Pingnan Long Yieng - This is the special Egg Noodle Soup.
Two-coloured bitter gourd soup
Fried pork
Special steamed three layer fish and mushroom dish.
These are the special dishes we had for our 10 dish banquet at Pingnan our last stop before we continued by road to Xiamen for our return journey to Malaysia. It was sad to bid farewell to our very hospitable Pingnan friends and officials. Our 2010 trip to Fujian would be complete within hours. And we had taken photos of everything we ate, scenes which we wanted to remember and people we must not forget.
I don't know if it was our last Foochow lunch or it was something else that I thought it was really good and exciting. But it was definitely an excellent meal. We would have to look up our Pingnan friends in Sibu and elsewhere in Sarawak to share our experiences with. Especially the experience we had in watching how the rabbit was smoked and then cooked a second time.
And then to be home soon in just hours.
At that moment I also thought of my Aunt Yuk Ging (ALREADY A YOUNG WIDOW with three small children:Chiu Koh Siong, Chiu Ik Sing and Chiu Ik Ding) who had to wait for a month for the first boat out of China after the Second World War . She had to walk two whole days from Ging Sa to Fuzhou and then for another three weeks a slow boat ride to Singapore. From Singapore she had to wait again for the weekly steamer from Sibu. In Sibu in 1946 she was reunited with her brother (my grandfather) and her nieces and nephews.Mrs. Hoover was terribly upset when she learned that she was already a widow, as she was Mrs. Hoover's favourite student, she was immediately give a job to teacher in her kindergarten. This job she held until she retired.
This trip I had caught a small glimpse of what life could possibly be like in China for my Foochow grandfather and grand aunt who meant so much to me. I would have to come again to Ming Ching to find out more.
8 comments:
how was the rabbit?
Mum used to keep rabbits, but they were mulled by dogs.
Once when I was here flatting with Foochow friends, I was made "honorary foochow" they made the rule that I must speak Foochow. One guy bought a China imported rabbit. He experimented cooking it, and it wasn't nice. So nobody cooked rabbit again in the flat.
You might know William Hii, (last time, He taught in MSS) son of the late Hii Kui Kui, sacred heart primary principal's son. It was Lily, his sis who flatted with me, and her husband bought the rabbit.
Dear Ann
I think every family in Sibu kept rabbit at one time or another. My father bought some rabbits for us to keep as pet. But I remember eating only one of the them. The rest died from time to time from "too much water".
I never knew that rabbit is a Fuzhou thingy until I went to Fuzhou city this time.
Yes I do know William Hii. But never met Lily. I taught with William and he married my cousin's lovely sister-in-law (Miss Wong)..wow their son is studying in England now...almost graduating and I think it is medicine.
I do have lots of rabbit eating episodes !! But this time I will keep the secret of Fuzhou way of dressing a rabbit....
Hi
I have been away for a while...Happy Mother's Day...and this is a nice post...
Some Confucian temples I went to are very dark and silent....some are huge like those in Taiwan.
Justin.
Hi Justin
Thanks...
Taiwan has huge Confucian temples!! And they are of course tourist spots too.
cheers.
omg ! you ate me...and Ann too ! hehehe...
Ah Ngao...you are rabbit? Ann cannot be rabbit!! Born 1951 or 1963 or 1975?
But Fuzhou Smoked Rabbit is excellent. You can buy ready made ones in nice packages too (for export...)
CY,
I think Ngao meant you and I ate him. hahahah,
He is quite young because once I told him I taught in Kuching High in 1977, and may be he was my student, and he said he was too young.
Did you return to MSS and teach there?
When my mum kept rabbits, we were told that we don't give them water, even the grass had to be dry. But here, they give them water.
Oh yes, our rabbits came from Foochow friends of Dad. White rabbits.
heheheh, you ate your pet? eheheh, no wonder the Cantonese have a stereo typing of the Foochows.
Here is one for you. drinking blood "neat" from the ant easter. How about that? Now you want to research on that? Just like the Masais and their blood drinking?
Hi Ann
I taught in MSS from 1976 to 1987 Dec. From 1987Dec I was in Miri...
Nope I could not eat my pet...(William Ting writes a lot in his blog about rabbits...)
I am not fond of eating exotic animals..and drinking blood is rather horrible I think. Some people would eat the gall bladder of snakes...oh noooooooo...
Nice thing about rabbits and their diet....I think they do like some water. But once my rabbits all died because we gave them dew wet grass too early in the morning?????
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