Sentimental journey…

There is a little shop just round the corner from my house, probably just a couple of hundred metres away, that sells fresh meat, fish and vegetables in the morning and fruits and all kinds of other stuff the rest of the day. In a way, it is a sort of mini-market and I do drop by their time and again because it is so convenient. I will not have to go all the way to the main Sibu Central Market or the smaller ones in the other parts of town and other than the petrol, I can save on the parking fee too – it is over 40 sen for half an hour here.

Well, I was there sometime ago buying some made-in-Sarikei lung ngor (that I find are the closest to what I used to enjoy when I was a kid) when my neighbour, also a retired teacher, happened to pass by. She stopped to chat and while we were talking about what we were buying, she exclaimed, “Hey! Aren’t you buying these?”

Then she went on, “Do you remember how we used to love eating this cake so much when we were small?”

Well, to be honest, I cannot remember ever eating that. LOL!!! But I do remember seeing them a lot – packed in the same longish manner but wrapped with white translucent paper, the type people use to make kites. People in those days did not use plastic and that certainly was a lot more environment friendly than what people do today.

However, I do not quite recall actually eating it and enjoying it a lot. Maybe it was because my mother could make cakes and needless to say, hers were a whole lot nicer so we never had to eat those.

If  I’m not mistaken, these are actually one whole cake cut into cubes…

…and arranged nicely, one on top of the other, with a bit of jam spread in between them.

They are not really nice, if you ask me – not soft like the cakes that I’m more accustomed to and I detect a strong scent of essence in it…

…but I bought one that day and took it home.

It must have triggered off some pleasant memories in my missus for she has been buying them quite regularly since then…probably because of the sentimental value attached or perhaps, unlike me, she actually does enjoy eating them.

I think if you give this to the young people today, they’d probably take a bite and spit it all out, what with their over-spoilt, over-pampered taste buds accustomed to stuff like the ultra-expensive rich and creamy cheesecakes and what not… What do you all think?