Trying to make a living…

When I was in KL, I noticed that there were a lot of foreign workers around – Bangladeshis and a lot from Myamar including those in the housekeeping department in the hotel where I was staying. Well, it so happened that at one of the coffee shops along Jalan Alor, I stumbled upon this stall in the back portion…and I was attracted by the unfamiliar writing on the sign…

At first, I thought it was Thai but when I went to ask, it turned out to be Myamarese. I already had lunch that day, so I decided to go back there the following day to try their native cuisine.

The fish was VERY nice, sour enough and not spicy – something like our assam fish…

…and what I thought was beef rendang was not. It tasted something like the nyonya’s ayam ponteh and I reckoned it would have been nice had it not been a bit too cold for my liking.

The vegetable dish was a disappointment…

…and I did not like the complimentary soup nor the ulam either. The dip looked something like cincaluk but I guess it required an acquired taste that I did not have…

All those dishes with rice came up to only RM10.00 – cheaper than the horrible bowl of mee sua that I had at a coffee shop in the vicinity.

I went back there again a couple of days later with my missus to let her try the exotic food from our neighbouring country. We had fish again…

…and though this time it was cooked differently, it was also very nice. I liked the pork dish too…

…and the brinjal/ladies fingers…

…cooked with prawns tasted something like our masak lemak. Together with the rice for two persons, it cost only RM11.00.

It seemed that the stall catered mostly to their own people as I noticed that most of the people eating there spoke a Thai-like kind of language. All in all, I thought it was affordable and inexpensive and a welcome change from the stuff that we normally have every day.

Yellow (2)…

Peteformation had a post recently on yellow noodles and the danger in the excessive use of the boric acid in them. I did notice that over in the peninsula, the noodles are VERY yellow…and they’re very much firmer, and maybe elsewhere like in Kuching too. The ones in Sibu are pale and soft/limp…and may get soggy very easily. I do not know whether this is because of the absence of the acid.

Whatever it is, these noodles are very popular here – fried Foochow style with sauce/gravy at around RM2.80-RM3.00 a plate. One way of doing it is to fry the noodles with garlic (and at some places, the green vegetables as well) and soy sauce, adding msg according to taste. Then, they cook the gravy and pour that over the noodles and serve…

@Jia Ping, Pedada (Delta Commercial Centre)

I do not really like it done this way as the flavour of the gravy would not have gone into the noodles yet.

Some may fry the noodles and once the gravy is done, they will throw the noodles in to soak up the gravy…and then the dish is served.

@ Xin Xin, Rejang Park

For one thing, it is often not advisable to tapao or buy the noodles home as by the time you get to eat them, they would have gone all soft and soggy after having soaked in all that sauce. However, I do know of a few places where the noodles actually taste nicer when you buy them home, compared to eating them there on the spot.

Of course if you’re willing to burn a hole in your pocket, you can go for the noodles fried in the same manner but with the giant freshwater prawns (udang galah). The last time I heard, they were RM20.00 a plate at one very popular eatery here…or at a slightly lower price at this small town – Jakar, around an hour’s drive from Sibu.

I do not think this Sibu specialty is available in West Malaysia. Over there, I know they have the very pale-looking Cantonese-style fried noodles where they deep-fry the noodles till hard and crispy and then they cook the gravy using meat and seafood and egg but no soy sauce – that’s why it is not dark-coloured like what we have here, and then they pour that over the noodles. The Hokkien fried noodles there are cooked with a different variety of noodles – huge strands fried with dark soy sauce and garlic. I do not quite care for these on both counts – taste and appearance.

Well, if you are worried about the boric acid content, you can opt to have kway teow…

@ Esan, Rejang Park

…or mihun fried in the similar way – Foochow style. They’re nice too…but personally, I prefer the noodles…

All right now…

If you’re wondering how my girl is doing in Wellington, New Zealand, it certainly looks like she’s doing all right now.

Here, she was at a Chinese New Year’s Eve gathering at a Japanese restaurant…

…wearing the Malaysian sarong cheongsam outfit that I bought for her in Penang.

She had this chicken set that cost NZ$21.00…

…and like everything else in Kiwiland, the portion was certainly huge!

This next photo is of her and some of her coursemates at some Chinese New Year gathering…

…and she was wearing the Chinese-Indian fusion outfit that I bought her sometime ago…in KL, if I remember correctly.

Well, I sure am glad that she’s eating WELL in WELLington…

She came down with a flu a few days ago after which she had a terrible cough. It appeared that she had recovered and was able to go on an outing to the Kapiti coast somewhere to the north of Wellington…

Beautiful place, isn’t it?

She always loves animals…and I bet she had a wonderful time there communing with nature and her furry friends…

Well, lectures will begin coming Monday, 1st March. I’m certainly glad that they had arranged for her and the rest to go over so early…giving them ample time to get to know the place and get used to the weather before settling down to serious work.

In the meantime, this is my prayer each passing day…

I pray You’ll be my eyes
And watch her where she goes
And help her to be wise
Help me to let go

I pray she finds Your light
And holds it in her heart
As darkness falls each night
Remind her where You are

Lead her to a place
Guide her with Your Grace
To a place where she’ll be safe…

Take care, love… Daddy loves you!

If you remember me…

If you do remember me, I am indeed thankful for that and believe you me, I do appreciate it a lot. Over the years, I have taught so many boys and girls. Some I do remember, others vaguely or not at all. Some, I may recall the faces…while others, the names may ring the bell. There have been some even whom I could not remember at that point in time but a day or two later, it all came back to me as clear as day!

Well, last Friday night, two of them, Andrew and Hang Yuh, invited me out for dinner. Andrew’s a pharmacist in Christchurch, New Zealand…and would always get in touch with me everytime he comes home with his wife, Michelle. Hang Yuh’s a SHELL engineer in Miri, still very eligible and available…and he too would always contact me without fail, should he happen to be dropping by.

It was Friday in the season of Lent, so I was not having any meat…and Hang Yuh seemed to have developed an allergy for crustaceans – even though once, when I was in Miri, he took me for a feast of crabs and did not have any problem at all at the time. So, we just had fish…

It was very fresh. As a matter of fact, the restaurant boss said that it was still swimming in the kitchen! They call this type of fish – “Soon Hock“, so hopefully, in the Tiger Year, everything will be “soon-soon” (smooth) for all of us and with a lot of “hock” (good luck)…

We also had vegetables including cangkok manis with egg and this asparagus dish with mushrooms…

…and this plate of very nice homemade tofu…

The boss was describing to me one egg dish but I could not make head or tail out of it. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try and it turned out to be some omelette dish with thinly sliced vegetables inside…

Thanks so much for the dinner treat, Hang Yuh…and thanks to you too, Andrew and Michelle for bringing me this all the way from New Zealand…

To get back to what I was talking about, that evening, at the next table, there was this guy who came to greet me. I just guessed that he was a student in the late 70s or early 80s in Kanowit…and I was right. He was with his family and now has 3 daughters! There were also some people at another table and we heard them saying “lao tze” (teacher) and when I looked, a girl smiled and waved…but I was not too sure whether she was from one of my tuition classes or from one of the schools where I had taught before. Another one greeted me while we were leaving and I thought his name was Kelvin but he said he was William! Blush! Blush! LOL!!!

Earlier, while we were still eating and chatting, one approached my table. By George, what a pleasant surprise! It was Soon Yiew – now a doctor in Singapore after he had graduated from NUS there, married and has a son. When in secondary school, he used to take part in those public speaking competitions of which I was the teacher advisor…and after he finished Form 6, before he left for his further studies, he gave me this…

I still have it and shall always cherish it, along with the memory of those sweet moments that I have had…as a teacher.

Celebration…

Traditionally, Chinese New Year is celebrated starting from the eve with the Reunion Dinner and ending with another grand dinner on the 15th night of the Chinese lunar calendar – the Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Jie, or what is more popularly known as Chap Goh Meh which some may claim to be the Chinese Valentine’s Day.

However, I did not have a grand celebration this year as I was stranded in KL prior to the festive season and did not have much time to prepare very much for guests and well-wishers who would take the trouble to drop by. I did have some of the goodies that were given to me for the occasion and my missus did buy some cookies as well.

She got these homemade peanut cookies from some lady…

…and they were very nice, unlike the pineapple tarts from the same source – not that they were not good but there was simply too little jam. What she could have done was to add more jam and sell at a higher price. When the taste is good, I’m sure there are people who are willing to fork out the dough.

These “pineapple jam tarts” that resemble golden quail eggs, are from a bakery near my house and they certainly look better and taste real good too…

My missus also bought their peppermint cookies…

…and their almond ones…

We have been buying cookies from that bakery for a number of years now and all of them have been more than satisfactory.

She also bought these rolled version of “love letters” or kuih kapek/kapit or kuih sepit…

…which, of course, could not compare with the folded ones that Mandy‘s mum made but were not too bad as well, and my niece (my brother-in-law’s daughter) bought us these “Treasure Pumpkin” cookies from KL…

…and as for the cakes, I ordered two from my regular kuih-muih stall at Bandong – one Horlicks-cheese and one Evergreen layer cake…but I was stuck in KL and in the end, I had to get my sister to collect and give them to her and my parents to serve to their guests. I still had the kek lapis sisik ikan (fish-scale layer cake) and the kek hati parek that I bought when I was in Kuching…

…and my missus bought two very nice ones when we were in KL…

A few friends did drop by including Clare and also Louis J, and quite a few of my ex-students too. It certainly was quieter than in previous years but it was still a celebration albeit on a smaller scale and for one thing, it definitely was less tiring. After all, I’m no spring chicken anymore…and the years are starting to take its toll on this old chap! Sigh! …LOL!!!

Still the same…

Well, not exactly as they have done some renovations and McD’s now bigger…and the eatery on the opposite side – A Taste of Asia as well. We went to the latter for a bite and my missus had their Penang assam laksa…

…while I had their chicken rice…

I don’t know if hers was any good but she kept telling me that a doctor in the Sibu General Hospital was always singing its praises and she would insist on having that every time she took a flight at the LCCT. As for my rice, the most that I can say about it is that it was edible.

But…omigawd!!!! Just look at the flies!

It certainly seems that they are really giving visitors an authentic taste of Asia – including all those pesky insects to boot! It certainly reminded me of those fly-infested food stalls across the road from the teacher-training institute in Sungai Petani, Kedah…

I don’t know how much the two food items cost as my wife went to buy and paid for everything. She did say, however, that altogether, it was over RM20.00, inclusive of two drinks. Expensive eh? Well, don’t expect anything cheap at any Malaysian airport. The only thing cheap is the airport itself…

It was hot, VERY hot…and there were limited seats for passengers waiting for the counters to open so they could check in. I really wonder why they cannot have common check-in at any counter like MAS. After all, they do have online check-in and also check-in kiosks. Thankfully, there is a drinking fountain…so poor passengers who cannot afford to buy the expensive drinks at the food outlets there would not have to resort to drinking in the toilets or die of thirst. But look at the sign…

Why would anybody want to spit or wash their hands in those when the toilet is just two steps away? Oh! I forgot… After all, it’s the Low Class…oops! I mean, Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT)!

And talking about the toilet, I saw this sign inside…

Really? Why then did I hear endless announcements calling for this fella and that fella…alongside those announcing the flight delays? I’m surprised that they do not just take off and leave those recalcitrant passengers to buy a new ticket and catch the next flight. After all, I hear they do that to those who check in late. As for the sign itself, I don’t think I need to elaborate on the English…and the punctuation, do I? Tsk! Tsk!!!

I also wondered why there was still this mad scramble to get on board the aircraft now that passengers could pay for their choice of seats or be allocated one at random. I guess as they say, old habits die hard!

And talking about the aircraft, the rattling and the vibrations as it took off were quite nerve-wrecking…and the mechanism to draw in the wheels was extremely loud – sounding like those automatic doors in the villain’s underground hideout in one of those Hongkong-produced Shaw Brothers’ spy movies in the 60s. The aircraft looked very new but if you think you can recline your chair into a more comfortable position, forget it! The one that I flew in, I think a number of the buttons were broken…so most of the passengers had to sit upright all the way. Thank goodness it was only for two hours!

I bought the food available on board the flight so that I could post on  it. You can get this nasi bryani for RM9.00…

…or the nasi lemak for the same price…

According to my missus, the nasi bryani wasn’t very nice. I had the nasi lemak and it was o.k. At least, there were some pieces of chicken compared to this one that I bought for RM1.80 at 7-Eleven…

Cooking4STP was asking on Facebook whether they sell water/drinks as she will be using the airline from Perth next month. Well, a bottle of mineral water costs RM4.00…and do not expect the usual small bottle that we usually see at the grocery stores and supermarkets. The ones they sell are around 75% of that size. Ah well…something’s better than nothing and it sure beats drinking the water in the toilet! ROTFLMAO!

Gimme, gimme, gimme…

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I got some traditional kuih gunting and kuih kereta from my foster-cousin – Chinese New Year delicacies that my mum used to make together with her mum (my maternal grandma, that is) and her sisters (my aunties).

Then, when I arrived in KL, Mandy gave me one big plastic container of “love letters” – kuih kapek/kapit…or what we call kuih sepit in Sarawak. They were made by her mum and were paper thin and so very crispy and absolutely yummy. Unfortunately, I had finished all of them before I realised that I did not take any photograph of them.

And during the meet-up with my blogger-friend, Annie-Q on the 1st day of Chinese New Year, she gave me these…

They were some cereal cookies with cornflakes and tasted really great. She also gave me some almond biscotti…

…while my nephew (my missus’ brother’s son) bought me some stuff from…

…including these butter biscuits…

…and these all butter crunch ones…

I have not tried all of them yet so far. One thing at a time! LOL!!!

Then, while I was stranded in KL, I received a call from somebody at the POSLAJU office in Sibu and the guy told me that there was something for me via special delivery – biscuits, but I was not at home at the time. I told him that I would collect them once I got back and the office reopened after the long Chinese New Year holidays.

I did that on the 4th day of Chinese New Year and it was actually from ah^kam_koko’. A friend of his was making cookies for sale and he was so kind as to buy from her and get her to send to me – all the way from Bukit Jalil…

…these chocolate chip cookies…

…that seemed to have the taste of Nestum cereal in them.

And my brother-in-law from Bintulu gave us a lot of fresh seafood and this…

Thanks to everybody for your kind thoughts and generous gifts…and to Merryn and Clare and those who took the trouble to send me Chinese New Year greeting cards, and not forgetting those of you who phoned, sent me smses or greeted me on in my blog and on Facebook…and also those who dropped by my place when I managed to get back from KL, thanks a lot to all of you too! With so many wishing me well, I bet it’s gonna be a great Tiger Year…

Constantly…

On 16th February, the 3rd day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, I attended another ex-student’s wedding. Here are the newly-weds – Constantine and his beautiful bride, Ita…

Actually Constantine’s younger brother, Desmond, contacted me sometime in November or December to extend the invitation. He said that his mother had asked the two brothers and their sister, Sandra (whom I taught as well in my English tuition class) whether they wanted to invite any of their former teachers and Desmond said that the three of them wanted me to be there. He said that the mum’s response was something like, “Wow! You had so many teachers and you only want to invite one!” Needless to say, I was VERY flattered.

So there I was at the church ceremony…but I did not take any photographs there. Some of the people with their DSLRs took a few of me, I think…and I was tagged in one of them on Facebook…

Edith Wong’s photo

She probably wanted to take a photo of the bouquet but unfortunately, I happened to be in the background and absolutely ruined the photograph. Hahahahaha!!!!

Well, Edith’s brother, Jude, was at the wedding with his new-born baby. If you may recall, I was at his wedding on 26th November, 2008…

After the service, we proceeded to a relatively new restaurant in the town for the banquet…

The food was very good but the service was horrendously slow. We were there before noon but the first dish was served at around 1.00 p.m…

…and the second dish, the steamed fish, at around 2.00 p.m…

I was thinking to myself, “Good grief! At this rate, we would probably be eating till 10 tonight.” Thankfully, things picked up a bit after that and we had the third dish, the cheesy prawns…

The soup dish, which normally would come in second, was served as the fourth dish in individual bowls…

I would think that on such a busy day and with the insufficient number of workers to cope with the crowd that day, they could have just done away with all that and serve it all in one huge bowl and everyone could just help themselves. The fifth dish was a chicken and pork combo…

…and the sixth was a sea cucumber and abalone dish…

Then came the first of the dessert dishes. I particularly loved the sweet yam paste and glutinous rice and since by then, most of the others at the same table had left, I could have the lion’s share of that…

I did not wait for the second dessert dish – I reckoned there would be one as the workers had placed some bowls on the table. By the time I reached home it was around 3.30 p.m. – I wonder if that would qualify us for the Guiness Book of World Records.

Well, despite all that, I had a wonderful time meeting so many of my ex-students, including Walter who took me out for lunch when I was in KL last year…and I had Clare of Kampua Talk for company. Some thought she was my daughter and when my ex-students could contain their curiosity no longer, they asked me and I told them that she was my girlfriend. You can imagine the uproar at their table that resulted from that! LMAO!!!

THE Poh Huai Bin of sixthseal.com was there too. Here, you can see him giving an intensive course on whisky drinking to his captive audience at his table…

CK aka Superman was there too…and Nicholas and Acey as well. If there were other bloggers around, either I did not know them or I could not spot them in the crowd.

Well, congratulations to you, Constantine and your lovely bride, Ita. All the best for your future and may the two of you be blessed with abundant and everlasting happiness. Thanks for the invitation – it certainly was my pleasure to be able to be present and share the joy on your special day…

Two of a kind…

It was on Chinese New Year’s Day, February the 14th…and my missus and I were to check out of the hotel and make our way to the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) for our flight back to Sibu…when my blogger-friend, Annie-Q, dropped by with her hubby and their lovable twins – two of a kind…

Aren’t they sweet and so very cute?

They took us out for dim sum but most of the places were closed. In the end, we stopped by this place in Sri Petaling…

Annie, who’s originally from Sibu, said that the dim sum was not very good…

…but to me, it was good enough – and probably any time better than what we have in Sibu…

She gave me some goodies for Chinese New Year…but I will be featuring those in a later post.

Thanks so much, Annie, for taking the trouble to come all the way to KL to take me and my missus out for lunch before we left for home on the evening flight later that same day.

It certainly was my pleasure meeting you…

…your hubby and your twins…

…and I look forward to seeing all of you in Sibu in April! Till then, all the very best in the Tiger Year…

It’s just another New Year’s Eve (2)…

There we were, my missus and I – stuck in KL on Chinese New Year’s Eve…and it so happened that my auntie was in town with her daughter and her grandson, staying in this hotel…

…which was very near the one where I was staying. I stayed here once before when I won a free one-night stay, inclusive of breakfast and buffet dinner for two for a poem that I wrote in a National Day Creativity Contest on national radio – TraxxFm.

Anyway, my auntie asked us to join them for the New Year’s Eve reunion dinner…and initially, we wanted to go to Esquire Kitchen but it was closed for the festive season. In the end, we settled for the poolside…

…barbecue and steamboat buffet at…

in the hotel itself.

Here, you can have glimpses at the salad, fruit and sushi bar…

…and the dessert spread…

There were a lot of choices as far as the meat and seafood were concerned…

…and we really had a feast that night…

The others had wine but I did not drink a drop. Instead, I went for the dessert and I particularly loved their durian dodol, so much so that I had seconds…and thirds…

So, thanks to my auntie – there we were…all the way in KL, getting together and having our own “reunion dinner” on Chinese New Year’s Eve. It certainly did not turn out too bad after all…