Pop up…

Today, the 21st of September, Tuesday, is the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), more commonly known as the Mooncake Festival.

No, we’re not having any kind of celebration this year, not even a special dinner – something that we usually would not miss in previous years. With this pandemic raging on and on, we really are not in the mood for much of anything.

Why! I did not even go and buy myself a mooncake to enjoy!!! For one thing, I am on a low-sugar diet and those mooncakes are super sweet, never mind that some of them claim to be low sugar – honestly, I can’t tell the difference. However, that does not mean that I did not get to eat any at all.

The other day, out of the blue, I had these beautiful gelato mooncakes…

…delivered to my house, a special gift from my friend, the proprietor of this place and all the rest.

We tried the pistachio with raspberry yolk…

…that very evening and it was so so so good!

But no, that did not give me an excuse to cast caution to the wind and feast on all of them. I would just nibble a bit to see what it tasted like and the ladies enjoyed the rest and that day, on my girl’s birthday, I took out the remaining three in the box…

…and we had them for our after-dinner dessert, killing two birds with one stone – to celebrate the birthday and the festival simultaneously.

Yes, in keeping with the tradition, I did go and buy our pek guek tong chiew peah…

…the traditional Sibu Foochow Eighth Month Mid-Autumn Festival biscuits to nibble and my missus did bring home another two packets, if I remember correctly. Gone are the days when I would finish off one packet in one sitting – these days, I would have to limit myself to just two or three pieces at a time.

Other than the gift of gelato mooncakes, I had another surprise the other day around a week before the festival. The postman delivered this…

…to the house – a greeting card for The Mooncake Festival and a really beautiful pop-up one…

…at that.

I don’t know if it is a specially ordered, custom-made one…

…as I have never seen them selling greeting cards for the Mooncake Festival anywhere before.

That awesome card…

…came all the way from Sungai Petani in Kedah from my young and handsome friend, Nick, who came to visit me here in Sibu in 2017. Gosh!!! That was so long ago!

Thank you so much, Nick! It really is so sweet of you to remember me and keep me in your thoughts at a time like this and it sure made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. A very Happy and Blessed Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival to you and all your loved ones too…and here’s wishing the same to everybody as well on this very auspicious day. #staysafe #staywell Cheers!!!

We need a lot more happiness…

At a time like this, we sure need a lot more happiness and that may come about through little gestures that may mean a lot to those who are #stayingsafe #stayingwell #stayinghome.

When I bought the ikan terubok (toli shad)…

…from my favourite fish & seafood stall that day, I thought of my aunt, my mum’s cousin, in the kampung. This fish seems rather hard to come by these days and my mum, when she was still around, enjoyed it so much so I was thinking that my aunt would love it too.

That was why that day, I took one of those that I bought and panggang-ed (baked) it…

…with the intention of sending it over to her house for her to enjoy.

Unfortunately, it poured cats and dogs that morning right through till the afternoon and I did not fancy going out in the rain. That was why I abandoned the plan and we ate the fish ourselves. Well, last Friday, the weather was very good, bright and sunny, so I quickly took out one of the fish to defrost, rub salt and pepper on it, wrap it in aluminum foil lined with daun kunyit (turmeric leaves) and put it in my Tatung pot to bake.

It did not take very long – after around half an hour, the fragrance of the fish filled the whole house so I switched off the fire and left it in the pot for another fifteen minutes to continue cooking in the residual heat. My missus said that once we could smell it, it would be an indication that it was cooked already.

I called my aunt to make sure she was home and I drove over to pass the fish to her. Of course, she was delighted – the radiant smile on her face said it all…and no, she did not let me go home empty-handed.

It so happened that some people in the kampung managed to get hold of these kulat ta’un…

…and she managed to get her share. We call these mushrooms chicken mushroom (kaybak ko) in Hokkien because when we cook soup with them, it tastes just like chicken soup! They are more or less extinct now – the last time I saw some was way back in 2011 and I cooked the little that we got for my mum to enjoy and because there wasn’t a lot to go round, I did not get to eat it myself!

My aunt said that she got them two days ago and she cooked half already and she was busy the following day doing some spring cleaning in the house so she did not cook the rest. That was why she had a bit left and when I called and said I was coming over, she said, “This fella! Memang ada rezeki makan!” Well, didn’t I blog that day about how they called me Nyangoi because of my protruding chin and someone said that I would always be blessed with things to eat? Looks like there is some truth in that, don’t you think? LOL!!!

I took the mushrooms home happily and asked my missus to cook them, fried with egg…

It may be simple to cook, nothing to it at all but it…

…is so delicious.

This was probably the first time my girl got to eat these mushrooms and yes, she loved them! Here, we can get those farmed oyster mushrooms that are easily available at the market, the ones that they use to make those mushroom rolls at Payung…

…the favourite of many but these definitely have an edge over those, definitely nicer. Too bad they are so hard to come by.

Incidentally, that morning, I saw my neighbour’s wife in their garden so I took another one of the ikan terubok to give to her. She gave me an or chio/ikan bawal hitam (black pomfret) once and yes, she sure was delighted – she said that she had not seen it for a long time and yes, she loved eating that too. From the look of it, obviously, she was very pleased to be given the fish and she kept saying thank you as she took it into the house.

Personally, I do think that it does feel good to, once in a while, share the joy and spread the love. Like what I said at the beginning of this post, at a time like this, we sure need a lot of that!

Thank you, thank you…

Last Friday, early in the morning, I went over to my favourite fish and seafood stall close by. We did not feel like eating the kilat and the prawns nor the slab of salmon that we had in the freezer and I was hoping there would be some nice sotong that I could buy for my girl.

She loves those squids a lot but unfortunately, that morning, they only had those small ones. They are such a chore to clean, I told the boy, and after cooking, they will shrink so badly that there would not be very much left. He agreed with what I said and did not insist on my buying those that they had. They are not in season yet, he replied.

In the end, I decided to buy one HUGE or chio/ikan bawal hitam (black pomfret) to cook and eat that day. I did see it the other day but I did not buy any. The lady said this variety, RM25.00 a kilo, could be steamed but no, I think we would prefer it deep fried. There were those small ones but I bought so many the last time and we would fry one for lunch and another one for dinner again and again and after we had eaten all of them, I felt we had had enough of those for a while.

This was just half of the or chio…

…so you can imagine how big it was, definitely more than a kilo, definitely more than enough for two meals, lunch and dinner.

In the meantime, I spotted some fairly big ikan terubok (toli shad), around 600 gms. each, going for RM25.00 a kilo too. If it had been any bigger than that, it would not fit into my Tatung pot nor my mini counter-top oven. I did not see any on my previous visit so my guess was these were new arrivals. I asked for a few and I cooked one…

…with the intention of sending it to my aunt in the kampung to enjoy but as soon as I got home from my marketing, it started pouring cats and dogs and did not stop till afternoon. Left with no other choice, I changed my mind as I did not fancy going out in the nasty weather and we ended up eating the fish ourselves. I suppose I can take another one from the freezer some other day to cook for her.

I sure hope the rain did not ruin their business for the day that day – they only open when there is fresh supplies till 1.00 p.m. and that was the time when the rain stopped that day. I really pity these people on days like this.

We had the or chio…

…on Sunday instead – my missus served it sweet and sour as our girl loves fish that way and despite its size, the meat was so good, smooth and very fresh and sweet. We absolutely enjoyed it to the max and I certainly would want to buy a few more to keep in our freezer should I happen to drop by the stall again.

Back to that morning when I was there, the nice and generous lady was filleting some fish to make fish paste (for making fish balls) and she gave me all the bones to make fish stock. That would be very nice for soup, she said, very sweet. I took them home and my missus saw that actually, there was still a lot of meat stuck to the bones so she patiently used a spoon to scrape it all off and made fish balls with it and together with the stock, she cooked this awesome dish of creamy tom yum…

Boy! That was so so so good!!!

No, that wasn’t all! The lady also gave me this green papaya…

…and said that I could cook soup with it. I think I did that before and yes, it was nice but I had something else in mind.

I overheard my girl asking the mum to make some som tam (Thai papaya salad) sometime ago and I did see the latter buying some of the fruit but eventually, they ripened and they peeled them and ate, no som tam. Perhaps the fruits were not green enough, already starting to ripen so they were not so suitable for the Thai salad dish.

Yes, we did have som tam…

…in the end that day and that too was absolutely out of this world which prompted my girl to make a special request for the mum to make some yum woon sen or seafood glass noodles salad…

…this coming Friday. Yes, we have those big prawns in the fridge and lots of tang hoon (glass noodles) in the pantry. Hopefully, I can get some nice fresh sotong over the next few days.

In the meantime, I really must give a BIG shout out to say thank you, thank you to Madam Lau, for the freebies. With this kind of PR and customer service, of course, you will see me going back there for more, that’s for sure.

The fish stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at that end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, if you go in via the entrance where San Len Tyres is located, just before the Petronas petrol station a short distance from Delta Mall.

Running back for more…

We enjoyed the prawns that my missus cooked that day that I simply had to run back to my favourite fish & seafood stall for more. Of course it was super delicious because of her recipe and her superb cooking skills but for one thing, those prawns had been in the freezer for way over a month before we took them out to cook and eat.

We were amazed by how they were still so very fresh and sweet, so firm and succulent unlike some that we might have had the displeasure of eating outside especially when most of the time they were so minute!!! That was why I decided to go back to the stall and buy some more.

Yes, this time around, the lady had three different sizes and prices and of course, I picked the biggest ones…

…going for RM38.00 a kilo. I think that was a little cheaper than the previous time but they did look a little bit smaller. There were 30 altogether, RM1.27 each.

Much to my delight, I saw that she had these…

…that morning. Gosh! I cannot remember the last time I had those, probably way before the outbreak of the pandemic. My missus would buy them sometimes when she went marketing.

We call these mini pek chio/ikan bawal putih/white or silver pomfret kilat which means lightning in Malay or shining, a word to describe a nicely polished car or pair of shoes, for instance. Normally, they are somewhat small but the ones I bought that morning were bigger than the palm of my hand! They were not all that cheap though – RM25.00 a kilo, same as or chio/ikan bawal hitam/black pomfret but I went ahead and bought 2 kilos, nonetheless, considering especially that we had not eaten these for such a long time and the nice lady was kind enough to ask her young assistant to clean all 18 of them for me – it would probably take me a long time if I were to do it myself.

We cooked half of the lot and kept the rest in the freezer for another day. We love them fried…

…till nicely done and a little crispy at the edges so I would just eat it all up except the head perhaps and parts with some bigger bones!

My goodness!!! They were so fresh, so sweet!!! I had never had any that was so so so good. You would usually find this fish at the chap fan (mixed rice) places, very small and absolutely bland, tasteless, not nice at all. They probably use those cheap frozen ones that they buy in bulk from the supermarkets or the frozen foods suppliers, this and all the other kinds of fish like kembong and the rest.

I certainly was pleased with my purchases, definitely worth it, value for money and look at what the kind and generous lady gave me…

She said that a friend of hers gave them to her, quite a lot, and asked her to make some chiew chu koi (tapioca cake) to give to her so she picked two good ones and said that I could have them.

I did manage to get to eat some when I went to Miri in 2019 and I did buy some here as well, also way back in 2019. That did not look like a lot but there was enough to fill one big bowl…

…and yes, it was very good. Actually, I dread buying this as sometimes, the texture of the tuber is not good, not edible and we would end up throwing it all away.

I sms-ed my sister to ask her if she wanted any and of course she did…and in no time at all, she was at our gate! We enjoy eating it with gula apong but since it is starchy and I am on a low-carbs, low-sugar diet, I have to refrain from going overboard – just a bit will do. After all, we do not get to eat this all that often.

I must say it was truly a really good day that day!

The fish stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at that end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, if you go in via the entrance where San Len Tyres is located, just before the Petronas petrol station a short distance from Delta Mall.

I have a go…

I had a pork burger…

…for breakfast that morning.

In my blogpost the other day, I mentioned that my girl asked the mum to buy her some pork patties and I thought they looked kinda small, good for making sliders if we had some mini dinner rolls so even though we had some burger buns in the house that day, I did not bother to use them as I had the impression that they would be too big.

Then, the other day, my brother-in-law dropped by my house and passed us this loaf of bread…

His missus made some jam using the roselle that she grows at home and she gave us two bottles of that and my brother-in-law went and bought us the bread to eat it with. That was so nice and considerate of him – he probably knows that we hardly ever go out. I don’t know if the one from here is any good or not but I loved the butter bread from this bakery near my house and I used to buy it quite often but now that I am on a low carbs diet, I have not bought any from there for quite a while.

Anyway, I thought I could take a slice and cut it into two and that would be the right size for a mini-sandwich using one of my girl’s pork patties. I did not do that in the end because when I opened the fridge, I saw that there was still one of those buns that my missus bought that day so I decided to just use it and finish it off once and for all.

I cut the bun into two and toasted it in the oven, outside and inside and I buttered both parts generously before adding a slice of smoked cheddar cheese and putting them back in the oven to melt the cheese a bit. In the meantime, I fried the pork patty and once it was done…

…I placed it on the cheese on the bottom half of the bun. Blame it on my insecurity but I just had to cut the patty up to make sure it was perfectly cooked inside. I must say that the bun was not too big nor was the patty too small after all, just right!

I placed two tomato slices…

…on the patty and I fried an egg…

…and that went on top.

I cut the burger into halves so as to show its cross-section…

…and yes, I must say that it looked really good. I sure wouldn’t mind a bit of lettuce though – for the colour, if not for anything else.

Yes, finally, I had a go at my girl’s pork patty, my own pork burger…and yes, I would say it was very nice but personally, I think I prefer bacon.

AROMA BAKERY (2.311151, 111.831515) is located after the Maju Tyre shop at No. 36 (G/F), Taman Damai on the right along Jalan Dewan Suarah and WeLove Bakery, Pedada outlet (2.311098, 111.846125) is located at the corner shoplot, back to back with the Sugar Bun outlet in that area to the left of Delta Mall, Jalan Pedada (now Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai).

I’m not going…

I used to go out and buy a whole lot of things to keep in the fridge for our breakfast or tea, things like steamed paos, changs (dumplings) and so on but these days, I would rather stay home and make do with what we have in the house even though I do not have to go very far. We can just hop over to the shops in the next lane and pick and choose from all the things they have for sale.

The chai peah from the ban chang kueh (慢煎糕) stall in the afternoon is nice, 3 for RM1.00, 5 for RM2.00 at some other places, and so is the ban chang kueh, 70 sen each – some say it is the best in town and there are other things as well like the Foochow tee peang, with or without meat and stuffed kompia. and there are a lot of things that I can get from this shop and the rest around there, including bread, cakes and buns. Why! There is even a bakery that makes lovely croissants!

However, in view of the situation around here that is not showing any improvement, not even a bit, despite the extended lockdown, it is best to self-quarantine. As they say, #staysafe #staywell #stayhome! In the meantime, thankfully, there are always nice and thoughtful people who would go through the trouble of coming all the way to my house to send me some lovely things for me to enjoy and of course, for that, I am most grateful.

Just the other day, for instance, my sister stopped by to give us these special homemade chai peah…

Her ex-student is making them for sale at 5 for RM4.00. No, they are not cheap but they are bigger and other than the chives, a whole lot of it, there is also the carrot…

…something you will not find in all the chai peah in town. Most importantly, they are a whole lot nicer than all the rest.

My sister also bought her or koi (steamed yam cake)…

…RM15.00 a loaf…

…and the instant I opened it and the whiff of the hay bee (dried prawns) hit my nose, I knew right away that it was going to be good.

I cut it up into 8 pieces (I could have made it 10, RM1.50 each) and deep fried them…

…for us to enjoy for breakfast the following morning and we sure did enjoy it a lot. You can buy these outside, even at the next lane from my house, 50 sen for a piece that is half the size, but they are wobbly, an indication of the amount of flour used in the making and you will hardly be able to detect any hay bee fragrance, that’s for sure.

That same morning, my good friend/ex-classmate, Robert and his wife, Angela, stopped by my house to pass me these chai kueh…

They gave me some before, the round ones and this time around, they gave me the regular-shaped ones which were just as nice. I particularly liked how fine the smooth and translucent skin was. When it comes to chai kueh, that is the main consideration that draws the line between the boys and the men.

Thank you so much, Robert and Angela and also to my sister. Now that I am not at all keen on going out to buy this and that, I do appreciate very much any goodies that people are kind enough to send my way.

Haven’t seen you…

Those were the exact words that nice lady at my favourite fish and seafood stall said to me when I dropped by there late Friday morning, “Haven’t seen you for a long time, sinseh (teacher)!”

Yes, I did mention in my post that day that I had not gone there for a while simply because I had bought quite a lot of fish from her and we just ate the last ikan terubok two Fridays ago and sometime last week, we had one of the or chio/ikan bawal hitam/black pomfret and right now, there are two more left in the freezer.

I bought 2 kilos of the not-very-big pek hay (seawater prawns) in early May for use as ingredient (cho liao) when frying vegetables or noodles, for instance and there are still 3 or 4 packets left. Gosh!!! That was such a chore – removing the heads and the shell and deveining them. I sat there doing it the whole morning till my legs went numb, all needles and pins and it took quite a while before I could get back on my feet again.

When I got to the stall that morning, I saw the lady busy peeling the shell and getting rid of the heads of the prawns. She said that there were no customers at the time and since she was free, she decided to pass her time doing that and sell at RM18.00 for 600 gms., normal price RM18.00 a kilo (There were smaller ones going for RM13.00 only a kilo.). Of course, I was delighted to see that as it meant that I would only need to devein the prawns when I got home and I asked her for 600 gms.

I saw that there was sotong (squid) of assorted sizes too – my girl loves those but the last time I bought 2 kilos, my missus also spent the whole morning cleaning them (while I was doing the prawns). The lady offered to do that for me since she was very free so I told her I would take 1 kilo…

…of the bigger ones at RM20.00 a kg.

The last few times I was at the stall, she did not have any of the big prawns, RM45.00 a kilo and I was wishing we had those for our Father’s Day steamboat dinner that night. In the end, we just had to make do with the small cho liao ones.

I told the lady I wanted a kilo…

…and I got 30 altogether. That would work out to only RM1.50 each. They may give you two or three with your noodle dish outside and charge you an arm or a leg for such big ones.

Right now, we have not decided how we are going to cook these prawns and the sotong – we’ll just have to wait and see when the time comes and if it is anything blogworthy, I certainly would blog about it.

The total for my purchases that morning came up to RM78.00 and the kind and generous lady said she would give me the rest of the prawns she had peeled, at least 200-300 gms, I’m sure. In the end, I had quite a lot…

– I’m sure this will last us for quite a while.

I paid her RM80.00 and told her to give the change to her helper, a young boy from Daro, for a cup of coffee or something but no, she would not hear of it and insisted that I took the money back.

The fish stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at that end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, if you go in via the entrance where San Len Tyres is located, just before the Petronas petrol station a short distance from Delta Mall.

Generous…

Last Friday, our no-meat day, I dropped by my favourite fish & seafood stall to buy some or chio/ikan bawal hitam/black pomfret and like what I said in my earlier blogpost, I picked the smaller ones, 6 altogether for RM54.00. That worked out to RM9.00 each. At the restaurants, one would be around RM30.00 each but of course, they are bigger, maybe twice the size and they cook it for you.

There was a bag of half a bay kar/ikan tenggiri/mackerel that an old lady wanted for making fish balls but it was cut into slices and she did not want that. The lady boss said it was all right – she would get another one for her and turning to me, she said she would give me that one. WHAT??? That sure took me by surprise. She wanted to give me half of one fish for free??? That was really so very generous of her!

I took that home and deep fried the slices for lunch that afternoon…

…and not only was there enough – we had a few left that we saved for dinner.

Now if you think that was all, think again! I wanted to buy some of her own-made fish paste but she said there were too many customers and she had not had time to do that yet…and indeed, there were so many people unlike the previous times when I was there and those people really bought A LOT, by the hundred. Gee! Her business is really booming and of course, that is very good. Just as I was about to leave, she threw a small bag of fish paste into my bag – perhaps she had started making earlier and only managed to make enough for say 5-6 fish balls and she told me I could have that as well, FOC! I’ll blog about those when I finally get down to cooking them.

Going back to earlier that morning before I left the house, I took the leftover tang hoon (glass noodles) from the stuffed tofu soup we had that day to fry. I fried a tablespoon of garlic, peeled and chopped, in oil till golden brown, added some prawns and a few leaves of the Brazilian spinach from my garden before throwing in the tang hoon. I mixed a tablespoon of oyster sauce, broke an egg into the pan and threw in a whole lot of chopped spring onion, also from my garden and once it was done, I dished it out and served…

I tried a bit and yes, I thought it was really good. When I came back from buying the fish, the ladies in the house were up and yes, they finished all that I had cooked and yes, they said it was nice. I guess I shall have to cook tang hoon like that again next time.

Going back a couple of days before that, my girl took the packet of frozen minced beef that the mum bought and made this lovely cottage pie…

…enough for the three of us for our lunch and dinner that day.

The filling was so good…

…so delicious! I don’t know what went into the cooking but I am sure it would make really nice beef pies too, using shortcrust pastry.

Sarawak is now under a full lockdown, beginning on Saturday last week. It has been a few days and hopefully, this will help reduce the number of daily cases that keep increasing like nobody’s business. I certainly look forward to resuming our normal lives again, the new normal, that is. Let us pray!

The fish stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at that end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, if you go in via the entrance where San Len Tyres is located, just before the Petronas petrol station a short distance from Delta Mall.

Somebody’s gotta do it…

One morning, my neighbour gave me one or chio/ikan bawal hitam/black pomfret…

…a small one, to reciprocate for all the butterfly pea flowers that I would pluck every morning to give to her.

She said that her son’s brother-in-law or somebody has a fishing boat and sometimes, when the ship comes in, he would give him some of those that he has caught. “It’s not cleaned yet,” she told me and I replied that it was perfectly all right as I could easily do it myself.

I asked her if she would do it herself too and she said yes but she added that when she was still single, she did not know how to do a lot of things and only got to learn after she got married and had a family of her own. That would be the case with most young people, I said. As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of success,” and another one says, “It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it!”

Here, the fish seller will do it for you but he or she may not be that thorough so upon coming home, we would have to clean it all over again to get rid of what is left of the scales and the inside of the fish, those streaks of black along the middle bone and elsewhere. My girl is very particular about cleanliness and she would stop eating at the mere sight of it.

I never had such a small one as usually, we would fry one that is big enough and eat one side of the fish for lunch and heat it up later to finish off the other side for dinner. However, I found that it might get a bit hard come dinnertime, not as nice as when we had it for lunch. I do think it is a good idea to buy two small ones and fry one for lunch and the other one for dinner so no reheating would be involved.

We like it plain so it does make a difference whether it is really very fresh or not. The fresh ones, like the one my neighbour gave me, would be so very sweet, so very tasty you can just eat and enjoy it just like that. Otherwise, we would have to serve it in sweet and sour sauce…

…or cook asam fish or curry with it.

As far as these chio or bawal or pomfrets go, we like these black ones the most. The kim chio (golden pomfret)…

…is more affordable but somehow or other, we are not that crazy about it nor are we into the very popular and expensive pek chio, the white or silver pomfret…

The latter is smoother and has a milder taste but since we do not enjoy it as much and it is not that affordable, we never bother to buy it to eat.

When we were young…

If you go to a coffee shop here and order a toast, you will get a toasted plain/white sandwich bread with Yeo’s kaya (coconut jam) and Planta margarine which is not quite to my liking. I prefer butter, real butter not those supposedly-butter spread wannabes, and nyonya kaya…

…but there are people who would rather go for the aforementioned as anything else will not be the same as what they had enjoyed so much when they were young, together with two half-boiled eggs and a cup of fragrant local coffee, kao kao (strong).

I have a friend here in Sibu, a foodie who posts photographs of things that he eats every day on Instagram and Facebook and the other day, he shared one of a toast that he had with butter, peanut butter and kaya…

…and that seemed to arouse quite a bit of excitement. His sisters, no longer residing in Sibu, started commenting as they recalled how they enjoyed that…

…during their growing up years when they were young. Gee!!! I never had toast like that before.

Yes, I had it with butter, peanut butter and jam…

…which was nice too – throw in some bananas and bacon and you will get that celebrated awesomely delicious Elvis Presley sandwich.

I don’t know if it was the kaya that I used but I felt that the peanut butter drowned out its taste altogether. In the case of the jam, I could still taste a bit of it above the stronger peanut butter flavour. Well, at least I’ve tried but since I am cutting down on my intake of sugar these days, I shall stick to peanut butter (and butter) alone on my toast…

…no kaya, no jam but even this is not entirely sugar free as there are carbs in that slice of bread and there is sugar in the ingredients for peanut butter. I will just have to confine myself to a slice or two once in a long while.