Otak-otak Story

well done otak-otak

wrapped in coconut leaves and ready to be eaten

Otak-otak is a snack usually eaten by itself or with rice. Otak-otak is a fish paste made of grounded fish and mixed with spices such as chilies, garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemon grass, coconut milk, kaduk leaves (aromatic creepers) and sometimes galangal. As such it is reddish-orange in color and emits an aromatic fragrance when grilled over low fire in either coconut leaf or banana leaf. The dish derived its named otak-otak since it resembles the brains, being grayish, soft and almost squishy!

Otak literally means “brain” in the Malay language. While fish otak-otak is common, due to varieties demand, otak-otak have developed many different flavors such as shrimp, crab and squid. However the best selling otak-otak in the market is still fish and shrimp. Enough of “fishy Discovery Channel”.

moist fish fillings

My favorite otak-otak stall in Kuala Lumpur selling stall is in AU5 Food Court, along AU 5 Road, Lembah Keramat Kuala Lumpur. The stall is basically a stand alone in front of the Food Court, operated by a young couple. It is self service, but since HH and me were patron at one of the Food Court stall, the waitress was simply too happy to order for us instead. It was HH who wanted to try the otak-otak. I was just tagging along, since from my previous experience they were too spicy for my taste. To my pleasant surprise it was not too spicy; hence my adventure with them and their “cousin”, satar (earlier post)begins. And the rest is history.

The otak-otak were moist sans fishy scent, roughly grounded and the spices mixed well with a tinge of kaduk aromatic fragrance, I think. This has been my favourite otak-otak joint since my discovery early of this year. 

(Kuala Terengganu version of otak-otak)

The otak-otak in the west Peninsular differs from the one is the eastern coast, at least in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, where in Kuala Terengganu the chilies paste wrapped the fish flesh. Upon close inspection, one can fish out the fish pieces from the paste, as in the picture below and above.

Over all my adventure with otak-otak have been fun. This is really a "new" discovery for me. And as such to give a grading will do injustice to other otak-otak elsewhere. But, I digress. AU 5 Food Court's stand alone stall's otak-otak earned an impressive 8 on Acepaizah's scale.

fishy tales
~Acepaizah~

Terengganu otak-otak & its cousin satar