I do not know about the other Chinese dialects and races but among the Foochows, it is considered good manners when somebody gives you something to say, “Nei ah! Nei ah!!!” (No need! No need!) What I do know is in western societies, it is not like that – if somebody gives you a gift, you are supposed to open it right away and sing praises of the gift and declare how much you love it – I guess you also do that out of good manners even though you do not like it. LOL!!!
Well, Eric, the guy behind The Kitchen Food Sibu Instant Kampua, once went and paid some money to a fine dining restaurant here and asked me to go and eat…and there was some change and the people there paid me the money as they did not want to keep it. That was because I was blogging about his noodles and sending them to friends near and far to help promote his venture and that was his way of expressing his appreciation, that nice guy.
The other day, I blogged about his new product, the Sarawak laksa ramen and I also helped publicise it on Facebook. He sent me an invitation to breakfast and I replied no, thank you. Then, I shared some promotion at a café here and he said, “Let’s go!” and once again, I said no.
I will always help promote my friends’ cafés and restaurants, products and events but no, I never expect anything in return though there are some very kind and generous people who will always give me stuff or treat me to something nice and even give me special discounts when I go and eat at their place.
Mine is not a money-spinning blog nor am I one of those who call themselves influencers – mine is just a personal lifestyle blog, a diary of sorts and I will blog about what I do, where I go to eat, things that are nice…or not so nice and so on and so forth and if something is not nice, I will say so, maybe a little subtly usually.
But this Eric would not take no for an answer. Finally, he said, “I’ll give you some fish!” I just assumed that he would be one of those who would go out to sea and fish as a hobby so I said, “Right here waiting!” Then, the other evening, he messaged me to ask for my address as he would want to give me some prawns. I asked if he caught them but he said no, he just received some fresh ones, most probably from Sabah, and in no time at all, he was at my house to pass me these…
Good grief! Those tiger prawns were so big that just one would be enough for a bowl of laksa but this one…
…is humongous!!! I don’t think I have a bowl that big!
Thank you so much, Eric…but no, don’t do that again! I will go on blogging about your products or anybody else’s for my own personal enjoyment – the pleasure is all mine but don’t send anything over, please. Nei ah! Nei ah!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
My gifts you definitely can take. What I want you to do is continue to write your blog.
You too!!! Nei ah! Nei ah!!! LOL!!!
You are truly blessed with nice people and friends around you. Those prawns will cost a bomb at the market. You help him to promote and in return he gives you a little gesture. People say “wu lai wu ki”.
Yes, thankfully, I am surrounded by nice people like that – I once got a pack of these tiger prawns from KK, not as big and I think they were RM45 a kg but that was a long time ago, would be more now and the ones this size would definitely be a lot more expensive.
Not everyone is like that though – there are some who feel they are doing you a favour to let you blog about them, do not expect anything in return…and woe betide you if you comment on anything not to your liking or not too satisfactory. They are so full of themselves that they do not think they need to improve in any way.
I an jealous!! Haha. But am happy for you as you are surrounded by good and kind people. God bless them.
Slurp. I love tiger prawns. Or any prawns as long as they are fresh.
The prawns look so huge and fresh! So nice of eric to send these to you as gifts.
Yes, I sure am going to have a feast when I get down to cooking and eating them!
those prawns look amazing! what goes around comes around, and i’m sure karma will reward eric too! 🙂
Yes, we can’t get these tiger prawns here – he got them from KK, Sabah, I think. Glad to see he is doing very well – here, you see his instant kampua in every shop and supermarket, obviously doing very well.