Never stop…

My friend, Richard, gave me some and then, Annie-Q brought me some more all the way from KL and when my cousins and nephew came to town form Kuching, most of the shops were closed for the Gawai Dayak Harvest Festival so they could not go round to get me all the things that I love and in the end, they got me these…

…nyonya zhangs and this is just a bundle of a whole lot in a huge bag.

They’re wrapped in pandan (screwpine) leaves…

…and the meat is not minced…

– just the way nyonya zhangs should be. I’ve eaten a few and they tasted great – just the way nyonya zhangs should be too. Maybe if I give Richard’s a 10, these would get a 9…as Richard’s has more filling but that is usually the case – people tend to be more generous when they make their own at home. And to think that I was thinking that I would not be having any zhang to eat this year, now I have had so many to feast on and I’m saving some in the freezer to eat when the festival finally comes around.

Another cousin gave me these shortbread biscuits and Tan Kim Hock’s dodol…

…and I think these are the traditional peanut caramel candy…

…with a generous coating of sesame seeds. My! My! They certainly have shrunk! Now they’re smaller than the size of a postage stamp.

She also gave me these bee pang…

– I’m not too crazy about this but my missus loves it a lot. In the past, everytime when I went to Kuching, I had to get some for her. I think, literally translated, the name means fragrant rice (and not bee) and as the name implies, the delicacy is basically made up of rice – rice bubbles, to be exact and fried shallots…but these days, they’ve more stuff in it.

Now, wait a minute! There are some more! I also got these phong peah from her…

…and these lao po bing…

…like the so-called oriental wife’s biscuits that I bought here once before. Lao po in Chinese means wife and I guess bing means biscuit or something to that effect.

And if you think that’s it, I’m afraid you’re grossly mistaken for my friend, ex-blogger Clare, came home for the holidays too and she brought me these…

She said they were made by somebody in Kuching who actually originated from Malacca.

Inside the box, there were these puffs…

…with turkey ham and mayonnaise inside…

They were nice though I would wish that they had been more generous with their turkey ham and perhaps it would be nicer to use cream cheese or sour cream instead. The puff pastry was really good though – I loved that a lot.

There were also these…

…that has char siew chicken filling – something like what one would find in those Seremban char siew pao…

These tasted good though I wouldn’t say that they got me jumping up and down with delight. I think I would rather have shortcrust or puff pastry instead of the bread-like one that they have for these.

Gosh!!! Things keep coming like it is never ever going to stop but I’m not complaining though. As they say in Malay, rezeki jangan ditolak…so thanks so very much, everybody. It is indeed so very kind and sweet of all of you to go through all that trouble – I certainly appreciate it very much.