Start of something new (2)…

I went to town yesterday and saw the construction going on at the former SMC (Sibu Municipal Council) building. I hear that they are converting it into a food court…

It looks like it’s going to be a nice, big one…and I certainly hope they will have some nice food to offer at reasonable prices. I went down Wong Nai Siong Road and this was the glimpse of Wisma Sanyan, the tallest building in Sibu, from the vicinity of the Sarawak Hotel…

I stopped at a corner coffee shop at the junction of Cross Road and Central Road, next to the Playboy Departmental Store (where the Rex Cinema and later, Dua Puluh Sen Store formerly were) and opposite the Standard Chartered Bank…

This Mamak (Indian Muslim) guy came from Selangor. According to him, he was in the scrap metal business but the price nosedived…so he decided to set up some food stalls instead at the open piece of land near Sg Antu, opposite the army camy (the former naval base) that he had originally rented for his scrap metal business. He even managed to get a license from the municipal council but after spending some RM25,000 constructing the nice stalls, he was informed that he was not allowed to operate the business there. I wonder why all those other people concerned are allowed to run their food stalls full swing all along the kampung roads – sprouting all over like mushrooms after the rain, but not him.  Anyway, in view of the situation, he had to find a place in the town…and ended up here.

I already had lunch, so I thought I would try something that was not too heavy. In the end, I thought I would just give his rojak mamak a try and got this…

Gosh! The serving was HUGE and there was one whole hard-boiled egg. The cucur (fried fritters) was not as nice as Rojak Udin/Kassim’s and I prefer the satay dip-like gravy that Udin or Kassim uses. I don’t know about Kassim in Kuching but for RM3.00, Udin does not give you an egg and the serving is probably half of this one only. Yes, this plate of rojak mamak is only RM3.00 and it is quite nice really, not bad at all.  Should I be in the area again anytime, I wouldn’t mind stopping by for that again.

The guy did say that he sells nasi bryani too – chicken, and mutton only on Fridays. I certainly would love to go there and try one day. Anybody interested in tagging along with me?

Here we go again (2)…

The Mooncake Festival will fall on 3rd October, 2009 which is the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. Since it is just the beginning of July, that means it is still three months away. That, however, does not stop the people concerned from selling the “Pek Guek Pia” (8th Month biscuits) or “Tong Chiew Pia” (Mooncake/Mid-autumn Festival biscuits), so once again, they have appeared in the shops around town.

I bought two packets of my regular brand (made in Sarikei) from the mini-supermarket near my house at RM4.00 each and they certainly made in clear on the packet that the biscuits “mengandungi lemak babi” (contain pig fat/lard). Then, the other day, I spotted these at a grocery store in Delta Estate, 50 sen cheaper at only RM3.50 a packet…

Upon reaching home, I studied the small print and it seemed that this one did not contain any of the non-halal ingredient. There was just  the producer’s name, no mention of where the biscuits had been made. For one thing, the shape of the biscuits was like the “Pek Guek pia” that I used to know ever since I was a kid…

They were square, unlike the ones made in Sarikei which were some kind of circular or hexagonal in shape. They tasted ok…but it was not the authentic “Pek Guek Pia” taste, never mind that it is not that healthy to consume the offensive stuff. After all , it is only once a year! LOL!!!

Moving on from the biscuits, a couple of mornings ago, I went back to my favourite Malay stall at a coffee shop in Sg Antu – Happy Garden, right next to Courts Mammoth. To my disappointment, somebody else had taken over the stall – somebody much younger and better looking than the old lady that used to be there. I ordered the mee goreng special (fried noodles special)…

I am sure all of you will agree that it looked yummy and with the huge drumstick, it only cost RM3.50. Well, don’t we all know how looks can be deceiving? Unfortunately, it did not taste as nice as what I used to have…

The old lady used to give a fried egg – sunny side up and some daging masak hitam (black-cooked beef). The masak hitam gravy certainly helped to enhance the taste and made the noodles extra delicious. This one is a bit dry and not so tasty despite the fact that I could see they were very generous with the ingredients – lots of shrimps and all that garnishing. Anyhow, it is nicer than what I had with Louis J one morning at a stall located at the Jalan Masjid/Kpg Datu junction which he praises to the sky and seems immensely popular, judging by the crowd…especially at night.

Still, I don’t think I’ll be going back there as it is not nice enough to deserve a second round…and I’m sure if I keep looking, I will find some place that’s as nice as the old one or even nicer. Ah well…here we go again!!!

Confused…

I love eggs. Ummm…let me rephrase that! I love eating eggs. Arrrghhh!!! You all jolly well know what I mean! LOL!!!

I love them half-boiled, hard-boiled, poached or fried – omelette, bull’s eye/sunny side up or scrambled, or braised in soy sauce. My daughter loves eggs too. She would go to Old Town and have their perfectly done half-boiled eggs…

As for me, when taking them half-boiled, I prefer the white hard like hard-boiled but the yolk still runny. To get it like that, I would put the eggs in the water in a saucepan and bring it to boil and after a while, I would remove it from the fire and break the eggs into a saucer…to be eaten with soy sauce and pepper.

And talking about eggs reminds me of this short story by my favourite short story writer from Singapore, Catherine Lim. The title is…that’s right, “Eggs”. It’s about this little six-year-old girl who was utterly confused because she was scolded by her mother when she asked for an egg and told that the likes of them could not afford to eat eggs as they were poor.

They lived with her rich First Aunt and her two cousins and one day, the cousins had a plate of fried eggs to eat. One of them accused her of stealing one of their eggs. Her mother was furious and bought a bag of eggs, cooked all of them and forced her to finish the whole lot and when she could not finish, the mother walloped her. The poor child was utterly confused – why had her mother refused to give her an egg and then forced her to eat so many at one go?

Things sometimes seem that way in life. When the children are small, they would be forced to finish all their food. Fat babies are considered cute and lovable whereas the skinny ones somehow do not seem to have the same attraction. But when they grow bigger, the parents would control their diet and refuse to let them eat the things that they love for fear that they would grow too fat.

When a toddler starts moving to the music, everyone would clap happily to encourage the child and say, “Dance! Dance! Good kid!” Clever kid!” However, when the child grows up to be a teen and goes dancing, once the parents hear of it, they will threaten, “Go! Go dancing again and I’ll chop your legs off!”

At home, children are told not to waste and to finish off everything on the plate. However, at a sit-down dinner, should they want to take the last piece, they would be reprimanded at home, if not on the spot, that they are such a disgrace – so greedy, as if they had never eaten in their lives.

I suppose this is just the tip of the iceberg and there are a lot of other instances where parents tend to contradict themselves and the poor kids end up utterly confused. Anybody know of any more to share with the rest of us?

No milk today…

When I was small, once my mother took me with her to go to the “sua pa” (Direct translation: jungle but I think it actually meant the suburbs or the village and not some place in the town) to visit her uncle whom I called “Chek-Kong” (granduncle). Those days, the place was literally all jungle and the houses were few and far between. If I am not mistaken, it was somewhere around the Selemo roundabout area which is today, very densely populated with residential houses and shoplots and the jam at peak hours there is really quite bad.

It was a typical Chinese wooden village house and while we were there, we were served a glass of condensed milk each and into the glass, they poured hot boiling water and they broke a raw egg into it. I guessed the heat from the boiling water would have cooked the egg but still, I was quite put off by it and drank it reluctantly (after being pinched several times in the leg  by my mum under the table). When we had left the place, she told me that they would only serve that to people whom they respected highly. Other ordinary visitors would not be accorded the same honour.

Well, I had been drinking condensed milk for as long as I can remember – Milkmaid, no less! Whenever I was sick, I would have to drink a hot glass of condensed milk to wash down the medicine…and up till today, I would not drink Milo, Horlicks or eat oats without condensed milk. I seldom take those things now, so I very rarely buy condensed milk these days. I did not even realise that we no longer have that anymore in the shops.

When I read about that in Gerrie’s blog sometime back, I went to the shops to check and true enough, they only have sweetened creamer these days. It is sweeter, not as thick and rich as condensed milk – the way I knew it to be. I do not know why they have called it differently, but my guess would be that they have reduced the milk content. I remember at one time, there were instructions that condensed milk should not be given to infants 3 months and below owing to the inadequate nutrition in it. I heard that it contained some palm oil-based substitute and correct me if I’m wrong but I gathered that non-dairy creamers are made from that.

Well, Stella was in town and when she heard that we could not buy condensed milk here, she brought me this…

…all the way from Melbourne, Australia. She also got me this, something that I have never seen before – condensed milk in a tube, like toothpaste or hair gel/mousse…

I would think that is indeed a very good idea. Saves the trouble of having to look for an old glass peanut butter bottle to keep the milk once we’ve opened the can.

I don’t know what I’ll do with the condensed milk though. I love to take pulut panggang (santan(coconut milk)-rich glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaf and cooked over an open fire) with that, but that will have to wait till I drop by the stall at Rejang Park that sells the best pulut panggang in town, or maybe I should start eating oats as they say oats are good for lowering one’s cholesterol, or since it is such a rare commodity in these parts, maybe I should just put it up for sale to the highest bidder! Any takers, anybody? LOL!!!

Incidentally, that wasn’t all that Stella brought for me. She also gave me lots of Australian-made Arnotts’ cookies and chocolates. Those, of course, will stay in the refrigerator till August when hopefully, my daughter will be home again for her mid-semester break. Other than that, Stella also bought me a shirt – XXXL…and it fits me like a glove, almost. The collar is a bit tight, so I will have to move the button a bit if I were to use it with a tie. She remembered that I could not find any, long-sleeves, my size here and had to get one tailor-made for use when I do the commentating in church. But of course, I will not be using this particlular shirt just yet. Considering that it’s so hard for me to get a new shirt, I might as well keep it for somebody’s special occasion…..KNB’s perhaps?…Or somebody else that I hear, has actually proposed and the other half has accepted, so he has changed his status on Facebook to ENGAGED. Ummmm…I hear bells, wedding bells! Hahahahaha!!!

Down Under…

Sorry…this isn’t going to be a post about Oz, neither am I going there – not in the near future, at least. It’s just that Stella and her hubby and Lucas came over to Sibu from Melbourne for a few days and so, I asked them out to dinner. However, Stella said she would rather have a simple meal at home and sit around to chat…as long as there’s midin and cangkuk manis. In the end, I decided to cook a few dishes myself.

My in-laws’ durian tree is flowering again (Gone crazy, I think! Just flowered the other day – but everytime, no fruits!)…and they gave us some of the flowers, so I fried those with dried prawn (sambal udang kering)…

…and since Stella wanted midin, I fried that too – also with dried prawns – same recipe, different veg…

I could have fried it with ginger and Foochow red wine but I do not quite like it cooked that way…but for the midin, I added a bit of water, so it could be slightly different. For the cangkuk manis, I cooked freshwater prawns (udang galah) masak lemak (cooked with santan/coconut milk) and I added the cangkuk manis, as well as some sweet potatoes and bean curd sticks. I could have added baby corn, bits of cabbage and so on but I was too lazy to go out and buy…

For the meat dish, I just bought some ayam masak merah from my regular Bandong stall…

…and I also bought some Foochow fried noodles and some charsiew (from the stall in the coffee shop opposite Public Bank) to add to it (kay liao or added ingredient) and I managed to get a few of the typically Sibu Foochow-style sio bee from the stall at Rejang Park. Lucas loved the sio bee, and the durian flowers too! Hmmm…must be the Foochow plus Kpg Nangka blood in him!

So that was the simple dinner that we had. Personally, I thought it was just so-so, not very nice…maybe because I was tired from cooking the whole day, so my taste buds were somewhat adversely affected. Ah well, as they always say, it’s the thought that counts!

That’s the way it is…

When I was a kid, we only had cakes on special occasions such as Christmas or Chinese New Year, not even on our birthdays. How we would look longingly at those cylindrical ones wrapped around in red oily paper that were placed in saucers on the tables at the coffee shops! I am sure the kids today would not even cast a second glance at those, much less want to eat them.

Everytime the festive seasons were round the corner, I would be recruited to lend a helping hand in the kitchen. I had to use some kind of beater with a brass handle and a spring on one end to beat the eggs in a red flowery basin, followed by the butter and the sugar and lastly, the flour before putting the batter in the oven to bake for a plain butter cake.

Sometimes, my mother would add colouring and essences that came in little bottles with red metal caps, or grated coconut or Milo or Van Houten chocolate, chopped cherries and raisins. It would appear like there were different varieties but basically, they were all the same with some minimal, almost negligible differences and yet, how we yearned for the big day to come sooner so that we could feast on those, not only at our own house but at those of our relatives who would more or less, have the same cakes to offer.

The other day, I saw some cakes for sale at my regular stall at Bandong. There was the coconut cake that the lady described as “recipe lama” (old recipe) selling for RM5.00 but I did not buy that as I never like grated coconut in cakes or biscuits. Instead, I bought this kek masam manis (sweet and sour cake) also selling at RM5.00 a loaf…

…which had bits of san cha (preserved plum flakes) in it.  We had san cha when we were young – soft moist ones that were very red and would stain your tongue so bloody red after you had eaten some making you look like a vampire of sorts. The ones these days are dry and not so red and not so nice either. But somehow, I do not recall my mother ever using those in her cakes…

A few days later, I bought another one with chocolate rice at the same price…

Like the cakes during my younger days, they tasted the same – except for those littlle bits of additions that actually did not make much of a difference.

Today, we have a multitude of different kinds of cakes at the bakeries – and those to-die-for ones at places like Secret Recipe. I am sure these “old-school cakes” would not go down too well with young people anymore these days, I’m afraid. Time passes, things change and that’s just the way it is…

Bad Day…

What a day it was – last Friday! Farrah Fawcett, best known for her role as one of the Charlie’s Angels in the popular TV series in the early days of television in Sarawak/Malaysia, passed away of rectum cancer…

…and then there was the shocking news that Wacko Jacko Michael Jackson had died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50. I’ve never been a real fan of the King of Pop, as he is often called, but I do not mind some of his songs – solo or with his brothers. I think my favourite by him is this very poignant-sounding one: “She’s out of my life” and I feel having his song performed by the legendary Dame Shirley Bassey and the evergreen and ever-handsome Richard Clayderman would indeed a fitting tribute to the superstar…

I’m afraid the song actually starts much later in the video clip at 5:20 as Richard was playing one of his hits in the first part of it…and still, in my opinion, nobody does it better than Michael himself in his original rendition of the song. Even Gloria Gaynor (I’ve the cd where she does a cover of the song) and Josh Groban is outclassed…and that certainly says a lot about the immense talent of The Gloved One! One thing’s for sure – he may be gone but he will always be remembered, immortalised in his songs.

It was on that same day that I went out for lunch with my ex-student, Xavier, as he would be leaving for his further studies the following day. We went to the Ark but were greeted by some disappointing news the instant we sat down. We noticed that the western dishes on the menu had been cancelled and when we enquired about that, the waiter said that the old chef had left…and the new one just reported for duty two days before.

I ordered the mee siam and this was what I got…

@#$%&*!!! That was no mee siam, for heaven’s sake – just some miserable fried mihun. It tasted so ordinary and was extremely oily, especially towards the bottom. Why, even based on the presentation alone, that chef would have flunked miserably! I really wonder what his credentials are…

Xavier ordered the Korean beef rice and got the rice and this plate of kimchi and stuff…

I am never a fan of kimchi, so I did not bother to try…but Xavier said that it sucked. That plate of cucumber was quite all right but was too spicy hot. He also got this plate of beef…

I tried a slice and I think my simple homecooked fried beef with soy sauce, ginger and wine tastes a lot better.

I wonder where the previous chef has gone to… If this is what the new one has to offer, I don’t think I will ever go there again and take my word for it, everybody – all of you should stay away too!

You were there…

The other day, I dropped by Zewt’s blog and he had this post…and I thought, “Wow! The 500th post!” I am pretty sure that he started blogging a long time before I did, but when I checked my blog stats, I discovered that I was just a few posts away from my 500th post – this one!

So in conjunction with the occasion, I would like to share this song with all of you…

The lyrics go like this:
Time passes, the world changes
But I’m still the same ol’ kid
And your jokes still bring me laughter
As if you still were here
And it hurts when I smile
‘Cause my heart still remembers
When you were around

‘Cause you were there
When no one was
Just when I thought nobody cared
You showed me love
‘Cause you were my friend
You always told me
And I am still here
Because you were there

So precious, small treasures
A time when truth was innocent
True friendship was all we were after
A place where kids could still be kids
And it hurts but I’m glad
‘Cause at least I was blessed
To have you as my friend

You’re my best friend
There are no accidents
God has a plan for everyone
And he brought you in my life
To show me what a good friendship was

Thank you all for dropping by regularly (around a whooping 173,000 visits in total so far), for reading my posts for what they’re worth and for commenting time and time again (some 12,000 or so to date). I was there because you were there…and I’ll be here as long as you are here too. Cheers, everybody!

What I go to school for…

Most people would regard me as an old SHS student but actually, I was in St Mary’s Primary School along Race Course Road (now Jalan Awang Ramli Amit) from Primary 1 to Primary 6. It was a co-ed school about half a mile from my house, so I would cycle to school or walk (and sometimes hitch a ride on somebody’s beca or trishaw).

Then I went to Sacred Heart Secondary School, an all-boys school, at its former location along the notorious Mission Road in the town, 1 and 1/2 miles from my house, so going on foot was out of the question. Then it moved to where it stands presently along Oya Road, another 1 and 1/2 miles from the town. Roughly, that would mean that I had to cycle 3 miles to go to school, one way – 6 miles a day and if we had to go back in the afternoon for something, that would be doubled.

I was not very active in the school. Being a boys’ school, the emphasis was on sports and games like rugby and hockey, and I was not into those things. Most of my friends then were from other schools, people who shared the same interests – radio-listening and requesting and going for parties and dances. I remember when I was in Form 2, I joined a singing competition in the school. I chose to sing the Rolling Stones’ “As tears go by”…

…but I was so nervous that I could not get a single note right and was unceremoniously booted out of the audition even before I finished the whole song! Poor me! My singing career ended before it even got off the ground! LOL!!! There was a Christmas concert and I was in the choir and also had a very small part in the play – “A Christmas Carol” and that was all.

The most memorable event was when a big group of us (led by Brother James, the rugby coach then) from the two Form 5 classes (yes, there were only two – one science and the other arts) went on a river cruise in a wooden motor launch to the Rejang Delta to trek to the Jerijeh Lighthouse (I never got there though! Stopped halfway! LOL!!!) – eating and sleeping and having a whole lot of fun on board.

Back in those days, only those in the science stream could stay in SHS for Form 6 while those in the arts stream had to go to Methodist Secondary School along Queensway (now Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg) and I was in this block for two years – Lower 6 and Upper 6, on the upper floor…

I was more active here and took part in debates, had a bigger role in a play that we staged for the Sibu-level drama festival and there were lots of outings, parties and dances like those organised by the Sixth Form Society…and being a co-ed school, there were girls!

I remember Ming Choo and her friends in Form 4; their classroom was in the block directly opposite mine and we all sat at the windows, making signals at one another while the lessons were going on. Hehehehehe!!!! When I was in Lower 6, the girls next door (Upper 6) were very friendly and a whole lot of fun, so I was hanging out with them most of the time, much to the disgust of the boys in their class. I remember towards the end of the year when the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Examination was drawing near, the girls were somewhat emotional about parting ways and were singing this song…

We were having our lesson next door and were quite distracted, so our teacher, Mr Johnson, went over and told the girls, “Very sweet, girls! Very sweet indeed! But we would like to concentrate on our lesson next door.” We had teachers from overseas then – two Americans, Mr Johnson (if I’m not mistaken, he came from the states) and Mr Funk and an Australian, Mr Gregory who taught us Economics.

Ah well…those were the days!

Never be the same…

These days, it certainly seems like knowing how to boil water constitutes knowing how to cook. If you enter any supermarket or hypermart, you will see a mind-boggling array of all the different brands of instant noodles in all shapes and sizes with all the different varieties. But when it comes to mee goreng (fried noodles), my favourite would be Indomie…but it seems that these are no longer available. Today, in the shops, we have Ibumie’s Always…

It looks like Indomie, it tastes like Indomie…but it’s not Indomie! Presently, it’s on offer at RM3.80 for a pack of 5, so that would be over 70 sen each…and makes a pretty cheap breakfast, and you can add slices of meat like what I did the other day…

…or if you’re a light eater, that can be your lunch. It certainly is cheaper than going out to eat…but I guess it’s not the same, eh?

I was passing by Chopsticks, my daughter’s favourite chicken rice shop, and I saw that they had curry. It was what we would call “Chinese curry” – very diluted and nothing like the curry that anyone in my family would cook or what you can find at the nyonya, Malay or Indian eating outlets. But it reminded me of what I used to have at Ang Lee Restaurant along Carpenter Street in Kuching in the 70s. I would stop there during lunch hour whenever I could for their curry rice…and for old times’ sake, I decided to tapao (takeaway) a packet home…

They were quite generous with the yummy chicken rice…

…and I asked for one lor-nui (braised hard-boiled egg) and it seemed that they had put a bit of the gravy over the rice, and they also gave a lot of the chicken curry (gravy)…

It wasn’t too bad but at RM5.80 for all that, I thought it was a bit too pricey…though it definitely beats eating those curry stuff in the cans which are by no means, cheap these days…

…but it was not the same as what I had those long-gone days at Ang Lee. If my memory serves me right, they put the chopped pek-sak kay (white boiled chicken) and sliced char siew (barbecued pork) on the chicken rice and poured the curry gravy over all that.

Well, time passes and it will never be the same again…as everything must change…