Serai

The Lemon Grass

It is a versatile plant essential for Asian cooking especially among the local people. Used for cooking most hot dishes, the aroma exuded by the plant is reason for people to consume the dish. On the way back from Borobudur in Jogjakarta, we stopped by a restaurant for dinner. Here we found a special function of the plant.

The local restaurant at JogJarkarta is tastefully decorated and the ambiance was magical. If you happen to celebrate your birthday there, a group of local artistes is ready to make your night. Very unique.

A couple of us ordered 'ginger tea'.

The pot of tea is constantly heated up by a 'charcoal fire'; have been told by my mum that food and soup cooked over charcoal fire taste better and richer.

So, it was with great pleasure that the ginger tea was consumed; hot and gingerly...good ingredients to remove 'wind' from the stomach.

There is the special function of the serai. Indeed the ginger tea tastes unique and the aroma of the serai was distinct. We told among ourselves that we should use the serai at home to stir the concoction too.

On another note, the serai also reminded me of a conversation with one of the chaperons who accompanied the Heidelberg Youth choir to our school last June. Juliah, the chaperon is a champion cook in Malaysian cuisines and shared with me her desire to start a Malaysian restaurant in Heidelberg. Born a Malaysian but married to a German, she has been in Germany for more than a decade and find that the locals are not well exposed to Malaysian cuisines. Though a landscape architect, she expressed her intense dream to get her dream manifested.

Juliah was also one of the mothers of the Heidelberg youths who took the opportunity to travel with the singing team around the country.

Juliah to the extreme right, is a wonderful cook as told by her friends especially Esther Witt, standing at the extreme left. Juliah is no empty talk. Last Thursday in the Straits Times there was a big article on SERAI, the Malaysian cuisine chain store newly established in Heidelberg ! There The SERAI is on, a dream envisaged and achieved. Juliah hopes the local Germans will take a liking to her Malaysian style cuisines and hopefully create her own reputation.

So to Juliah and her SERAI; may your success story be on the lips of many for the days to come.

SERAI... how a word can evoke memories.