Show you how…

I mentioned sometime ago that I bought some belacan at the nearby shop and the guy told me that it was from Mukah. Upon closer scrutiny, it turned out to be a product of Melaka and no, it was nowhere near as nice as our Bintulu belacan and though it tasted all right, not what we are used to but it was extremely salty!

I had opened one of the three packets I bought and obviously, my missus would not use it in her cooking. In the end, I pounded all the rest with lots of chilies and calamansi lime and kept the sambal in the container for my own use.

One morning, I used some for my kampung-style belacan fried rice for breakfast…

…and it was nice, different (from when using our local Bintulu or Mukah belacan) but I thought it was not bad at all. My missus did eat it when she got up and she did not complain.

It so happened that the following morning, I saw that there was some more leftover rice in the fridge so I decided to cook the same thing again. These were the ingredients I prepared…

– the sambal belacan, one shallot, peeled and thinly sliced, two or three cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped and a handful of ikan bilis (dried anchovies). Of course you will need an egg later.

Firstly, I fried the ikan bilis till crispy and golden brown and then I pushed them aside – you may remove them from the work and put aside to add to your fried rice later. This way, they will be nice and crispy and will not turn soft and chewy/rubbery in the course of frying the rice. After that, I fried the shallot and the garlic…

…and once, they were golden brown, I pushed them aside as well and fried the sambal belacan in the oil…

…before adding the rice. Be forewarned that you will have to be quick because I was busy taking the photographs and that slowed me down a bit and in the end, a bit of the shallots and garlic got burnt…and those black bits would taste bitter so while eating, one would have to pick them out and throw them away. It was perfectly all right the previous morning when I was not taking any snapshots.

They will tell you to loosen the rice grains first but there is absolutely no necessity at all…

– the grains will come apart as you fry. Just press the lumps with your ladle.

Mix everything together thoroughly till you get an even colour throughout before you break an egg into the wok…

Break the yolk and scoop the rice onto the egg and mix well.

Keep stirring till you see that the egg is cooked and the rice has been fried enough before you dish everything out…

…and serve.

I certainly would fry it again this way should there be anymore leftover rice in the fridge and no, I shall not be taking any more photographs while cooking and I shall make sure that I do not burn the shallot and the garlic again.

Marry you…

Marriage is a union of two and two becomes one. No, no, nobody’s getting married and anyway, with this on-going MCO partial lockdown, I hear that many have postponed their weddings for the time being. The union or the marriage, so to speak, that I shall be touching on in this post is that of The Kitchen Sibu Food – instant kampua noodles and Uncle Q Dumplings.

The instant kampua people have come out with some new products including the red yeast rice kampua that I blogged about the other day and my cousin in Bintulu shared this photograph…

…of one of those newer ones, the spicy vinegar noodles. I think I saw my missus eating that once but she did not say anything and by the time I thought I would give it a try, she had finished the whole pack. Incidentally, somebody said that the meepok this flavour is nice so when I happen to go out again, I shall grab a pack to try.

Then there was this pumpkin noodles…

…from those same people. My missus bought a pack and she said it was just like kampua noodles – like the red yeast rice ones, she could not detect any difference in the texture or the taste. I must say that I shared those same sentiments when I tasted a bit of the one she cooked in some soup and served with the meat and chives dumplings that David, Annie’s brother gave me the first time he sent some over for me to try but yes, it was very nice – the marriage actually worked very well!

I enjoyed it so much that the other morning, I decided to cook my own. No, I cannot use the dark soy sauce version – the ladies in the house prefer that so I’ve stocked up on a few packs of those. Incidentally, my friend in Penang managed to get hold of that and was sharing the photographs…

…on Facebook – I sure wouldn’t want the soup to be black in colour.

That was why I used the original light soy sauce one…

…instead.

I put the contents of the sachets in a bowl, cooked the kampua noodles and added that to the bowl and I poured the bone stock soup over it. I tossed the noodles to mix everything thoroughly before adding the dumplings that I had boiled…

…and garnishing it with some chopped spring onions from my garden.

Just like the pumpkin noodles and dumplings combo, this one…

…tasted great too! You may want to consider eating the noodles this way for a change when you’ve grown tired of having it dry.

THE KITCHEN FOOD shop (2.304994, 111.847404), home of the original, the one & only Sibu instant kampua, is located in the Sibu Bus Terminal area at Lorong 7A, Jalan Pahlawan, right next to the UOB Bank there.

Should I stay…

Today is the last day of Phase 3 of the MCO (Movement Control Order)/partial lockdown and but it was announced a few nights ago that it would be extended till the 12th of May. It really doesn’t matter to us as we make sure we are well prepared at all times.

Of course I do not go out as and when I like – so far, I went to the town centre once to go to a pharmacy to stock up on those masks so we will have some we can use as and when necessarily. I did go to the supermarket in the vicinity in town then and even though they insisted that the customers sanitised their hands and observe social distancing at the cashiers’ counters, I did not like how the other customers would walk so close to me instead of waiting for me to move on before going near to whatever I was taking from the shelf. I would rather go to the shops near my house where customers are few and far between and may be easily avoided.

Even so, I only stopped by twice, I think, to stock up on food and stuff when on my way home from somewhere – usually when I was sending something we had cooked to my sister at her house. After all, I was out already so I might as well do what I would need to do before going home and washing and wiping everything I had bought and taking a bath myself right away.

My missus went out twice too, once when the lockdown just started and she wanted to go to the bank (but it was not open) and she went shopping for stuff after that. She went out again the other day and unlike me, she had a list of everything she would want to buy. I would just run around the shops, grab anything and everything and sort them out when I got home.

One thing that I had not bought was this…

…and she got me a bottle. The new stock had arrived at the mini-supermarket near my house, it seemed. Now I do not have to worry that I have already reached the bottom of the existing bottle and I can cook and enjoy all the mee sua, noodles or pasta I want without any fear of running out of that completely.

Well, if you’re wondering how much food we have in the house at this point in time, there are two huge bags of rice, alongside two tins, one of cream crackers and the other, Weetameal…and all the noodles…

…and everything else stacked up here and also here…

…(no, the insect spray there is not part of the loot) and the freezer is filled to capacity…

We have not touched most of the canned food in the pantry…

…except maybe a can of tuna that my girl used that day to make some onigiri (Japanese rice balls), a can of santan (coconut milk) and my missus did take a can of sweet corn kernel to cook as there was not much left of the vegetable dish we had for lunch that day.

As everyone can see, we have enough for quite a while so even when they finally decide to lift the MCO, I think I should just stay home, no need to rush out and run around frantically like a dog that has been tied up way too long. I do think it would be best to let the dust settle first and venture out when all is clear.

What’s real…

On one of those few occasions when I went to the nearby shop to stock up on food and stuff, I saw that they had some nice-looking shallots…

They’re real ones, the lady owner said – “chin chin air chang kia“, in Hokkien so of course, I grabbed two packs of them and took them home.

Not too long ago, we had a problem getting hold of these, the ones from India, my missus said – there was none available in town. Eventually, some appeared in the shops but those were from other countries, probably Indonesia or China, in different shades and shapes and even though they were all right for cooking, I could not plant them for the spring onions.

We did not have to buy from the market for years and years as the ones I planted grew so very well…

…and I kept replacing the ones I harvested with new bulbs of shallots so there was a never ending supply.

Unfortunately, when those ran out and I replaced them with those shallots from the other countries, they did sprout but what came out was thin and withered before it could grow much bigger…

I dug it out and saw that it sprouted roots…

…lots of them but unfortunately, most that I planted did not produce leaves. That was why I was quite jealous when I saw Phong Hong showing off her spring onions. LOL!!!

Well, I got rid of all of them, turned the soil in the pot thoroughly and added some organic compost before planting those “real” shallots. After around 4-5 days, less than a week, some of them started sprouting…

Fingers crossed, I shall have my regular supply of spring onions again soon.

Teamwork…

One good thing about this partial lockdown/Movement Control Order (MCO) is we get to do things together like cooking dinner, for instance.

That day, my girl took the leftover spirals that the mum used to cook our Good Friday dinner not too long ago and since there wasn’t that much left, she opened the pack of San Remo elbows that I also bought and mixed them to cook for her pasta dish…

…using the Prego mushroom carbonara sauce, one of the four bottled pasta sauces that I bought. She added the shrimps that we had set aside for cooking vegetables and for fear that those would not be enough, I told her to add the remaining 6 from the pack of big tiger prawns that the mum used for the aforementioned dinner. That was perfectly all right as I had bought two more packs since that one, presently being kept frozen in our freezer.

In the meantime, I prepared this simple coleslaw…

…using only 4 ingredients following this recipe. I only had cabbage in the fridge and not one to obediently follow a recipe, besides the very thinly sliced cabbage, mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar and honey, I added an egg, mashed with a slice of cheddar cheese and I also pan-grilled a sausage and sliced thinly and threw that in.

The pasta was very nice – we all enjoyed it very much and my girl loved the coleslaw. She doesn’t eat cabbage cooked in the usual Chinese ways, fried with egg or cooked in soup but this, she loved. She sure ate  a lot of it and of course, that made me very happy! She even told the mum that if she wanted to cook cabbage in future, she could just do what I did! Hehehehehe!!!

My girl boiled a bit too much of the pasta to go into the casserole so she kept the extra in the fridge. The next morning, I took that and cooked it with Bovril like what they did here, minus the minced meat…

…and the broccoli and in place of the poached egg, I just pan-fried one to serve with it and yes, it was nice, not quite the same as with  mee sua or the local noodles – the taste and texture but, it sure was good.

What now…

The other day, my girl said that she was going to bake bread again, a different one and I was wondering why she would not bake the same ones as those dinner rolls that she baked not too long ago especially when they turned out really nice and all of us enjoyed them very much. However, she insisted on trying something else so she would be able to bake different kinds of bread in time to come.

No, I did not mean to sound discouraging but she had had a lot of disappointments when baking the gluten-free ones and even the ones that turned out all right weren’t exactly anything to shout about…but then again, she was using all kinds of flour at the time, not wheat flour.

This time around, she said she was going to bake some potato bread following this recipe that she saw on youtube and yes, it turned out so so so good…

…so very soft and fluffy…

…and it tasted so very nice that we could just eat it on its own. Of course, she was mighty pleased by how she had been so successful in her attempts at baking bread now.

She made a whole lot of them and the next morning, I took two and toasted them lightly in the oven for my breakfast…

I sure enjoyed that to the max!

Thick and thin…

Tofu can be cooked in many ways and a favourite of ours would be to have it served on a sizzling plate with soy sauce minced meat and dried chili and sometimes, with salted fish too poured all over it but when it comes to tofu soup, the most common one at the restaurants in town would be the somewhat thick Foochow version…

…with canned oysters…

However, when cooking it at home, I do like it in clear soup, cooked using pork bone soup.

I did buy some tofu sometime ago but so far, nobody has cooked it yet and the other day, I decided to cook the soup, the thick version of it as we did not have any pork bones in the freezer for the stock. As a matter of fact, we did not have any of the canned oysters either so I just had to do without those.

These were the ingredients I prepared…

– a few slices of ginger, minced meat (I did not use all of that, just as much as the minced shrimps), minced shrimps in place of the oysters and the tofu cut into cubes.

I fried the ginger in a bit of oil and when it was nice and fragrant, I threw in the meat and the prawns and stirred till they were cooked before adding a bowl of water. Once that started boiling, I added the tofu. For the seasoning, I just added a bit of fish sauce and finally, I added some cornflour diluted in water to thicken the soup.

There you are, so very easy…

…served with a sprinking of spring onion and daun sup (Chinese celery).

You may add more cornflour if you want it thicker – like sea cucumber or sharks’ fins soup. I could have added egg to the soup but I did not bother to do that. If you want to, you can break one into a bowl and beat it well. When the soup is boiling, pour the egg in slowly, beating the soup at the same time so the egg will spread.

When we sat down to eat that day, my girl took a sip and exclaimed, “This is nice!” Needless to say, I was mighty pleased and even though it did not take much effort, so very easy to cook, it sure was worth it.

One month…

It has been over a month since this partial lockdown/Movement Control Order started and I am pretty sure the withdrawal symptoms are starting to show since we can’t go out to enjoy all the things that we love.

My girl enjoys chicken rice and yes, our favourite in town round the corner from my house is available for takeaway but so far, I have yet to go out to tapao anything for us to eat at home. She’s not very particular, not like the father – we have been to places where I thought the rice wasn’t exactly  that nice but she was fine by it.

I guess she was thinking of having that the other day so she asked the mum to cook. The mum’s chicken rice is very good – I would rank it among the top 3 in town but she seldom cooks it. I guess it is a lot of work so she is not all that keen. No, my girl did not insist but a few days later, much to her delight, the mum got round to cooking what she was craving for.

The steamed chicken…

…was very nice but we did not want to chop it up because we are not very good at that and may make a mess of it. My girl has a preference for the roasted version but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

My missus made this special chicken rice chili dip…

…to go with it and yes, the rice…

…was really good.

That should appease my girl’s craving for chicken rice for a while and one thing’s for sure, once this whole thing comes to an end, that is one thing we will go out for…among so many of the rest!

It’s not supposed to be that way…

No, I did not drop by the shop but I think it is open for takeaways. I did drive past once – all the shutters were down except for the main entrance which was blocked by tables. I loved the mee sua or hung ngang in the traditional Foochow red wine chicken soup and the liver soup there and so does my friend, Annie, in KL – she will surely come here for those whenever she comes home.

Well, I stopped by the fruit and food shop near my house to stock up on meat and vegetables – our supply was running out – and the lady owner asked me if I wanted any beef or chicken, already cooked. I wasn’t all that keen on chicken – we could jolly well cook our own – but we had not had beef for a long time so I decided I would try that.

In the course of our conversation, she mentioned that it was rendang and when she took out the container…

…I noticed that it was from the aforementioned eatery…

“Yes,” she said, “they cooked it and left a few containers here for sale.”

However, when we heated it up…

…to eat, we were somewhat disappointed. No, it was not supposed to be that way, nothing like rendang as I know it to be and definitely not like one of my favourites that I had enjoyed before. It wasn’t really like curry either but it was closer to that than rendang – let’s just say it was their version of curry, not the best, of course, but it was all right, that much I would say. One thing I would give them due credit for would be how the meat was very tender.

That was RM45.00 a tub, not cheap at all but of course, beef is every expensive here and we only get the frozen ones from Australia and New Zealand…plus there was so much in the tub that we could stretch it over a few days.

I don’t know how long this lockdown/MCO is going to last – perhaps one of these days, I can drop by here and tapao the very delightful beef rendang and everything else they have on their menu – we sure miss them heaps!

OPPS KOPITIAM (2.294073, 111.827333) is located off Jalan Keranji, among the shops opposite the Sibu Public Library.

So soft…

These are mantaos…

…technically the skin of our steamed paos, so cushiony soft. They can be eaten just like that, best steaming hot from the steamer, with melting butter and whatever else in between.

At some restaurants, they deep-fry them and serve with whatever filling they may have at hand like the fried chicken here…

…or the stewed pork here…

Each of them has a slit…

…that you can peel open to stuff the filling. They may be a bit flattened when you buy them packed in a plastic bag but no worries! You can steam them and they will rise to the occasion once again.

That day, my sister gave us some of these mantaos and the stewed pork belly…

…to eat them with and of course, we enjoyed them…

…to the max.

Actually, I was planning to go back here for the mantao stuffed with either plain stewed pork or pork with mui choy but I kept putting it off one day after another and then came Covid-19 and the partial lockdown so I guess these will have to do till this whole thing is over. Hopefully, the stall will still be around by then – these are hard times for these small businesses.