Take two…

I did mention in my blogpost yesterday that I took two of the steamed paos…

…that day at the stall located at the back of the coffee shop. Well, there were only two left so I did not have much choice.

The skin did not look that good – it did not have those nice creases on top and actually, it was not quite there. I found it kind of hard, not soft and cushiony so I was rather disappointed with it. On the other hand, the filling…

…was very nice. I would say that of all the steamed paos that we have around here, I like the filling in this one the most…

…just that I was wishing the whole time that there had been an egg in it, even if it had been just one eighth of it.

Honestly, I cannot understand why these people making steamed paos are so stingy with the egg especially when it is actually not expensive at all. I cannot remember how much I paid for these, probably RM2.00 each but unless they do something about the skin, never mind the egg, I do not think I will buy them again. However, much to my surprise, my missus had the other one and she liked it a lot! Ah well! Like what I always say, to each his/her own!

After making my purchases at the stall that morning, I stopped by my neighbourhood shop in the next lane and much to my delight, I saw they had midin (wild jungle fern)…

I asked for TWO bags full, RM6.00 each. I did not bother to find out the net weight even though RM6.00 did seem a bit on the high side. The boy did say that they had smaller bags, RM4.70 each but no, I was quite happy with the big ones. I remember vaguely that it was RM4.00 a kilo or something like that a long long time ago – that was what I paid for the paku I bought that day and boy, we sure enjoyed that to the max.

Usually, we would buy these wild jungle ferns at the jungle produce section at the Sibu Central Market but I was always so pissed off by how dishonest those ethnic sellers were. They would tie the ferns in bundles, wrapped in some leaves and sell for RM2.00 each but upon reaching home, when we opened up the bundle, we would find all the withered ones hidden in the middle and those would have to be thrown away. In the end, we would not have very much left. That was why when dealing with those people, it would be best to buy two bundles at a time.

I did mention time and time again that I have not gone to the central market since the outbreak of the pandemic, not when we see news of cases among the sellers or the customers again and again and again. Thankfully, we can get these ferns around here once in a while.

That day, my missus fried one bag with sambal hay bee/udang kering (dried prawns)…

…and one can see quite obviously from the photograph how fresh and “fat” (fertile) they were and yes, they were really very crunchy, so very nice, indeed…unlike the miserable shrivelled, semi-withered ones from those people selling the jungle produce at the market, may God forgive them!

ZHEN SAN MEI CAFE (2.312704, 111.847134) is located in the block of shops to the right of Delta Mall along Jalan Pedada, now Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, beside Dynapower, the shop selling all the electrical appliances and what not while SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket.