One size fits all…

Well, with this one recipe, you can cook all kinds of vegetables. You can cook kangkong, long beans, paku or midin (wild jungle ferns) and even baby kailan this same way. Here, I am cooking some sweet potato leaves that a friend of mine gave me the other day…

Actually I had a post on this sometime ago in which I mentioned the health benefits of eating the leaves which I understand are very popular at restaurants and eating stalls in West Malaysia but I’ve yet to come across any selling them over here.

First, you need to pluck the leaves from the stems. Next, you will have to pound these ingredients together – some shallots, garlic, chillies and belacan (dried prawn paste)…

…and you will also have to soak some udang kering/hay bee (dried prawns) in hot water to soften it and then, you pound it…

Now you are ready to roll! Heat some oil in a wok and brown the pounded ingredients in it. Then you add the pounded dried prawns, mixing it well with the other ingredients. Keep stirring until the sambal has turned golden brown before you add in the leaves. You may need to add a little bit of water for the leaves to cook and also a bit of msg and salt according to taste.

Now the sweet potato leaves are ready…

It is easy to cook…and nice to eat!

Look through my eyes…

People perceive things differently. You may not see what I see and vice versa. This is a photograph of the seasonal fruit – buah dabai (black olive), most commonly found around Sibu and the Rejang basin…

At one glance, they may look the same – oval, black with a yellow dot at the top…but they are definitely not the same. Some are big, others are small. Some are rounder, others are oval, some have thicker flesh and others do not. Some are very lemak (rich) and others do not measure up at all. Likewise, people are different in their own ways and even in a group of people with the same interest, one may (try to) stand out from among the rest…like that dabai in the photograph and yet, one in the background seems to be getting all the focus. And like people too, some are worth more than others, don’t you agree?

Now, this next photograph shows a row of identical pillars…

…or at least, they were – more or less. But if you look closely, you may notice that some are beginning to crack under pressure…and should they crumble and fall, perhaps the whole structure may collapse. As they say, united we stand, divided we fall.

Moving on, what immediately comes to mind when you see this?

On my part, it made me think of Christmas. Well, it is still a long way to go…but I noticed that some people are already talking about it (on Facebook, at least) – making plans for the season and listening to Christmas songs. Some shops have already put up the decorations, probably believing that the early bird will catch the worm.

And I like what I see in this last one…

Do not write off somebody whom you regard as old and useless just yet…for out of a piece of deadwood, life may just spring up unexpectedly. Or perhaps you feel that the photograph symbolises one thing – life after death!

What do you all think? A penny for your thoughts…

If looks could kill…

This was another headline that I saw in a local daily…

…and I wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves this time.

I can’t remember what scheme it was when I joined the service in January, 1978 – the Aziz Report or something…but I can recall quite clearly that in June that year, we switched to the CCR…nope, not the Creedence Clearwater Revival, but the Cabinet Committee Report scheme. Don’t ask me for the details for I really do not know. Probably we were given higher salaries…but one thing that I do know is they got rid of the three-year free passage to West Malaysia for those appointed after June, 1978. That, of course, meant that I could go on enjoying the privilege right up till the time when I retired.

If there were other schemes in the meantime, I could not remember them either…but it was in 1992 that they introduced the SSB, otherwise known as the Saya Suka Boss (I love my boss) scheme. In principle, it sounded like a pretty good scheme to reward those excellent performers – you would get either a menegak (double jump in salary) or a melintang (triple jump) but somehow, in the end, a lot of people were unhappy with it.

It was in 1992 that I brought the school’s English Language debate team all the way to the national finals…and I was not on the list of people who were “rewarded” that year under the SSB scheme. Somebody said that it was probably because I had just joined the school in December 1991. However, I was shortlisted the following year – 1993 and given a menegak. At the award presentation ceremony, I was sitting with a senior teacher from the sister-school next door and she could not believe her ears when she heard that. She said something like, “I am in charge of the school magazine and I am getting a menegak. You have done so much and yet you’ve only been given the same….” And my ex-colleagues in my former school were saying that I should not have shifted for if I had stayed on there, I would have got a melintang in the very first year of the scheme.

Then there were all kinds of regulations and I haven’t the slightest idea as to whether it was the policy or whether the school admin were the ones responsible. One of them was that once you had got it, you would not be eligible to get it again until everyone had had his or her turn. They started giving to people based on seniority and being a big school, by the time they replaced this scheme with  a new one, there were still people waiting in line while others in those small rural schools had already got it a few times for doing a lot less.

I would think that if a person was consistently good, he or she should get it every year. Others who would want to get it should work a lot harder and do much better than that person in order that they would be given in his or her place. That would certainly motivate everybody to work hard! But then again, there was the human factor involved – so at times, you would see the cronies getting it even though most would feel that they did not really deserve it. That was how the acronym SSB became known as the Saya Suka Boss scheme at the time.

Then there was the quota – two for graduates, two for non-graduates and one for non-teaching staff. Now, I thought that was not fair at all. If there were five really excellent graduates or non-graduates or non-teaching staff and the rest did not measure up to par, why couldn’t it all be given to them?

In the end, what was supposed to be a scheme to motivate people to work harder and perform better became a thorn in the flesh…and they came up with the SSM scheme. Again, do not ask me for the details as I was never bothered about these things. I just did my work the best I could and took whatever they gave me. I found it amazing how some people could calculate in a split second how much they would stand to gain, how much arrears they would be getting and so on and so forth.

One thing that I did know then was the APC or the Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang (Outstanding Service Award) whereby they would give RM1,000 to each deserving recipient. However, that first year, “some people” decided that the award should be given to those who had not got anything yet under the SSB scheme…so we saw all those you-know-what-kind-of-people making it into the list. I was given the award the following year and it felt like adding insult to injury – that I was second to “those people”! Eyew!!!!

I wonder what they will come up with this time but whatever it is, I am sure it will not be anything like this…

I sure am glad that I am out of all that madness now as one thing for sure would remain unchanged. Whoever gets something under the new scheme will have to endure the wagging tongues – all the endless back-biting…the murderous stares. If looks could kill, they would all be dead! My heartfelt sympathies to all…

Why does it hurt so bad…

Once, I was having the set lunch at a local hotel and there were a few slices of it in the complimentary soup. Initially, I thought they were ginger…but later, I found out what they actually were and ate up those few slices. They actually tasted quite good. But later, I came down with what I figured was gout.

We very rarely eat it. In fact, I can safely say that we never eat it anymore. We have not had it for a long, long time. I remember when I was young sometimes my mother would cook it in with pork in tomato sauce and at other times, she would put it in her sayur rebus (kampung-style boiled vegetable soup). Then my father had some problems with a nerve as a result of an extracted tooth and everytime he had it, the pain would come back. So we stopped eating it altogether, along with a whole lot of other things.

My missus loves it very much though. I saw some at the Bandong stall the week before last…and I told her but added that I did not buy for her to eat as she had this recurring back pain and all kinds of pain all over. She did not look too happy, so when I saw them selling it again, I bought RM2.00 worth of it for her to eat…

I’m talking about bamboo shoots. What is it about them that will cause pain? People say that we should not eat too much kangkong or paku either as these are “cold” and may lead to rheumatic pain…and nuts and beans including bean sprouts (taugeh) can trigger off gout attacks because of the high protein content. Then they also claim the kuchai (chives) will bring out all past sicknesses that one may have suffered from before while lobak putih (white carrot/radish) will “wash away” whatever medicine you have taken and render them ineffective. Personally, I eat most of them but in moderation as I’m not really a fan of any of them. Do you know of any others that should be avoided?

Well, if I may digress a bit from the topic, while I was at the Bandong stall that day, I also bought RM2.00 of this buah kedondong sambal…

It was very nice and certainly contributed towards stimulating one’s appetite. But I would prefer buah emplam though.

Generally, fish is a bit expensive at the stall. They sell this kari ikan bawal hitam (black pomfret curry) at RM2.00 a piece and it is not a very big piece…

…but then again, fish is expensive these days and getting somewhat scarce.

This is expensive, that is expensive. You can’t eat this and you can’t eat that! What is there that is left for us to eat? Sigh!!!

Stir it up…

My parents’ Indon maid loves to watch me cook. She once remarked that Chinese cooking was “sangat mudah” (very easy) and I couldn’t agree more – minus all the peeling, the pounding and the multitude of ingredients to be added.

Well, I had some venison in the freezer, so I decided to cook it…but you can do the same with other types of  meat, be it beef, lamb, chicken…or even pork. Actually, all that was needed were a few slices of ginger…

…and some soy sauce and sugar but I had some chillies and Chinese celery.

Prior to cooking, I mixed the meat that I had cut into thin slices with some pounded papaya leaves to tenderise it (in case it was a bit too tough) and left it to stand for about half an hour.

Then I rinsed the meat to get rid of the leaves.

After that, I marinated the meat with soy sauce and sugar (I used gula apong/attap – palm/nipah sugar) plus a bit of Foochow red wine, pepper and finely-chopped Chinese celery…and left it to stand for another half an hour or so.

To cook the meat, I heated a bit of oil in the wok and threw in the ginger, followed by the chillies…and the meat. After stir frying it for a while, all the juices would come out of the meat…and I let it simmer until it became quite dry and the gravy had turned thick. Then I served it on a plate…

…and garnished it with a few sprigs of Chinese celery…

The meat was nice and tender and tasted good. Yum! Yum!

Friday on my mind (2)…

It was Friday yesterday and I normally do not eat meat on Fridays…as far as possible. But Louis J contacted me just before lunchtime and insisted that I joined him for lunch. In the end, we agreed to go some place where we could have fish…and that was how we ended up at the Red Carrot.

I had the fish and chips…

…which was quite nice, a bit hard but on the whole, it was ok considering that it was RM12 something only for a huge slice of fish…and it did not have any unpleasant fishy smell at all.

Louis J had the grilled imported sardine…

…for only RM8 something. It was BIG…and looked so nice that I regretted opting for the fish and chips.

So, was it nice? I guess this next photograph says it all…

I think I will have to go back there again one of these days…and guess what I will be having! LOL!!!

Teach your children…

I spotted this headline in a local daily the other day…

…and the first thing that crossed my mind was – whatever for? What are they going to teach the kids? Einstein’s E = mc2…or Pythagoras’ theorem…or Newton’s “For every action, there is an equal reaction…”? What knowledge would they have to impart to the children that entails the recruiting of graduate teachers?

Gee! Aren’t they supposed to enjoy and have fun? At that point in time, they’re supposed to develop their motor skills through playing with building blocks, play-doh or plasticine or making paper handicraft, their mental skills through games, jigsaw puzzles and so on, their social skills when they mingle with their peers…and they’re supposed to sing and dance and have fun. I have heard of parents who moved their kids to other kindergartens for the simple reason that there were no books and no examinations…and the kids played all day.

Once, my mother visited my brother and his family in New Zealand. When she came home, she complained about the grandchildren going to school with an empty school bag – just their lunch…and they seemed to be going somewhere all the time. I guess they went on field trips to the museum or the science centre and the like…and they probably learned more than they ever would from books in the classroom. I also visited some primary schools in the UK myself and found that the system there was very different from our book and exam-oriented AND rote-learning system here.

Or are they going to enlist graduates in child psychology? If you ask me, those are mere theories, academic stuff. In real life, every individual is different and one cannot stick steadfastly to principles drawn up through researches based on some groups of little tots halfway across the world. “Teaching is a work of heart.” Just because someone is a graduate, it does not necessarily mean that he or she can handle the kids better. Even a maid with no formal education would be able to guide the kids effectively to learn things of immediate need and concern through the love and affection that she showers upon them.

I have heard presenters at seminars – those with a string of degrees. Once, there was one from a local university, a PhD holder no less, who was SO boring and nobody knew what he was talking about, so everybody switched off and started talking among themselves. He was annoyed as the noise level was too high for him to be heard, and he knocked on the microphone and said, “Excuse me! I am still talking! I haven’t finished!” Sadly, nobody gave two hoots about the poor guy and went on with their private conversations. Imagine people like that teaching the little children…

I suppose in principle, it would be good to train those teachers who are going to teach in pre-schools but then again, that will give rise to a few considerations on the matter. One is the selection – who will they choose to be trained? Don’t we all know that there are teachers in the schools who should not have been chosen in the first place…and who managed to pass and graduate, some with 1st Class Honours some more? Two, who is going to train them? If you think the lecturers in the teacher training institutes and the universities are any better than the teachers in the schools, think again! Just look at the PhD guy at the aforementioned seminar!

Whatever it is, I hope this is not another of those desperate measures to provide employment to those unemployed graduates from the universities – just a year of training and abacadabra! Behold! A full-fledged teacher to be dumped in the schools, never mind what damage he or she will do! To be fair, there may be some good ones – those who are naturally-gifted with a flair for teaching but I am quite sure that these are few and far between. Little do they bother that this is the beginning of a vicious cycle…and the backlash will come sooner or later. Thank goodness I do not have any more kids in school…

Two little boys…

We grew up together, my brother and I. He’s a year and a half older than me…

My father was a speedboat racer and won numerous trophies over the years. After the race, he would take the boat home and then make his way back to the riverside for the prize presentation ceremony. This was one occasion when he could not make it back in time to receive the trophies, so my brother and I were asked to do so on his behalf.

Did I look sad in the photograph? I remember I was presented with the big one first but it was too heavy, so I got the small one instead. Can anybody recognise the man with the hat – the one helping my brother with the trophy?

This one was taken at our house – No. 96, Race Course Road…

Of course, the house is no longer there. Even the name of the road has been changed to Jalan Awang Ramli Amit. I remember there were two parts to the house – the front with the living room and the bedrooms and the dining room and the kitchen at the back, linked by an open section of the house as you can see in the photograph at the top of the stairs. Eventually, that part was covered up with planks.

Now, did I look unhappy in the photograph? It was as if I was pushing for more space…and don’t you think I looked like that porn video star/politician – Chua then? Hahahahahaha!!!!

This one was taken at my maternal grandma’s house along Queensway…

…since renamed Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg. I didn’t seem to look happy either. Gee! Did I have an unhappy childhood or what?

And here you can see the two of us in leather jackets a la James Dean…

If I’m not mistaken, that was my uncle’s car (Lindy, Kpenyu & Gundot’s father) driving off in the distance, or was it my Aunt Gertrude?

So there you have it – glimpses at yesterday when I was young…

It never rains in Southern California (2)…

…it pours! Well, the weather’s pretty much the same here, it seems but actually, this song title is an English idiom which means that when things go wrong, it gets worse. In my case, however, it was the exact opposite…for over the weekend, I had been receiving lots and lots of goodies from friends and next-of-kin!

Gundot and Lindy were in town for All Souls’ Day and they brought me these chai koi (vegetable kuih or cake) from Kuching…

…the yummy delicacy with translucent skin that some say, looks like a lizard’s tummy. These were HUGE – the size of the palm of my hand and absolutely delicious!

They also brought this special version of the same – the skin is different as they used kuih chap instead…

This one had salted veg inside…

…but between the two, I think I prefer the original. Some things are best left unchanged.

And that’s not all! They also gave me this very special super-lemak (rich in santan/coconut milk) beehive kuih bingka…

…which looked the same as the beehive or honeycomb cake but it was not a cake but a kuih bingka instead…and one that was very rich and fragrant at that! Wait! That’s not all! I also got these nyonya chang (meat dumplings) from them…

…and as if those were not enough, they topped it up with a tub of sambal hay bee (udang kering/dried prawns), sold in Kuching at RM6.00 each only…and most importantly, it tasted really great. I wouldn’t mind buying instead of toiling in the kitchen to pound the dried prawns and the other ingredients, dripping in sweat and spending hours just to cook that…

And if you think that was it, you’re badly mistaken for Clare too came home for the weekend and she gave me these yummy char siew pao from that shop at the end of Padungan in Kuching…

Now, don’t you think her paos look nice and firm? Oops! I mean the paos that she brought me! Gee! What on earth were you thinking? Hahahahahaha!!! If you remember the last time she brought me some, they were kaymek (squashed) and out of shape, like the ones I got later from KNB. LOL!!! She also bought me these cheese and ham rolls from the same shop. These were definitely better than the ones at the bakery here in Rejang Park….

…and my favourite baked meat pastries from Kai Joo Lane in Kuching…

…and the yam puffs…

My sister-in-law was back too and she brought us some bak paos (steamed meat buns) too.

Thank you, ladies. It certainly was most thoughtful and kind of all of you…and with all that, I would not need to do any cooking for at least a week…and no prize for guessing what I would be eating! LOL!!!

I am what I am…

Nope! This is not going to be a post about the current controversy about the student of mixed Iban and Chinese parentage. There are enough people making a lot of noise in the local newspapers and elsewhere but so far, it seems that they are all like dogs barking at the moon.

Now, to look at what’s on my mind at the moment, let us start at the very beginning. When I was in school, we had to sit for an examination in Primary 6 and those who failed would not be able to go to Form 1 unless they went to the private schools. There were a number at the time – Rejang Secondary School at the end of Tiong Hua Road, Sibu Secondary School where the Sibu Medical Centre presently is, Ling Chu Ming School near Kin Orient Plaza (Sing Kwong Supermarket) and Chew Geok Lin School.

At the end of Form 3, we had the Sarawak Junior Examination and more of those who did not make the grade would go to the private schools and likewise, after the Senior Cambridge Examination at the end of Form 5. These days, everybody makes it all the way, it seems…and consequently, those private schools went out of business.

When we were in Form 3, we were asked whether we wanted to go to the arts stream or the science stream, should we make it through the Sarawak Junior Examination. Thus we would have to decide where our strengths lay and choose wisely. In Singapore at one time, they would stream the students in Year 3 while in primary school – into the arts, science or technical stream. There were people who felt that it was too early considering that there were late-bloomers who would unfortunately through no fault of theirs, be stuck in say, the technical stream.

I, of course, opted for the arts stream as I was never good at Mathematics and Science. In the Senior Cambridge Examination, I got a 3 for General Science, much to my surprise…and 7 for Health Science, I think and I just managed to pass General Mathematics with a miserable 8. It was pretty obvious that if I had gone to the science stream, I would have sealed my doom there and then. Kaput!!!

But these days, they look at the PMR Examination results to stream the students into arts or science and in the end, those with “better” results end up in the science side…and the left-overs are unceremoniously bundled off to the arts stream. This has given rise to the stigma that if you go to the art stream, you are  a “gong kia” (stupid kid) and people refer to the arts classes as the “gong kia pan” (classes for stupid kids) and everybody who’s anybody dreads going to those.

There are a few considerations that one needs to ponder upon when deciding whether to go to the arts or the science stream…and it is not as simple as merely looking at the PMR Examination results or complying blindly just because it is some government policy that there must be  a certain percentage in the science stream…

There are also some over-ambitious parents who, in the pursuit of their own selfish dreams of having a doctor or an engineer or an accountant and the like in the family, would force their kids to go to the science stream and then send them for tuition classes morning, afternoon and night. I have seen with my own eyes, students eating their dinner in the car after having finished one lesson at one centre, on their way to the next one. I actually tried taking a photograph of one not too long ago but it did not come out well owing to the tinted glass of the cars. I really wonder what kind of lives such children have and more importantly, what kind of people they will grow up to be.

I helped my daughter with her Mathematics all through primary school, patiently (though not all the time) explaining and guiding her, and even while she was in the lower secondary classes despite the fact that I barely made it through the subject myself in Form 5…and I could tell that she was exactly like me – not good at the subject and definitely not science stream material. But she got straight As in the PMR Examination (and the UPSR Examination too) and ended up in the best science class in Form 4. I advised her against it but she insisted that she wanted to give it a try.

The second day of school, she said she needed to go for tuition for her Science and Mathematics subjects so I took her to the centre where I was teaching and enrolled her there. She attended one class that afternoon. The next morning, she woke up crying saying that she wanted to drop out of school. Eventually, I found out that she could not make head or tail of what was taught in the school nor the tuition centre…and she finally agreed to go to an arts class. A good friend of hers, another top student, followed suit…and both of them did well in the SPM Examination unlike those other friends of theirs who remained in the science stream.

I do not know exactly what the other girl got but my daughter got As in all subjects except English Literature which she had to take on her own as it was not offered by the school. Perhaps she had her mind set on becoming an English teacher already by then. But one thing I do know is that the other girl went on to do Form 6 and emerged as one of the top students, with straight As in the STPM Examination.

Likewise, there have been a number of students in my former school who insisted on going to the arts stream in Form 4 and in the end, did very well – which probably would not have been the case, if they had stayed in the science side. I will not touch on the horrendous problems arising in the schools that had stemmed from bored, restless and unmotivated students who had been “forced” to study the dreaded Science and Mathematics subjects…and there were those who failed to make the grade even despite the incredibly low passing marks.

To use an analogy, I cannot simply say I want to cook this today! I would need to see whether I have the ingredients or not, whether they can be made available or whether I can afford them. If not, I would just have to abort the idea until such and such a time, when it is possible for me to do so. I am what I am and you are what you are…and there are things that cannot be compelled. There are many considerations that ought to be made and many things that should or should not be done, but the last thing anyone should do is to base the crucial decision on the one-off public examination results. In your folly, it is the students’ future that you are playing with…and perhaps, even destroying!