Save me…

Groan!!! My head is spinning, probably from replying to all the comments in the previous post…or perhaps, it is due to the intoxicating white wine in the kacang-ma chicken I had for dinner. Anyway, I think I’d better publish a “safe” post next, and what safer thing is there to write about than…..food? LOL!!!

These days, the activists will come up in arms against those who indulge in the consumption of sharks’ fins…but actually, if we think of it, it is quite senseless to spend a fortune on something that is virtually tasteless. What will make it delicious is the soup and the ingredients used in preparing that. So thankfully, more and more people are opting for other alternatives besides sharks’ fins e.g. fish lips or sea cucumber or as in the case of dinner receptions here in Sibu, they are serving the very nutritious herbal black chicken soup instead.

But if you are craving for something that tastes like sharks’ fins soup, you can just hop over to the nearest grocery store and grab a packet of this…

This is Maggi’s crab and tang hoon soup – only RM2.70 and if you look carefully, it now has 25% less salt and is msg free! It is very easy to prepare! Dissolve the contents in 750 ml. of water and bring it to a boil, stirring continuously. Add 1 tablespoon (or slightly less) of soy sauce to it, and after breaking an egg and beating it, pour it slowly into the boiling soup, beating the soup with a fork or spoon so that the egg will be dispersed. You will get something like this… 

Of course you can improve the taste if you add two or three slices of ginger (or you can cut it into thin strips…but I hate the taste of ginger in the mouth), minced meat or prawns…or even crab meat! Fish lips or sea cucumber is optional as, like sharks’ fins, they make no difference to the taste at all. Sometimes I even add a dash of Foochow red wine…and I assure you it can rival the sharks’ fins soup in many restaurants around!

So hopefully, this practice of eating sharks’ fins soup will eventually fade away…and the scenario where guests judge the value of the dinner you host by the size of the sharks’ fins will be a thing of the past. I HAVE seen somebody at the same table dipping the ladle into the soup to check…and making snide remarks like, “Only cornflour!” Or he/she will say, “Aiyor! As big as my pnee-khang-sai (What’s in your nose, that is!)!!” On the other hand, if there is a substantial amount of sharks’ fins…and huge ones at that, he/she will sneer and cast knowing glances at the friends at the same table as if to say, “Huh! Show off!!! Trying to tell us he/she is so rich!!” Obviously, it is all a matter of “face” and something quite as ridiculous as in the case of some Chinese brides wearing tonnes and tonnes of gold jewellery… ROTFLMAO!!!

(Image received via email and inserted in original post removed for fear  of copyright infringement)

Stand up against cruelty to all living things! Save the sharks!!!

Where do we go from here…

I was invited yet once again to give a talk to students, this time at the RH Hotel here in Sibu by the Academic Consultant Services, a student counselling agency here…

Over 200 students turned up; that was about all the seminar room could accommodate…

As in the previous ones I presented to students in Lundu and Kota Kinabalu, the objective of the seminar was to give them the pointers and tips so that they could excel in the English Language in the coming SPM Examination.

In the adjoining room, they had an International Education Fair going on simultaneously. Here, you can see the organiser of the seminar cum education fair himself, Mr David Siong, with Mr Anthony Lim of AC Services Enterprise, Kota Kinabalu who organised the seminar there in early September and invited me over…

There were representatives from overseas universities with local campuses like Curtin in Miri and Swinburne in Kuching, and also universities in Australia e.g. Adelaide and Gold Coast.

The sad thing was that many students did not go into the room to browse around the stalls and instead, they chose to loiter around the foyer. When I asked them why, they said that they could not communicate with the ang moh (red hair) as they were not proficient in the language nor could they understand what they might say.

I would not bother to dwell on the root cause of the problem (as it would only fall on deaf ears…and I would end up like the dog barking at the moon) which is clearly getting worse in Sibu. There was this girl who came up to me during the break to ask a question, speaking to me in Mandarin. I just told her that I could not speak the language, so she switched to her somewhat not-so-good Bahasa Malaysia. I replied in English and she did not seem to register much of what I said and walked away looking quite lost! I wonder why she bothered to come when she obviously could not make head or tail of anything English…and considering the plight she is in (and I’m sure there are many other students like her), I really wonder where she/they can go from here…

Thankfully, not ALL of them were like that, for instance, there was this very sweet and pretty girl from SMK Chung Hua (Sibu) who came up to the front after the talk had ended to thank me personally. I had jumped to the conclusion that she was a teacher, not because she looked old (and anyway, there are many English teachers around who look so young – like students) but she was the only one with the decency and initiative to take the trouble to come and express her appreciation. There were some others who waved and whispered ‘thank you’ when I walked past them as I was leaving…and needless to say, some would just give me the cold shoulder, pretending that they had never seen me before in their lives. It certainly makes one wonder what kind of parents they have.

There were some light snacks and coffee/tea for the university reps and I was asked to join them. Nothing much, just some fried mihun, cakes and sandwiches…

However, I was already too exhausted after the three-hour session, so I just had coffee and left soon after that. To all the students who were there that day, good luck and may you all excel in the subject…and all the best in your future undertakings. “The river is wide; I pray that the water is kind to you in the crossing!”