Preserved Radish Omelette

 My mother often made a very frugal but tasty dish which we all enjoyed when we were children..

Now. half a century later, when we think of her we will make it.

Preserved radish was a very reasonably priced item in the salted vegetable and fish section of the Sibu market. We had several relatives who were owners of the stalls there. From them we bought salted eggs, fish, vegetables and even bottles of soy sauce and other preserved food. In those days every one knew every one and almost adult knew who the children belonged to.

A few generous salted fishmongers for example would slip a small packet of salted fish into my shopping basket and whispered, "For your mother."

The salted vegetable and fish market was in the middle of the central market in Sibu before it was moved away and the area was turned into a huge car park.

I particularly remember two uncles who sold salted /preserved items. In Foochow they were called Jak Geng stall towkays. Uncle Tiong was beloved and was my Ngie Mah's favourite relative too. She would always go to the stall to get some of her favourite items. My mother would also get salted radish from him and his wife (who would once in a while be there).

The other uncle was Tang, whose sons became my student in the Methodist School. He was a kind man who would give his usual customers a discount.

Normally housewives would buy soy bean curd, soy bean sprouts, a bit of salted fish and some salted vegetables early in the morning. Before they returned home, they would pick up some fish or pork. Some housewives buy fresh food every day. For them it was their daily chore and duty.

Because my mother was not healthy all the time after my father's untimely passing, she would not go to the market some days and she had to cook with whatever food we had in the cupboard.

On days she had her high blood pressure (extremely high), we would have some notable dishes on the table. As we did not have a maid, we would know that she was not feeling well. She would not think of any one of us to discontinue our schooling for her health's sake. I was 16 when my father passed away and my youngest brother was only 11 months old.

Mum said she must grit her teeth to see us all educated.

We were grateful to the Cheng Kuok Kong, my father's best friend and school mate and his family who supplied us with discounted eggs every week. His two sons Hua Ging and Hua Chuan would deliver the two trays of eggs every week by bicycle. These eggs saw us through for years until they stopped their egg business. My mother and Mrs Cheng forged a very good friendship.

She would prepare preserved radish omelette for our lunch, and in the evening we would have a soup, like cucumber and salted fish bones to go with our white rice. We might have porridge because that would help her recover too.

We thank God during those days she never fainted, or stayed in bed due to dizziness. She grit her teeth and stayed strong for us. In 1972 she had a major operation in Kuching. By then I was at uni and my youngest siblings were 9 and 10. Our maternal grandma came to help her. Throughout her life my mother had fear of going to the hospital.

We loved her preserved radish omelette. 

God indeed answered her prayers - to stay healthy and capable of working in the house until her very last days.

Note : She would visit a doctor instead of the market. You see for years before we bought a car, she walked to the town to do her marketing or she would send one of us to do what she had to do - buy food.