My ex-student, Tham, shared on Facebook a photo of the serunding (meat floss, chicken)…
…that he made and I pulled his leg saying, “You still know where my house is, right?” He did drop by once to give me the very nice butter cake from Mita Cake House in Kuching. The next thing I knew he was at my door, sending some of the very nice fruit of his labour for me to enjoy.
His better half, Daisy, also my ex-student, came with him and they had their baby boy with them too. They tied the knot in 2015 and I was at their wedding reception…and now, they have a two-month-old son already, may God bless them all abundantly in all that lie ahead.
They also brought me these…
…from Daisy’s mum, a very nice lady, also a retired teacher like me. Those are a variety of oregano, so I was told…and this one with the white edges…
…would be another variety, sweet majoram, I think this is called along with a whole lot of other names, and this one…
…is probably the same as the latter though I’m not too sure. Daisy did rattle through all the related information but there was a bit too much for this somewhat slow and old brain to register. Hehehehehe!!! According to her, they are very easy to plant – just stick in the soil and that was exactly what I did. For one thing, like all those other herbs, these have a lot of health benefits as well.
She also gave me some mint…
…which I had before and it grew really well like this pot of daun pegaga (the gotu kola or the Asian pennywort)…
…of mine but it gradually withered away and eventually, it was gone. I hope I will be able to do a lot better with this one.
Talking about my daun pegaga, it sure looks really nice, so nice that I decided to move it to the front of the house beside the driveway. It also has a lot of health benefits and is a very common condiment for our ulam though for no obvious reason (other than the fact that we are too lazy to pound the sambal belacan), we hardly ever harvest any to eat.
This is another variety of daun pegaga, the one with a dot in the middle…
– the water pennywort, it is called and it grows rampantly wild in the drains around my house compound and ever so often, I would have to go on my hands and knees to pull them all out and get rid of them. One shop here planted them in pots and was marketing them as “money plants” – they look like coins, they said (and some people call it the dollar weed)! Well, I decided to do the same just for the fun of it in the hope that it will flourish and look as nice as the aforementioned daun pegaga.
Oh yes! Before I forget, thank you so much, Tham & Daisy and your mother-in-law/mum for the serunding and the herbs. Wish me luck with the latter! LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I have lots of water pennywort growing almost everywhere in the garden. Always thought they are weeds and try every way and means to get rid of them, not knowing that people sell and marketing them as money tree….LOL!!!!…..😄😄😄
Maybe you can try and grow them in nice pots and sell! I am sure there will be people willing to buy – they’ll do anything for a little bit of luck. LOL!!!
Meat floss is something that has held my curiosity for over 20 years. I’m still not sure that I’ve quite worked it out.
There’s the Chinese version, usually available at the places selling bak kua (barbecued pork slices) and serunding is the Malay version, with that special kick of the chili and the fragrant aromas of the spices, usually eaten with lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo) and things like that. I sure enjoy it a lot!
I am not that fond of meat floss. Maybe I haven’t come across good ones.
Which one – the Chinese or the Malay ones? I’m just ok with the former and as for the latter, I’ve had ok ones, bought from the Malay shops and stalls, that I quite enjoyed but the recent Hari Raya Haji, I had the absolute best serunding at my cousin’s open house, served with kelupis (pulut in banana leaf – they did not use those palas leaves) and I went for seconds…and thirds! Unfortunately, the food was from a home catering service and the lady does not make the serunding for sale. Otherwise, I sure would go and buy…and blog about it.
Wahhh.. just say the word and the goodies are delivered! The respectful and the respected! 🙂
Thankfully, I have a few of them…
Good luck with the latter…
Thank you!
Don’t know much about plant, but I remembered I drank boiled mint leaves water when I had cough last time, is that the purpose it serves?
Mint is used a lot in western cooking – mint sauce is a must for roast lamb.
I like to eat meat floss with porridge
The Chinese ones or these Malay versions?
The Chinese ones, I have not tried Malay versions before
The Malay ones sure has a lot more kick.