The Boy has been wanting to dedicate a Playground series post to Malaysian foods for the longest time.
He’s been sitting in the background sketching, thinking and planning on what he could recreate that would not only represent the essence of the Playground Series, but also be fun and out of the box.
Enter the Malaysian mamak scene. If you’ve never heard of the famed roadside eateries that dot nearly every suburb in Malaysia, do yourselves a favour and on your next trip to beautiful Malaysia, head out for supper to the nearest local mamak near you.
There you can enjoy rotis, mee gorengs, nasi gorengs, fried chicken and nasi lemak etc by the side of the road or if you’re lucky, the fancier open aired hawker establishments located in shops. Not all mamak stalls are by the roadside and not all streetside stalls by the roads are mamak stalls.
In terms of drinks, you can order from a wide range of beverage options. You could order the famed Teh Tarik (“Pulled” Tea with Condensed Milk), or go with Nescafe Tarik (“Pulled” Nescafe with Condensed Milk), Teh O’Ais (Iced Tea), Teh O’Ais Limau (Iced Lemon Tea) or simply a glass of Milo or Horlicks. If you are feeling a little more adventurous, you could start mixing your tea, coffee, Horlicks or Milo options, such as Cham (Coffee and Tea), Neslo (coffee and milo) or if you’re feeling completely crazy all four of them.
This is where the Boy’s inspiration for this Playground Series comes from.
For the longest time, us cheeky Malaysians have been daring each other to order the drink comprised of the four (Tea, Coffee, Milo and Horlicks) at Mamak stalls to gleeful laughter and banter.
Why? Because of its cheeky sounding name (Lick (Horlicks) – Mi (Milo) – Ko (Kopi or Coffee) – Teh (Teh or Tea)). Imagine as you place your order with the local mamak waiter, looking him in the eye to say, “I want a ‘lick-mi-ko-teh’, please“!
It is exactly what it sounds to be, It is an order that has two fronts. One, the drink (of course) and the second is pretty much a request for the poor chap to lick your nether regions (if you’re a guy) 0_0.
So the Boy came up with the aforementioned drink in the form of a dessert.
On the plate, there are elements from each of the drink components that make up Lick-Mi-Ko-Teh.
The shot glass contains a combination of tea and coffee, otherwise known as Cham (in Malaysia) or Ying Yang (in Chinese).
The two chocolate bars, are actually frozen Milo Parfait Bars sprinkled with Milo.
On the two corners, are Horlicks Crumble (made with Horlicks, flour, sugar & butter).
And the really long PVC tube-like thing is the Teh Tarik Panna Cotta topped with teh tarik foam, and dulce de leche at the corner for the condensed milk representation.
Our favourite component of the dessert had to be the Milo parfait bars. It was just so addictive and lovely to eat (akin to eating Milo ice cream!).
We served this to a couple of our Malaysian friends who guffawed in laughter and glee as we brought this out of our kitchen.
So does your culture have something similar in terms of a ‘naughty’ but real food/drink?
What a stunning dish … the time and effort you two put in continually astounds me.
In this case, the only effort I took was to eat it 😛
Friiiiiiiick I love you two. You’re the best. I can’t wait to work in your restaurant one day. xoxo
We wuv you too!
That is one amazing dessert 🙂 And i can’t believe you still don’t have a sweet tooth I don’t think one plate would be enough for me 😛
Hahaha we shared it too with everyone 😛
Dear Ms I-Hua,
This is very clever and I love chunky Horlicks added to the drink too.
Aww thanks!
Love it! This looks like a restaurant quality meal – and love that I am currently in Malaysia so I can see where your inspiration is coming from.
Hahah.. I’d be LMAO if this was served in a restaurant 😛 But yayy! How’s the holiday?
What fun indeed! Great idea 🙂
*blush*
sigh… the dessert I was meant to have =(
Yes, and you piked.. and fried chicken
Comment for Gaz – the PVC tube chocolate thing looks like an earthworm. Throw it out, Haz, throw it out!!
It was quite nice despite the looks 😛
I wanna eat!!!! All the components also I like.
Soft soft one the tube thing 😛