August 31, 2011

Beans and Seeds at a Sunday DRY Market in Mengzi ofYunnan

Shops in Yunnan are opened everyday. But the farmers of dry beans and vegetables come to Mengzi only on Sunday.

There is a unique street in Mengzi where farmers sell their products directly to their customers. Their products are seeds and grains. It is so amazingly tantalising  and educational to people who appreciate these dry foods.

I do not think that our farmers in Malaysia ever thought of selling their own products in this unique street style . Some of the products are even sold from the pulled carts. These photos show how the farmers come from their farms to sell their good on a Sunday. Definitely they are paid directly and there is no chance for middlemen to pocket a profit. So prices remain very very reasonable and every one has a good bargain.



Different kinds of peanuts and beans are sold from sacks like these along the road side. Peanuts form the main ingredient of many popular dishes in Yunnan. A nice wild vegetable and toufoo can be  beefed up by the ground milky peanut milk and a nice  soup is presented to the guests as the centre dish. Perhaps this is the reason why in this agrarian society both men and women are particularly sturdy and living long lives.
These are precious black sesame seeds which is often made into an important health giving porridge.
Floral teas are offered to customers who may need cooling drinks.
Two women are sorting out giving each other companionship while waiting for their customers.

Free range (kampong chicken) eggs are usually sold in this way to show their identity. Factory chicken eggs are sold in egg trays.The kampong chickens in Yunnan are called Tu Chi or Soil chicken.

Another set of 10 free range duck eggs.
Here's a strategic corner where men ply their products - peanuts( still in their shells )and beans and garlic.

To Malaysians this is indeed a real tamu which means meeting place for farmers. At the end of the day these Yunnan farmers would cart their seasonal products home leaving the streets very clean and dry. And life goes on until the next Sunday.

Grapes in Yunnan


STORY OF YUNNAN’S ROSE HONEY GRAPES
In the mid 18th century, a young French missionary took a long journey across the world and eventually departed India and journeyed to Yunnan through the Ancient Tea Horse Trail.  He found his last destination to be the Cizhong Village, in the MiLe County in the Lancang River Valley (highland valley) in Yunnan Province of China.  The place was described and defined as the inland area of Shangri-La by an English man called James Hilton 100 years later.
The missionary brought along the scripture from God, and built a church house in Cizhong which is standing and well protected even now. This church eventually became the Cathedral of the Yunnan Deanery of Missions Etrangeres de Paris (M.E.P.) in 1921, and housed many French clergy until the last one returned home in 1951.
As Yunnan was a great deal away from France, he and other Frenchmen brought in from France an old vine species – Rose Honey that was one of the proud varietals of France at that time.  The missionary taught the people in Cizhong how to grow grapes and make wines from them.  The winemaking techniques and skills can be seen in Cizhong even now.  As the French-built one meter wide railway expanded, the vines were grown along for generations.  Nowadays, the vines grow prosperously in a dry and hot valley – MiLe, and make this magic dry hot valley a superb quality grape growing area in the world’s highest elevation. In fact, this area has become known as the “world’s” only wine production area above 1,500 meters.
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Yunnan Red Featuring Contemporary Yunnan Heavy Color Artist, Li Chengzhong
YUNNAN RED WINE
During the 1950’s, some agricultural experts visited Honghe Region of Yunnan Province and found a vine species locally called “purple grapes” with characteristics different from others.  After years of intensive studies and verifications by authorized botanists, the “purple grapes” were verified in the 90’s as an old French vine species – Rose Honey, which had long disappeared in France due to an environmental disaster prevailing the continent 100 years ago.  It was in 1866, when an epidemic of pests brought from America with imported timber, caused vineyards throughout France to be stricken by grape phylloxera, which resulted in the extinction of Rose Honey.  It is fortunate, that this varietal was introduced to Yunnan prior to this disaster, and happily, the Rose Honey grapes grow well here because of its unique weather and soil conditions in Yunnan.
This discovery surprised the World and the legend of Yunnan Red wine started from this grape species.
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2002 Yunnnan Red Wine Featuring Contemporary Heavy Color Artist, Chen Yongle
It is known that for high quality grapes to grow, 8 conditions are required:
1.       Sunshine
2.       Warmth
3.       Long growing period each year
4.       Adequate rainfall or irrigation
5.       Cool dry air
6.       Big range in day-night temperature
7.       Ventilated sandy soil
8.       Resistance to diseases and insects
The first four conditions are better in areas closer to the equator and the latter four more available in areas closer to the poles.  Areas meeting these conditions in the earth are within 30-50 degrees of north and south latitudes including France, Italy, California-US, Argentina, South Africa and northern parts of China like Xinjiang, Shandong, Hebei provinces. These areas are called “grapes belts” suitable for high quality vine grapes to grow.
To the surprise of the world, however, one of the dry hot valleys on Yunnan Plateau – MiLe is found to have conditions as perfect as that of the “Grapes belts” for high quality vine grapes to grow.  The weather here provides adequate growing period for grapes; relatively shorter rainy season; strong evaporation and strong ultraviolet radiation restricting diseases and insects.  Some of these unique features are incomparable even for the “grape belts” of the world.
Due to the favorable climate, the vines here do not suffer problems such as compulsory dormancy and winter survival, early crops of grapes can be harvested in June each year.  In July while the vines in the traditional grape belts of China are just hung with young grapes suffering from rains and insects attacking, the grapes in Yunnan Red vineyards are fully matured, harvested and trucked to the winery.  The following conclusions are new but certain:
-          The earliest matured grapes in the world are in Yunnan
-          The earliest new wine for markets each year is in Yunnan
-          The vineyards with the highest elevation and lowest latitude in the world are in Yunnan
-          The vineyards enjoying the best quality sunshine in the world are in Yunnan
-          The extinguished grape species ‘Rose Honey” in other places of the world, survive in Yunnan
According to one sommelier, Rose Honey can give the drinker the illusion that a beautiful girl is shyly approaching.  How befitting then, that many wine bottles are now decorated with Yunnan’s beautiful minority tribe women.
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2002 Vintage Featuring Contemporary Yunnan Heavy Color Artist, Chen Yongle

August 30, 2011

A House Warming Feast in a Yunnan Village

It is a good time to visit Yunnan any time of the year. The saying goes " It is spring in Yunnan the whole year round". And Yunnan has the reputation of being the Paradise of China.

It cannot be more true in my own experience. I had the best God given ten days of my life there. In the mountains you can only feel the warm love of friends and strangers ( Strangers are friends you have not met) and the presence of God. I would rather think that's my definition of paradise on earth!!

We were invited to a friend's housewarming in the mountains. The journey took just about a hour from where we were staying. Along the way we saw the beautiful and fascinating rice terraces and crops growing even on top of the hills!!

The Yi tribe and the Miao tribe can walk hours from one place to another. Cultivating the hills is part of their century old culture.

the Yi minority people are now enjoying a very high standard of life with the government compensating them for the use of their land for road construction and urban development. Many of them live in three storeyed mansions and continue to grow cash crops using the latest technology . While many continue to enjoy continuing their modernised but traditional farming as their occupations many have gone for tertiary studies to better equip themselves for the 21 st century China. A Yi minority man has a PhD in modern agriculture while another man we met has developed his own fertilizers based on very sustainable methods.

 However the magical part of this area lies in their deep rooted culture and traditions. The women still turn up for parties in their traditional costumes. That day I was wearing their colour - orange and they were extremely warm towards their guests but remain very camera shy.



There costumes look good both front and back....And the women are very very close to each other. These ladies are waiting to place their gifts of an Angpow on the reception table.



Their tables are small and low and here we were seated eight to a table. (Eight is a prosperity number or a Blessing Number to Christians and non Christians).

Happy Blessed Eight people eating a meal together ...Each house is protected by a good stone wall.
Young and old came to help a relative to celebrate the thanksgiving  and dedication of her new mansion.
"Refilling" the serving bowls on the table is part of their culture . A guest's full stomach is a host's pleasure.
Twelve Dishes (our dish of water melon is under the table and Lisa is putting the dried meats away) A Good Feast is a Table Laden with Food . All the food on the table is from their own farm. 
A few hundreds came for the house warming. The space between the new house and other houses were used up as venue for the low table (al fresco) feasting. Here is another table of happy guests. There were more than 12 dishes and "refilling" came several times. Two extra dishes of fruits and dried meats made a total of 14.

My friends and I felt so blessed - an unexpected invitation and an experience in paradise.

August 29, 2011

Maswings in Marudi

Lovely and bird like - just nice for Rural Sarawak
Very light weight and fit....
Luggage is taken out by an old four wheeled trolley.
You can carry plastic bags of goodies and even a life chicken in the olden days
You get a bit worried when the pilot starts to read his manual.


The rural flying service of Sarawak has been documented by many people in the last 50 years. Many articles have appeared in the Borneo Bulletin and the New Straits Times and more recently in The Star. The flying service is very essential in the largest state of Malaysia which still lacks good roads.


Twin Otters have always been a household name amongst Civil Servants and politicians who often have to travel for their official duties. And in fact many people have become familiar with is special engine sounds. In Bintulu a friend would always run into her house to cook her lunch when she hears the Twin Otter coming at mid-day....and leave the gossip at the fence for the next day!!


I still remember some long ago days that if the Twin Otter did not arrive we would not get our post!!


That was life in Sarawak in the old days.


Today in places like Marudi or Claude Town (a town initiated by the Brooke Government in the Barama) the legends live on and individuals would build memories of their own.

On a flight  to Marudi or from Marudi you can meet a newly wedded couple still fresh from the mid day wedding feast...with the bride still wearing her thick makeup and the groom reeking with XO Brandy!!

Or you could be sitting next to a local longhouse headman who has a jar of preserved fish in his hands.

I once sat next to a lady with a new born baby on a flight to Marudi. She had tears in her eyes because her daughter died at the baby's birth in Miri  She had been made grandmother but she lost a daughter on the same day. She was unconsolable and she was so alone in the world!! I believe that the droning of the Twin Otter in the future would always remind her of that day and her great loss.

Marudi is still the same after 20 years of my travelling up and down the Baram.....It is the Twin Otter which makes my day...for I can go home after a good day's work ...running for the last flight...and missing that...I would have to stay a night in one of the small Marudi hotels.

That's another story for me tell you in the future.




August 20, 2011

Grandpa's Homemade Sympathy Wreaths

When we were children we often were taken to attend funerals in Sing Ang Tong and the Masland Church.

Grandfather Tiong Kung Ping's house in Sungei Merah was surrounded by clumps of yellow alamandas and purple bouganvilleas. I remember Grandmother Siew and the several aunties then still living at home making wreaths out of bamboo and the fern available on the hillside at grandfather's instruction. We did not have florists like Lian Tee or Mrs. Ho Kah Moh then. What made him use alamandas for the wreaths he created? ?What made him choose yellow as the colour? Today Chinese usually use chrysanthemums to indicate sympathies but then there was no chrysanthemum for sale . Where did he learn about colours and their meanings?

I would always remember his rattan basket of tools which he would hang very neatly on the wall below the staircase. His tools were always clean and neat.

I remember Grandfather as a man who was very good with his hands even at the age of 70+. He was definitely not arthritic at that age. He could make anything with a plier. Early in the afternoon he would "order" Ah Hiong Koo to cut some small bamboo which he would fashion into a circular base for his wreath and then he would tie the bamboos together with small pliable wires. Once ready he would ask every one to stick the ferns into the wreath to make a nice round and plump base for the flowers. Early the next morning he would stick the freshly plucked alamandas and the bouganvilleas. Most of the time he made two wreaths: one to have his own name and the family's name written in brush ink on a piece of white cloth and another piece of white cloth for the name of the deceased. And the other wreath would be for the church to give to the deceased's family. He had a great friendship with Rev. Ho Siew Liong I remember.

Now I know that yellow is for rememberance and purple is for loyalty. Grandpa would always send a wreath whenever someone he knew pass away. And we did not have to spend anything at all. He was always very respectful of his friends and make the correct gestures. I suppose he must have learnt all these from Rev James Hoover who was like a brother and confidant to him. And later when he travelled to Singapore to visit his married daughters I am sure he acquired a great deal of knowledge. He was a man who never stopped learning because he never had a chance to be in a school for long in his poverty stricken Fuzhou China at the end of the 1800's. He only had three years of proper school education.


A beautiful yellow wreath.

Alamanda - a flower I would always associate with my grandfather.

Mossy fern we would gather for him from the hillsides.

This is the shade of purple which my grandfather loved . He had a huge bush growing next to huge belian stump just as the hill levelled off to the house.




I like to remember my grandfather as a very grand man with a love for flowers and beauty.

Today florists do a brisk business in Sibu. Floral arrangements and other decorative ideas have come a long long way since the 1900 when the Hoovers and the first Foochows lived in Sibu.

August 19, 2011

Fried Bread @ Ramadan Bazaar


In recent years I have noticed that many Bumiputra businesses have embarked on a quest for new recipes. With so many synthesis going on it is not surprising that they have put the old bun (bread) wrapped in store bought popiah skin and deep fried it resulting in an interesting "ARAB" fried bread!!

The fried bread has minced meat filling which is Arab in origin - lots of coriander and cumin and other spices. And I think if dates are not really that expensive here a nice minced meat and date filling would just be fantastic!!


Bread frying in deep oil in a Sarawak kuali - these kualis are very useful when there is a wedding in the kampungs. You can cook a large amount of food over an open fire in the garden!! Very portable indeed!!
Very nice looking and attractive fried bread
The freshly made buns wrapped in popiah skin ready for frying.....
Fried bread!! Hot and fragrant....

August 18, 2011

Old Friend (Lou Peng Yiu)

Where can you get a plate of Beautiful Chicken Rice  BUT from good Old Friend in Miri?
Tucked in a little corner near the Bintang Plaza of Miri is this little shop serving breakfast and lunch.

It is called "Old Friend" - and the proprietor is really friendly and an old friend to every one who comes. His most attractive points are his smile and understanding nod. Besides customers from diverse races come here enjoy a fresh and free bowl of soup which is very tasty. Sometimes the soup has beaten egg. He has made efforts to make his soup better than other "Sup Kosong". This is a coffee shop where you won't feel threatened because you are slightly older...or different in race and colour...or even different in language.

And I can tell you he is not making empty promises where his soup is concerned!!


Past the High Court in Miri and the Melanau Association Building you will find a small road which leads to the Bintang Plaza. And along the road you can see this nice looking corner shop. The three Chinese words are Lou Peng Yiu..or Old Friend.

The tables are very clean and the stools very solid and strong. Somehow people my age are very afraid of sitting on  the usual plastic chairs.
Mixed vegetables from the Fast and Economy Food section.
One of the stall owners taking a break...
Lovely braised (pak loh) pork and eggs.
Steamed white chicken...very tender and juicy..and tasty of course.
Fresh and free bowl of curry for customers who like it.
Sweet and sour fish and you get  some veg and  rice..all for RM4.00.
 
The not so clear and kosong soup. Some winter melon slices in this free soup
People walk from as far as North School and Dewan Suarah to get a very reasonable lunch at RM4.00. You also get extra curry topping for your rice. I normally like a lot of Tzi or sauce with my rice...so the proprietor gives me double portion.....I still remember when I was a  uni student I bought only 30 cents rice  per plate and was grateful to the shop keeper who doused my rice with the free sauce from the chicken. I only had that kind of lunch just to save money to buy books or pay for bus fares. But that was enough as lunch. I am always very partial to shop keepers who are happy and generous in giving free sauce to customers.

Nope...for writing this I did not get a free meal...But I think the owner deserves some appreciation for his humble efforts and heartfelt kindness - the true essence of the hospitality industry.

August 17, 2011

KL enroute to Kunming

No photo description available.

It was exciting to be going to Yunan for the first time - august 2011.

While in KL we had to be very careful with our luggage as we had to weigh properly Any extra would be charged and we could not afford it. We were bringing gifts for our friends, the two sisters who are working in Yunnan.

I was looking forward to a lot of photography outings.

Choco Kingdom in Miri

If you enjoy shopping in Bintang Mall in Miri you can be tempted by many new food and snack. In keeping up the global standards Miss Hani and Miss Olivia operate a very Japanese like stall offering strawberries and other fruits coated with chocolate!!

How is this done? You have to go and see for yourself. The food is freshly prepared and sometimes on the spot for you.

The idea of the business is very refreshing. And with a small fridge hidden under the counters you can be assured that the seasonal fruits are all very clean and fresh.

The one person operated stall with a choco fondue fountain is the only one in town!!

chocolate lovers would love the products of Choco Kingdom. And parents should really introduce this product because it is a good way of getting their children to love fruits more.

Marshmallows which could be given a chocolate dressing.
Pretty gift packaging...
Weekends you can buy home made cup cakes of the best quality.
Fresh strawberries coated with chocolate are the main attractions during the right season!!
If you want some fun food and wish to make your children happy....give them lots of fruits with some chocolate coating....Go also to see the chocolate fondue fountain...your kids would love to look at it too.....

Love is a chocolate coated strawberry......or a marshmallow coated with chocolate!!

Soh Mien on First Day of Lunar New Year

 Today 10.2.2024 is the first day of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. Yes I have cooked the chicken and made the soh mien. Happy New Year!!...