It sure took a long long time…

Sometime ago, on 1st August to be exact, I posted something on my rambutan tree behind my house. At the time, it had flowered and tiny green fruits were starting to appear. I was thinking that they might ripen the following month in time for Stella to enjoy when she came home from Down Under but unfortunately, no. Finally, some two months later, they are ready for the plucking…

It sure took a long long time, I must say…but despite the fact that I never bother about the tree, it will bear a lot of fruits each time and what’s special about it is its thick, crunchy and juicy flesh…

Personally, I am not that crazy over rambutans; I would very much prefer dabai, provided they’re good ones. So most of the time, I would go and pluck and battle with the ants in the process, and give to friends and family.

Now, since we’re talking about time, this will not take long to prepare – steamed meat with cincaluk (fermented shrimps).

It is best with pork belly or chicken but I had neither, so I just used the pork bones in the fridge that my wife had bought for cooking the stock for soups. So what you do is to cut the meat into bite-size pieces, put in 4-6 slices of ginger (You can cut them into thin strips if you do not mind eating the ginger), two tablespoons of cincaluk, half a teaspoon of msg and half a cup of water. Mix thoroughly and steam for 20-30 minutes.

There you have it, a delicious dish for the family with hardly any hassle at all! As for those who have this adversion for the “stench” of cincaluk, you can add two tablespoons of Chinese/Foochow red wine and that will drown out the cincaluk smell. I did it the other day but I think I would prefer to do without the wine. Love that “stench”!

And still on the topic of food, a popular Foochow dish is pek ting eyok duck or chicken. This pek ting eyok is a combination of herbs (Don’t ask me what they comprise!) available in packets at all Chinese drug stores here. My missus doesn’t take duck so I had to cook that with chicken…and since I had some leftover, I cooked this pek ting eyok chicken mee sua for myself yesterday morning for breakfast…

Care to join me, anyone? ROTFLMAO!!!