I believe I can fly…

A man walks into an office one day. The pretty receptionist at the counter greets him sweetly, “Good morning, sir? How may I help you?”

The man, obviously not very proficient in the English Language, replies, “I want speak to manager, can or not?”

Still smiling politely, the receptionist asks, “May I have your name, please?”

“Huh?” the man responds, unable to comprehend what the girl has said.

“Your name,” the lady tries again patiently, speaking a bit slowly this time, “What is your name?”

“Name ah? Batman!” the visitor informs her, smiling more out of relief than anything else that he can understand what the receptionist is saying.

“Surname?” the girl continues, and seeing that there is no reply forthcoming, she rephrases her question, “What’s your family name? Your father’s name?”

“Suparman!” the man answers.

Flabbergasted and convinced that she has an odd-ball in her hands, the receptionist requests for his identitification, “Can I see your identity card, please? Your I.C…can I see your I.C.?”

The man reaches into his pocket, takes out his wallet and produces his identity card…..

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Step by step…

It was Friday yesterday…and I would abstain from meat on this day every week…as far as possible (Take note of this if you’re thinking of inviting me out for dinner on a Friday so you can eat all the meat! LOL!). I guess it’s a habit so deeply ingrained in me from young that I still abide by the practice especially during the season of Lent, even though it is no longer required by the church except for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday every year.  In the past, Catholics could not eat meat every Friday as a form of penance, and eat fish or seafood instead. I guess considering the prices of fish and prawns and the like these days, it would be more of an indulgence than penance to eat these instead of meat.

Anyway, I stopped by the grocer’s yesterday to pick up some onions, garlic and ginger and I saw that she had a little bit of midin left. Midin is actually a fern that grows wild; and it is very popular these days because other than tasting very nice,  it is free from pesticides and chemical fertilisers. I understand that to meet the growing demand, it is now cultivated…

Surprisingly, it is not available in West Malaysia…and I’m not sure whether one can get it in Sabah or not. To prepare, you just break off the softer upper part of the fern (which bends or breaks easily)and discard the rest of it. The Chinese would cook it with garlic and red wine…but I prefer it  with sambal belacan and udang kering. Well, yesterday, I put in a bit of shallots, garlic, ginger, kunyit (tumeric) and cili padi…and I pounded these together with a bit of belacan… 

I also pounded some dried prawns (udang kering) which I had soaked in hot water first to soften them. This is what you will have in the end; the pounded dried prawns are to the left on the plate…

Then I heated a bit of oil in the wok…and threw in the pounded ingredients. Stir regularly until fragrant and when they turn golden brown, throw in the midin. Usually I do not add salt or msg because I would like to savour the taste of the fern and the ingredients…but you may do so if you prefer your food saltier. So there you have it…one plate of delicious, crunchy fried midin with sambal udang kering…

Well, if you’re wondering if that was all I had for dinner, it certainly was not! I also cooked this ikan bawal hitam (black pomfret) that I found in the freezer. My missus enjoys buying things and stuffing them in the refrigerator…and may or may not get round to cooking them!!! A lot of things get thrown away eventually…which is such a waste really, especially in these days with all the escalating prices of things!!! So, together with the midin, we also had this sweet and sour fish dish…

Now, what about you? Cooking anything special this weekend?