March 29, 2013

Hornbill Trivia



The School Magazine of the Methodist Secondary School is called The Hornbill.

We also have a road in Sibu called Hornbill Road.

There are five major types of Hornbills in Sarawak.

Sarawak is known as the Land of the Hornbills.

Two books have the word hornbill in their titles :
a) The Year of the Hornbill
b) Where Hornbills Fly

March 28, 2013

Bishop's Soup and Canned Peaches

Quoting from Rev David MacDonald,

"The Bishop's Soup in  Sibu has a long history and connection with the Methodist Church and Missionaries. One of the missionaries visiting Sibu was told of an old Chinese joke. The end of a Chinese feast would be marked  by the presentation of a bowl of hot water  for guests to wash their  spoons for the final dish - the dessert which was usually canned peaches and longans. A certain Bishop, on one occasion, dipped into this washing bowl and drank from it. No one dared to say anything His host, however, not wishing to embarrass him, said, "Guests, taste with me the Bishop's soup," and all drank with him.

Note : The Bishop's Soup, completely went off the menu once restaurants started to have pretty waitresses to serve food at the table, and the use of common serving spoons.







canned peaches

Most children would eat only the first two dishes in a banquest. They would then play amongst themselves in the corridors, or wherever they could find a spot. They would peer into the room to inquire if the dessert was ready to be served. The ice in the bowl of peaches and longans full of syrup was what we as children actually liked. Even too day, icy drinks seem to be just the right item for a hot sweaty day.






mintmochaformimi.blogspot.com


The Foochows however continue to enjoy 8 good dishes for a banquet or feast, complete with two desserts, longans and peaces, sometime with almond pudding and another rich dish of Sweet Yam Pudding.


Peaches are symbols of longevity, whereas Yams are symbols of success, leadership and brilliance. However yam actually help with digestion according to old wives' tales.

March 27, 2013

Bukit Lan, Christmas Carolling and the Wiants

As we were growing up on the banks of the Rajang River, we would look forward to the highlight of the year  - Christmas carolling by motor launch.

It was a very unique way of celebrating Christmas. Instead of wise men arriving on camels, we had pastors dressed as wisemen,arriving in a motor launch. The carollers would also be dressed in white robes like angels.

One of our favourite carol was Star of Ice,Wheel of Moonlight Bright. We never knew actually the man who wrote the hymn worked in China, and his son worked in Bukit Lan for a few years.

The Wiants worked in Bukit Lan Agricultural Centre run by the Methodist Church of Sarawak in the 1960's.Image result for Bliss Wiant professor of music in Yenching university Beijing

Leighton Waint was the son of Rev Bliss Wiant and Midred Wiant and was born in Beijing in 1927.

The Wiants speak good Mandarin, besides reading and writing Chinese.

There was anoither connection unknown to us, and we found out on much later. Rev Bliss Wiant, was a music professor at the Yenching University where my father studied. He taught there from 1923 until 1951. My father graduated in 1937.Image result for Bliss Wiant

Under his direction, Yenching students learned to perform Handel's Messiah and other major choral works with considerable distinction. Like Bartok in Hungary, he started to collect and notate Chinese melodies, asking students to sing songs from their home regions and listening to the songs of peddlers on the streets of Peking. With deep respect towards Chinese traditional music he also composed melodies for indigenous hymns in order to bring the Christian message to the Chinese people. A collection of these original hymns were included by Wiant in 1937 in "Hymns of Universal Praise" which is still in use today.

In memory of Christmas eve 1933, this song Ming Yue Han Xing. (Stars Of Ice, Wheel Of Moonlight Bright)was composed on the words of a poem "Stars of Ice, Wheel of Moonlight Bright" written by Wiant's student T'ien Ching-fu who also participated the yearly Christmas caroling introduced to the campus by Wiant.
Image result for Bliss Wiant Star of Ice
"The air was as clear as a crystal, there was snow on the ground and ice on the trees" wrote Bliss Wiant in his memoirs, reminiscing about the only Christmas eve with a full moon in the 20th century. In Chinese, a full moon is called a 'wheel', hence the reference in the opening line of the song. By listening to and studying Chinese classical music, I have tried to capture the atmosphere of that special night through the orche

It is amazing that the new generation of the Foochows in Sibu continue to enjoy this Christmas carol today.

New Year during the Japanese Occupation

My Paternal Grandfather was a remarkable filial son.

This is one of the stories about him.

Sarawak was attacked by the Japanese on Christmas Day, 25th Dec 1941.

新年 - During the first new year during the Japanese Occupation of three years and 8 months, my paternal grandfather was already feeling the pinch of the stressful war. Being a praying Christian (He was very much influenced by Rev James Hoover) he only had a small chicken for the whole family of three generations.

The Japanese soldiers had come around to collect as many chickens and ducks from the Foochow who lived near Sibu. That that new year, Grandfather lost many of the chickens which were big enough for the table.

My great grandfather was already sickly but they family continued to thank God for His blessings especially during the Chinese New Year.Image result for Chinese new year during Japanese Occupation in Sibu
Japanese Soldiers in Sibu 1942.

That new year on 15th February 1942  the family shared a small chicken cooked with a lot of soup and sweet potatoes.

The family welcomed the Year of the Horse in a quiet and solemn manner.

The following year, Great Grandfather passed away and not long after that Grandmother Wong passed away because of a miscarriage. 1943 was an extremely sad year for our family in Pulau Kerto.



Good bye Angsana Tree

Miri has many angsana trees which were originally planted by the colonial government before the Second World War. Together with angsana, rain trees (which make Taiping so famous), are also found dotted all over the pretty roads of Miri.

Perhaps it is now time to widen roads, and to put up more electric and telephone poles, the trees have to be cut down. In the last few days VERTICAL Mowers have been pretty busy in Miri.



Sri Mawar students will remember their classes were called Primary Five Angsana or Primary Five Rhu.

Other students would remember Angsana trees as beautiful trees which give good shades and pretty yellow flowers with a faint perfume.












So just in case many ( students ) forget what an angsana tree is all about here is just some info for you.


The hardwood,is known in Indonesia as amboyna . The burl of the tree is named after Ambon, where much of this material was originally found.  Amboyna Burl wood

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
    pen by Rodney Neep
Exotic Amboyna burl wood is one of the most sought after woods. For obvious reasons!  This exotic pen is made from Amboyna burl.

http://www.pensoftheforest.co.uk/staunton/index.html

The flower of the angsana is used to make shampoos.

And the leaves are sued for waxing and polishing brtass and copper.

Both leaves and flowers are said to be edible.





March 25, 2013

Their Three Years and Eight Months

"Their 3 Years and 8 Months", oral stories of 14 women during the Japanese occupation of Sibu during the 2nd World War has been published. The launching of the book is forthcoming.




(Thanks to Steve Ling for forwarding the picture of the cover and the Chinese news)

It is not easy for women who have suffered so much to relate their life experiences. It is not easy for women or any one to open their hearts to strangers or even friends and to tell of their deepest secrets or deepest pains. It is not easy for  many Chinese women in general to talk about injustices done to them because of their Confucianist upbringing. It is not easy for any one to share a deeply kept and almost long forgotten story. Sometimes memories are not clear and they would say, "I cannot tell now, I might be wrong. So why should I say then?" These are the obstacles to oral history.And we have to appreciate their reluctance.

But I am so glad that these 14 women are courageous, frank enough, succinct enough, to break barriers.




The Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association has done it again!!

Another worthwhile publication has just been released last week in Sibu. This is the result of painstaking recording of Japanese Occupation stories using Oral History methodology
 to collect stories and to publish them.

The stories under the title of "Their Three Years and Eight Months" is the first book based on Oral History.

Fourteen Chinese women were interviewed on their life experiences during the Japanese Occupation.

There amazing stories bring to the fore many unheard of experiences of those dark days and also reveal the realities and lives of the unknown and unsung heroines of the day. Where were just stories "we heard" are now being published as "Stories which have been recorded" with proofs of telling and recording.

It is a remarkable publication. 

 "Oral history provides depth, texture, flavor, nuance, and color to mission history and analysis. As social history, it fills in gaps, gives voice to otherwise hidden people, enriches or embellishes, substantiates or contradicts and potentially corrects the official record. 

 Oral history can also provide an older generation with a way of connecting to the younger, as when, for instances, third generation believers (students in a seminary) interviewed first generation believers in rural Latin America, wrote up the stories, and then returned to the churches to re-tell the stories. This generated mutual appreciation and understanding, and ensured that the early roots of the church were neither ignored nor despised.

Oral history can bring to light hidden aspects of a story, facilitating a sense of closure to issues not adequately remembered or dealt with by giving a voice to those who remember only too well, but who have never been listened to. It can supplements diaries, encouraging and ensuring a collective sense of family.

Furthermore, oral history has the virtue of being efficient, immediate, and eyewitness. It allows for divergent points of view, for the perspective of the voiceless (illiterate, low status), recovering forgotten knowledge. Most human beings are illiterate and have no voice in the stories mission typically historians tell." (
Resources for Evangelical Mission Archives)

The chief editor of this non-fiction book based on oral history is Chua Jen Chong蔡增聰, and researcher-writer Yong Gien Feng楊詒 is the chief interviewer and author. The publication is sponsored by the Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association and Dr. Lu Toh Ming 
 盧道明博士.

Congratulations to the author, publisher,sponsors and the whole publication team.

Only 600 copies were printed.
 
  由砂拉越華族文化協會所出版的《她們的三年零八個月》,已正式問世,並列入該會“口述歷史叢刊”第一種。
本書是砂華文協所推行口述歷史訪談計畫的一項成果,內容收錄了14 年長婦女的訪談紀錄,主要追述她們在三年零八個月日據時期的生活經歷,以及受訪者個人對當時事物的觀點。
婦女在日據時期的經歷,過去在本地所出版的相關歷史書籍中,甚少有被提提及;她們對史事所持有的觀點,也經常為歷史研究者所忽視。本書希望借著對這些 女性的訪談,能夠提供讀者更多有關這段時期的歷史事實;同時讓經常在歷史書上“缺席”的女性,亦能透過個人的陳述及觀點的提出,間接參于這段慘痛歷史的論 述。
       《她們的三年零八個月》由蔡增聰主編,資深媒體人楊詒負責訪談及整理;並由砂華文協‧盧道明博士出版基金資助出版。

Zha Jia Mien - Sibu Version

Special chien mian gan of the Foochow dialectic group gives a special aroma once it is being boiled in a big pot of water. It is usually store bought in some outlets. It is not usually factory packed like instant noodles. Ask any Foochow aunty and she can tell you where to buy. It is a very humble sun dried noodle.
No photo description available.

After boiling for about 10 - 15 minutes you get a nice texture . Plate the noodles. One round of the chien mien gan can make you three little servings like this.


Prepare a sauce (the name means fried sauce)  and some shredded cucumber you get this wonderful Zha jaing mian from Beijing.

Enjoy this recipe:


Image result for zha jiang mian in Beijing

炸酱面 - zha jiang mian: is a dish you can order in Bejijing. Some people even call it the Beijing noodle or even King of Noodles. But I think there would be a lot of contenders for that title.

In Beijing you can also order the following to go with this noodle and have a wonderful dinner in a leisurely evening :

五花肉茄子  wu hua rou shao qie zi (braised pork and eggplant)
拨丝香蕉  bo si xiang jiao: banana fritters in hot toffee

 


But at home, I can prepare this noodle in a simple way...the Foochow aunty way.

Zha Jiang Mian (Beijing Bolognese)

1 cup minced pork or beef
1 medium white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cucumber (or two) , shredded.
2 scallion stalks, chopped
1 cup bean paste
1 cup hot chili bean paste
1 cup water
3 rounds dried Foochow noodles or Chien Mien Gan
1 tsp. brown sugar (with more on reserve to taste)
Raw sprouts (as garnish)
Sesame oil/lard
Salt and black pepper to taste


Now Do This:
Coat the bottom of a large pan with sesame oil and place on medium-high heat. Add white onion and cook until slightly soft, 6-8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add ground pork, season with salt and pepper and cook until there's very little pink left in the meat, 6-8 minutes.
Now it's time to add your bean pastes — this is going to be a matter of personal taste. I used three heaping spoonfuls of the regular bean paste, two heaping spoonfuls of the hot broad bean paste and a teaspoon of brown sugar; different ratios of these three ingredients will produce different results, and it's easy to adjust, so don't sweat it too much.
After dolloping in the pastes, add water and cucumbers, stir to combine and bring pan to a boil. After it boils, reduce heat and let the sauce simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes. (While it's simmering, prepare your noodles according to package instructions.) Taste the sauce frequently to get a gauge on it. If it's too sweet, add more hot broad bean paste and/or black pepper. If it's too funky, adjust with regular bean paste and brown sugar. It's done when most all the added water has evaporated and the cucumbers are cooked to a soft but not mushy consistency. Add chopped scallions to the sauce and mix in just before serving.
Ladle sauce over cooked noodles, garnish with sprouts and enjoy.








Foochow Fried Noodles

Char Mien or Foochow fried noodles is a must have dish for Chinese New Year.

I normally enjoy a good plate of char mien during the New Year because it has a lot of ingredients, from pork to extra chicken, beansprouts, liver, vegetables and even big prawns.

The noodles become very sweet and aromatic, and of course unforgetable.No photo description available.


There are some features you have to look for when looking at Foochow fried noodles :
Firstly the kuali of the cook must be clean and very hot for the frying to start with. Secondly, there must be ginger, spring onions and garlic as the three main aromatics. Thirdly, lard is the main secret ingredient to give the noodles the awesome shine and slippery character.  Fourthly, sugar is used to caramalize the soy sauce before the good quality noodles are thrown into the kuali for the great stir fry.

Fifthly, good quality Foochow Fried Noodles, like the ones prepared in Hock Chu Leu, Sibu, have good ingredients, including fish slices, prawns, belly pork,and chicken. However even if all these are not added, a Foochow cook knows how to bring to your table a fragrant and unforgettable Foochow Fried Noodles to take your breath away.












March 23, 2013

Nang Chong Stories : Raising Pigs during the Japanese Occupation

It is not all true that during the Japanese Occupation in Sarawak, that the Foochows were starving and they were destitute. It was true to a certain extent they  had sweet potatoes instead of rice to eat. It all really depended on whether they worked hard or not, or whether the Japanese came around to carry away their livestock.

Domestic animals were reared and the Japanese soldiers did occasionally, when they were in luck, ransacked the pig sties or chicken coops to pick and take away their prizes, to the loss of the families in Nang Chong Village. Another reason why they did not, or could not rear a lot of livestock was because they could not feed their animals . Food was scarce every where! And they plainly did not have enough scraps for the animals. What would you have fed the dogs with,in those days if you did not have even enough food for the children?
Photo courtesy of my mother's favourite English Chef, Hugh Fearnley Whittingtall. Mum likes him a lot because she too used to rear her own pigs. Mum says he is better and more proper.....

My mother, just in her teens, was already cooking hot meals for her pigs (usually 3 or 4 per batch) every day. Pigs got hot meals twice a day and food was the usual Water lettuce and wild yams. There was hardly any table scraps for them. Mum said that she could not rear more pigs because there was not enough food for people and she was rearing the pigs in the quiet. Too many pigs after all would make too much noise which would attract the Japanese soldiers.

She did have a mother pig during the Japanese Occupation and the animal gave birth to several batches of piglets which she sold.

Once a pig was old enough, the whole village would turn up to get their share. The meat was shared on a cooperative manner. Each family would take turn to slaughter their pig and the sharing was recorded and remembered. Money was not exchanged.

 So in that way, this sharing of pork was quite unique and it was really quite fair. No one could be "lee hai" or aggressive in their attitude and get a lion's share. I suppose this kind of sharing could only be practised by the foochows of those days. May be not today, unless one is really rich and give away for free the best portions of the animal.

My mother actually said that on the day a pig was slaughtered it was like a wedding was going to be conducted. The sharing families would gather around expectantly. Even those who wanted to have a look was welcome to witness the event.

 Food was scarce but thanks to God, there were light moments like a day for slaughtering of a pig. Mum's older brother and sister in law would be so proud on the day of the slaughter and mum and her younger siblings would have better food for a few weeks. The pork would be salted, the fat would be made into lard, and the pig skin would be dried in the sun or smoked over the stove to make more soup at a later date.

March 19, 2013

Foochow Wedding Biscuits - Leh Bian

 When a Foochow girl is engaged, her family will ask the groom's family to provide a sum of money to pay for what we call Leh Bian. Not every modern Foochow family will do this.

But there are still biscuit companies in Sibu which will make these cakes.


These cakes will be made into different sizes. Closest relatives like uncles and aunties will receive the biggest sized leh bian ( No.5) and the next level of kin will receive #3. The smallest are given to neighbours and friends.

Actually these cakes are symbols of an impending marriage.


Image may contain: food




and they are usually happily distributed and joyously and graciously received. The recipients will then accordingly prepare a gift to reciprocate. Those receiving #5 leh bian may have to make a bee line to their favourite goldsmith to prepare a gift of gold ring or even a bracelet.

Image may contain: food


The girl's grandmother usually prepares a gold chain,if she is very generous because she is top of the list to receive a #5 leh bian. But the family will also reciprocate with an angpow called "Ma Dang" or Grandmother's Share. Sometimes you can make to order a special size like my friend Ivy who ordered a special "2 ft" diameter leh bian for her daughter in law's grandmother. That must be a Foochow Record.

Gone are the days when we practise all these Foochow traditions. But every now and then, people do adhere to a few of our wedding traditions. Whether you are marrying a daughter or receiving a daughter in law, there are some memorable "things" you can do to make the wedding a happy one.

Double Happiness is the best policy for any tradition. But one must not break the bank to hold a happy event.

God bless all marriages on earth!!

March 18, 2013

Disappearing Miri : St Patrick's Day

March Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland.


It used to be celebrated in Miri annually in the Gymkhana Club. Now that the International Community is too small, St Patrick's Day is no longer celebrated there. It was such a blast every year. Green hats, green costumes, and even green lipstick!!

  Image result for St Patrick's day

 

 The Isle of Innisfree is an uninhabited island within Lough Gill, in County Sligo, Ireland, near which Yeats spent his summers as a child. Yeats describes the inspiration for the poem coming from a "sudden" memory of his childhood while walking down Fleet Street in London in 1888.


The poem was taught in secondary school for several years. Malaysian students actually found it too difficult to fathom.

 

Lake Isle of Innisfree

by William Butler Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core
.

Cymbidium simulans

wild orchids in my backyard. They grew very well until they were just taken away by someone.

It is a pity really.Related image




Image result for Cymbidium simulans

They were a gift from a friend who travelled into the Sarawak jungle and he did not have the space in his flat to grow it. His wife was kind enough to keep it alive for me for a few days.

When it came to me, the plant was dying but after a while it started to grow and for a few years many people came to admire it.  Each time it bloomed there would be about 4 or 5 strands !! What a lovely sight.

March 16, 2013

Mackerel II - From Nang Chong to Luak Bay

The Bubuk Season is ongoing in Miri at the moment and Luak Bay is full of men and women and children moving along the water edges with their PAKA.

The fishermen and fisherwomen who go to sea with their motorised boats continue with their daily work and come home with large trays of MACKEREL or ma ka.

Here Wahid and his family netted some huge mackerels this morning.


No photo description available.



With customers asking only for slices,or steaks Mrs. Wahid kindly cut the fish....



I like the parts below the stomach. This is a MALE mackerel.




My lunch this afternoon. I wish my children are here to share the fresh fish.

You see I am far away from Nang Chong Village now where my grandmother used to live. She would love to have a bit of this. Foochow way of eating the mackerel would be cutting up the fish into small pieces and deep fried. In those days, the mackerels she bought were small, around 1 kg. and nothing like the 6 kg monsters we get today.

Foochow fishermen with their old wooden boats without the help of ice in those days, could not go very far into the sea. Most of the time, they would make salted fish straight away. Wet salted fish or dry salted fish.

Life for those Foochow fishermen were tough, they had no handphones, no wireless radios, no radar. A few men were lost at sea. When life became too tough and the Communists over ran the state, they gave up their boats and took up rough work in Sibu as labourers.

In actual fact, according to one Foochow uncle, some of our Foochow pioneers were fishermen to start with in China and when they came to Sibu, they started padi farmer and pepper farming. Rubber planting was an entire new kind of work for them.

So you can imagine the cultural shock they had and how amazing it was for them to survive the changes in life.

And in the same way, our tastes have also slowly changed and evolved. We have learned to use belacan, chillies, pepper. We have learned to smoke our fish, grill our fish, and bake. Times are changing and we have to learn to adopt, adapt. And be adept.







Lelapan

Lelapan came to Sarawak only very recently.

Every one is interested to learn where the original lelapan came from. And the newspapers were full of photographs of the dish. People seem to like it very much.

The Muara of Miri, a well known halal outlet, seem to be the best leader in preparation of this dish. And often at lunch time, its shop space is hardly enough to contain all the customers.

Firstly the sambal for the lelapan is a mixture of tomatoes and belacan with perhaps some secret ingredients. It goes well with all the vegetables, tempe and the fried chicken or fish. A whole ikan kebong is served with the rice. The chicken drumstick is also a good choice. Some people will go for the whole ikan keli.

And, secondly, a small bowl of sup kosong is complimentary.

Thirdly many people love the combination of the oiless vegetables which go well with the fried fish or meat.

All in all, it is a good lunch, especially with a group of friends.

March 14, 2013

Mun Mien

No photo description available.




Mun mien is an interesting Foochow noodle dish. The noodles are first fried with garlic and some oil. This is then taken out of the kuali. Next a selection of sliced meat, fish, fresh prawns and some pork crackles would be fried together until cooked with garlic. Soya sauce and some corn flour would be added to thicken the sauce.

the cooked noodles would be thrown in with some greens for a second stir fry. Once the vegetables are wilted, some rice wine and water would be added to give the noodles a good sauce. The noodles would then be allowed to cook through to let the noodles absorb almost all the sauce.

Minqing and Fuqing Foochows are good at cooking mun mien.

when I was young I enjoyed eating mun mien after the Chinese new year. The mun mien became better and better with each reheating.





March 13, 2013

Home made kuay tiau




I miss my friend from Marudi who operated a small stall in a corner shop in Miri. She made her own kuay tiau at home and sometimes even in her stall. She said it was not very difficult but she did not get to do a demo. She would use quite a big tin to make her kueh tiau.

So I googled for a recipe and here it is.Image result for homemade kuey teow
By trial and error you can do it.


Ingredients
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 1/2 cup  cold water
some oil
½ tsp Salt

Method
1. Mix the rice flour, tapioca flour together. Add the water and stir continuously.

2. Add in the oil, salt and mix thoroughly.

3. Set the batter aside for at least an hour.

4. Prepare your steamer

5. When the water is boiling, ladle and spread a thin layer of batter onto the tray. Steam for about 4-5 mins on high.

6. Remove the tray from the steamer and leave to cool slightly  before using a scrapper to fold the kway tiau
While waiting for the kway teow to cool, put in the next tray to steam.

7. Cut into thin strips for fried kway teow. The noodle sheets can be kept in airtight containers in the fridge for a day or 2.


March 12, 2013

Floats

No photo description available.

Perhaps it was a new thing. Perhaps I was just out of the jungle. But it was good to have the first taste of Root Beer and root beer float. And at the A&W outlet.

I did not know what A & W stood for.  But I was able to know more about it many years later.

It was a chain of fast food restaurants. And its signature drink was root beer. Root beer flots and burgers became university students' lunch or dinner in the 70's. It was hip to be seen in A & W.

Roy Allen set up a roadside drink stand to offer root beer at a parade honouring returning WW1 Veterans in Lodi California.

In 1922, Allen and Frank WRight , Allen and Wright or A & W, founded their first restaurant in Sacramento, California.

The probably invented the frosty mugs ( keeping their mugs in the freezers).

March 11, 2013

Floating Houses in Bakun, Sarawak

The floating homestays and "hotels" and normal "houses of the displaced people" of Bakun Lake have been attracting a lot of interested tourists.

However, often the tourists can get the foul smell emanating from rotting organic matter submerged at the bottom of the lake.

Will the water become more and more foul smelling?Image may contain: sky, plant, cloud, tree, grass, outdoor, nature and water

the people are often without clean water supply and have resorted to buying bottles and bottles of mineral water for their own use. tourists are usually advised to bring their own fresh water just in case the homestays run out of fresh water.

There are now signs warning visitors/hunters/travellers against drinking or swimming in the water because of the risk of melioidosis and leptospirosis.

Hopefully the government authorities will make an effort to study the issues of the water quality .....


Lengke : Sarawak's Wild Bananas

No photo description available.


Just around Gawai time the lengke blooms all over Sarawak, especially on the hill slopes drained by fast flowing streams. Wild bananas grow best where the soil is damp.

The lengke has a pretty pink to purple colours. The buds are usually taken out from the flower to be stir fried or just blanched. It makes a good Thai salad.

It can also be cooked in a curry.


March 10, 2013

Nang Chong Stories : Mackerel : fresh and salted

During the holidays we would visit my grandmother in Ah Nang Chong. Her house would be filled with happy grandchildren and their boisterous  running noise and shrieks of joy from one end to the other end of the huge wooden house, which was in fact made up of four "terraced houses". Sometimes when we ran upstairs and downstairs, Grandma would exclaim, " Get the ax and chop the stairs...you naughty kids. Don't run so hard..." After that , we would remember to tip toe around. But then, when we forgot her warning, we ran as hard as we could and played again and again hide and seek.

After playing hard  and after having our usual swim in the gigantic Rajang River, we enjoyed the food prepared for us at the two tables by Third Uncle, Pang Sing, if he was at home, or by Third Aunt or Grandma.  Sometimes my uncle would take out another Foochow table for all the other children. Sometimes we just took turn at the table. Our Foochow table could be dismantled The top could be taken off and allowed to reclined at a wall, and the legs could be folded easily and allowed to stand. It is an ingenious engineering contraption.

Grandma had a favourite fish : Ma Ka or fresh mackerel which she would buy from Sibu so that we could have fish on the first day and the second day. It was not easy in the days of no electricity. We could not chill our sea fish.

So on the first day, we would have mackerel with nice sweet and sour sauce.  All the fish bought would be deep fried and kept in the food safe. On the second day, Grand ma or uncle would refry another mackerel and add lots of onions and thick soy sauce. If there was any left over, we would have the left over fish steamed. I really like the steamed soy sauced mackerel. It is like double cooked fish.
We Foochows call this Ma ka Long (which means wet salted mackerel). They are often used in the stir frying of bean sprouts and steamed minced pork.

Mackerels which were salted were also favourite offerings on our Nang Chong tables. Grandmother loved to buy the two different types of salted mackerel :  the dry ones and the wet ones. The dried salted mackerel was nice to eat with porridge and grandma loved it.


 

But the wet ones are the best because we could eat them with minced pork and minced toufoo. Or just steamed toufoo with a few slices of the wet salted macherel on top. The wet salted mackerel was always kept in a glass bottle with the brine.



Jocelyn Ling's Sweet and Sour Mackerel



Recently my Foochow friend Jocelyn posted a photo of her fresh mackerel in sweet sour sauce. And the photo brought back a stream of memories to me. I even discussed with my mother and my sisters how we enjoyed the mackerel in Nang Chong.

We all promise each other that we are going to buy and eat more fresh mackerel.

How wonderful it is to remember our childhood with our grandmother and uncles and aunties in Ah Nang Chong.









March 9, 2013

Mantis Prawns or Ketak

My friends have been having a real ball in Batu Satu or Lutong Beach. The Bubuk season is a great financial opportunity for most of the part time fishermen. Full time fishermen usually run to the bank laughing.

So it is indeed a real happy atmosphere in Batu Satu for almost a month...And then in April another period of bubuk fishing will come on again.


Often during the bubuk season the mantis shrimps also appear. Most Chinese would make soup out of them to help alleviate asthma. In good times, these mantis shrimps which may be more than 8 inches long fetch a good price.



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But then the small ones do make a good soup.



From Wikipedia we learn that :

In Japanese cuisine, the mantis shrimp is eaten boiled as a sushi topping, and occasionally, raw as sashimi; and is called shako (蝦蛄).
Mantis shrimp is abundant in the coastal regions of south Vietnam, known in Vietnamese as tôm tít or tôm tích. The shrimp can be steamed, boiled, grilled or dried; used with pepper + salt + lime, fish sauce + tamarind or fennel.[23]
In Cantonese cuisine, the mantis shrimp is known as "pissing shrimp" (攋尿蝦, Mandarin pinyin: lài niào xiā, modern Cantonese: laaih niu hā) because of their tendency to shoot a jet of water when picked up. After cooking, their flesh is closer to that of lobsters than that of shrimp, and like lobsters, their shells are quite hard and require some pressure to crack. Usually they are deep fried with garlic and chili peppers.
In the Mediterranean countries the mantis shrimp Squilla mantis is a common seafood, especially on the Adriatic coasts (canocchia) and the Gulf of Cádiz (galera).
In the Philippines, the mantis shrimp is known as tatampal, hipong-dapa or alupihang-dagat and is cooked and eaten like shrimp.
The usual concerns associated with consuming seafood are an issue with mantis shrimp, as they may dwell in contaminated waters. This is especially true in Hawaii, particularly the Grand Ala Wai Canal in Waikiki, where some have grown unnaturally large.[2]

This is how they look like after I have boiled them in a soup.

It is really quite refreshing and delicious.






And at about RM5.00 to RM 8.00 a kg for small ones, you can really enjoy a good warm soup during a rainy evening. Some flesh can be dug out with a small pincer. But do be warned, the shells are very sharp edged.

Bon Ape tit.

March 8, 2013

Xiao Hong/ Zhang Naiying (张乃莹)

Today is March 8 2013 - International Women's Day.

How far have women travelled in the last 100 years?
How far have women writers progressed in the last 100 years?

Here is one story of a great Chinese woman writer born before the First World War 1911 and died during the Second World War in 1942.  

Alas, from her life story  the majority of women today still face the same fates : 

Too poor? Sold to a brothel,
 Too defenceless? Get raped. 
Pregnant? Abandoned by the man who planted the seed.
Sick? Wrongly diagnosed and die under the scapel.
Married? Left by husband or abused by in laws.
Fatherless? Pushed to the brim of society.
Struggling at work? Suppressed by bullies.

Can we change to make women's fate better? (Chang Yi. 2013)



Text completely taken from Wikipedia :

Xiao Hong (simplified Chinese: 萧红; traditional Chinese: 蕭紅; pinyin: Xiāo Hóng, June 2, 1911 – January 22, 1942), also spelled Hsiao Hung, was a Chinese writer. Her real name was Zhang Naiying (张乃莹); she also used the pen name Qiao Yin.
Xiao Hong was born in Hulan county, Heilongjiang Province, on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival to a landowning family. Her mother died when Xiao Hong was young, and she had a difficult relationship with her conservative father growing up. The only family member she was close to was her grandfather, who was a humane and kind man. Otherwise she had a generally unhappy and lonely childhood. She attended a girls school in Harbin in 1927, where she encountered the progressive ideas of the May Fourth movement as well as Chinese and foreign literature. The literature of Lu Xun, Mao Dun, and Upton Sinclair had a particular impact on her. In 1930 she ran away to Beijing to avoid a planned marriage, though was eventually followed by her fiance Wang Dianjia. In 1932, after she became pregnant her fiance abandoned her at a hotel in Harbin. She narrowly avoided being sold to a brothel by the hotel’s owner by scraping together over six hundred yuan in room and board expenses.
Wretched, alone, and pregnant, Xiao Hong looked to the local newspaper publisher for help. The newspaper’s editor, Xiao Jun saved Xiao Hong during a flood of the Songhua river. They began to live together, during which time Xiao Hong started writing. In 1933 she wrote short stories "Trek" and "Tornado", and in the same year she and Xiao Jun self-published a joint collection of short stories, Bashe (Arduous Journey).
In June 1934, the couple moved to Qingdao, where after three months Xiao Hong wrote a long novel entitled Sheng si Chang (The Field of Life and Death). The book was a gripping account of the tortured lives of several peasant women, and one of the first literary works to reflect life under Japanese rule. In its foreword, Lu Xun declared the work “a female writer’s meticulous observation and extraordinary writing.” In October, the couple again moved, this time to Shanghai’s French concession. With Lu Xun’s help, Sheng si Chang was published 1935 by Shanghai’s Rongguang Publishing House, bringing Xiao Hong fame among Shanghai’s modernist literary circle. At the time, Lu Xun declared that Xiao Hong would one day surpass Ding Ling as China’s most celebrated female writer.
 Time tells

The same year, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun completed a collection of autobiographical essays entitled Market Street, named after the street on which the couple lived in Harbin, and from 1935-36 Xiao Hong wrote short stories and essays, later collected in Shangshi Jie, Qiao, and Niuche Shang. In 1936, in order to shake off her past, Xiao Hong moved to Tokyo, where she wrote a collection of essays entitled "the Solitary Life", a long set of poems entitled "Sand Grains", a short story entitled "On the Ox Cart", and others.
In 1938, while living in Xi’an as part of the Northwestern Combat Zone’s Service Group, she broke up with Xiao Jun, and married Duanwu Hongliang in Wuhan. In January 1940, the newly-married couple made their way from Chongqing to Hong Kong, and took residence in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. Her remembrance of Lu Xun, Huiyi Lu Xun Xiansheng, was published that same year, along with the first volume of a planned trilogy, Ma Bole, satirizing the war and the era's patriotism. While in Hong Kong, Xiao Hong wrote her most successful long novel, Hulanhe zhuan (Tales of the Hulan River), based on her childhood memories, along with a number of short stories based on her childhood, such as "Spring in a Small Town".

A monument of Xiao Hong in her original home in Hulan (heilongjiang)

She died during the chaos of wartime Hong Kong in a temporary hospital on January 22, 1942. She was misdiagnosed and died painfully after undergoing unnecessary throat surgery that left her speechless, without either of her life’s two loves at her side. She was buried at dusk on January 25, 1942 in Hong Kong’s Repulse Bay.







These are her works:
  • Bashe (跋涉, Arduous Journey), with Xiao Jun, 1933.
  • Sheng si chang (生死场, The Field of Life and Death), 1935.
  • Huiyi Lu Xun Xiansheng (回忆鲁迅先生, Memories of Lu Xun Xiansheng), 1940.
  • Ma Bole (马伯乐), 1940.
  • Hulanhe zhuan (呼兰河传, Tales of Hulan River), 1942.





Let's Celebrate International Women's Day EVERYDAY.

March 7, 2013

Hua Hong Ice Factory : Throw Nets and River Prawns



River prawns were plentiful by the Rajang and my father loved throwing his cast net into the river when the tide was high. It was his evening hobby. He did not fish with a rod like other men working at Hua Hong.  And my mother would wait patiently at home for him to bring something back and she was always hopeful.

Sometimes he caught a lot and he would always be ready to come home after a short while because he wanted to have the evening meal with every one. My grandfather would sometimes visit and we would all have a good meal of good food with Great Grandmother, Grandfather and whatever father caught, plus a few more dishes cooked up by mother.

As my father was a fairly tall man, the net he cast was good and it would always make a big circle in the water. He would slowly pull up the net and everyone would be watching with admiration.

Fishing in the river and catching fish or prawns was what Grandfather would do when he was younger.

Probably it made him think of his Minqing roots.

Probably he had caught a lot of fish in Mui Keh.

And when he looked at his first son and the grandson by his first son, he was probably very very proud of his success in Sibu, although it was probably a small matter to many people. Grandpa was a man who was full of gratitude to God for all the blessings he received.

The Wet Look

In the 70's there were lots of parties, balls, informals and formals to attend in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
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It was a good shirt to wear for a cool party..







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And the slimmest of the girls would wear the wet look (soft leather) stretch pants, following Oliva Newton John's fashion in "GREASE"

This was the REAL RAGE of those varsity days, when many free spirits were creating music, dance, plays etc. then after 1974 every thing creative was put to a stop.

Muslim girls had to wear their head cover (tudung) and university parties stopped.

University education changed its character, schools became very controlled by politicians. Literary progress almost came to a stand still. Many literati left Malaysia to go elsewhere. Some historians also left the various campuses.


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!!...