It could have been you…

Well, it happened to me…two days ago, to be exact!

I had just finished replying to some comments on a photograph that I had shared on Facebook when I discovered that I had been logged out and would have to log in again.  When I tried to do that, I was told that my account had been locked for security reasons…

…and I would have to go through a series of steps including changing my email address and my password…

That was not too difficult but to verify my identity and the fact that the account belonged to me, I had to go through an additional step and to do that, I had to choose one of two options given. I cannot remember the other one now but I chose the 2nd one which was to identify my friends based on their pictures/photographs.

I thought that would be easy but unfortunately, I was sadly mistaken. I had expected them to show the profile pictures, you see, but instead, they flashed any of the photographs in my friends’ albums at random. Thank goodness I’ve seen Baby Sumo‘s photos of her cute and beautiful children in her blog as well as on Facebook but I was stumped by a set that showed some thin dark-skinned lady that I did not know but looking at another photograph that showed something quite Indonesian, I guessed that must be smallkucing‘s papa’s photographs…and I was right! Phew!!!! That was close. I did not have a problem with any of the rest…but gee!!! Surely they did not expect me to be such a busybody and go and check out everybody’s photo albums in their Facebook profiles? Tsk! Tsk!

Well, everything went well and eventually, I was able to log into my Facebook account again…

Did this happen to any of you too?

And moving on from the main topic of discussion in this post, I have received this invitation from my old friend, my ex-classmate to his daughter’s wedding in Kuching at the end of September…

Of course, I will be there, God willing. Why, I’ve even booked the air tickets for me and my missus already. So, just in case anyone is planning to hop over to Sibu sometime, do avoid the final week of the month as I may not be around to entertain you, sorry…..

Scared away…

Long ago, probably during the early post-colonial days, all the secondary schools were using this “New Guided English” textbooks by D.H. Howe and in one of them, there was a passage entitled, “The Crows of Klang”. Of course, for us in the schools over here, we could not see the significance of that passage and were wondering why on earth anybody would want to read something on those ghastly-looking birds. Only when we had the opportunity to go over to the peninsula did we realise how those birds infested the nation’s capital and the surrounding areas even to this day. For one thing, their appearance isn’t attractive, to say the least…and their loud caws are somewhat eerie. Imagine having one right outside your bedroom window in the middle of the night, cawing away! Eyewwww!!!!!

Here in Sibu, we also have a problem with birds – lots and lots of them, maybe thousands of them…but thankfully, they’re not crows – just swallows or at least, that is what I think they are. They’ve been around for a long time now and if you drive your car out at night, you can bet your bottom dollar that you will be given a “souvenir” or two by the time you get home.  There have been people complaining too that they had it right in top of their heads as they were crossing the road…and if you’re parking your car in town in the daytime, do avoid the trees even though the shade they provide may be somewhat an incentive for you to do so. Should the weather change and the rain comes pouring down, your whole car would be covered with all the bird droppings stuck among the leaves in the tree and washed down by the rain water.

Well, lately, there have been a lot of people who have resorted to hanging cd’s…

…all around their buildings. I have noticed the Rejang Port Authority people doing that and also the HSBC as well…and according to some, those would help scare away the birds.

I have a lot of birds in my garden, among the trees or all over the lawn…and I do not have a problem with them at all. It seems that they’re so used to human company these days that when I walk towards them, they would not bother to fly off…unless I come running and making a lot of noise to frighten them off.

The only problem that I have with them would be the fact that they would love to perch in the shady areas around the house, like under the awnings, for instance. Of course, that is not a big matter but my missus would grumble that she would have to wash away the droppings on the cement ever so often and at times, they would leave stains that would be quite difficult to remove. Besides, there would be droppings on the railings under the awnings as well…and as in the case when you get them on your cars, the waste product is obviously very corrosive and may cause much damage to the paintwork of your vehicle…and likewise, to those metal railings at my house.

Consequently, I’ve resorted to what everybody else seems to be doing – hanging cd’s all around the house…

…in the hope that the movements and the reflections of the sun’s rays that make the whole place look like a discotheque (with the reflections from the disco ball) would help keep those birds at bay.

At this point in time, I would say that it actually does work…or so it seems.

This is good…

This is good?…

That was what crept through my mind when my missus bought it the other day and brought it home. I guess this is a new brand, one that I’ve never heard of before, and I wonder why they chose that name instead of some more alluringly suggestive ones like “Delicious” or “Tasty” perhaps.

In the past, I have had some very nice pork-flavoured instant noodles from Taiwan but they do not seem to be available anymore these days and duck as well but I’ve yet to come across any beef ones that I like. Well, as they say, there’s  no harm trying, so I took a packet and cooked it to give it  a try…

Hmmmm…not bad, not bad at all. I found that it tasted pretty good except that I could not detect any beef taste in it. There seemed to be a hint of salted/preserved vegetables, something that I know they add to the broth, among other things as well, at those beef noodle stalls to complement the flavour.

I had some leftover luncheon meat…

…so I had the noodles with that…

All in all, I would say it was all right – not something that one would rush back to the stores to get some more and for one thing, at RM4.50 for a pack of 5, I think I would just stick to my regular cheaper brands which I would say would be just as good, if not better.

I said it before…

I had a post on these chicken pies (currently RM3.00 each)…

…before and more recently, on the new variety – the ones with the cheese curry chicken filling.

I bought a few for my friend, Mandy, when I hopped over to KL and she said that she heated up one for dinner and it was so good that she heated another one up and had it for supper. I also bought a few for my ex-student, Xavier, the other day and soon after, I received a text message from him saying that he was “chastised” by his parents for not asking me where I had bought them for they loved them so much and would want to head back there to grab some more. I also bought some for my cousin who was here from KK not very long ago but he said that he would prefer the original chicken pies. Well, he did not try them the very same day, perhaps a day or two later…so I wouldn’t know if that had affected the taste or not.

Anyway, I went back to the bakery a couple of times to get some for myself but it was closed for the holidays and when it reopened, the boss said that they had used up all the filling prior to their holiday break and had not got down to cooking some more yet. In the end, I had no choice but to buy these curry puffs (90 sen each)…

…instead which I would say aren’t too bad though I would not insist that they’re the best that I’ve had. I had a post on them before and I must say that I still have not changed my mind about how I feel about them.

They’re not made by the bakery people themselves actually – I understand that somebody makes them at home and leaves them at the shop for sale. As you can see from the photograph, whoever makes them is obviously not very good with his or her hands and the curry puffs do not look all that great as far as the shape is concerned. They taste o.k. – nice curry filling except that it’s all potatoes…

I can’t seem to detect the presence of any meat, be it chicken or beef, at all and the price has gone up by 10 sen – from 80 sen to 90 sen now.

I like the fact, however, that they are baked, not fried but I don’t think any butter is used in the making of the pastry…

…as there is the absence of the fragrance that one would get when eating the bakery’s own chicken pies but they’re definitely a whole lot better than the curry puffs from other bakeries that I’ve had the displeasure of trying before.

All things considered, personally, I would rather pay a bit more for those lovely chicken pies and derive a whole lot more satisfaction from eating them than to pay much less for these…but of course, some people may beg to differ. Well, it is, after all, a free country and it is up to one to do as one pleases…

Satisfied…

I heard people praising it to the skies and so I tried cooking it myself once…but it did not get me jumping up and down with delight. I just thought it was nice and I quite liked it but it would not be something I would want to cook again. After all, there are many other ways in which I can cook using cincaluk (fermented shrimps) and derive a lot more satisfaction from what I can dish out.

Then, the other day, when I went to that nyonya restaurant in Malacca, I did not hesitate to order their cincaluk omelette as I wanted to see how they did it and whether there was anything that I had missed. I must say that I was quite disappointed as it turned out to be just omelette with a teeny-weeny bit of thinly sliced long bean and carrot…and just a little bit of cincaluk, so little that I had difficulty tracing its taste in the egg…and when I did, I was not too thrilled either as I guessed they had used the bottled variety which was a far cry from the best we can get around here – the homemade ones from Bintulu which I had used when I cooked mine and that, of course, made a whole lot of difference in the taste. I made my mind there and then that I would try cooking it again –  my own version this time and it would be a whole lot nicer than my first attempt.

I put two tablespoons of cincaluk in a bowl and squeezed four calamansi lime into it for the juice and I added eight cili padi, some thinly-sliced shallots and bits of serai (lemon grass) as well. I did not slice the serai thinly so that it may be removed in the process of eating – I like the taste and the fragrance but I do not quite fancy biting into it, you see…

Then I beat two eggs and threw in some Thai basil/mint leaves, sliced chilies (more for the colour than anything else as the current ones that we can buy from the market aren’t hot at all) and a pinch of msg…

Ah yes! I also scooped out a bit of the cincaluk, around two teaspoons, and added it to the egg as well.

After that, I heated up some oil in a pan and poured in the egg along with the ingredients in it. When it had started to cook especially at the bottom, I added the cincaluk like this…

…and then I folded the edges in to sort of roll it up.

When it was cooked, I took it out and placed it in a long dish, ready to be served…

So, was it good? I would say that it was really very very nice with all the exotic tastes and fragrances of the ingredients used…but I would reduce the amount of cincaluk used the next time around, maybe by half so that there would be just enough to apply a thin layer of it to the egg in the pan like a spread of jam or peanut butter. As it was, I found it a bit too salty and though it went perfectly well with rice, one would not be able to eat it and enjoy it on its own.

On the whole, I would say that I was very satisfied with my version of the cincaluk omelette but there is still some room for improvement and I certainly would try cooking it again. I am pretty sure the next time around, it would be just right…

As long as you love me…

A cousin of mine in Bintulu gave me this yee mee…

…quite sometime ago and I never got round to cooking it. Usually, they use this type for claypot noodles and I do not have those small ones for individual servings. Then, somebody was telling me that I must not keep it for a long time as they deep-fry it before packing and if kept for a long time, the smell of the oil would come out and when cooked, it may not be very palatable anymore.

I saw smallkucing using it to fry wan tan hor-style when she shared the photograph on Facebook and I thought to myself, “Hey! I can do that too, can’t I?” Thus, when I got these lovely prawns…

…from my cousin that day when he came over from Kota Kinabalu, I made a mental note instantly that I would use some of it for this purpose.

I would need some eggs, of course, as wan tan hor is actually hor fun or kway teow (flat rice noodles) in thick egg gravy or sauce. I sliced some shallots and chopped a bit of garlic…

…and sliced some Chinese cabbage or wong bok very thinly…

…together with a bit of Chinese celery or daun sup. I saw half a chili left in the fridge so I just sliced it as well and threw it in just for a bit of colour.

First, I boiled the yee mee…

…to soften it. I saw in somebody’s blog that she added oil to it to make sure it does not stick together. I did not do that as I did not fancy the idea of the extra oil added to the dish. I just tossed it regularly to loosen the strands and that certainly helped.

Then I started cooking the gravy. Firstly, I fried the shallot and garlic in about two tablespoons of cooking oil till golden brown and then I added the prawns. Once they were cooked, I added water and about two tablespoons of oyster sauce. When it had started boiling, I poured in the eggs, beaten, slowly while whisking the gravy vigourously. After that, I put in the cabbage, celery and chili. Once everything was cooked, I added a bit of salt; there is no need to add any msg as there is, in fact, a lot of that in the oyster sauce already. Lastly, I poured in a tablespoon of cornflour dissolved in water to thicken the gravy and brought it back to boil.

Having got the gravy ready, I poured it over the noodles and served…

As you can see, the egg gravy was not very thick. If you want it thicker, you can add more cornflour but I do not really fancy it too starchy or gooey.

The prawns were really very nice…

…so fresh and firm and as a whole, in my opinion, I thought what I had dished out tasted very good indeed.

I know some who are not too crazy over yee mee and would rather have the authentic version with hor fun or kway teow but to me, this was also very nice…

My missus ate the fruit of my labour and she too said that it tasted great. Well, I guess that’s all that matters – never mind what others may prefer, as long as she loves it! Ain’t that right, everyone? Wink! Wink! LOL!!!

If I ain’t got you…

After seeing this post in her blog, I knew I just had to go back there again for I certainly would not rest if I ain’t got what she had to enjoy at that restaurant. This, in my point of view is the best in town and I’ve always enjoyed the dinners here like this one, for instance, or what we had here as well…and that was in December  last year. Thus, when Nicholas was in town, home for the holidays from Cambridge, England, I took him and my ex-student, Xavier, there for lunch.

Now, this is something new…

Don’t ask me what that is all about for I really do not know. I think it has something to do with healthy living and cleanliness for the crockery was all sterilised or disinfected and packed like this…

It seemed that the company concerned supplied all of that…

…seeing that everything had their name and logo and not those of the restaurant.

We were served these braised peanuts (RM2.50)…

…while we were waiting for the food and needless to say, I ordered their renowned fish head curry (RM45.00)…

…which was as good as ever…

and everybody loved it so much.

The fish was smooth and soft – simply perfect, I must say…

…and normally, this is served with Bario rice.

However, I simply had to order their own-made bread (RM7.00)…

…to eat with the curry gravy, knowing that they would go superbly well together…

True enough, despite having had their fair share of the staple in the UK, both Nicholas and Xavier thought the bread was awesome and loved it a great deal.

For dessert, I ordered the giant ice kacang (RM15.00)…

Actually, it would have been ideal if there had been 5 or more of us instead of only 3, and the lady who took our orders kept discouraging us from ordering too much. Nonetheless, it did not matter one bit for we did manage to finish what we ordered, more or less, and more importantly, I got to get what I wanted! Hehehehehe!!!

He’s home for a little while…

One of ex-students, Xavier, is back from the UK, currently home for his summer holidays and we managed to meet for tea one afternoon.

We went to this hotel‘s cafe and he wanted the laksa (RM10.00)…

He liked it very much except that the serving was too huge for him to finish it all up. I tried a bit and thought that it was o.k. but definitely not like laksa as I would know it…and it wasn’t anything like curry laksa as well. Well, to be fair, they actually name it after the hotel on the menu so they may insist it’s their own original recipe and is not supposed to be like any others elsewhere.

They’re certainly very generous with the calamansi lime though…

Most places would just give you one.

I decided to give their fried mee sua (RM10.00)…

…a try. It tasted good – not the best that I have had in town, but good enough. However, it was really too oily and I found it hard to really appreciate it. I wouldn’t think it was something I would want to order again.

And look at what Xavier got me all the way from London!

Chocolates from the UK…

…and an official London Olympics 2012 mug…

Yaaaaa!!!!

Thanks so much, Xavier, for the gifts – so sweet and thoughtful of you. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get together again sometime before you go back to “the land full of rainy skies and gales“. LOL!!!

Day tripper…

My cousin in Kota Kinabalu flew over in the morning that day as  he had some work to see to in town. The MASwings flight was delayed for an hour and he was duly informed the day before. It was around 10-30 – 11.00 a.m. before I managed to get to see him and he passed me all the stuff that he had so very generously bought and taken the trouble to carry them all the way for me.

There were some dried prawns and ikan bilis (dried anchovies)…

…and some fresh prawns too – still frozen in ice…

…and no, these were definitely not the Twin Towers…

…but the made-in-Singapore luncheon meat!

I have not tried them yet so I would not know whether they’re better than the Gulong brand that we can buy here or those made-in-Canada Ma Ling ones.

He also brought me the Lonely Planet-accredited and Asian Food Channel-featured ngui chap (beef soup)…

…from Kah Hiong in Kota Kinabalu. I’ve had this every time I dropped by the city and I must say that there is none, never mind where, that I have had that comes anywhere near it – not even close. The soup, or perhaps I should call it the broth, is so richly thick, so full of beef flavour that just one sip of it will convince you that there can be no other better than this! To me, it is simply the best…but they were telling me that there’s another place in the city that they prefer. Hmmm…I really must hop over there one of these days to try that.

This is the fiery chili dip, made from cili padi, to go with the ngui chap…

…but do be forewarned that it is extremely hot and after eating that, I could feel the burning in my mouth and I was quite sure that my lips were all swollen up and looking like Angeline Jolie’s. Imagine the suffering I had to endure when I went to the toilet the next day! LOL!!!

Well, his flight back to KK was supposed to depart at 6.15 p.m. that same day and at around 4, he received an sms again from the airline saying that it would leave at 7.30 p.m. instead…and I gathered from him that it finally left Sibu at around 8.00 p.m. and he got home late…at around 10.00 p.m. This is really simply outrageous, don’t you think?

First, the airline has the monopoly around here for flights from Sibu to Bintulu, Miri and Kota Kinabalu…and the airfares are really astronomical! More often than not, it is a lot cheaper to fly to KL and elsewhere instead…and it would not be so bad if the service had been good – regular with minimal delays and cancellations but unfortunately, despite the “new” aircrafts that have replaced the old Fokkers, things do not seem to have changed one teeny-weeny bit.

Is it any wonder at all that most people here would rather catch a bus to Bintulu and Miri…and think many, many times and would not bother to go to Kota Kinabalu unless they absolutely cannot help it? Really, MASwings, no doubt you have been not very flatteringly and somewhat insultingly categorised as being a “rural air service” ,  a reputation that you certainly seem to live up to, but don’t you think it is about time you pull up your socks and get yourselves out of the miserable rut that you seem to be stuck in?

UPDATE:
The verdict. Taste, 100% and the fragrance, also 100%. It was so fragrant that the smell filled the whole house the moment the can was opened, what more to say while cooking and it tasted much nicer too – better than the original China-made Ma Ling that I loved so much while growing up…

…HOWEVER, the texture was a bit too soft, unlike the made-in-Canada Ma Ling or Gulong or even SPAM. Perhaps if I try doing what I usually do – dry-frying the cut slices on a non-stick pan to melt away the fat first, it would become harder and more to my liking then. Will try that sometime…

Something new…

I went to this place again for breakfast the other day with ah^kam_koko’ when he was in town for the weekend.

He said he loved these maqiu…

…or sesame-coated glutinous rice balls with filling so I ordered some. I’ve had these elsewhere but I’ve never tried the ones here so in fact, this would be something relatively new to me.

They had peanut filling inside…

…and on the whole, I thought they were all right – not bad at all.

I remember having these century-egg dumplings before…

…and I thought they were quite nice so I ordered those for him to try. They were pretty good and for one thing, the wedge of century egg in them made them a little bit different from the rest.

Somebody told me that the green-coloured meat dumplings…

…were good but all this while, I had never ordered any to try as I would get put off by the colour.

It tasted o.k. but personally, I would feel that whatever colour or shape they came in, they all tasted the same….including these siew mais…

I guess they used the same minced meat to make all of them and hence, the similarity in the taste. All of them could be considered as being not too bad, more than just being merely edible, but I always have a bone to pick with the dumplings here. If I’m not mistaken, there is no prawn added and they do not beat it enough to get that springy fish ball-like texture than one would find in the dumplings at other dim sum joints.

I also ordered the yam puffs…

…which were fine by me though there are better ones elsewhere and we also had the lau sar pao – the steamed buns with the salted egg custard filling.

For one thing, I noticed that business was no longer as good as before. In the past, one would have difficulty in parking the car, what more to say, getting a seat in the place. There were quite a number of people when we went but I would not say that they were enjoying really brisk business, not at all…and it was on a weekend some more. They’re still charging the same price – RM10.00 for any three laos (storeys) or baskets/plates which is a bonus point in their favour during these times when the price of everything is rocketting sky high.

All things considered, I  guess this is still a place that I may choose to drop by once in a long while whenever I feel like having a dim sum breakfast or something different for a change even though it may not be the best that we have around.