Mother’s Day Special: ‘Ampap’ Fish (Mom’s Legacy)

My 'Belais Ampap'.

                                                          

This is not a recipe’s entry.  Just a story of a very special meal for me.  Mother’s Day is coming and suddenly I feel like sharing a story about one of my Mom’s recipe which I like so much.

Many people says Mom’s Cooking is the best.  Are you one of those people?  Unfortunately, I only could say Yes and No to that.  Just let me put it this way…my mom has many talents and interest and usually she was very good at it, but I don’t think cooking is one of it.  I am not saying she couldn’t cook.  Of course she could cook.  But while other ‘typical’ housewife in her time pour out all their effort to improve their cooking and other wifely duty, my mom did it only for necessity.  She prefers spend her extra time doing her other hobbies and passion like farming, music…yes you read it right…music, and tending to her favorite pet, chicken.  At least that is how I see it.  So was my mom’s cooking is the best?  No, for she cook just a very simple and ordinary recipe.  But at the same time I still say Yes too, because there are a few simple recipe that was delicious and so unique that I know I won’t find it anywhere else in this world.

One of it is this ‘ampap’ fish.  I google about this recipe and yes I found a few recipe about this ‘ampap’ fish on the internet.  But I notice, recipes I found on the internet are much more complicated compared to my mom’s recipe.  My mom’s recipe is so very simple that it only needs  4-6 ingredients to make this ‘ampap’ fish.  Those ingredients are salt, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, chili (optional) and tamarind juice.  As for the fish, my mom always use ‘ikan lumahan’ and there is one other fish that I don’t know what to call. In my dialec, we call it ‘amos’ but I don’t know what it’s call in English or Malay. It’s tastier but a bit hard to find. It’s so simple right? But for me it is so tasty that I beg her to teach me how to cook it.   And once I know how to cook it, I always do it because it is so easy too.  Just mix all the ingredients to the fish, arrange it on a pan and cook it dry with low heat.  That’s all!

Now, this recipe has become one of my husband’s favorite too.  Every time we have a suitable fish for this recipe, he always requests me to cook this meal.  In Labuan, we seldom find ‘ikan lumahan’ or the other fish I mentioned earlier, so we opted for ‘ikan belais’. I will do it happily since cooking this is not hard at all.  It’s very simple and easy….and for me,  it’s so nostalgic.