Malaysian Food Heritage : "Hinava"

Recently, I came across a unique Malaysian dish called the Raw Fish Salad, named “Hinava” in Malaysia. It is one of the most popular and traditional dish of ‘Kadazan Dusun’ the indigenous ethic group from Sabah. It is a form of salad with raw fish marinated in lime juice. The sourish taste of it is so appetizing and makes me crave for more. However, the raw fish can be substitute with either prawn or squid according to your liking. It is easy to prepare the dish, as no cooking is required.

There are a few simple steps to prepare ‘Hinava’. Mary Chey, the chef of the day that I interviewed will illustrate on the ingredients and procedure for the preparation of Raw Fish Salad.  

  Ingredients: 

• 200grams raw Mackerel / Salmon/ Snapper  **(Choose either one)
• 4-5 pieces of lime, halve and juice it
• Half tea spoon  of Salt and Pepper  to enhanced the taste
• 1.5—2 inch of ginger, finely chopped/ sliced thinly
• 2 shallot, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1/2 or half red chilli, cut into fined cube/ strips
• Slices of raw bitter gourd, thinly sliced     **(Optional)
• 2 teaspoon of sesame oil  

These ingredients are selling in the supermarket, which is easy to get. To be precise, the raw fish must be really fresh in order to avoid consuming harmful bacteria. After preparing the ingredient listed, let’s move on to the few simple procedure to prepare ‘Hinava’.

Procedure

Step 1:

Wash and sliced the raw Mackerel fish fillets thinly. **Optional to remove the fish skin 

Mackerel fillets

Sliced

➱

Step 2:

Add the salt, pepper and sesame oil into the mixing bowl filled with limejuice.

Step 3:

Mix the sliced fish, ginger, shallot, red chilli and bitter gourd into the mixing bowl. *(Mix well)

Step 4:

Set aside for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator.  **(Not freezer)

Step 5:

Add more lime juice (Optional). Ready to be serves as salad/ appetizer. 

Differences between online and household recipe

TIME

Compare to the online recipe, the household recipe uses much lesser time to prepare the dish, approximately 1 hour. The online recipe recommends refrigerating the marinated fish overnight and rinsing it before mixing other ingredients. Although there are just few simple steps to prepare the dish, household recipe would try to keep the steps as simple as possible and saves time. 
Other than being lazy, majority of the household often have a time constraint problem where they will try to save as much time as possible to complete a task. Same goes to food, cravings for today must be curbs on the day itself instead of eating it the next day.  Hence, household recipe is less time consuming and simpler steps to prepare that often cater for people with busy lifestyle.

Ingredients & Budget 

Moreover, there are additional ingredients needed to prepare like vinegar, tomatoes, eggs, beetroot, mayonnaise and sour cream. However, these additional ingredients are unnecessary as is according to personal preference towards the ingredients that will be mix into Hinava. The household recipe consists of the more commonly used ingredients that guarantee the traditional taste of the dish. 
On the other hand, budget for the household recipe is obviously lesser than the online ones. The chefà Mary Chey, mentioned that the budget to make Raw Fish Salad is less than RM50 assuming everything are newly purchase, which should be cheaper than the online recipe. Well, people will try to apply the “minimum input to creates maximum output” theory, where they often purchase the cheaper ingredients that will make the food as tasty as possible. 

Cultures 

Additionally, different races that make the dish, varies in their portion of ingredients. For example, some race prefers more spicy Hinava will add more chilli cubes; elderly prefers to have it less spicy and sour, etc. As for the household recipe by Mary Chey, she decided to use a more traditional approach where the steps and type of ingredients are similar to the original recipe by “Kadazan Dusun”. She is a Chinese and age around mid-40s.

Region
"Hinava" is originally from Sabah, and the recipe is created by Kadazan Dusun. There is not much difference between Aunty Mary recipe and their original recipe in the procedure of making other than the ingredient used that is up to personal preference. 

Conclusion

     To be honest, the household recipe for the Raw Fish Salad is more suitable for beginners to learn compare to online recipe. It is more precise with the amount for the dish, like ¾ teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoon of sesame oil. It is important for beginners to know the amount needed, as they are inexperience to predict it. Online recipe omits this area, where it is not a problem for higher skill level and experience cooker.

     In a nutshell, household recipe for Raw Fish Salad is easier, simpler, and cheaper compare to online recipe. The online recipe is not wrong too, because it is usually use as a good source for reference for everyone, regardless of experience or inexperience cooker.  
   
**Online recipe from: http://www.food.com/recipe/raw-fish-salad-207163 

I would like to say thanks to Aunty Mary for sacrificing her time to give me such an awesome experience. It is really fun to learn and practice beside a chef, which is an experience that i will never forget. Thanks once again! ♥ ♥ ♥