I was only joking…

It so happened that I saw one of those pages on Facebook promoting this shop in Kuching…

…that makes my favourite sio pao (meat pastry)…

…and that triggered a craving in me. I had not eaten those since that time when I went to Kuching in December, 2019 but no, I was not going over to the state capital anytime soon so I did not get my hopes up too high.

What I did then was to share the aforementioned post on Facebook and captioned it, “Anybody coming over to Sibu soon? Hint! Hint!” Of course I was only joking – I never expected anybody to respond, much less offer to go through all that trouble to get them and bring them over to Sibu for me.

Much to my surprise, out of the blue, I received a message from my friend, Yan and she said she would try to get some and pass to me when she came back to Sibu on the eve of Gawai, the 31st of May. Of course, I told her I wasn’t serious but on the morning of the day in question, she messaged to tell me that she was at Kai Joo Lane…

…and told me the unfamiliar name of a shop selling sio pao.

I remember seeing that shop before (that one’s bigger and actually looked nicer) but I never tried theirs before. Those from elsewhere that I did try had been disappointing, including the ones from some place at Rubber Road…

…that people insisted were the same, made by some people related in some way to the ones at Chong Chon.

I told her that was not the shop – Chong Chon would be another shop opposite/on the other side of the narrow lane. Later, she messaged again saying that she found it but theirs were made to order only – you can’t go there and buy, just like that…

However, she managed to persuade them to give her 10 for me…and to throw in another 2 for her to try as she had never eaten them before. Yes, she loved it A LOT and she added that she would never eat any sio pao from anywhere else ever again.

She flew in on the 7.00 p.m. flight that very night and by the time she got to my house, it was almost 9.00 p.m. already. I put 6 in the freezer to eat slowly one by one, bit by bit…nibble…nibble…so as to stretch it for as long as possible and left 3 in the fridge to heat up and eat the next morning (1 each, no more, no less) and I couldn’t resist popping one in the oven right away to heat up and eat before hitting the sack. Otherwise, I would keep thinking about it all night and not be able to sleep. LOL!!!

Yes, it was VERY good! The pastry was flaky and crumbly (not hard and crusty like the Seremban ones) with its light buttery fragrance but the filling…

…was noticeably different from what it used to be before.

In the 70’s, when there was just this couple, a man and his wife (I heard she’s from Hong Kong) at that shop, the filling was moist, like there was a bit of gravy and there were small chunks of char siew (barbecued pork) in it and a few peas. Somehow or other, the frozen peas we get here these days are as hard as stones so I guess it is best to leave those out but the filling was nothing like that, as you can see in the above photograph and definitely not like what we can get in those steamed char siew paos or the sio paos from elsewhere here…

Thankfully, the old familiar garlicky taste was still there…vaguely/remotely so I would say it was still very nice.

Now, the last time I was there, a young (much friendlier) couple was running the show, dunno if those were the son or the daughter but the Hong Kong lady was around supervising, with her no-nonsense attitude and all. In the past, the couple would just make some…

…and then they could clear away everything and set up a mahjong table in the middle of the shop. There they would sit and play…and sell the sio paos till they were all sold out. I don’t know if they still do that and how many they would make in a day – I did hear people telling me that it would be best to call and make a booking and then go and collect at the stipulated time so as not to be disappointed when forced to leave empty-handed.

Thank you so much, Yan, for being such a good friend and for going out of your way to get these for me. Ever since they closed down India Street to traffic, this little lane is not that easily accessible anymore and going to the shop to buy their sio paos is not as easy as before. I do appreciate that…a lot! You’re truly a gem, one in a million!

CHONG CHON BISCUIT MAKER 长春烧包 (1.559204, 110.343335) is located at No, 6, Kai Joo Lane

An old friend…

It sure was a pleasant surprise when I received a message from my old friend, Dr. Ong from Tanjong Malim (originally from Taiping) in Perak. He told me that he would be flying in that day, the 1st of June, Hari Gawai here in Sarawak. The last time he was here was eight years ago in 2015 and prior to that visit, he was in Sibu in 2010 as well. Of course, we were delighted to see him again and we made arrangements to go out for dinner that very night itself.

He was staying at this hotel across the parking area from this restaurant. We had dinner there on New Year’s Day and we managed to get to eat their chequerboard duck, my girl’s favourite but they were out of fish, never mind what fish, that night, so we had to miss their fried filleted white pomfret (pek chio/ikan bawal putih) with its very nice sweet & sour sauce so I told my girl that we would have our dinner there if we could get a vacant parking space – Dr. Ong could just walk across from the hotel…and yes, we were lucky! We did manage to find a place to park the car!

There was one table left but it was booked for 7.00 p.m. – we were there before 6.00 p.m. and they said we could sit there and have our dinner before they came. We quickly grabbed it, of course, and YES, we had the fish…

…that we had been craving for, one of their signature dishes here and yes, it was as good as ever. Craving appeased, finally!

But, of course, we had Dr. Ong, back here from West Malaysia, and what I had in mind actually was to let him enjoy all the things unique only to Sarawak that he had not had all these years so we started off with their kampua mee…

…which was very good, perfectly done and the Sibu Foochow sio bee (siew mai)…

Those were great too but I felt they had shrunk from their original Foochow super size by at least, 25%. They did not look as big as before.

For our vegetable dishes, needless to say, our midin (wild jungle fern)…

…was a must. Dr. Ong said they have paku over at the other side but of course, we all know that midin is much nicer and wins hands down.

Another vegetable that is very common here is the cangkok manis…

They may have this over at the other side – usually, they get a bit in their pan mee or lei cha but most likely, it’s the miniature sayur manis (sweet vegetable), grown and exported from Sabah. I did not quite like how they did it here though – I felt it was a bit starchy like they had added cornflour or something. They do it a lot better elsewhere.

The ladies did not feel like having their tauhu tear (Foochow tofu soup with canned oysters) so we had their sea cucumber soup…

…instead. There were chunks of sea cucumber in it and it tasted really great – like sharks’ fins soup. The serving was huge so we had a few rounds each.

It certainly was a pleasant dinner – good food and good company (my girl enjoys Dr. Ong’s stories)…

…but before I could pick up the tab, Dr. Ong beat me to it and insisted that he paid for everything. If I am not mistaken, the total came up to around RM180.00 (inclusive of rice and a pot of Chinese tea) which came as no surprise as pek chio/bawal putih (white pomfret) costs a bomb and sea cucumber isn’t exactly cheap either.

Thank you, Dr. Ong for the dinner – it sure was good to see you again!

The NEW CAPITOL RESTAURANT 新首都酒家 (2.288619, 111.830057)…

…is located at No. 46, Lebuh Tanah Mas, off Jalan Kampung Nyabor, in the block of shops opposite the Sarawak House/King’s Trioplex/Premier Hotel at the very far end on the right.

Just for the weekend…

My ex-student/friend, Justin, was home just for the weekend that day to attend a wedding, if I am not mistaken. He’s married now – his wife is from Ipoh and they are blessed with one daughter.

If I remember correctly, the last time I saw him was in October last year (2022) when he dropped by my house to pass me a whole lot of these – the celebrated otak-otak from Muar, Johore…

My girl enjoyed them very much and was eating them slowly, one by one, with her meals. There were so many so they lasted for quite a while.

Well, that wasn’t the first time – he gave me these…

…before and these fruits…

…from the place where he was working.

I did not get to meet up with him as he was busy with his own plans plus he now has his wife and baby with him but he went through the trouble of getting in touch with me to drop by my house to pass me these…

…and also these…

…from the peninsula.

The chicken biscuit was nice, not as nice as the original, authentic ones from Kampar, Perak (with the fingerprints in the dough and all) but yes, we did enjoy them. My missus loved the sesame puffs and yes, we have tried the durian egg rolls already- I was shocked when I saw the price tag, RM15.90 for that small box! I sure would think twice about buying!

We haven’t tried the other three – I guess they are all sweet, not too sweet but sweet enough so I would have to go slow on these, a piece at a time.

Thank you so much, Justin, for the goodies and for going through all that trouble to drop by my house to pass them to me in the brief time you were here. May God bless you and your loved ones abundantly each passing day till I see you again come Chinese New Year next year. Cheers!!!

Sent to me…

It was a few days after he came back from the Singapore Expo hosted by STATOS – the Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office Singapore in the island republic when the enterprising and highly successful proprietor of The Kitchen Food – Sibu Instant Kampua (厨艺食品), Eric, shared on Facebook this photograph of the pek chang kay (poached/steamed chicken) that he cooked himself…

…It does look very good, doesn’t it? I jokingly asked him if there was any home delivery, referring to the chicken, and he replied instantly to tell me that he was currently giving out free samples of soy sauce and asked me if I could go and collect it at his shop or whether he would like him to send it to me. Of course, I did not want to trouble him to do that so I just mentioned briefly that I would go over though not right away as I was not exactly that mobile lately in my current health condition with my skin affliction and all.

A few days passed and out of the blue, he showed up at my gate to pass me these…

There was a bottle of light soy sauce…

…that is used to puak (toss) the original version of the Sibu kampua mee. We never have this in the house so when I cook my own noodles at home, I would just use the dark version…or Bovril or whatever. That is why I never go for kampua mee – black when eating that outside – it is just not authentic!

Other than that one, there is also a bottle of steam fish sauce…

If you are one of those who are always wondering why your steamed fish is never as nice as the ones at the restaurant, this may be the secret behind it all. I’ve watched video clips on Youtube of people steaming fish at the restaurants and it sure is a lot more complicated than just pouring oyster sauce all over it and putting it in the steamer to cook.

The third bottle that Eric gave me was this Chinese Angelica vinegar…

…that he used to cook this gorgeous pork leg dish…

…that he was showing off proudly on Facebook. Drool! Drool! I bet I would have at least two plates of rice if I had that to go with it.

No, I did not know what Angelica vinegar was – I just guessed that would be what people use to cook black vinegar pork leg. I love that and of course, I’m hoping my missus will cook that soon now that we have the vinegar in the house. I went and googled and this was what I got – it is actually 當歸 (dāng guī) otherwise known as female ginseng and it sure has a lot of health benefits. I also came across this at this website: “The best thing is that this herb also has anti inflammatory as well as anti bacterial as the properties. This means consuming this herb plant will also help you to reduce the risk of getting various skin related diseases such as eczema, psoriasis, as well alopecia.” Who knows, it may help a bit with my recovery from my skin affliction, fingers crossed.

Thank you so much, Eric – it is so very kind and generous of you indeed. Well, if anyone is keen on grabbing a bottle or more of these, he or she can drop by his shop, right next to the UOB Bank at Jalan Pahlawan. Believe you me, when you are there, you will see a whole lot of interesting things (mostly Sarawak/Sibu/Foochow specialties) that you would want to grab and cart home!!!

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.

A few days ago…

We celebrated my missus’ 67th birthday on Wednesday…

…in advance because my girl is having her commitments in the church at the Saturday sunset service this evening and the restaurant was fully booked yesterday and the day before.

My girl went and bought this cake…

…from the bakery near my house, their Chocolate Indulgence – her favourite from that cake franchise in the country but I would not touch that one with a 10-foot pole as theirs is extremely sweet. This one was fine, like it was almost sugar free, not sweet at all…and they used dark chocolate.

She decided to skip the longevity noodles (mee sua) with the golden eggs as she ended up ordering too many dishes for the six of us (including my brother-in-law, his wife and also my sister). The mum said that she would cook our own and eat that at home on the actual day, today.

We had the Thai-style chicken…

…that we had the first few times we started coming here for dinner and liked a lot and another favourite of ours here, their steamed cod fish…

An ex-student of mine had dinner with his family here sometime ago and I saw that he had the Crispy Pata aka the Philippine pork leg…

…and he said that everything they had was very nice.

That was why I asked my girl to order that so we could give it a try. I wouldn’t say that it swept me off my feet – in fact, I wouldn’t mind it being a little bit more salty and crispy. I must say that I did enjoy the skin, the fat and the tendons a lot though, all that collagen! I guess the next time, we would just stick to those very nice sticky pork ribs that we had everytime we came here…

*Photo from the restaurant’s Facebook page*

…the one with the pickled jelly fish by the side. That one would win hands down!

I tried ordering their creamy butter prawns many times but every time, they would get it wrong. My girl tried asking for it and thankfully, this time around, they got it right…

I did not eat any, of course, just a bit of the gravy because of my current skin affliction and yes, it was very very nice. Everyone was singing praises of how fresh and succulent the prawns were so I guess they all loved it a lot.

There were bits of crab meat in the fish lips soup…

…but I just “looked the other way“. Thankfully, I did not end up scratching all night long! I asked my girl to order that because she loves sharks’ fins soup – same recipe, just one different ingredient, but we are not eating that anymore these days – save the sharks!

The Four Heavenly Kings, ching chao (fried plain)…

…would have been very nice if the ladies fingers had been a little younger. They were a bit too old, a tad hard and not all that palatable.

For our dessert, we had this very nice freshly-made deep fried Chinese pancake…

…straight from the pan and yes, I liked how it was kurang gula (less sugar) too.

It certainly was a delightful birthday celebration, albeit a simple one among the few of us in the immediate family and I must say I was surprised that the bill came up to only RM325.00 for the food despite the presence of the prawns, the fish lips soup, the cod and the Philippine pork leg. I was expecting something in the region of RM500.00, at least! My girl insisted on picking up the tab so thank you, love, for the scrumptious treat – that sure was so very sweet of you!

The GRAND WONDERFUL RESTAURANT is right beside the GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…to the left, in that same building where the GRAND WONDERFUL HOTEL is located, along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.

Younger generation…

My foster-auntie, my late dad’s foster-sister, invited us to her eldest grandson’s wedding banquet last Friday night.

We’re no spring chicken, anymore and these days, if there is a wedding in the family, it will not be somebody from my generation or the one before but one from a younger generation, a nephew or a niece, perhaps.

Well, I could not make it that night, of course, owing to my ill health so my daughter went with my sister instead and yes, she had a jolly good time with her paternal grand-aunt, uncles and aunties at her same table. She said that one of them jokingly said that the groom, an Australian Curtin University (Miri campus) alumni currently working in the UK, resembled Jho Low…

…of 1MDB! LOL!!!

My girl took snapshots of the food so I am able to share them here with everybody, all that was served that night.

The dinner started off with this very impressive more-than-Four Seasons…

I always enjoyed this dish and I never knew where to stop, so much so that by the end of it all, I was already too full and could hardly eat much of the remaining dishes in the banquet.

Oopppssss!!! Despite all that has been said and done, this…

…is STILL a common feature at Chinese banquets here for its snob appeal, never mind that the offensive stuff is so small, smaller than what I can dig out of my nose. Worse, word has it that there are imitations but they charge you the same price as the real thing! I would much sooner opt for the popular alternative these days – black chicken soup with scallops and abalone with shitake mushroom, so very sweet and so very nice. Incidentally, word has it that this was fish lips soup that they had that night, no cause for alarm.

I bet my girl was a bit disappointed as we always hope for the duck stuffed with lor mai kai-like glutinous rice stuffing everytime we attend a banquet at this hotel. That is so very nice but that night, they had roast duck instead…

Ah well, I guess my girl enjoyed it too – just like the dad, she enjoys duck even though the mum would not touch it with a 10-foot pole.

This thick slab of cod…

…must have cost a bomb. Just a thin slice, frozen, would come up to almost RM100.00 at the supermarket, uncooked! It is one of my girl’s favourite fish so I am pretty sure she had had her fair share of it that night.

Nobody knew what that was in the middle…

…probably some seafood or mushroom kind of thing but they said it was very nice and they liked it.

These two-in-one must be pork, done in two different ways…

…and the desserts were served after that.

Oh? They did not have prawns that night. Usually, the crustaceans come second last, before the dessert, in a Chinese banquet here – butter prawns or kiam sor hay (salty crispy prawns). I would not be able to eat that if they had those and I was there owing to my current skin affliction.

The first plate of dessert looked quite miserable…

…with just one piece of whatever that was on the left. Surely they did not expect everyone to cut and share that tiny bit among themselves?

Last but not least, they had the traditional old school iced peach and longan…

…that we used to wait longingly for whenever we had the chance to attend any Chinese banquet in our younger days.

Thank you so much to my foster-auntie for the invitation and congratulations to the newly-weds. May God bless you two with abundant happiness in the days ahead, cheers!

He came home…

James was in one of the classes I was assigned to teach in 1992 when I was posted to the school where I taught till I retired in 2007. If I remember correctly, I taught him for two years, in Form 4 and Form 5.

I don’t remember seeing him again after that but we have kept in touch over the years on Facebook. He probably visited me at my house before during Chinese New Year – my students loved doing that, coming to my house by the droves, so many of them at one go that there wasn’t much room left to swing the cat.

That was why when he dropped by my house that day, I was taken by surprise! He said he could vaguely remember so he went round my housing area on his dad’s motorcycle to look for the needle in the haystack and by George! He did it! He found my house and stepped right in – I did not know who he was but when he took off his mask, I could recognise him right away. James, I exclaimed.

He is very much taller now, not as small-built as when he was in school, darker or very well-tanned but the familiar looks are still there. Now residing permanently in Perth, Australia with his family (two kids, a girl and a boy), he was home to see his parents and it certainly was so very nice and thoughtful of him to take sometime off to drop by to say hello.

James brought me these dark Australian chocolates…

I always thought that chocolates are taboo for somebody on a low or no sugar diet like me but when I went and googled, I found a whole lot of articles on this. One says, ” Many people think that if you have diabetes, you can’t have sweets or chocolate — but in reality, that’s a myth. You can still have these foods in small amounts, but they need to be part of a larger healthy lifestyle and diet. By choosing high-quality dark chocolate — 70 percent cocoa — you get a stronger chocolate taste, which can help you eat less.”

No wonder James keep stressing on the darkness of the chocolates he brought for me. One is 69% and another, 83% – those should be fine for me then. The ladies can help themselves to the one with only 55%. Anyway, I shouldn’t be eating a lot at a time, maybe just a piece each time or to the most, two.

In the meantime, the ladies have started on the Arnotts’ mint slice…

They love it so much! They said that some people gave some to us before, more than once or twice, and they really enjoy eating it. I didn’t know that as I hardly ever touch the chocolates and all the sweet stuff that I received from family and friends from all over the world – the ladies would feast on them, no worries.

Aha!!! Vegemite!!! I enjoy Vegemite now. My first encounter was when I bought a bottle from Ta Kiong (I think it was the Sanitarium brand or something) and no, I did not manage to acquire the taste for it. It was only when I went to Wellington, New Zealand in 2012 when they gave us that (Kraft brand) for our crackers and toast for breakfast at the apartment where we stayed that it finally grew on me and I loved it so much in the end!

Seeing how I enjoyed it, my dear friend, Shereen, went and got me a bottle…

…to bring home to Sibu and enjoy. Now, thanks to James, I can get to indulge a bit in that celebrated pride and joy of the Land Down Under once again!

Yes, nuts have a lot of health benefits but except for salted peanuts, they are not that easily available here…or some, like pistachios, cost a bomb! Well, James gave me these two huge packs of almond and cashews…

…to enjoy and also this box of rolled oats…

Gee! He obviously follows my blog so he knows EXACTLY what to get for me, so good of him, that boy!

James’ father, Robin, was my colleague in the school for many, many years till he retired (first, he’s older), such a very nice man and a very good teacher. I did hear that he was not doing too well but I did not know the details – it seemed he was knocked down by a motorcycle while on the road and has not been physically and mentally well since. That is so very sad and here I am complaining and complaining that I have not been well lately inside of counting my blessings each passing day.

Yes, I do feel so blessed when my ex-students found it in their hearts the sincerity to creep out of the woodworks to come and visit this old teacher of theirs – I know I tried my best for them over the years whether they realise it or not. Thank you so much, James and thanks for everything you went through all that trouble to get and bring over for me. May God bless you and your family abundantly in the days ahead, your parents and all loved ones too. Take care, cheers!!!

Easter…

After the season of Lent, the joyous Blessed Easter Sunday came but this year, there wasn’t much of a celebration as I was somewhat ill-disposed.

We could not get hold of any hot cross buns, traditionally eaten at this time of the year – not something that we can just go and buy here but they did give out some Easter eggs to the congregation after the service at church. My missus and my girl went and they did bring one home for me.

My sister managed to get a friend to make these lovely scones…

…and she got some for us as well. There were the plain butter scones, the raisin and the ones with cranberries and the lady did give some cinnamon butter to go with the former.

I did mention in my previous post that my niece, the one working in Singapore, was home for the Easter weekend and she brought these home…

…for her cousin, my girl. She’s really such a sweet girl, that niece of mine, all heart!

As I said earlier, we did not go out to celebrate but after the morning service on Easter Sunday morning, the two ladies went for brunch and they had the prawn and pork dumplings…

…at this very popular food centre in town where this dumpling stall in particular is drawing customers in huge numbers…every day! Yes, they loved it so much and came home praising it to the skies.

They bought me some to try but even though it was still mid-morning, those people were running out of dumplings already and they only managed to get me the pork ones…

Yes, it was very nice. The meat filling tasted like those dim sum sio bee, the texture and the taste and the soup was very thick and very rich…

…unlike our watered down ones in our bowl of pian sip soup.

Thankfully, the price did not exceed my self-imposed limit of RM10.00 but still, at over RM8.00 for what I had and over RM9.00 for the one with prawns that the ladies had, you sure would not catch me running back there for more all that soon. Don’t get me wrong though – we certainly would go back there for more or to try whatever else they have to offer at their stall despite the prices and the crowd.

In the meantime, on one of those days, my girl insisted on going over to this coffee shop for her favourite pain sip (meat dumplings) in town, tossed in dark soy sauce…

Yes, this is the place that I have been grumbling about – where the kampua mee is RM5.00 a plate…

…and they do not even bother to put in a bit of effort to present it nicely and serve it in a clean plate.

Haters will hate and many will tell you that the noodles here are not as nice as before. We go back a very long way…to 2008 or earlier and yes, I do feel it was much nicer then but it is still not too bad right now – compared to many of the rest in town. Some will insist that they give you a bigger serving but it is quite obvious in the above photograph that it isn’t really so.

There are those who insist that the pian sip (dumplings) are bigger, how they use their special own-made skin that is bigger and how they would add more meat. I have not seen that with my own eyes but yes, I would say that I like their pian sip soup…

…very much and would go back for theirs time and time again despite the jacked-up prices!

JOY FOOD COURT is located at No. 52, Lorong Lau King Howe 1, right next door to Lim Teh and SOON HOCK CAFE & RESTAURANT (2.312181, 111.845824) is located among the Delta Mall/Jalan Pedada area of shops, facing the Methodist church along Lorong Taman Seduan 8, off Jalan Gambir.

Addictive…

I suppose you remember the lee kiam (preserved fruits) that I got from my cousin, Pauline, from Bintulu that day? She was telling me that those would go so well with cherry tomatoes….

…so very addictive and she would finish it all in one sitting.

She did not say how much there was but she did send me a photograph of her serving suggestion – one whole bowl of cherry tomatoes with a slit cut in each of them and slices of the lee kiam placed in between…

She said I could sprinkle a bit of olive oil but no, I did not bother.

I gave it a try and boy! It was so very good, like a match made in heaven and no, it would be quite impossible to stop at one or two. I would keep going till I had finished all the cherry tomatoes…

…harvested each day.

In the past, only the ladies in the house would eat them raw, one or two a day so we always had a basketful on the kitchen table. Of course, you would not see that anymore nowadays. These cherry tomatoes are our own homegrown, no pesticides, no chemical fertilisers, 100% organic so they are absolutely healthy for consumption…even in large quantities.

Of course, I had to go a bit slow on the lee kiam as it is sweet so I would only stuff a little bit in each cherry tomato. I also tried eating this using the wet lee kiam that my friend, Catherine bought for me and yes, it was also very good – maybe even better but the same rule applies – a little bit a day is o.k…Iguess.

When life gives you lemons…

This was on Wednesday night, the night of the Ching Ming Festival. A horrifyingly freaky rainstorm blew through Sibu town, leaving behind a trail of destruction. So many trees were blown down causing traffic obstruction everywhere, the traffic lights at many junctions were down and there were blackouts everywhere. The roofs of so many houses all over town were blown off into the air, crashlanding on cars and thus causing additional damage. The aftermath the next morning was definitely not a pretty sight.

I saw in one vlog a Malay man, four days to his retirement. The storm blew his roof away and the rain came pouring down on everything in the house. Needless to say, everything was utterly ruined and Hari Raya Aidlifitri is right around the corner. Sigh!!! People always say one must prepare well for retirement but in a case like this, it is obvious who is in control. We may plan all we want and if it is not meant to be, it will not turn out the way we want it.

Thankfully, we were spared of anything drastic. The stone vase that I put outside the house to hold the umbrellas and what not were blown off balance and it fell over and broke into pieces. That, of course, was just a small matter compared to the loss of my missus’ papaya tree. We had one harvest once already and the fruits were so sweet and juicy. They were her pride and joy. More fruits appeared and were growing well but the devastating wind uprooted the whole tree and that was the end of it. My missus was heartbroken!

There are two…

…that would probably ripen eventually and may be eaten when that happens but all the rest, some half a dozen of them, are way too green. Well, as they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade…or as in our case, when life gives us papayas, make som tam…

…that most delightful Thai papaya salad.

That sure was good and it took a whole lot of restraint to stop myself from going for a second plate of rice. My missus made some for her brother and his wife – theirs had pounded hay bee (dried prawns) in it and that sure took the taste to a whole new level. It would be great to sprinkle a bit of crushed peanut (kacang tumbuk) too but we did not have any in the house.

Moving on, inspired by how our girl loved the sambal that came with the ayam penyet…

…that my wonderful friends, Robert and Angela, gave me that day, the mum went and made this sambal cili hijau (green chili sambal)…

…and it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, it was EXTREMELY spicy so we could just help ourselves to a little pinch at a time and eat that with a whole lot of rice. I guess that bottle that my missus made will last quite a long time.

Hey! It’s Easter Sunday today! Rejoice, the Lord is risen…and a Blessed and Holy Easter to all of us celebrating this joyous occasion. May God bless us all!