Minqing Wet Market : Ducks

 We Foochows have a great love for ducks and especially the red faced or serati breeds. They are called Chuong Huan, or full foreign ducks.

In Nang Chong, many families rear Chuong Huan, partly for food and especially for gifts. Every visit my grand mother or aunts made in the olden days would include a gift of a chuong huan for the host. It was a most welcome gift from down river.

The Foochows called all the areas below Sibu "down river" and the areas above it "upriver". There were more than 30 villages down river in those days.

The main mode of transport was the river motor launch.

Whenever a passenger came on board with a duck in hand, immediately an acquaintance would ask, " Staying over night with your daughter?"

That was the greeting which was warm and knowing. 

And the reply would be immediate, " A few days."

When I visited Minqing Wet Market with my friends, we only took photos of everything displayed.

The ducks grown by Minqing farmers are huge, around 4 to 5 kgs even.

The Minqing people would call all mature ducks, "Gau jui" or eough water. These ducks would be easy to slaughter, without any down (small features) and the meat would be fragrant and tasty.

We did not know what was waiting for us at lunch. Our guide, Mr. Wong took us to  roadside restaurants of some size for something good. Sometimes we were hosted by some contacts  and the meal was sumptuous.

That particular day, we had a special pre ordered banquet, which included Duck Rice, and to our surprise, the restaurant indeed served Duck Rice, like chicken rice in Malaysia.

The cooked or steamed rice came out in a large platter, in good slices,  and a few other vegetable and meat dishes. And the hot steaming rice was served in duck soup! It smelled heavenly. One could order mien sien instead of rice.

It was a unique experience.

This specialty restaurant served duck rice at only RM5.00 for walk in diners.

We were told that Duck Rice could come in two flavours, the plain and the herbal duck.

I at once thought of my Ngie Mah who would have loved to be with us, and enjoying such a sumptuous lunch.

Visit to Minqing : thoughts about Bah Gui

 My mother never learned how to make Bah Gui, or the white rice cakes,as shown in the photo.

Normally every Foochow woman would know how to make it. However we never asked her why she never learned how to make it from scratch. One of the reasons many of us younger foochow women never learned to make it from scratch is because they are readily available in the supermarket, in the dry form. And the real wet, and freshly made ones are also available on the day of the festival itself. And for Chinese New Year, they would definitely be made available every where. Some women would even make special ones to sell to friends and relatives, so that they could earn extra.

Interestingly, when I visited Minqing, I was told that bah gui was available every day. These rice cakes are like fresh noodles or mee hoon and are sold every day to housewives who need them and to stalls and restaurants.

The cakes are usually neatly stacked on a piece of white cloth and they are usually sold by the makers who specialise in fresh food made from rice flour.

It would be so nice to be able to get freshly made bah gui every day like in Ban Dong (Minqing). It is easy to stir fry a nice plate of bah gui for lunch or for dinner.

When I saw the pretty bah gui I thought about my mother and my ngie mah. they would have been so happy to know that fresh bah gui was available every day in the market. Sometimes, in the past, it was possible to have fresh bah gui if we begged an aunt to make some.

Any way, according to most of my Foochow friends, we Foochows are quite particular about our bah gui. I suppose it is true as my mother would not buy bah gui from any one except the few ladies she knew could make well in Sibu.

There are some qualities of good bah gui we must remember :

a) the fresh cakes must be easily sliced but they must be able to keep their shape when fried.

b) the slices must be easily cut by teeth and not tough and chewy and more over they must not disintegrate in the Kuali.

c) rice cakes of course must not harden when cooked, so the maker must really know a good recipe.

d) rice cakes can be sliced and dried in the sun for future use. They should not have a sour taste upon drying.

e) rice cakes can be frozen and thawed when needed. Freezing should not lower the quality of the rice cakes.

f) good fresh oil must be used to coat the rice cakes, to give it a lovely sheen.

My ngie mah kept a rice cake mould for the family to use. It had a nice floral design but after she passed away, we never knew who took the mould away. It could have been a good family legacy for her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I did attend a class in Miri to learn how to make bah gui but I have not used my knowledge to make them. I suppose, like my mother, I have my reasons not to make them from scratch.

If my family likes to eat a bit of stir fried bah gui, I can always go to a bah gui stall in Miri and order take away, with even my own choice of ingredients!!

Visit to Minqing : Fish Display

 

Fish is plentiful in the Min River, which flows into the East China Sea, after passing Fuzhou City. Today in order to meet the demand of the growing population of the Min valley, fish farms (fish reared in cages can be found in many parts of the Min River).

However, this post is mainly about fish from the Mui keh/ Creek/Brooke which runs through Minqing, where my ancestors came from. It is a small river which waters the farms and also as a source of food. It is a tributary of the Min River.

I cannot find a map to show where the Mui joins the Min, as it would probably show how our Foochow ancestors walked from their villages to Fuzhou city to meet Wong nai siong at the beginning of the 20th century.

When I last visited, I sat by a small restaurant, next to the creek and enjoyed a rain soaked afternoon. I thought about my grandfather and his brother paddling a small boat down the creek, or walking on a footpath on the bank. It must have been a simple rustic life for them who had big dreams to go to Nanyang.

The  Fujian coast is the source for Foochow shrimp sauce and also oil (har yiu),which has long been an essential ingredient of Min Cuisine.

My maternal grandmother , sitting by the balcony, never failed to talk about having a bit of har yiu whenever she did not have an appetite. She would sit there, fanning herself and talked about the old days. Her stories were our main source of entertainment in those days. And we never had enough of her stories.

She told us that prawns and fish were plentiful when she was a child in Minqing. And so did many cousins who later became part of our lives in Sibu, when they left China in the 1950's to be reunited with their families and to escape from the Communist Regime.

When I had the opportunities to visit Fujian in the 21st century, I did not hesitate to go and to see for myself what my grandmother and relatives saw.

Indeed some of the nicest dishes are fresh water fish.

A few banquets were had when we went to Minqing and I had the opportunity to eat a sweet and sour fish called Squirrel Mandarin Fish. ( Every one I was told in Minqing knows how to cut the flesh of a fish with a pair of sharp scissors and deep fry the fish to make it look like a squirrel. Hence the ame of the dish Squirrel Mandarin Fish.松鼠鳜鱼.

When I first tasted sweet and sour fish at a banquet in Nang Chong, I was rather dismayed because I had not acquired the taste of the sweet sour tomato. It was much later that I learned to like the Huan Giah (foreign berry).

Every Chinese New Year when we were young, my mother would buy tomatoes to cook sweet and sour fish . How I miss the dish.

(Photo of the beautiful dish is from Google)

Visit to Minqing : Bamboo Shoots

 

Mee Hoon with Bamboo Shoots served by relatives in Minqing, Fujian. (Photo by Ling Chin Tchin)

Bamboo shoots are the most common but very special product of Minqing. My ancestors picked bamboo shoots and sold them in the fresh and dried forms.

A special dish we had, when my relatives and I visited Fujian,  in Minqing was the mee hoon soup with bamboo shoots.

Bamboo shoots thoughts bring to my mind many things especially during Chinese New Year because recently, dried bamboo shoots are again available in the shops in Sarawak. For a while, Malaysia stopped the importation of the product. 

My grandmother aka ngie mah used to make very good vegetable baos with bamboo shoot fillings. She would get up early in the morning and made small neat baos after the dough had risen. then she would steam the baos in the huge Chinese kuali. By the time my cousins were ready for rubber tapping or early morning school, her baos would be ready. These baos were the best I had ever eaten and I do miss the special taste. 

She would rehydrate the bamboo shoots for many days. There were two types of dried bamboo shoots - the yellow natural ones and the black smoked ones. And we all preferred the smoked ones which looked a little black. In the olden days according to my grandmother meat was scarce and bamboo shoots were considered a meat substitute. And so was mushroom.

Besides when Chinese New Year in the olden days was near, my mother would buy from Tai Kiong and soak the bamboo shoots for every one. They made very good Chinese New Year gifts. My grandmother would then enjoy eating the stir fried rehydrated bamboo shoots with belly pork. Another dish with rehydrated bamboo shoots would be the special sea cucumber soup, bamboo shoot slices and lots of special wine and black vinegar.

As kids we could never have enough of the delicacy which we ate only during the Chinese New Year.

Today with greater affluence, and a lot of ready made food for take away, do not appreciate the lengthy food preparation our pioneering grandmothers and mothers made. 

I would say it was a delight to see dried bamboo shoots in the market and the joy of waiting for the bamboo shoots to be softened and made into dishes we would like to have for Chinese New Year!!

But it would be best to eat all those lovely bamboo shoot dishes with our relatives in Minqing, be it in a simple rustic home in the village or in a big restaurant in Minqing town. I had some very lovely bamboo shoot dishes at roadside stalls even when I visited.

There is so much to remember!!

Visit to Minqing with Relatives

 I was over the moon when I was invited to join my cousins and friends from Sibu to make a job related trip to Minqing.

Along with me was a good friend and fellow writer Miss Yong, whom I could really relate to. I was appointed as the English translator for the writing of a book on Foochow roots.

I saw the wonderful world of my grandparents who left Minqing with Wong Nai sion in 1901-3 for Sibu, a small town in Sarawak.

Today Minqing township is huge, beyond any one's imagination. However some of the rural villages and towns are still very intriguing and pretty, while some are just beginning to be transformed into the 21st century status.

There were lots of things to see and I wished my maternal grandmother was with me. She had left Minqing at the age of 5 after having been bought as a child bride by my great grand uncle Lau Kah Tii. She had returned only once in 1938 when she was past 40 for a visit. She stayed for longer than expected as Japan had declared war on China not long after she returned.

She lost all her money she brought back from Sibu with the objective of building a good house.

So after the war she returned with my uncles and aunts on the first available boat bound for Singapore and Sarawak.

The photo shows four things I often heard about from my grandmother, the dou tik, the bamboo vegetable baskets which could be carried on the shoulder pole or bian dang, the bamboo ladder. and the wooden cart which could be pulled by both man and women by hands.

Agriculture is still the mainstay of the economy of Minqing and people remain rustic although many of the younger generation have received university education and moved out of the village to work elsewhere within China.

We overseas Foochow have impressed our relatives for speaking the "original dialect". The food was amazing. Banquets consisted of more than 22 dishes, with 4 soups. The Foochow connection is still warm and sincere.

There is still a lot of connection between men and environment.

Foochow Connections and Relationships

There were a few memorable dinners organized by Foochow hosts in Fujian when I was one of those Overseas Foochow Researchers visiting Fuzhou City and Putien.

With letters of introduction from the Malaysian side we were very welcome by our hosts. Doors were opened when the local authorities picked up a phone, so to speak.

Besides helping us to meet local writers and historians, we were also provided with supporting staff who accompanied us from time to time. One or two hosts even provided cars for us but we had our own contracted coaches which helped saved a lot of time.

For example, when connected Curator Bao, a foremost historian and media personality, gave us a banquet in a an exquisite restaurant so that he could introduce the best of the dishes from his area. We we were also given a personal tour of the Folk Museum which he personally designed and funded!! It was really impressive.

The international relationship and connections established by the Chinese local government and overseas Chinese associations is awesomely impressive.

I am glad Wong Meng Lei brought us to Fujian for the research of Sibu Foochow History and its connections with Fuzhou and various Foochow organizations in China. There is so much to learn.

Ki Bian - dried persimmons

It was a lovely Spring morning when we arrived the Er Liu Chuen near Changle. We were looking at the history of the Lau King Howe family, tracing his father's foot steps and looking for his legacies.

The village leaders were very knowledgeable and we were invited to tour village.

I was particularly impressed by the elderly facilities run by the village committee.



Renovations were going on at all times. The children and grand children of many of the villagers had been sending home a lot of money from overseas for the repairs and renovations.

On record, Changle has one of the largest number of overseas Chinese remitting money home every year.

Food was cheap and plentiful here. We had the best dried persimmons from the market.

Fuzhou : Hot Buns with Vegetable Fillings

My friend in Sibu asked me about a photo I took some time ago in Fuzhou.

This is a special Savoury Bian served at a Fuzhou City banquet. It is a vegetarian bun for those who are vegetarians.

As it is a vegetable bun, the menu names it Chay bian , just vegetable biscuit.

Interestingly the pastry is not so easy to make according to our hostess.

It is not the Shanghai pastry, nor is it bao pastry. It is quite solid and heavy. May be one day we will find the recipe .....

Duck Soup Rice

Huan Ark - Foreign  Duck

The Foochows (both in Sibu and Minqing) love the Huan Ark (Chuong Nguang) which means foreign duck. The name refers to the red faced serati or Muscovy which has a red face. This type of duck is a favourite among the Foochows as it has a bigger body and a lot of meat. It is also easily reared in swampy areas. Ducks love water and are great swimmers. In fact many farmers say that if there is a body of water for them, they can breed better.

Chuong Nguang soup is excellent and is considered very nourishing. Many families raise these ducks and when time to show respect to their elders they will slaughter a Moscovy which is mature enough, to boil as soup for the grandparents. Immature Moscovy has too many soft downs and make its skin quite impossible to eat.



In Minqing, Fujian for example, there are just shops which sell only Duck Soup Rice. And this is indeed a special dish. The rice variety grown in Minqing  is also very tasty. Duck Soup Rice goes for RM5.00 our currency in Minqing. It is very very reasonable. I don't think any business can do well at that price per pax.

The customers can also opt for Mien Sien, the Foochow longevity noodles. But rice is definitely more popular.

The popularity of eating ducks among the Foochows lies with their traditional belief that duck is able to relieve the inner heat of the human body and boost the immune system.


The frugal Foochows in Sarawak who live in villages use simple ginger and a little red rice wine to boil their duck.

Tea Oil and Egg

The Foochow of Minqing district of Fujian Province are famous for their 

Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. It is of the genus Camellia (Chinese: 茶花; pinyin: Cháhuā, literally: "tea flower") of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. Common names include "tea plant", "tea shrub", and "tea tree" (not to be confused with Melaleuca alternifolia, the source of tea tree oil, or Leptospermum scoparium, the New Zealand Tea Tree).

Camellia sinensis var. sinensis and Camellia sinensis var. assamica, are two major varieties grown today.^[2] White tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, dark tea (which includes pu-erh tea) and black tea are all harvested from one or the other, but are processed differently to attain varying levels of oxidation. Kukicha (twig tea) is also harvested from Camellia sinensis, but uses twigs and stems rather than leaves.The seeds of Camellia sinensis and Camellia oleifera can be pressed to yield tea oil, a sweetish seasoning and cooking oil that should not be confused with tea tree oil, an essential oil that is used for medical and cosmetic purposes, and originates from the leaves of a different plant.

Usually tea oil is home pressed and it is usually only sold to family friends or given to relatives as gifts.

It is used as a home remedy for ear aches, flu, muscle aches (massage oil) etc.

A wonderful dish using this tea oil is to steam a freshly laid egg in a few tablespoons of tea oil and this is a health food for the Mingqing people.

Nang Chong Tales : Yongtai

Copied and paste for your reading pleasure :


http://www.klimesh.com/redraiders/html/Bailout_over_China.html

A Memorable Mission
T/Sgt. Joseph L. Fasulo

33rd. Bomb Squadron’s Mission #: 146a4 on 25 May 1945 in B-24L-2 #44-49612 was a harassing recon strike on Tienho Airdrome, Canton, China. Aboard were: Capt. Harley Stone, pilot; Lt. Vance Skarstedt, co-pilot; Lt. Albert Kulczyk, bombardier; Lt. Richard Watters, navigator; Lt. Edward Hubschman, radar navigator; T/Sgt. James Roberts, engineer-gunner’ T/Sgt. Joseph Fasulo, radio operator-gunner; T/Sgt.. Arthur Schuller, radio operator-gunner; S/Sgt. Jack Bennet, gunner; Sgt. Hugh Mclaughlin, asst. engineer-gunner; Cpl. Robert Defreitas, gunner.

      This mission was to be a time-staggered four-plane night bombing (harassment) raid on the Tienho airdrome at Canton, China. Since Art Schuller and I were both radio operators, we decided he would be on radio duty enroute to target and I would take over on the way back. The radio voice code name of our ship was Dumbo II.

      After midnight take-off, I found a spot in the rear of the plane and went to sleep. I had my earphones on my head so that I could be awakened when the call to stations was made by Capt. Stone. I was awakened, not by the call to stations, but by conversations going on that alerted me to the fact that we were in trouble. I heard Capt. Stone calling, "Hello Jumper, hello Jumper, this is Dumbo II, this is Dumbo II, give me a call please, over." Jumper was the radio voice code name of our emergency airfield in unoccupied China. Capt. Stone kept repeating this over and over. Jack Bennet came over and informed me that we were low on fuel and could not make it back to Clark field. It was about 5 o'clock in the morning and we were trying to find the airstrip.

      After a while, a voice using the code name "Dido" responded and asked us if he could be of assistance. We informed him of our situation and he tried to raise Jumper, “Hello Jumper, this is Dido, give Dumbo II a call." We took turns trying to raise Jumper with no affect until 8 o'clock when suddenly Jumper returned our call. When Capt. Stone asked him where he'd been all night, Jumper informed us that he does not come on the air until 8 am.

      There was a heavy cloud cover and our radio compass was indicating that we were over the airstrip. We later found out that we were about 150 miles to the east. Jumper informed us that they were sending up flares but we did not see any. Capt. Stone started to take the plane down under the clouds and informed Jumper that he was at six thousand feet but still could not see any flares. Jumper screamed over the radio "Get up! Get up! Everything’s 8 and 10 around here!" Capt. Stone immediately put the B-24 into an almost vertical climb. I think my heart missed several beats. Fortunately, we got above the clouds without mishap. However, that climb really used most of what fuel we had left and the order came to get ready to bail out.

      I strapped on my chest chute and took my place at the camera hatch facing the rear of the plane. Sgt. Roberts took his place on the other side of the hatch facing me. Jack Bennet was on the intercom waiting for the go-ahead. When it came I looked to Roberts to go out first as per procedure, but he shook his head. Muttering under my breath, (I wanted to see how he made out), I put my head between my knees and rolled out of the hatch.

      The first sensation was of the high winds blowing around me and I knew I was tumbling. Suddenly I opened up and I felt myself free falling with my back to the ground. I pulled the ripcord and, after what seemed like an eternity, the chute opened and jerked me up and down. I turned to look for the plane and other chutes and, much to my dismay, I saw it disappear into the clouds without another chute in sight!

      The first thought that ran through my mind was that they had discovered a mistake on the fuel reading and could fly longer. I suddenly felt very alone. I had just got back from being married to my wife in Australia and I wondered if I would ever see her again. The words of a song ran through my mind. It was called "let’s take the long way home." The line that stood out was "through china would be not too far." Looking down I realized I better pay attention to what was going on. Below me, winding its way through the heavily forested hills, was a fast flowing river! I knew that if I fell into it, I would probably drown and so I started to pull on the shroud lines to steer away from the river. I was successful, but now I was heading into the side of a hill and into the trees.

      I covered my eyes and hoped for the best. Luck was with me because I went through the tree without my feet hitting any limbs and, just before I hit the ground, my chute caught. It held for a few seconds and then let go. I was about two feet off the ground. Since I was on a steep slope, I fell backwards and slid several feet down the hill. Getting to my feet, I pulled the chute out of the tree. The next thing I did was to get out of the harness and zip open the back. To my dismay the emergency survival kit was not there. After damming the thief to burn in hell, I tried to wrap the chute into a roll so that I could carry it but to no avail. It was too voluminous and I had no space to lay it out. Therefore I jammed it between several low growing bushes hoping it could not be seen from the ground or the air.

      It was obvious from what happened on the plane that I was not anywhere near "Jumper." The river was below me so I climbed up the hill. As I went over the top, I could see rice fields in the valley below. At the bottom, I came upon a road and decided to follow it taking what I thought was the direction our plane was going when last I saw it. I came upon a lean-to at the side of the road and in the field about 100 feet away was a farmer bent over working. It was a damp, cloudy day so I went into the lean-to and I thought I would wait until he saw me. After awhile he raised his head and looked in my direction. I know he saw me and I raised my hand in friendship but he went back to working and started slowly moving further away. I immediately thought that I must be in an occupied part of China and he was afraid to get involved. I decided to leave the lean-to and continue along the road. After walking the winding road about a mile, there appeared around a bend about fifty feet away, two men. They wore hats and capes made out of twigs. I raised my hand but, upon seeing me, they became very agitated and started shouting at me. As I started toward them, they turned and disappeared around the bend. I ran after with my gun drawn (to this day I don't know why I drew my 45) but I as rounded the bend they were nowhere in sight. They must have gotten off the road and were hiding.

      Turning and going back around the bend, I decided to get off the road and started up the hill. It was steep and by the time I got to the top I was pretty tired. I sat on a large rock and contemplated the predicament I was in. I had no water or food and was in a strange country with a language barrier. Ten minutes later as I was about to continue, I heard some noises coming from down the hill. Looking down, I saw two Chinese farmers climbing the hill. They saw me and beckoned me to come down. Having no viable alternative, I went down the hill to meet them and followed them down the road.

     

During missions that took them over China, 22nd BG crew members carried a "blood chit." Printed on silk cloth, blood chits carried an image of the Chinese flag and Chinese text. The text identified the bearer as a friend who had come to China to help and promised a reward for safe return of the bearer to his people. Pictured is the blood chit carried by T/Sgt. Fasulo during the ill-fated flight

      After walking for 20 minutes, we came upon a farming compound and about 15 men, women and children surrounded me, all eager to touch me. I was offered food and water which I eagerly accepted. Although none of us could converse with each other, it was clear they wanted me to stay with them. As evening rolled around two well-dressed young men came in and handed me a note which read as follows, “Please come to us, we have doctor and priests." Our hosts put the two men and I in a room that had three raised mats. As I lay down on the mat I took out my 45, cocked it and laid it down beside me. The next thing I knew it was morning and the young men were awakening me. After washing up and having a bowl of rice to eat, we left with farewells, cheers and many handshakes.
      We traveled most of the day until we came upon a very large compound that appeared to contain a church and a school. Again I was greeted with applause and people ran to touch me. A young lady ,whose name sounded like "Ahling" greeted me in halting English. At last I could converse with someone. She took me to a doctor who cleansed and bandaged the bruise I had gotten on my left arm when I went down through the tree. "Ahling" informed me that tomorrow I was to go to the village of Yungtai.
      The next day, after breakfast, I was taken to the large courtyard where about 50 to 75 people of all ages were gathered. After an introduction by "Ahling", she asked me if I would speak to the people. I responded by saying that Japan is losing the war and soon all China and her heroic people would be free from her tyranny. I also expressed my gratitude to the wonderful people of China, especially those here, for the hospitality they have shown me. I was escorted to a sedan chair where I was seated and carried out of the courtyard to the sound of cheers and exploding fireworks! I shall never forget this scene and the feeling I exper­ienced for the rest of my life. As soon as we got out of sight, I got out of the chair and walked. The two Chinese men, however, did not go back but followed my guide and me. By early evening we entered the village of Yungtai and, to my surprise, in a crowd about a block ahead of me, I saw the rest of the crew! I said goodbye to my friends and hurried to join them. It was like old home week. We were taken to our quarters to freshen up and then were escorted to a large banquet room where we were told we were to be honored with a 25-course dinner. Besides the eleven of us, there were 7 Chinese also seated around the table. Mr. Chen-Kang Huang, the magistrate of Yungtai rose and made a speech, which translated, said that when he heard that American allies were falling from the sky, he sent out messengers to inform the local populace to come to our aid. He praised the American captain and his brave men. Then he took a cup to his lips, drank, and turned the cup over.
      We all rose and did the same. I am not a drinking man and I thought my throat was burning! No sooner did we sit down the servant behind each chair filled it up again. Captain Stone stood up and spoke of his admiration for the Chinese people. He then drank and turned over his cup. I knew I was in for it! I spent the next ten minutes convincing my waiter to fill my glass with water. Luckily I succeeded for, by the time the 17th course came around, all at the table except Roberts and me were drunk. Capt. Stone rose and said, "I've had enough of this stuff, I'm going to bed." The party broke up leaving Roberts and me wondering what the last 8 courses would have been like.
      The next morning, after breakfast, Jack Bennet told me that Roberts tried and changed his mind several times before he moved to the other side of the camera hatch. He then hesitated some more and finally jumped out, just as Jack was moving to push him out. That accounted for my not seeing any chutes.
      The magistrate had photographs taken with us. These were quickly developed and copies given to all of us. Good-byes were said. We were taken to a dock on the Ch'l river, placed in several sampans, told to stay out of sight and sent down the river to Foochow on the coast. We stayed in Foochow a couple of days until an American officer (whose name I have forgotten) joined us and said he was our guide the rest of the way.
   
      Boarding a cabin cruiser, we sailed up the Min-chiang River for two days until we arrived at the town of Nan-ping, where we disembarked. The hotel where we stayed had a basketball court and, for exercise, the enlisted men played the officers. No rules were followed and no holds were barred! That evening we were challenged to a game the next day by the local all star team but that rough stuff would not be tolerated. Suffice to say that on a basketball court viewed by about one hundred people, they whipped the pants off of us.
      The next day we boarded a truck that took us to the "Jumper" airbase at Changting. There I inquired about "Dido" and was told it was a fighter base 100 miles to the north­west. A transport plane took us to Chikiang where we stayed overnight. The next day another plane took us to Kunming. We stayed nine days in Kunming and then were flown to Luliang where we picked up a C-54 for the 8 ½-hour flight to manila. We were gone a total of 25 days.

      I would like to end this adventure story with a "small world" sidelight. When I was discharged from the air corps, I returned home to Brooklyn, N.Y. and enrolled in college. On my first day of school, other students and I were in a physics lab waiting for the instructor to arrive. The talk got around to souvenirs. I remarked that I had picked up some beautiful lacquer ware in Foochow, China. One of the students (John Frampton) asked me when I was in Foochow. When I told him he said the Japanese had pulled out just two weeks before and asked why was I in Foochow. I told him my crew had bailed out over China and we were just passing through it on our way out. He said, "Were you on a B-24 from the Philippines." "Yes," I said. "Were you Dumbo II, " he exclaimed. "Yes," I replied. "Well, I was Dido"!

Spring Rolls in Fuzhou City Restaurant

We were amazed by the dishes Fuzhou City restaurant chefs could come up with.

Our host prepared a whole menu for us to enjoy. But I was really happy with this interesting Fuzhou style spring roll. The crepe or pancake for the spring roll was thin and the texture was exactly what I remember. Only three plates formed the fillings. Fried beansprouts, small silver fish and an assortment of meat, jicama, spring onions were in the next plate. We rolled our own spring roll.

Awesome!!

Ling Check Shii /Lin Zexu

Lin Zexu (Ling Chek Sii) was a Foochow (Chinese) scholar and official of the Qing Dynasty.

He was most famous for his stand against the opium trade in Guangzhou. He was highly regarded by both Chinese and foreign diplomats for his high moral standards and conduct in this fight against opium addiction.

The Qing Emperor Yongzheng had banned non medicinal consupmption of opium in 1729 but by 1830's British trade in opium had affected China's economy and society.

Many believed that Lin's stand was the catalyst for the First Opium War of 1839-42. As a result he was considered a "role model for moral governance, particularly by the Chinese."

He was born in Fuzhou and his home still stands impeccably preserved as a museum to honour his memory. He was a brilliant scholar, a JINSHI in 1811 and was appointed tothe Hanlin Academy. By 1837 he was governor general of Hunan and Hubei. ( Here he launched a suppression campaign against the trading of opium.

The foreign traders were interested in tea but the Chinese were not interested in their products. The Chinese only wanted silver for their tea. This trade imbalance caused a lot anguish to the foreigners and they hit upon the idea of narcotics, opium. Events were ugly by that time.

Lin was sent by the Empror to Guangdong in1838. "He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 pipes. It took Lin one and half months before the merchants gave up nearly1.2 million kg of opium..In June 1839, 500 workers took 23 days to destroy all the opium. Opium was mixed with liume and salt and thrown into the sea."

26th June is now the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in honour of Lin Zexu's work.

"In 1839, Lin also wrote an extraordinary memorial to Queen Victoria in the form of an open letter published in Canton, urging her to end the opium trade. The letter is filled with Confucian concepts of morality and spirituality. His primary line of argument is that China is providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, while Britain sends only "poison" in return. He accuses the "barbarians" (a reference to the private merchants) of coveting profit and lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that the Queen would act "in accordance with decent feeling" and support his efforts."

He writes:

We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li from China. Yet there are barbarian ships that strive to come here for trade for the purpose of making a great profit. The wealth of China is used to profit the barbarians. That is to say, the great profit made by barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of China. By what right do they then in return use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people? Even though the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring others. Let us ask, where is your conscience?

—Lin Zexu, Open letter addressed to the sovereign of England and published in Canton (1839)

The Royal Open Letter was prevented from reaching the Queen by shipping merchants, who attacked the Emperor`s forces before the Letter could have been acted on by Her Majesty. Belatedly, after the merchants had drawn Her Majesty`s forces into war, it was delivered and published in The Times.


Lin made significant preparation for war against the possible British invasion. The British sailed north to attack Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The governors of these two provinces failed to heed a warning from Lin, however, and were unprepared when the British easily landed and occupied Dinghai.
Because of this defeat, and also because of the intrinsic behaviour of Chinese imperial political structure of the Qing dynasty, Lin was popularized as a scapegoat for these losses. His position was then given to Qishan in September 1840. As punishment for his failures, Lin was exiled to the remote Ili region in Xinjiang.
The Qing government ultimately considered Lin to be an official of rare virtue, however, and in 1845 he was appointed as governor-general of Shaanxi-Gansu (Shaan-Gan). In 1847 he became governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou (Yun-Gui). But these posts were less prestigious than his previous position in Canton, and his career did not fully recover from the failures there .^[20]
While in Xinjiang, Lin was the first Chinese scholar to take note of several aspects of Muslim culture there. In 1850 he noted in a poem that the Muslims in Ili did not worship idols, but bowed and prayed to tombs decorated with poles that had the tails of cows and horses attached to them. This was the widespread shamanic practice of erecting a tugh, but this was its first recorded appearance in Chinese writings. He also recorded several Kazakh oral tales, such as one concerning a green goat spirit of the lake whose appearance is a harbinger of hail or rain.^[21]

Fuzhou Memorial Hall of Lin Zexu

Lin died in 1850 while on his way to Guangzi, where the Qing government was sending him to help put down the Taiping Rebellion. His documents were given to Wei Yuan who published the Illustrated Treatise on the Maritim Kingdoms in 1943.

A wax statue of Lin also appeared in Madame Tussauds wax museum in London.

A statue of Lin stands in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) in Chinatown, New York City, United States. The base of the statue is inscribed with "Don't do drugs" in English and Chinese. The statue faces what has been dubbed "Fuzhou Street" which means his back is turned to the Manhattan Detention Complex and the city's main police station.






If you do visit Fuzhou City, do spend half a day in the Museum or Memorial Hall which honours Lin Zexu.

Fang Bing Gui : Foochow Cultural Expert

Fang Bing Gui (Huong Bing Guoi) was born in Fuzhou in 1930. He had been engaged in folk culture research in Fuzhou City for over 50 years. He had given talks on radio and had presided over the Fuzhou TV station. He had been a household name for many years. And his books had become very famous. He had made good connections with the Foochows of Sibu and is often visited by Foochows from Sibu. Here is a good photo from Hsu Yutseun : 福州民間文化專家，著作等身的方炳桂老先生(右三)與代表團團長張延進(右四)、團員黃孟禮(右一)鄧萬秋校長(左二)、鄭葉芳(左三)，世界福州十邑同鄉總會駐福州辦事處主任趙康成(右二)、福海文教基金會主辦秘書陳奮隼(左一)合影。The delegates from Sibu are  pictured with the master of Fuzhou local culture, Mr Fang Binggui (right three). He had written a few famous books: 1. Fuzhou Folk Stories (2009) 2. Fuzhou Old Streets 3. Fuzhou Idioms 4. Fuzhou Old Businesses 5. Old Fuzhou He was very committed to the transmission of Foochow culture and folklore.

Stone Long Bath in Fuzhou

Historical Artifacts.....

In Fuzhou city's 3 Squares and 7 Alleys Tourist Centre there is a stone long bath which draws a lot of tourist attention.

Or could it have been a water trough for animals in the royal palace? I can also imagine a tired swordsman or woman coming from afar and let his or her horse rest for a while.



But to me, today, it is really a good way to keep a child happy while the mother can have a little rest or the attending father  can read his handphone messages.

I wonder who designed it? And for who?

Fuzhou - flower and tree lined avenues

We were in Fuzhou City on 22nd April 2012.

It was a cool Spring morning which gave us a really good experience of walking down a beautiful avenue. We would not have imagined the beauty of such a place. All the trees were blooming and after half an hours walk, we were not yet sweating, we yearned for more walking.

But we had to be on our way to another place for a meeting.

Foochow Meat Dumplings in Three Lanes and Seven Alleys

Those of us who have not been to Fuzhou City and tasted the Meat Dumplings or Nik Yien there we would not know the difference between this special snack and the wantons that we have in Malaysia.

Actually our wantons or bian nik have been evolved from a very special and delicate recipe and different chefs have made their own to their own dialectic taste.

The original recipe requires meat and fish to be pounded into a sheet by a wooden mallet. The charismatic chef  of Tong Li Old Brand Shop explains in the photo below: (Occasionally he can be found in 3 Fang 7 Xiang if he is not travelling the world)

The meat filling should be seen through the transparent and thin yien pi or the skin of swallow as this special wrapper is called. The pounding is therefore a very special skill.


An excellent bowl of Fuzhou meat dumplings.



A group of friends enjoying some specially made meat dumplings.


Tung Li is more than 100 years old and considered an Old Brand.


Here's a recipe for you to follow :

"Taiping Yan" -- Peace Swallow Wanton


This dish is eaten during festivals and Chinese New Year in Fuzhou.
Proportions are be adjusted according to servings and taste.

1. Prepare filling using fish fillet, marbled loin pork (wuhua rou), dried shrimp and Chinese celery.

2. Mince the ingredients. You could either pound with a mortar and pestle, chop using a cleaver or simply blend everything in a food processor.

3. Season with soy sauce, pepper, ginger juice and sugar.

4. Cut yianpi sheets into 2 inch square. (Nowadays, some manufacturers make ready cut yianpi in wanton skin sizes)

5. Place a small amount of filling at the centre of a yianpi square. Hold in one palm and fold inwards to create the shape of a flower or pouch, commonly called "little everlasting spring".

6. Put into boiling water and maintain at medium heat.

7. Boil chicken stock and cook seaweed, coriander, seasame oil, beaten chicken or duck egg.

8. Add cooked yanpi wanton. Heat up briefly and turn off the heat. Ready to be served.

Yianpi skins/wrappers are available in the better supermarkets in Singapore.


Sources : 1. www.yanpihuntun.com
               2. Briefing by Tung Li's Chef (who has received accolades world wide)
               3. Books by Mr. Huang of Fuzhou City.

Foochow Lunch at Zhung Go Lo (Bell & Drum Hill)

This journey in search of our forefathers' tastes and flavours provided many learning points.

The table setting for example in Mainland China is slightly different from our Malaysian style. When important guests come to Fuzhou City usually a special room is booked for the banquet. The bigger restaurants have many individual and "named" rooms for one table which can sit up to 16 people. There is a captain in charge with two waitresses who all look below 16 years of age. But they are all well trained and polite with that beautiful *8 pearl smile*.The table setting is like most five star hotels with good table cloth and expensive dinner ware and cutlery. Gold trimmed cutlery of course is preferred. Even the china ware has gold rim and are exquisite in design. After all China has the greatest porcelain producing centre in the world - the famous Chin-te-chen.

The  host  usually sits at a seat having the specially folded tall napkin. Opposite this seat would be the secondary host with another specially folded napkin. The VIP would sit on the right of the host and the second VIP on his left. All the others would take any seat. This protocol is seriously followed. So please be advised to avoid the chair which is marked by a very tall napkin design.

This is a simple napkin - (for all the followers)... The spoon is for taking food from the main dish. The porcelain spoon is for dishing food into one's mouth and sometimes specifically for the soup. The chopsticks is also for putting food into one's mouth. I was rather confused by this arrangement as I am used to serving spoons and our own set of cutlery. Notice the gold trimming in the dinner ware.Do watch what the hosts do and eat very slowly and very little because more than 8 courses will appear in time. The soup can be very filling. If you like vegetables you must save some space for them to appear probably as the 10th course. Desserts are usually light - cut fruits.


Usually there will be someone amongst the guests who explains about the food in a very articulate manner. He is very well versed in culture and food of the Foochows.

This is the appetizer dish. You use the spoon given you to take the food and then you use the chopsticks to eat. But this might not be true in every dialectic group. It is normal for Foochow hosts to pick food for his guests on his right and on his left. The lazy susan is often turned to present a dish to a visitor who sits opposite the host.


A slice of cold meat roll in a very nice gold trimmed dish.

Very succulent liver stir fried in wine in a bed of alfafa sprouts.. It is known only the best part of the liver is prepared for this special dish. For good presentation the outer skin of the liver is also sliced away.


Kidneys stir fried with white cauliflowers. The traditional Foochows love kidneys because they are considered very Yang food - good for men's health.

Exquisitely done and tender pork ribs.

Deep fried special  toufoo and sea weed

Exquisite dish of crab meat and rice cakes with spring onions. I have not eaten anything better than this in my life!! Crab is also good for men's health as it heats up the body.


Herbal soup. This is another Yang food to give good blood circulation.



Red lees duck soup. I like this because it is both sweet and sour from the lees and the duck bones give a good sturdy feel to the soup. The duck meat is of course very tender and fragrant. Our taste buds become extremely satisfied with this flavourful soup.

A special poultry dish. Again very tasty and tender.

This is the Great Mixed - chak hui- Soup. No one can do this soup better than the Foochows!!


This is a special barley and mustard green (gua chai) porridge .


Kang kong

Spring rolls

Spring roll filling - meat and chives with bean sprouts all fried together.

This is a banquet which cannot be easily forgotten.

We had been walking up two hills of Fuzhou City - the Wu Shan and Yu Shan. After this lunch we went to visit the Hai Zin Lou. Unexpectedly the rain came and made our ascend up the hills very slippery and yet memorable all at once.

Kutien City

Many of the older Kutien people of Sibu have good memories of their home villages in and around Kutien. In fact many of the rich families have already gone to Kutien and built homes for their Kutien relatives in the past decade or so. The Tings and the Lings for example have mansions and so do many of the Hiis and Wongs.

The ties of the Kutiens of Sibu and those of Kutien are still very strong and perhaps even stronger with better modern communication and transportation.

Although I am not a Kutien I find the villages and city of Kutien exceptionally attractive and vibrant. These are the new modern high rise buildings of the main streets. And the people are remarkably similar to those Kutien people I know in Sibu - hardworking and willing to anything to earn a good living.

The Radio and TV Company of Kutien (In fact China has more than 200 TV channels for the people to choose from).

One of the roundables in Kutien and its business centres.

Main street - girls in jeans - like any one else in the world.

The three wheel taxi is still functional and very useful.

Street vendors are in thousands.

Mobile vendors are popular sights.

Kutien Treat and the Drinking Culture

The Kutien liason officers were kind and very keen to help the Sibu group to retrace their roots and food of their ancestors.

We spent one day and one night in this very delightful new city. More than 80 years ago the village known as Kutien was what our pioneering fathers knew. But today that village is now more than 800 feet below water level. The new city is thriving and the people are enjoying a high standard of living with modern facilities.

The food at the feast was no less sumptuous and the company merry.

We were better at Kampei (bottoms up) and have cultivated a bit of the Jin Chui (offering a cup of wine) culture. Any one going to Mainland China must have a good vocabulary of good words and phrases when the host comes around to kampei with you. "May you be blessed...may your business be successful...may you pass the exams with flying colours...may you have a good and long life...etc" This is called :"jui wen" or "language of the wine" according a learned friend of mine. Those who are good can even break into poetry.

Let's drink to Li Bai!! Perhaps a glass or two will loosen our tongue and we can become "inebriated in our own verbosity" (sorry no offense meant). But there is also a Chinese saying "Wine does not make me drunk...I am drunk in my own thoughts..."

This is the line up for our post-dinner "official" photo. Books are given in exchange.



Excellent sausage meat


Pickled toufoo...very refine and tasty. This is very appetising.


This is fried preserved hu liu...a kind of small fish.



An array of rice wines.



Very good hot pot of toufoo and sea food.



A special yam and glutinous rice cake with lots of sesame seeds.

Braised chicken


Vegetarian fried green cake made from a wild herb....very tasty and very healthy. (We have this herb in Sarawak too) The herb is a good anti-dote for stomach discomfort. And eating one of these would help with digestion. Many mothers would just boil the herb and ask their children to drink the tea as it helps to de-tox. If I am not mistaken years ago I even heard that this herb also helped to de-worm small children if they were suspected of having intestinal worms. But I am sure this Kutien cake is not only meant for de-worming. I find it a very delicate and tasty snack. In fact it is be promoted world wide.



fresh razor clams. this is really very tasty. I only wish I could bring kilos and kilos of them home to Sarawak.

Very tasty Ba Kuih stir fried with leeks and spring onions.

You would have noticed that each dish is presented with flowers. The more exotic and rare dishes are decorated with orchids. Orchids are symbolic of good fortune.