Family : Preserved Radish

In the 1950's preserved radish were imported by the vendors in Sibu in large ceramic urns. And the radish cuts in those urns were big, probably the producers cut large radishes into quarters and had them dried in the sun and pickled in the large urns.

These preserved radishes were bought in fairly large amounts, in katis and carried in paper bags, tied with grass straws. And housewives when preparing a meal, would chopped them up and have them washed ad then fried, sometimes with eggs.

A dish of chopped preserved radish with another dish of fried peanuts could be the only dishes on the table with porrdige or white fluffy rice.

For my grandmother, uncle and aunt in Nang Chong, porridge was the main staple for morning and evening meals. This was considered very frugal meals and would stretch the proverbial dollar.




Many Foochow women would say that they were so poor that they did not see MONEY. That was their way of expressing themselves. For many, they would "see some money" when their rubber sheets were sold after the smoking of their rubber sheets.

The smoking of rubber sheets was done in a cooperative method. Rubber sheets were sent to the smoke house, usually by the river bank. My grandmother and third uncle owned a rubber smoke house and many families would send their rubber sheets to them.

The smoked rubber sheets were sold after the smoking process ( of three or four days or may be even more days, until the rubber sheets were beautifully transluscent, the colour of amber),probably every two months or so. If there were too many rainy days, smoking of the rubber sheets could only be carried out after perhaps three months. Those would be lean months. And to perk up family moods, my grandmother and aunt would decide to slaughter a precious duck or chicken. Hence it was very important to have some domesticated animals at home. Poultry was not for every day consumption, but for festivals, birthdays, and confinement. It was important for a family to send a chicken to an elder as a gift when the elder had a birthday or was sick. It was also a good gift when a favour was asked.

And yes, only the head of the family would go to Sibu to sell the smoked rubber sheets, which would most probably be my grandmother, who was a trusted "manager".

Green vegetables were grown and it was often that we saw a lot of kang kong and cangkok manis on the table. Salted fish was another common dish. And of course eggs cooked in different way