All up to you…

It’s all up to you really – how you would want to cook something. I, for one, would believe in that and would not stick to the same old recipes or ways of cooking all the time.

I’ve fried mihun with canned pork or corned beef and also with clams in soy sauce – the way we would usually fry it in the family and I’ve tried it with tom yam paste as well but that does not mean that we should always stay on the well-trodden paths that we are familiar with.  Of course, sometimes, things may not turn out so well – like when I tried frying with the made-in-Singapore mee siam goreng paste which, I thought, was not all that nice but one thing’s for sure – it would be nicer if I had more ingredients like the prawns that I used in frying this the other day…

I did not add much to this one really, just the usual sliced shallots and garlic, fish gravy/sauce according to taste and a spoonful of my missus’ pounded/blended chili dip. I could only find some long beans in the fridge so I sliced a bit thinly and added that as well. I would say it tasted really great…

…and I sure would not mind cooking it this way again. Sometimes, we do need to be a bit more adventurous and venture down the road not taken, don’t you think so?

Even in buying stuff, I would like to try some new things – who knows they may be good. We wouldn’t know unless we try, right? My Pinoy blogger-friend, MEcoy, however, said that he would stick to the same biscuits all the time and I guess that is perfectly all right if they are really very nice but at times, if we keep eating the same things, we may get bored eventually. As they say, variety is the spice of life! Wink! Wink! Besides, we would not know if there are others out there that may even be a lot better.

I do stick to the same brands/products myself too, I would say, the ones that I feel are the nicest and better than the rest but I was kind of disappointed the other day though when I got hold of a few packets of our Foochow pek quek tong chiew pia, literally translated as the 8th Month Autumn Festival biscuits…

I would buy this made-in-Sarikei one in preference over the others and this year, the price has gone up to RM5.00 a pack as opposed to only RM4 something in the previous years. Of course, they will tell you that the price of pork and everything else has gone up and these do mengandungi lemak babi (contain pork fat/lard). I do not really mind the increase in the price – some things are simply quite unavoidable but somehow, I find that the nice fragrance of the lard is not so strong this year so that special attraction that these biscuits used to have, is no longer there. Perhaps I should try some of the rest and maybe I would come across one that is as nice as those that I had had in the past. Anyone happens to know of any?

And how was your National Day celebration, those of you, fellow-Malaysians? I heard there were fireworks here but I slept through all that – not much excitement in my life these days…or at least, that was what I thought until I got a call from my friend, Yan…and look at what she brought me!

Ooooo….pizza! And savoury puffs and chocolate cake, all made by Marcus whom I have mentioned a number of times before and whose cakes I absolutely love!!! Needless to say, they were all simply awesome…and I did have a really nice National Day lunch, after all.

Thank you so much, Yan – as they say, caring is sharing and sharing is caring and sometimes, good things do happen when we least expect them to, right?