Gifts…

I received these gifts…

…from Huai Bin when he came home and had just reached Sibu that day – the limited edition Tim Tam by Adriano Zumbo and lots of goodies, if I understood correctly, from a place in Kl that specialises in these Taiwan delights. I thought the sun biscuit (red label) was all right but it was different from what I had before. Somehow, it seemed to me that the filling was something like that in the pineapple cakes while what I had before would be more like the buttery filling in other one (chocolate label). My daughter loved the lemon cake while I loved that matcha cake, though I am usually not fond of anything green tea. This one was very mild, not strong on the green tea smell and taste and on the whole, the cake was not sweet – just right for me.

I was saving the Tim Tam for my girl when she came home for the weekend and I did try one myself. It was nice, sweet…and I did take some photographs of it, outside and inside but they turned out blur owing to the insufficient lighting in the room and when I wanted to snap some more, there wasn’t any left. My girl truly enjoyed it tremendously – I only had one and the mum had one as well while she finished all the rest in the pack in no time at all which, of course, made me very happy. Thank you so much, Huai Bin – it is so sweet of you to always bring something back for me to enjoy and a special thank you for saving me that pack of Tim Tam despite there being others who were waiting to lay their paws on them. Hehehehehehe!!!!!

Talking about gifts, my friend, Richard, here in Sibu gave me some of the nyonya changs that he made himself and of course, I enjoyed them very much but this time around, I did not finish them all at one go. I just savoured a few and kept the rest in the freezer and ate them one by one as and when I felt like having any. Well, I had just finished the last one…

…and I thought that was it for the year when I got an sms from my cousin in Kuching telling me that she would be sending me some…

…and good grief! She sent me so many – this was just half of the lot that I received. I left the other half at my parents’ place for them to enjoy and only took these home for myself.

These…

…came from the roadside stall in front of the shops at Green Road in Kuching and they were very very nice, as nice as I remember them to be. They’ve been doing this for a long time now and in the past, they would only be setting up their stall/table by mid-afternoon around 3 or 4.00 p.m. selling these dumplings and also some really awesome nyonya kuihs like serimuka and the rest…but on some days, they might not appear for some reason or other.

Thank you so very much to her too for those and also for these panggang…

…with sambal inside…

…but at best, I thought they were just ok…

This type of panggang would be as good as the sambal inside unlike the kosong (empty) ones which would depend heavily on how lemak (rich with santan/coconut milk) and how perfectly-panggang-ed (cooked over hot charcoal fire) they are and personally, I would prefer the latter, best enjoyed with condensed milk or kaya (coconut jam). However, as far as this type is concerned, I do think that the ones from this fat girl that I had before were much nicer.

In the meantime, I received another sms – this time from Annie-Q asking me to go to her brother’s house to get these dumplings…

…that he made himself.

I was not sure how to cook them but I followed his instructions – to boil some water and once boiling, to drop in the dumplings…and bring the water back to boil and then, add some more water and bring it to boil once again. Once the dumplings started floating up to the surface, they would be cooked…and I guess I did a pretty good job at that…

I made some black vinegar plus ginger dip, the way they would serve these at the shops and tried some. They were so very good and my missus and Melissa loved them very much too. In fact, I did not tell my missus when I went to get them and after eating, she asked where I had bought them from. When I told her, she said, “No wonder they were so very nice!” Indeed, they were a lot nicer than any I had had at the shops here or anywhere else. I understand he was making them at home for sale but only upon  orders from friends. I am not sure how much he’s selling them though – I didn’t ask.

Thanks, Annie and thanks to your brother too for these dumplings. I certainly would want to order more but not at the moment – I still have one of the two packs in the freezer, keeping them to cook over the weekend when Melissa’s home.