Hands open…

I did not shop much when I was in the peninsula and even though we were staying at the hotel adjoining the mega mall, most of the time, I only went out of the room to go and eat. I did drop by one of the supermarkets there though and I spotted these vanilla cookies…

Gee! There’s wee’s satay sauce…and now, there are Arthur’s cookies too!!! We only bought a tube to take back to the room and try and Melissa loved it a lot! So I went back there again to buy some more to give to friends and to take home to Sibu. They’re made in the EU, Spain to be exact and if I remember correctly, they were RM4.90 each…or was it RM4.99?

We also bought these mushrooms…

…to take home. Melissa loves them…and we can hardly get them here. When we do get to see them in the supermarket, most of the time, they would be old and rotting away.

My missus and Melissa were out all the time, browsing around the shops but I don’t think they bought a lot of things other than a few books and things Melissa would want to use in school and some t-shirts. My missus did buy quite a bit that day at Tanjung Sepat…and I suppose that was it! For one thing, we did not have much luggage space left as people kept giving and giving and giving me things. I have mentioned most of them in my previous posts but take my word for it – there are some more!

I got these from Claire through smallkucing‘s mama…

– a special keychain with my name on it from Thailand and a t-shirt that she bought in Scotland. Gosh!!! That must have been so expensive!

And other than all the things that she had been giving me almost every day during my stay there, mamakucing gave me some more stuff to take home…

– more of these special chang  that she made herself and  you can judge for yourself from this photograph whether they were nice or not…

Nom! Nom! Nom!

She also gave me these…

Initially, I thought they were kee chang, the yellow alkaline ones but they were not. Inside, there was plain pulut (glutinous rice) with a piece of pandan leaf. I gave some to my mum and she loved them very much, dipped in a bit of sugar.

And if you think that was all, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. I also got these banh tet from her as well…

…and at the time of writing, I had not tried them yet so I would be in no position to say whether they were nice or not but she did tell me that I would have to slice them like Swiss rolls and deep fry before eating…and she added that her in-laws in Trengganu love them very much, but not her. Hmmmmm!!!!

Gosh!!! Then, there were also the bak kua (BBQ meat slices) and the meat floss too – I did not take a photograph of those and as a matter of fact, I just cannot remember when exactly I got them – there were simply too many things that they kept giving me literally every day that I am at a total loss as to when I got what.

All too soon, our holiday ended…and we had to come home but things did not stop coming! Every year, without fail, my friend, Richard, would make his out-of-this-world nyonya changs…

…and he would never forget to spare me some…

…and I, likewise, would give my mum a few as she especially loves these nyonya changs and we can’t get them here…and nobody around, other than Richard, can make these…

…and I dare say that his are better than those celebrated professionally-made ones that I bought in Malacca…or the ones that I got from Kuching.

Then, the very next day, yet another friend of mine, ah^kam_koko’, stopped by in transit on his way back to his jungle school after the two-week holidays and he bought me some of these…

– the very best sio pao (baked buns) aka meat pastries…and the equally good curry puffs from Kai Joo Lane in Kuching. He must have read this post of mine where I was not too happy about the Seremban ones and singing praises of these Kuching ones instead.

Oh? I noticed that the filling in the sio pao was different from what it was like before…

There used to be more colour as they used red-coloured char siew (BBQ pork) cut into little cubes and there were green peas too. It didn’t matter much though for they still tasted absolutely great and the pastry was as nice as ever – soft, crumbly shortcrust with its nice butter fragrance.

They use the same pastry for their curry puffs…

…and as you can see they’re very generous with the spicy curry beef filling – a whole lot nicer than the ones I had in KL, I would say.

There are more, I tell you, but I think I will feature them separately in some later posts…but frankly, I do find it somewhat embarrassing to just sit here with my hands wide open to receive gifts from everybody when I have nothing much to give in return…other than my utmost gratitude and appreciation for everyone’s kindness and generosity. To whom it may concern, thank you so very very much…