just because of weight, but also my pockets.

However, I got two of "those" Malay novels, just to see what the fuss is about. Why are they so popular? Could I figure it out? Are they as awful as some people claim?

Other local buys were The Mouse Deer Kingdom by Chiew-siah Tei (to go with my copy of The Little Hut of Leaping Fishes which remained unread for over a year), the epic novel Amber Road by Boyd Anderson and the Man Asia Award-winning The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng - which I will read before - maybe - a peek at the work of an author who was rumoured to be disgruntled by Tan's Man Asia win.

The odd duck of this pile was Parker Bilal's (real name Jamal Mahjoub, of British-Sudanese descent) The Golden Scales, a crime novel set in Cairo. I flipped through a few pages, assumed (wrongly) this must be one of the works of noir that's getting popular in the Middle East and bagged it.

I went into BBW2014 without a list or a guide, staying away from the best-sellers, literature, romance and, strangely enough, the non-fiction sections. The only non-fiction title I wanted but couldn't find was Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef of Prune in New York. Maybe next year or the following year.

For now, I'll just savour the feeling. It has been a while since I last felt it.

"Difficult, Downright Thankless"

Turning readers to locally published English-language books "is a difficult, if not downright thankless, job", says The Star, which ran a story about a publishing symposium in Singapore and why things are tough for locally published English books.

Linda Tan Lingard, of the Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency, told The Star: "Locally-published books in English face fierce competition from imported titles."

Oon Yeoh, senior consulting editor at MPH Group Publishing, also put in his two sen:

...local long-form fiction in English doesn't do very well. "Non-fiction books, such as 'how-to' books and cookbooks, tend to do better than fiction, though short story collections sometimes do well."

He added that the price point for locally-published books needs to be lower as well. "Imported titles sell even when they are priced well over RM50, for instance. With local books, however, the buying public is not prepared to spend more than RM50."

So, why are imported foreign English-language titles - some of which do cost more than RM50 - seem more popular among Malaysians than local stuff?

Raman Krishnan of Silverfish Books, who The Star also interviewed, said:

"Anglo/American books are sucking the air out of the Malaysian and Singaporean publishing industries, he said. "In Malaysia, the distributor decides what books the public reads, which in turn is decided by media reports from the West."

He believes the key is in building "a healthy local and regional market". But who's going to put out for that? Will bookstores be willing to invest, when they seem to be more focused on the bottom line than home-grown bylines?


Who really decides?
However, someone from a major books distributor told me it's the reading public who decides what the bookstores sell, based on what's popular with them.

The usual suspects include the Anglo/American stuff, as well as Malay romance, horror, religion and romance-religion (what). And, as my esteemed colleague puts it, the "'how-to' books and cookbooks".

That might be true for the big chains, who depend on shifting as many "hot" items as possible to stay afloat. And if many of their customers are from the middle to upper class, the bit about the Western media's influence in shaping consumption habits sounds plausible - not just for books, but film as well - because, as we know, only that strata of society are more likely to be able to read and have access to that kind of material.

So local writing ends up in what would be considered niches, dismissed as "arty", "fringe", "experimental" - euphemisms for "risky", "unprofitable" and the like in big bookselling.

The Anglo yardstick introduces other problems as well. Nigeria-based author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, author of the award-winning I Do Not Come to You by Chance, laid out the problems African authors have in getting noticed (as well as other challenges). In The New York Times, she says African literature is beginning to receive recognition outside the so-called Dark Continent.

The catch?

...we are telling only the stories that foreigners allow us to tell. Publishers in New York and London decide which of us to offer contracts ... American and British judges decide which of us to award accolades ... Apart from South Africa, where some of the Big Five publishers have local branches, the few traditional publishers in Africa tend to prefer buying rights to books that have already sold in the West, instead of risking their meager funds by investing in unknown local talents.

Nope, these African voices, like Nwaubani's, do not come to us by chance.

As a result, she says, most authors in her home country are self-published. But "with no solid infrastructure for marketing and distribution" and the clout that comes with winning international awards:

...the success of these authors' works is often dependent on how many friends, family members and political associates can attend their book launches and pay exorbitant prices for each copy. Or on whether they have a connection in government who can include their book as a recommended text for schools.

Sounds familiar?


Social engineering? Or slow suicide?
I see parallels in the whole "our readers want us to sell these books" with what outgoing ESPN ombudsman Robert Lipsyte seemed to suggest about the sports channel not doing heavy hitting journalism because, according to Slate, "the viewers don't want them to".

"Extensive investigative reporting into the exploitation of college athletes, and the legal battles around that, would seem to conflict with ESPN’s business model," he wrote in his last column. By "business model", I think he means the near-deification of the nation's sports stars.

I'm not sure what kind of myth the big publishers want to foist on the world. That what they publish is all that matters? Can it be as simple as pushing what they deem to be "the thing" while making money out of it?

If that's true, the big publishers' preference and obsession for the next big thing, something The Globe and Mail calls "blockbustering", might spell their doom:

As they grow larger and concentrate their efforts and investments on massive, sure-fire hits ... the cultural landscape seems paradoxically smaller. It becomes even more difficult to get an indie film made – the huge projects suck the oxygen (financing, distribution, media coverage) out of the biosphere (hey, same terminology as Raman's).

In following this larger trend, book publishers are shortsighted. By reducing their involvement in original and challenging art, they relinquish literary fiction to the tiny presses and online magazines, and so become artistically irrelevant and, in the long run, uninteresting even as suppliers of entertainment. Pursuing mainstream popularity with ever-larger sums of money is ultimately self-destructive.

Reversing this trend sounds simple: don't do all that! But will they listen?


Market writers, not what's written
Now, how to start building Raman's local market? "Don't sell books, sell personalities," he told The Star (and everyone else) "Sell the writers."

That would work, considering how kepochi (busybody-ish) Malaysians tend to be. Even if their short-term goal is trying to find out how to be a best-selling author themselves.

Besides, books don't sell themselves. They need to be marketed; the difference is in the degree of marketing. I'm sure even the publisher for Fifty Shades had to tell people "Kinky stuff here!"

Others have had to work real hard. Appearances at book fairs, literary festivals, book tours and signings, media interviews, the whole shebang. The writers who've made it, the names that seem to jump off the shelves, didn't they put in the hours when they first started?

Some of them still tour and perform. Brand names that don't maintain themselves fade away - at least until they start asking "Don't you remember me?"

Examples closer to home include the author of a successful series of autobiographical stories in cartoon format, who has built such a rapport with fans, his books are still selling today; a writer who I heard hawked her crime novel overseas and picked up a deal with a major international publisher; a cycling enthusiast and activist who takes her book about her travels on the road with her; and that best-selling "housewife" who came up with lots of ideas to spread the word about her works.

But again: will bookstores and publishing houses put out, if the authors are up for it - even if they're not famous or established? And, authors: will some of you have the fortitude to swallow your pride and work with the suits to shift the copies?


Reading ahead
An incident about a novel also made me think about the future face of publishing and publishers - as well as marketing and criticism.

The guys with all the passion, they start off small. Once they get big, they are likely to end up swim in bigger oceans where there's LOTS of competition - and spend much of their time just surviving, rather than putting in the hours enlightening the masses and enriching the pool of literature. This eventually sucks them dry of all the love of words and bookselling, leaving them mere shells of the former selves.

Maybe the answer doesn't lie in big but in small, as eloquently put in this piece about the 2014 George Town Literary Festival. Staying small might mean a smaller reach and support base, but it also means more time and effort is spent to fulfil The Purpose, rather than continually fighting for survival.

Third Book! Third Book!

When some people clamoured for a third book at a book-signing session last year, I had little idea it would happen, and quite fast, too.

So yeah, it happened.

And I had to be there at the meet-and-greet session with Cheeming Boey, author of the graphic autobiographical When I Was A Kid series, at the MPH Bookstore in Mid Valley Megamall last Saturday, in conjunction with the release of the third book.

What was surreal was that before Boey walked into the store, Dato' Seri S Samy Vellu entered (I don't think Dato' Seri would've wanted his picture taken).

Besides the poorly designed parking bays and school holiday-season traffic during the weekends, Boey had loads of stuff to say. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it.

Even though he was about half an hour late, people stayed in the store and waited for him. Some were new fans, others were old fans and those who followed his career as an author.

After some anecdotes and a couple of reads from Third Book, well, what's a meet-and-greet without a book-signing session? Especially when the author also draws.

Here, Boey takes a breather to pose for a photo. He is, arguably, photogenic from certain angles.

What inspires his fans' loyalty is that Boey takes the time to chat with them, asks them how they're doing, what they're doing, how's work and all that. Old fans had a chance to catch up with him since the last meet-and-greet, Facebook post or tweet - and he remembers their names. Definitely worth staying on for.

Some of his fans also brought him gifts: a poster, chocolates, biscuits, and so on. I think he also received custom Boey-tattooed cupcakes.

Another loyalty-inspiring bit: custom caricatures! This fan got a birthday present in the form of a Boey-esque cartoon of herself as a fairy princess. Those who bought calendars got their dates of birth personalised, too.

Very few of his autographs these days do not feature a Boey, whether he's in a tux, dressed as a bee, or something. A couple of smartphones also got autographed too - wonder how much they'll fetch at Lelong.my?

Still, nothing so far beats the biggest autograph ever: on an Air Asia Airbus A320.

Then, an interview with journalists from The Star. Strangely enough, Boey was featured in an article by The Star's Elaine Dong in 2010. Back then, he was more known for his intricately drawn Styrofoam coffee cups, some of which go for four figures.

Before things were wrapped up, some of the staff at Mid Valley's MPH Bookstore pose with the author. Guy in the red T-shirt at far right is Joel, also a huge fan.

This is just a small sample of the over-300 photos I took at the event, many of which may not see the light of day. MPH Distributors, who are spreading Boey across Malaysia, Singapore and maybe the world, is getting the whole lot.

These photos of the event and a few more can be found at this Facebook album.

Masterclass In Session: Audrey's Malaysian Tapas

Tapas, which involves pairing bite-sized morsels of food with (usually alcoholic) drinks, is not merely a Spanish pastime, as seen in the food and travel channels on ASTRO.

From the Greek mezes and Italian antipasti to the English afternoon tea and Hong Kong dim sum, this culinary concept has been bringing people together over food, drink and conversation for ages.

Though Malaysian cuisine features many recipes meant for festive occasions and large banquets, it also has some for small appetites or cosy and more relaxed informal gatherings.

"Malaysian food, with its immense variety and adaptability, lends itself perfectly to tapas-style eating, to be savoured in the most relaxed of settings with minimal cutlery or fuss," says freelance food stylist and food photographer Audrey Lim.

Lim even sees parallels between tapas culture and the Malaysian idea of lepak, and hopes to change how it's perceived. "Some people view this word negatively but to me it's a wonderful concept," she says. "It's about being together, doing absolutely nothing other than enjoying each other's company, fuelled by delicious food and drink."

Inspired, I think, by the local kopitiam culture and third-wave coffee scene, as well as the midnight-oil burning sessions at the mamak stalls, which many might recall.

With Malaysian Tapas, the new volume in the MPH Masterclass Kitchens series, Lim shows how some local favourites lend themselves well to the tapas concept, especially when paired with complementary beverages.

Some thought has been given to how the food and drinks are paired, especially in this part of the world where one strives for balance and harmony in many aspects of life.

Cool off with zesty and refreshing limau ais after some rendang tok canapés. Warm up and relax with some dong quai and rice wine-infused chicken wings and hot ginger tea. Fancy some stingray gulai, with fragrant pandan cooler afterwards?

But it's not all Malaysian-only. Lim also includes her Wild Pepper Leaf Wraps, which hark back to the Thai and Laotian miang kam.

She also clears up a misconception: "The wild pepper leaf (daun kaduk) used to wrap the ingredients is sometimes mistaken as the betel leaf. When chewed on, betel leaves give a mild high similar to that produced by nicotine – not exactly the effect you want the miang kam to have on your guests!"

No, but it would help the guests to chill.

Apparent nods to the Mediterranean origins of tapas include Stir-fried Baby Octopus with Pink Peppercorns (paired with a lemon-honeycomb tea), and Grilled Aubergine with Tomato and Pineapple Salsa (with her kedondong-sour plum drink).

"To me, lepak culture and tapas culture is a match made in culinary heaven, and this book is my little contribution towards making it even more heavenly," says Lim.

So, jom lepak with Audrey Lim's Malaysian tapas!

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Malaysian Tapas

Audrey Lim
MPH Group Publishing
185 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-967-415-261-1

Buy from MPHOnline.com