Skinny love…

My missus cooked this phak lor too kha (braised pork leg) the other day…

…and of course, that was so so good! Much to my delight, she boiled some eggs as well and cooked them in the sauce. I guess everybody knows by now that I have a weakness for those stewed eggs.

She cooks it the same way as how my mum and her mum did it and none that I have had outside comes close, not even one…except perhaps a coffee shop/restaurant in Kanowit in the late 70’s where I used to go for my meals, lunch and dinner at RM60.00 a month. The lady owner knew my mum and her family well so that probably explained why she cooked too kha that exact same way too.

I love the skin and the fat but somehow or other, there wasn’t any fat in what we had that day. Is there such a thing as a skinny pig? Maybe my missus trimmed away all of it so there were just the meat and the lower part of the pork leg including the trotter where there was just skin, tendon and bone – the best part, they say, as it is packed with collagen and eating that will keep a person looking young. LOL!!!

Both the ladies in the house ate the meat while I had all the rest with what was left of the sambal belacan (dried prawn paste)…

…that I pounded for our Sarawak laksa that day. They go absolutely well together.

I did mention in my post the other day that our stock of the best-in-the-world Bintulu belacan was running out and I managed to get some Melaka ones from the fruit and food shop round the corner from my house and yes, I did say it was quite nice but no, the taste, the fragrance and all were entirely different. It somehow came across to me more like ikan bilis (dried anchovies) than belacan as I’ve always known it to be.

A few days later, I was busy cooking when I heard a car honking at our gate. The ladies went out to see and when they came back, my missus brought this…

…into the kitchen. “You ah!!!” she grumbled. “So shameless, simply asking people for things and see! They have given you so much!!!”

Hmmm…my paternal cousin read about my predicament either here in my blog or on Facebook and has given me some of the belacan his Miri friend gave him. I guess he gave him a lot and they do not eat belacan so much at home so according to him, they would not be able to finish it in a year! Thank you so much, Ah Siong! I am sure we will not take that long to finish it and that sure is enough to tide us over for quite a while – no problem, even with the extension, announced yesterday, till the 28th of April. Will the partial lockdown/MCO end then? Nobody knows…