True taste of home food

Situated in a quiet, but busy, neighbourhood in Gudaibiya is a haven for the island's Malay population seeking fresh home-made food.

Bali Orchid was reopened more than five months ago and consists of a seating facility for up to 40 people.

Managing the outlet is passionate Malaysian financial consultant, Dr Zaha Rina Zahari.

She said: "Bahrain has a lot of Asian expatriates who work on various outdoor projects in the desert and crave for home-made food.

"We are helping feed these individuals, who live here away from home and from their families, to help Bahrain grow!"

Although the outlet is patronised by individuals belonging to a wide range of nationalities, for Malays it offers an authentic taste of home.

Engineer Tan, 51, from Riffa, said: "The ambience is very nice here. It is really far from where I work in Reef Island.

"We come back repeatedly as the food is very good and the staff is very friendly. We are not aware of any other place on the island that offers the same ambiance."

The outlet offers lunch and dinner buffet and the charge depends on how much food is picked up.

The restaurant offers Malaysian and Indonesian food with plans to introduce Thai dishes in the future.

Dr Zaha Rina also said that they are planning to renovate the interiors and seek new locations for another branch.

Consulting chef Shukrie Yaacob helped develop the menu, training the staff on preparing and presenting the authentic dishes.

Chef Shukrie boasts 13 years of kitchen experience and has worked in Malaysia and Ireland.

Renowned in the field of finance for her expertise and having authored a book on Islamic Finance, Dr Zaha Rina has travelled immensely having lived in Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia as well as owning a house in London. A year ago, she made Bahrain her second home after Malaysia, when she bought a house at Amwaj Islands.

Dr Zaha Rina shares a popular Malaysian recipe with readers.

Gado-Gado or vegetable salad

Ingredients:

Blanched/steamed vegetables

Long green beans, cut into 4-5 cm long pieces

Chinese cabbage, shredded

Bean sprouts

Lettuce

Tomato, wedged

Cucumber, sliced

Other complements

Boiled/steamed potatoes, sliced

Boiled eggs, wedged

Fried/baked Tempe (cheese from South East Asia)

Fried/baked tofu

Lontong (rice cake with log shape), cut 1 cm thick

Ready-to-use fried shallot

Melinjo nuts crackers

Shrimp crackers

Gado-gado sauce:

10 cloves garlic, stir fried/fried/roasted

300g roasted/fried peanuts (In this case, I used 1 cup of organic crunchy peanut butter)

1000ml coconut milk

10 red chilies, discard the seed and stir fried/fried

1tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste), toasted

1 block of coconut sugar (about 62.5 grams)

2-3tbsp rice flour dissolve in a small amount of water

Sambal (red chili sauce)

20 red bird eyes chilies, boiled /steamed

1/2tsp sugar

Sea salt as desired

Method:

Gado-Gado Sauce

1. Process garlic, peanuts/peanut butter, a half part of coconut milk, red chilies, terasi, coconut sugar in a food processor or blender.

2. In a sauce pot, combine processed mixture with the rest of coconut milk, stir and turn on the stove at low-medium heat. Stir occasionally.

3. Cook sauce until boiled, the volume reduced and the sauce surface looks a bit oily. Add rice flour mixture. Keep stirring until bubbling for about five minutes. Remove from heat.

Sambal

Combine all ingredients and process in a food processor/blender or you can grind them with mortar and pestle.

Serving:

Place lettuce, slices of lontong and boiled potatoes, blanched vegetables, wedges of boiled egg, slices of fried tempe and tofu, and wedges of tomato, slices of cucumber. Pour the warm sauce over, garnish with fried shallot, crushed shrimp crackers and emping nuts crackers. Put sambal on the side as people have different taste buds to handle the spiciness. You can omit the sambal if you don't like the spicy sauce.