Safe Journey to Blogger All3

I promised All3 a dinner before she goes off to Cambodia. And I kept the promise last night.

All3 is a sprightly girl from Kelantan Terengganu (Hakka born but not Hakka speaking) and serves the education department as a Special Education teacher. Besides that she teaches Sunday School and helps with the Girls Brigade. I am very impressed and amazed by her personality as a Quiet Christian. She also plays the guitar and has been our "in-house" cell group musician for the last five years. How time passes quickly!!

She loves food as she comes from a family which values food and good cooking (her mum makes the best and biggest bak chang I have ever eaten!). And naturally amongst us Yummy food is a good conversation topic .

Several factors helped me decide to go all out for a homecooked meal for All3: several of my young teacher Foochow friends have been having a most challenging and hardworking year and they would be going home after this weekend. Elaine(a banker) is to be married and probably move to Sibu soon. And another girl who is Cantonese is transferred to Sipidan!! And it is the end of the year.

And because I would be having not just Foochow guests for the meal/makan I would have to consider cooking some kind of fusion food. What would be my choice of menu for such a variety of guests? What would give them something memorable and yet would be fairly easy for me  who do not have  so much time on hand? And on top of it all I would be doing all the cooking singlehandedly in about two hours?

Marketing is not a chore at all when you go with a friend.  Thus "shopping" with another retired friend  has become a nice mid week excursion. Furthermore my learning space has widened into the wet market and the vendors are very interested in "teaching " me!! (Another posting later)

Here are photos of my friends who came for this special home cooked meal. All ladies. And our dress code for the evening - t-shirts for a light hearted nice 'n' easy evening.

Very warm and affectionate gesture. Pearly putting a slice of meat into my mouth. Young people should do this more often!!This is a rare but very spontaneous photo. "This is really tender and tasty!"

Group photo - I usually say "Come to my table and I will lay out  a feast for you.."

This is my "Roots Soup" Red  Spring Onions(from my garden) Carrots and Potatoes and Bombay Onions. Notice the red colouring from the red onions. European Influence? It has meat stock.

This is my Foochow Style Deep Fried Belly Pork (marinated with fermented bean curd for 24 hours before frying)

This is the Blue Glutinous Rice served with Freshly grated coconut with gula melaka (Nyonya dish)







Nyonya fried grated coconut with gula melaka which goes with the blue rice. It turned out to be just a little brown and not black. I am afraid the gula melaka sold in the Miri Supermarkets do not give the "black" colour of the West Malaysian gula melaka. Or may be I have to caramalise some sugar before I add the gula melaka. I shall experiment on this for a while.

(A lovely photo of Pulut Tai Tai - Borrowed this from Cooking Momster)


Braised Mustard Greens (Xiao Wine will make it very green) - no garnishing for this dish...

Indian influence - Patcharee / Pajeri Mango (Mangoes from my garden)



Thai influence - Mango Salad (Sweet Mangoes from my garden)

It was a joyous thing - to cook for friends and to have friends come over( to cut and slice and mix just before dinner)....and of course the washing up afterwards. Elaine was working in her bank until 8:15 but we still had plenty of food for her when she arrived.

Iban influence - "Mock" Pansoh Manok. Chicken cooked in Bamboo recipe.

I was worried that the blue would not blend in nicely with the reds and the orange of the mangoes! But any way the colour scheme was alright and I used my pyrex glassware for the food. I put the greens on a antique plate with brown designs to brighten up the monotony. The table cloth was light yellow.

But at the end of the makan I was glad All3 and the rest had a good time - and we all wish All3 a good journey to Cambodia - Journey Blessings! And take lots of photos!