FOODlog #73: Penang Otak-Otak

Last week my Mum went on a trip with her family to Penang which is in the north of Malaysia. She went there for a short holiday with her mother and her siblings as well as my nephew from Singapore who is on holidays here in Malaysia.

She bought back some delicious goodies and also this dish called 'otak-otak' which is a Malaysian cuisine dish for our dinner. We steamed it up and had it for our dinner with rice.

'Otak-otak' translates to 'brains' in English but rest assured, it's just the name and there aren't actually any brains in this dish. It's actually eggs and coconut milk with chili, fish, and betel leaves that is steamed in banana leaves. The wrapping here of the banana leaves were so beautiful and held in place with a toothpick which made it look like a mini parcel.

The texture is sort of like a custard which is where I think it gets it's name 'otak-otak' from. This one here was the Penang style 'otak-otak'. The egg was smooth and the fish was fresh and flaky. It was so aromatic from the coconut milk and the banana leaves that it was wrapped and cooked in. It was on the spicier side which I think it is because they used birds eye chili for this which is really spicy but it was so delicious you kept going back for more. We ate this with white steamed rice which was a perfect pairing and sort of cooled the spiciness level down a little.

Such a unique dish and not something we often eat so it was a real treat to have this for dinner.