What I’ve got in mind…

I did mention in an earlier post that we shall not be celebrating Chinese New Year 2021, no open house this year but of course, we shall be having the reunion dinner on the eve of the festival, all by ourselves. Unfortunately, like what I have also said in the aforementioned post, I have no intention of going out to buy anything special – we shall have to make do with what we have in the house.

So what have I got in mind? We still have a few ikan bawal hitam/or chio (black pomfret) and those will have to do – nian nian you yu 年年有鱼.  We will probably cook sweet and sour fish with those as red is supposed to be an auspicious colour…

We had the very expensive steamed pek chio (white pomfret)…

…before (the fishmonger told me that day that they would be over RM100 EACH, come Chinese New Year)  and one year, we had kim chio (golden pomfret)…

…but we are not all that crazy about those and prefer the black ones. Those were the cheapest of the lot but unfortunately, they are, by no means, all that cheap anymore.

I still have two servings of the Payung kacang ma chicken…

…in the freezer – I bought three the other day and we ate one already so there is no need to cook any more chicken for the dinner.

My missus bought one huge slab of pork ribs from her friend at the mini-market not far from our house so she probably would take it out and cook it. I am not sure how she will cook it but I did see a pack of char siew sauce in the pantry – she probably would marinate the meat with that and pop it in the oven to roast.

We’ve finished all the frozen New Zealand striploin beef that I bought but we still have a few packs of the ribeye. I think I shall take that and cook curry with it and add a whole lot of potatoes. That will be a welcome change from the chicken curry…

…that my missus would cook every year. Like red, the golden colour is also very auspicious.

We may have a prawn dish – I managed to grab hold of some big pek hay (seawater prawns) at RM38.00 a kg from a woman selling fish and seafood at one place near my house but no, we shall not be having any duck – my missus does not eat that. Perhaps we can have this baked cheese garlic mussels…

We do have some of those half-shell ones in the freezer.

That should be more than enough meat and seafood dishes for the three or four of us already but I do think we shall need a vegetable dish with all the above. At this point in time, I don’t know what we would have in the fridge by then. In my garden, I only have the Brazilian spinach but for reasons unknown, my girl does not seem to like it. My cangkok manis seems to be growing pretty well so maybe I can save it to cook for our dinner that night.

What about you all? What have you got planned?

Expire…

I quite enjoyed this made-in-Korea instant noodles…

…and I am quite sure it is usually very expensive – the last time I bought a packet a  long long time ago, it was RM2.00 each! However, my missus said that she was quite surprised to see that it was quite cheap so she quickly grabbed a pack of 5…

It was not until she got home that she noticed the date – it was about to expire so no wonder it was cheap. She did not tell me how much she paid for it though so I haven’t the slightest idea as to how cheap was cheap.

It sure swept her off her feet the first time she tried – she said it was so very nice and had the taste of Korean ginseng chicken soup. I don’t think they have any ginseng in the seasoning though. After all, they are quite honest in telling you…

…that it is artificially flavoured.

Inside each pack, they have the noodles, square-shaped…

…so it may not fit into your regular saucepan unless you break it into two and there are two sachets, one with the seasoning and the other with the dried ingredients.

Yes, I thought it was very nice and yes, it did taste a bit like Korean ginseng chicken soup and it was just a little bit spicy but definitely not by our Malaysian terms. I spotted some bits of cili padi (bird’s eye chili)…

…among the dry ingredients that also included some spring onions and fried shallots plus a few bits of what tasted like meat. The noodles has a nice texture, not quite like that of the usual instant noodles that we are familiar with, a little bit firmer and smoother.

There was some leftover chicken in the fridge so I took a piece and shredded the meat to add to the noodles and I also garnished it with more spring onions…

…and served.

We’re down to the last packet now – my missus had two, my girl ate one and I tried one. Seeing how she loves it so much, perhaps the former will grab another pack or two if she sees any new stock at the shops when she goes out.

Think of me…

I had just had my lunch that day and had gone upstairs to have a nap when I heard a car at our gate. I was already horizontal so I did not bother to get up and see.

I checked my Messenger via Facebook and saw a message from Daisy, an ex-student of mine. She said that she was at the bakery in my neighbourhood when she thought of me so she picked up something for me for Chinese New Year from her, her hubby, also my ex-student and their son, Ian…and their mum, a retired teacher like me – she gave me the mint and oregano that are growing so well in my garden.

When I got up later, I went and had a look…

It sure looked like the people at the bakery had started stocking up on cakes and cookies for sale for Chinese New Year…

Daisy had bought me a prune layer cake…

I have seen those pop-up ads on Facebook advertising the ones from Lavender in KL. My good friend, Mandy, bought me one once, without the prunes, and it was very nice.

I cut two thin slices from both ends and divided them into smaller slices so all of us in the house could try…

Yes, it was very good – moist, not dry and hard and best of all, not sweet. We all loved it but I’m keeping the rest till Chinese New Year. At least, we’ll have cake, pineapple tarts, keropok and acar, come Chinese New Year.

Thank you so so so much, Daisy, and all in the family. That was so very sweet of you! May God bless you all abundantly in this coming Year of the Ox!

LOUIS BAKERY LW.Pattisserie (2.316411, 111.839847) is located along Jalan Ruby in the same block of shops as Kim Tak Co., right next to Ah Kau Cafe at the end of the block to the left.

Closed doors…

Chinese New Year 2021 is around two weeks ago on Friday, the 12th of February, but we shall be ushering in the Year of the Ox behind closed doors.

There will not be any need to go through weeks of strenuous spring cleaning, wiping and scrubbing every nook and cranny in the house from top to bottom, no climbing up and down putting up the lanterns and other decorations and of course, there will not be any welcoming of family and friends, unlike last year. In view of the current situation, we shall not be holding an open house this year.

Of course, we shall have a simple Reunion Dinner on the eve of the brand new year and we shall be inviting my sister to join us, that’s all.

No, we are not going out to buy anything special – we shall have to make do with what we have in the freezer and the fridge. We still have a few ikan bawal hitam/or chio (black pomfret) and those will have to do – nian nian you yu 年年有鱼.  We will probably cook sweet and sour fish with those as red is an auspicious colour. I don’t think we shall take out the otak-otak from Payung as they say we must have whole fish and we must leave a bit for the following day and not eat up all of it.

My missus made some Sarawak acar timun (pickled cucumber) and I’ve been frying keropok (prawn/fish crackers) – they go so well together and sitting down to enjoy them is a Chinese New Year thing here but the problem with being cooped up in the house all day long, the keropok kept running out.  We still have two packets left but I think I shall wait till the festival draws near before drying them in the sun and frying them.

She also made some pineapple tarts…

Usually, she would just go out and buy – there is a bakery here that makes them in the form of golden nuggets…

They are getting more expensive and smaller each year but thankfully, when we bought some last year, they were still very nice.

It sure was extremely work intensive, making one’s own pineapple tarts. Preparing the jam was so tedious – I saw my missus stirring it slowly over a very small fire for hours and at times, she would enlist my girl’s help.

Getting the pastry ready isn’t so bad unlike in my younger days when I used to help my mum and aunties and my maternal grandma to make pineapple tarts. We would use bottle caps (Sun Valley orange cordial or grenadine) to cut circles in the pastry for the base to put the pineapple jam and then we would cut long strips of the pastry to line the sides and seal them. After that, we would clip the sides with brass clippers – a special instrument with serrated edges – to make a nice design.

Nowadays, there are special moulds for making pineapple tarts and you can just use them to stamp the pastry…

…and after you have placed the ball of pineapple jam in the hole…

…they are ready for the baking.

My missus’ pastry is perfect! It is crumbly but it melts in the mouth and does not crumble in your hand. That is really quite a challenge to achieve. Ever so often, I’ve had pineapple tarts where the pastry was a bit too hard for my liking.

The pineapple jam was perfect when it came out of the oven – moist, not hard and not too soft and sticky but unfortunately, once it cooled down, probably due to the loss of moisture and the extended cooking in the residual heat, the jam got a little bit dry and hard. Still, it was very nice and we still enjoyed it very much. They’re all kept in tightly-sealed jars now – no eating till Chinese New Year or else they will all be gone in no time at all.

While she was busy with the tarts that afternoon, my girl made these lovely mini gimbap/kimbap aka mayak gimbap…

…for our dinner. There was rice, tuna and vegetables with some Korean sauce wrapped in the seaweed so it was a complete meal in itself and thankfully, there was no kim chi so I could enjoy it. LOL!!!

Two for one…

When I blogged about the new flavours from Maggi instant noodles, I mentioned that I found both the cili ala kampung & the sambal tumis bilis too salty for me so after the initial packets, I only used half of the contents of the sachets provided inside. In other words, I only needed one set for two packets of the noodles and I kept the extra sets to fry rice…

…with them.

When I fry my kampung fried rice, I always use ikan bilis (dried anchovies) as one of the ingredients and all the time, I would leave most of the ikan bilis with the rice for my missus to enjoy when she got up but recently, for reasons unknown, I saw her leaving all of them by the side of the plate. Gee! After all these years, there are still things to learn about one another that we did not know before!

Well, she did not have to do that when I fried the rice using the sambal that came with the instant noodles. I only used some chopped garlic and chili and some chopped daun sup (Chinese celery), no ikan bilis...

…but yes, I did throw in a few prawns plus two eggs to enhance the taste. Prawns? I could hear Uncle Roger go (7:18), “Ooooo….he put prawn in his egg fried rice. Fuiyoh!!!…Prawn is the most expensive protein…for special occasion only!” LOL!!!

I fried the garlic in oil till golden brown and then I added the prawns, followed by the chili and the daun sup…and the leftover overnight rice. I emptied the contents of the sachets with the seasoning and mixed it well with the rice. Once done, I broke two eggs into the wok and stir fried everything  together. Lastly, I sprinkled the bawang goreng sebenar (fried shallots) from the other two sachets before dishing everything out onto a plate.

Yes, it was very nice…

…and I sure was glad that nothing had gone to waste.

The difference…

The other day, my missus was drying cucumber and carrot and chili, julienned (cut into long, thin strips) plus some garlic, skin removed, too and I shared the photograph on Facebook.

A West Malaysian friend, originally from Malacca, commented, “Making Sibu acar?” I was baffled so I asked, “Malacca nyonya acar not the same meh?” but he did not reply. I went and googled and stumbled upon this blog – if I am not wrong, this popular food blogger originated from Kuching but is now residing in Singapore…and according to him, there IS a difference between Malacca nyonya acar and Sarawak acar timun. You can click the link and hop over to his blog to read all about it.

Another thing of interest, according to the guy, is, “Another distinction of Sarawak acar is that it is eaten with keropok or fish cracker. We do not eat acar with rice. For Sarawakian Chinese families, acar and fish crackers are the must-haves during Chinese New Year.” Yes, that…

…is what we usually do and I did not even know that it is a Sarawak thing.

I also shared this photograph on Facebook and a cousin of mine in Kuching commented, “Brunei keropok? We prefer Mukah keropok!” or something to that effect. Gee, I thought! How on earth could she tell? Not that it was written all over the cracker?

But yes, my missus did say that it was Brunei keropok so I went to have a look at the other pack…

…that she bought – she bought two that day, RM7.50 (250 gms) each. She was telling me about how when they were small, they loved the keropok from Brunei, so much nicer than all the rest. Over the years, I did hear people saying the same thing and I have seen it being sold at the neighbourhood shops but no, I never bought any.

I studied the packet carefully but it was not stated anywhere – that the keropok came from Brunei. All it said was it was a “PRODUCT OF MALAYSIA” and it was packed by some place here in Sibu. My missus said she probably saw it on the label stuck to the counter in the shop that she went to.

Anyway, I had taken one and opened to dry in the sun…

…which, of course, is indeed a commendable achievement these days considering that it has been raining most of the time. Once done, I fried them and yes, we enjoyed it a lot with my missus’ Sarawak acar timun.

Everyone here sings praises of the celebrated Mukah keropok. They even serve it to you…

…the instant you sit down at a restaurant here but no, they are not on the house. Dream on!!! They sure do not come cheap, around 50 sen a piece but yes, theirs are pretty good. Like everything else, you need to know which the good ones are and which to buy – not all are good.

I did buy two packs of this…

…from the bakery where I buy my mee sua these days and yes, the packaging does look rather unimpressive, just a piece of plain paper with the information slipped inside the plastic bag and sealed. My guess is it is the product of some home cottage industry so they do not have any advanced equipment to do a decent job.

I’ve already dried a pack and fried it but I can’t really say that there is a clear difference between this Mukah keropok and the aforementioned Brunei one. I have a feeling that unless you eat the two together, side by side, you would not be able to tell but actually, as a matter of fact, between the two, our general consensus was that the latter was nicer!

Anyway, this Mukah one is RM12.50 for 200 gms, so much more expensive for less and since the other one was, in our opinion, good, we sure would not want to fork out that extra bit of money, a whooping RM5.00, for less and for something not sensationally superior.

Taste for gold…

I blogged about the Kit Kat line of ice cream last year and no, it did not sweep me off my feet. Of course, I never bought anymore after that.

Well, that day, when my sister dropped by for the lasagna lunch, she brought us these…

I guess this is a new flavour from those celebrated chocolate-covered wafer people and what you will get inside is this stick of ice cream, vanilla, coated with white chocolate and bits of salted caramel flakes…

It is very nice…

…and the best thing about it is that it is not as sweet, especially with all that salted caramel in the coating.

We enjoyed it very much and we sure would want to buy some to stock up in the freezer, if and when we get to go out…and gold being very auspicious to the Chinese, they are promoting it for the coming new year!

Layers…

The other day, my girl said that she would like to cook lasagna for lunch so when the mum went out one afternoon to pick up a few things, she asked her to buy a box of the lasagna sheets…

…and a packet of frozen minced beef.

That morning, she got down to work on it and as always, she did not want me to lend her a hand. I saw her chopping a Bombay onion, dicing  some carrot and blending a few tomatoes. I did not stick around to see what else she did.

Eventually, she got the filling ready so she could line the casserole with the lasagna sheets, spread the filling on them, add another layer of the pasta followed by the filling and it went on till there were enough layers. After that, she covered it all up with a generous topping of mozzarella cheese and put it in the oven to bake.

We did ask my sister to come over to our house to join us for lunch since we were having something special…

…that day.

Yes, it…

…was very nice. I particularly liked her own-made filling using fresh tomatoes so it did not taste like the ones outside which is more or less bolognese sauce that tastes like tomato ketchup straight from the bottle. I am never a fan of that.

That was a delightful lunch and we certainly had a lot of catching up to do – with the current MCO lockdown right now, we sure do not get to see one another so much.

What it’s like…

I mentioned in my post the other day that I tapao-ed some of the delights that we do enjoy a lot at Payung to store in the freezer and take out to heat up and enjoy when we feel like it.

One of them is this…

…that they called Payung otak fish, which is their version of the otak-otak, different from the celebrated Muar otak-otak…

…or the Penang ones…

…with the egg custard wrapped in banana leaf. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do think that theirs is similar to the Thai ones that I’ve tried before somewhere except that theirs may come in different shapes and sizes…

Andy did tell me that the ones I bought the other day might not be the same as the usual because they could not get hold of the bay kar/ikan tenggiri (mackerel). This being the rainy season, fish and all kinds of seafood may be hard to come by and around this time of the year, the sellers may start to stockpile to sell at jacked-up prices come Chinese New Year. He said that they would normally use 3 kg of fish but they only had 2 kg and they went ahead to make but with less fish in the ingredients.

I bought three…

…and that day, because we had leftovers for lunch and there was nothing left for dinner, I decided to take one out of the freezer to defrost…

…and heat up for dinner to see what it was like.

Yes, it was very nice…

…and no, it did not feel like there was less fish in it. I’d probably save the remaining two for Chinese New Year.

A gentle reminder here, if you are thus inclined, you can order food delivery at 0165787614 or call Andy, 01153375498 and they will send via Grab (RM5.00 within Sibu) – payments can be made via Sarawak Pay. If I am not wrong, they will give you free delivery if you buy more than RM60.00.

PAYUNG CAFÉ (2.284049, 111.833014) is located at No.20F, Lanang Road, Sibu, Malaysia, back to back with the multi-storey car park of the Kingwood Hotel which faces the majestic Rejang River.

French kisses…

We do not buy bread all that often, just once in a while and one thing about the bread in Sibu, it turns moldy very quickly. I don’t know if the weather here is very damp or what but leave it outside on the kitchen table for around three days and soon you will see the fungal growth, bluish black spots appearing and what is left of the loaf has to be thrown away.

In a way, it may be a good thing as it is possibly an indication that no preservatives or very little of those are used in the making. I would feel very suspicious about bread that seems to last forever!  What we usually do after a day or two would be to keep the bread in the fridge and take out when we want to eat it. It will be cold and hard, of course, so we will have to toast it first and eat with butter and jam/kaya or peanut butter or make egg or whatever sandwiches for breakfast.

I did mention the other day that I picked up a loaf at the neighbourhood shop sometime ago. We just had a few slices and I stuffed the rest of the loaf in the fridge. However, I did not see anybody eating it so there it was, staring at me in the face day after day after day until finally, the other morning, I decided to make some French toast…

…out of it for breakfast.

Which type do you prefer, the savoury or the sweet? I made the savoury ones once but my girl was not fond of it – she said she would prefer the sweet ones so that was what I made this time around.

I took the bread…

…and trimmed the edges after which I cut the slices diagonally so I have them in triangles…

I got the ingredients…

…ready – two eggs, some evaporated milk and two tablespoons, sugar. Beat everything well till all the sugar has dissolved (you can no longer feel the hard crystals in the mixture). I like to use a flat plate for this so I can easily drop the bread into the batter and take out to fry.

I oiled the n0n-stick pan generously with butter and fried the bread on one side…

…till a little brown and then I flipped them over to do the other side…

You may need to keep an eye on the fire and control it so your French toast will not end up overdone.

Yes, it turned out really well and everybody loved it!