The first time I cooked for my American family, we invited Steve’s sisters and their families to have dinner at our home.
I was thinking, what foods are specialties in Chinese-Malaysian cuisine? I know they might have been in Chinese restaurants, but those are China, Taiwan or Hong Kong styles.
Of the ten people coming, two are vegetarians.
第一次烹煮请美国的家人，即Steve的两位姐姐及其家人，共十位。
我想了想，要煮什么是马来西亚华人食物的特色呢？虽然他们都吃过这儿华人餐厅的食物，但都是中国、台湾或香港式的。
I cooked vegan herbal soup, pork herbal soup, vegan ‘Char Koay Teow’, shrimp Char Koay Teow (fried rice-stick noodles), ‘Kai Lan’ (a vegetable), ‘Ma Po’ tofu, chicken curry, vegetarian ‘Roti Paratha’, and sweet soup with sweet potatoes and kidney beans.
他们之中两位是素食，所以我煮了素‘鸡骨’ 茶、肉骨茶、素炒粿条、虾及蜡肉炒粿条、炒素芥蓝、素麻坡豆腐、咖哩鸡、煎素Roti Paratha和四果汤甜点。
Are those representative of Chinese-Malaysian foods?
这些是不是较像代表作？
It took four hours to cook everything. In winter, the foods cool faster than normal, so I heated them again when the guests came.
4小时我做好全部食物，冬天，很快又冷。客人来了，我再弄热一下食物上桌。
We had also made a batch of ‘kuih kapit’ a few days before,
前些天我们做的Kuih Kapit，
and there was more: dragon fruit and durian, which are fruits usually found only in some Asian countries.
还有亚洲才能生产的龙珠果和榴莲。
However, most of them didn’t know about durian and did not seem interested in tasting it, so I didn’t open it. Also, because they heard an American, who is world wide food journalist, mentioned even he couldn’t take durian, the worst smell he ever experienced. Thus, I was afraid they couldn’t stand if I opened the durian.
After dinner, I noticed the leftovers. Roti Paratha is most popular, none left.
I ate leftovers for three days; I was really amazed at the delicious food that I cooked.
I think I might have cooked too much or they might not be used to Chinese-Malaysian food. That was a good experience; I will adjust and improve if I cook for them again. ;-)
最终，没剥开榴莲，没人有兴趣尝试。也因为他们听说有位美国吃家到世界各国吃尽各类奇特食物，最不能忍受榴莲的‘臭’味，所以我怕剥开榴莲，全部人会离开。
餐后，看剩的食物。Roti Paratha是最受欢迎的，因为没剩。
从没煮食请客的我，这是很好的体验，自己三天吃剩余的食物，就边吃边觉得所煮的食物味道很好吃…真的！
有剩余可能是我煮过多，也大有可能他们不适应马来西亚华人食物。若下次再请客，须要调整改善。呵呵。
