CNY Eve (Feb 8, Pt 3)

No COFFEE~ No TEA~

:( I had a terrible imsonia yesterday, not becoz I got anything to worry. The main cause was because I had a bottle of tea in the evening. Ar~~ should hv endure with the thirst rather than giving myself a long sleepless nite. *regret*

CNY Eve Dinner

As long as I have my CNY celebration back home, I'll have 2 reunion feast everytime. :P The 2nd round was at my grandma's house in Serian. Went up with my mum and Bert Bert this year.



This is grandma house in 37th Mile, Serian. For normal days, my grandma, my eldest uncle and my second uncle whole family staying there.



Ang Pows that made into lantern shape were decorating the plants. :)



Before the reunion dinner, it is a practice of my grandma's house to pray first, and letting our past away grandpa and 3rd uncle to have their CNY Eve meal first. The 2 chairs were for them to sit down. :P

Then, it's our turn to have our dinner.



This was 5 spices duck. Mum didn't do this dish this year, but my youngest uncle cooked this dish. In fact, all the dishes that u guys seen in this post in my grandma's place were products from my youngest uncle hands. Kekeke... he never let his wife go into the kitchen for big season feast, he would prepare all the dishes by himself. With help of ingredient preparation by my uncles' wives.

"Ur uncle said my cooking taste too terrible, so just let him does all the work lor~"... my aunt said to me. Oh~ aren't she lucky or what? ;)



This is 5 spices pork intestine. It is a very complicated dish, as many process needed. Every year, uncle ordered almost 3kg of pork intestine just to make this dish. Cause he has to give to my mum and my auntie too. :P



This is oso another every year must have dish in my grandma's place. It is soy sauce 3 layers pork chunks with mushroom and red date. Uncle owez put a lot of the mushroom and sweet date, specially for me. ;) This year colour looked much lighter, but the taste of the mushroom still as good.



This was the dish he didn't feel satisfy at all for that evening. Stewed pork leg. It wasn't soft enough. He said it should be stewed for another 2 hrs for the right softness. See the smashed part of this pork leg, my uncle got so distracted with this dish that he just used the fork to test for the softness of the skin, before he shook his own head. kekeke...



Ah~ this was the dish I couldn't forget the most for the last year reunion. So I said to uncle, "this year you must prepare that soup for me ar~".

He did. But I was disappointed. Instead of using 3 chickens to get the soup, this year he only used one. So, this sharkfin soup wasn't as good as last year.

"Uncle, how come the soup tastes very different this year? How many chicken you use?" fish fish asked after 1st scoop on the soup.

"One. Why? Different taste is it?" He looked at my expression he knew oledi.

"Kekeke... you want to hear the truth?"...

So, he got the answer. Well, I guess next year he wouldn't cut down the material. ;)

Now you know what a weird fish I am, I dun eat meat. But I drink soup that cook with chicken... I used to be able to take soup cooked with pork, beef or lamb too... but now not every type. Some are too strong smell for me... But for sure I wouldn't take any kind of meat themselves, as I would have terrible cirit birit (diarrhoea) then...



While my youngest uncle still busy finishing the last bit of cooking, others have sat down getting ready for a nice meal. There were actually still another few dish, but as they were same as what mum cooked, so I just skipped them.

Left to right : My second uncle, my grandma, my mummy, Bert Bert and my eldest uncle. My mummy looks like grandma or not? :P

After the dinner, I decided to have a stroll around the compound to sooth my bloating stomach. At the same time, took some pictures of the things around.



In my grandma backyard, you can see small size pomelo...



Local orange...



My favorite, Shi Jia Tou (as called by the Taiwanese, the buddha's head)... In Kuching, we called it Ling Kim in Hakka. I love this fruit. I'm goin to do a review about it in later post. ;)



Mango tree!! This is a very sweet species. Too bad it's not the season for mango now. Ai yar~

Then, outside my grandma's house compound...



U can see a very densed tree of sour plum. I remembered I had this during my childhood with salt. It can really make you face changed once you put them into the mouth. *sour~*



In a nice weather day, Serian sky is owez one of the attractive scene for fish fish... Something u wouldn't get in bustling cities.



Sarawak is the biggest pepper producing state in Malaysia. Instead, we have a board call Pepper Marketing Board to do R&D on pepper. Besides the conventional black and white pepper, you would oso get black pepper sauce (very good for cooking steak), green pepper sauce, pepper sweet (both soft and hard), pepper perfume (using the pepper essense) or even a pepper tuak (I'm not sure if you can get the pepper tuak in the market, as it was under research stage when I was having my industrial training there). Ar~ must go back there next time to greet my HUGE HUGE Abang Shajat... he is a very friendly and nice guy, very funny to be with. Miss him actually.



And finally... a sepia close up look at the pepper seed grown on the tree... to end fish fish CNY eve's post.

Tomorrow.... Kokoke is taking over the Monkey kingdom. ;)

CNY Eve (Feb 8, Pt 2)

Since few years back, my family changed our tradition for having reunion dinner into reunion lunch, so that mum wouldn't have to be so hectic every CNY eve.

These are the foods mum have cooked for welcoming Rooster year.



HUGE plates of mixed vege. I ate a lot of this. Yum Yum~~ Haven't enjoyed mum's mixed vege for a long time liao.



She oso made a big pot of 5 spices pork 2 days ago. Making this dish took up a whole day. Instead of the normal 5 spices duck, she prepared pork version this year.



Sliced out one block to make into one big plate. I love the gravy of this dish. Very very nice... but I can't take the pork.



So mum specially made some 5 spices eggs for me. Oh~~~ I love this... Can just finish my whole plate of rice with these 2 eggs. ;) I'm missing it now...



This was another dish mum prepared a few days ago. Meat loaf rolls... She made this every year too. Made many, but a lot giving here and there, left a few only for ourselves.



This is Niang To Fu (Tofu stuffed with meat), a famous dish from Hakka people. Mum sometimes like to mix salted fish inside, but not for that day... I enjoyed this so much too, that I ate 3 pieces in one go.



Kakak required mum to spare out 2 for steamed version. Arghh~~ bad Kakak... she knows I hate those green stuff on top, purposely put it. Yar~ she mannaged to get rid off me to grab one from her. Hmmm!!



Mum was so artistic... arrange all the chopped chicken pieces into a whole piece again. Kekeke... I seldom see her doing this. She owez gets corn chicken ( meaning that chicken that runs on the ground, not fed in cage).



She added some garlic, ginger and Martell VSOP to make her version of drunken prawns.



Mum makes very good steamed fish with Sui Mei (水梅, salted plum). Think she was using Fu Gui Yu (富貴魚). I didn't try this dish, so couldn't give any comment. However, for CNY eve, must have fish in the dishes to present Nian Nian You Yu (年年有魚), literally meaning got leftover every year.



This was sweet and sour pork ribs. Another well-known dish of my mummy. She used dried chillies, sweet dates and assam flesh to make this dish. Often after people tried this dish, they fall in love with it, unless u dun take pork. Kekeke...



My family love soup. So, every CNY eve, mum cooks 2 HUGE pots of soup. One is this dried bamboo shoot soup with potk big bone... Very very sweet. If you let the soup overnite, it is even better.



The 2nd one is fish bladder (thanks doc, i've been trying to dig this word) with chicken soup. She added fish and prawn balls as well as canned crab meat. Oso a can of black pouched mushroom. Though I couldn't eat most of the things inside, I equally enjoyed the soup and the mushroom.



That evening, Lina's sister cooked a pot of drumstick curry for us too. So with this, we had 12 dishes for our Rooster Year eve lunch. Good figure. I remembered there was one year, mum was kind of scary, she made 18 dishes... dun really know why she needed to make so much? *sweating*

Anyway, muck!!!! Thanks mum for the great lunch.

CNY Eve (Feb 8, Pt 1)

It was the busiest day before CNY for mum and me. Mum busy preparing, I busy accompanying, be her shopping bags carrying gal, together with Bert Bert. :P

We went to 3rd mile market to do final shopping for the things needed.



Mum bought a few grated coconut for santan (coconut milk) to cook curry. As for fish fish, the thing that attracted me alot from these old coconuts were something else. I got 2 nice one for free. :P



Kekeke... any idea oledi what is this? I'm not sure what to call in other languages, but in Hakka we call it Zai Pong (a spongy ball that you will get from the middle of old coconut). Back to the old days, grated coconut had to be prepared by our ownselves. When I was a kid, whenever my mum started to grate old coconut for the santan, I would stand beside so that I can be the one that have a taste of this yummilicious.

Bert Bert had never eaten this stuff. He didn't even know has such a thing. At first I wanted to give the small ball to him, but then, after I tried half of the small one, I decided to give him half of my bigger one too. Small one was a bit too young, tasteless except for the spongy texture. The bigger one was just to the right size for its sweetness, texture and water content. Ar~ it was such an enjoyable moment when I chewed slowly on this Zai Pong. However, not to get a too big one, as it would be too old and taste like oxidated oil stuff as well.

Hey! Ever tried Zai Pong? If not, maybe you should try at least once. ;)



When we reached home, 2 of my mum's gals have started to prepare ingredients for cooking things for 1st day of CNY. They are the one who help to cook halal foods for us every year.



A nice Malay cooking can never lack of these things. Shallot (bawang merah), lemon grass (serai), ginger (halia), turmeric (kunyit) and garlic (bawang putih).



These were half of the beef that my mum bought yesterday. In Sarawak, the Malay usually would call beef 'daging' only rather than 'daging lembu', as beef are there very common daily meat beside chicken.



Mum oso bought 15kg of 'manok' (Sarawakian way of saying chicken instead of the normal saying 'ayam').

Under the 2 gals magic hands, these things turned into...





A drooling pot of curry beef.



Irresistable daging masak kicap (beef cooked in sweetened soy sauce style)...



And golden chunks of fried manok that have marinated well with different kinds of spices.

Ah ha! While the adults busy preparing for tomolo...



Our kiasu little monkey oso want to join the festival. See how he enjoyed his pom pom to 洗白白 (wash clean clean)... His bathing basin a bit small for him liao. Keep kicking his legs for the whole process...



Arent's the mummy a sweet lady? "Hello dear~ come, give me a nice 'cheese'. "



"Ah~ I'm feeling very refresing now. Kekeke... mummy, quick quick... my cloth ler? Me shy shy ar~"



Now, all I have to do is to learn to smile as much as I can for tomorrow. How much Ang Pow do you think I would get for my 1st CNY then? ;)

Kekeke...

CNY Eve's Eve (Feb 7, Pt 2)

After lunch, Lina (my brother's wife) suddenly came home with 2 of my favorite yum yum. Her eldest sister gave it to us.



This, in Hakka, we call it Fat Pan (meaning "expanding bun"). I love this thing. It usually is formed into 2 colours, white and pink. Commonly, some Malaysian Chinese use it for worshipping gods or ancestors. Kekeke... and when I was young, I owez waited for my mum to finish the ceremony as fast so that after our ancestors have their meal, I can just get one, clean off the joss stick ash that drop on the surface and started to munch and munch on this slightly sweet, very fluffy and yet munchy bun.

I turned up to eat 2 that day even after my lunch. *yabai'''*



Lina oso brought back a very big pot of Mei Chai Zhu Rou (梅菜猪肉). Pork that cook in long hour with a kind of salted vege. This, was another regular favorite of mine when I was in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Inside UKM campus, you only mostly have halal food (I believe all the local uni only provide halal food), and they like to cook everything with santan, including green green veggie. So, frequently, like after having campus meals for a week, even by only hearing its name would make you wanted to vomit. This was the time when all the Chinese yummilicious would come to your mind.

Luckily, outside the UKM campus, there were 3 Chinese stalls selling economic rice. Economic in sense of money and time. If you are more rajin, u can go further to have another Chinese stall. For a 3 dishes plus 1 rice of economic rice pack, with RM2.20 per pack, at least 4 days per week I would asked for Mei Chai (the vege) without the Zhu Rou (the pork). :P If I chose to eat at the stall that further away, whereby you could top the amount of food by yourself, I even sometimes just have Mei Chai rice.

This is how I do. First, get the Mei Chai until it covers the whole rice. Then scoop the soup of the Mei Chai until the whole things drown inside the soup. Kekeke... my frens owez said, "Eh sakana, your plate is enough for the fish to swim oledi u know?" (Cheh! I'm oso a fish ler, need a lot of water.)



Mummy knows I love Kueh Momo very very much. Somehow, we didn't have it this year. So, she tried to get one from the market. Ar~~~ very disappointedly, this momo tasted lousy. After putting one ball into my mouth, I decided just to forget bout it. What more, our visiting to other houses this year seem like lack of momo too. Momo~ momo~~ I need you. I didn't have you this year, you know? *sob sob*

Meeting Min Fui

That evening, I went out with my longest time gal fren - Min Fui. We have been fren since primary one. She is now a primary teacher. Stupid fish, forgot to take her pic. A very sweet gal. Not like me, noisy noisy fish. Kekeke... amazing to think how she can be fren with me until now.

She wouldn't be celebrating CNY this year, as her father past away mid last year. She decided to go to Marudi to pass her CNY instead. She used to be a primary school teacher there until last year she finally succeeded to apply back to Kuching. Min Fui was goin to meet her frens in Marudi the next day, one of her fren decided to become a nun. So, I asked her out that nite for a dinner before her departure.



We went to Huang Shang Huang (皇上皇) coffee shop, which is nearby the new audi showroom around 3rd mile area. Both of us ordered ice peppermint melon tea.



And I ordered one fried vegetarian beehoon for 2 people from Xiao Ping auntie's stall.

The 2 gals just sip sip peppermint, munch munch beehoon and blah blah on all sorts of things. Have been a long time I didn't gather with her like this. Our meetings for the past few years have owez been a very rush one. But now she is back to Kuching, I know next time if I go back to Kuching, where can I look for her oledi.

See you again next time dear~ Take care.

CNY Eve's Eve (Feb 7, Pt 1)

Happy Chap Goh Mei!

Oh, today is the last day for CNY celebration. Fish Fish wish everyone Happy Chap Goh Mei~ For gals who are still remain single, u can throw orange inside the river for praying to get a boyfren on this day. I did once before... but I guess my orange been swallowed by a very HUGE fish. Kekeke...

Ok, here is my post starting to talk bout CNY celebration by fish fish on 2005. :P

Golden Arch Cafe

Went to eat breakfast with my daddy on the morning of CNY Eve's Eve. We went to 2 places earlier, close oledi for CNY celebration. Luckily the 3rd one still on, but that was the last day too before CNY. *abunai*



We went to Golden Arch Cafe (金門樓茶室), just beside the 3rd Mile roundabout. Here, they have 2 famous Sarawak Laksa stalls. One is in this Golden Arch Cafe. The another one is at the back of the Golden Arch building.



I ordered one Horlick C Peng (Horlick is a kind of malt drink, C means with milk and Peng means with ice) for quenching my thirst. Ar~ I miss this drink so much.



I ordered a bowl of Laksa Special for Bert Bert from the laksa stall in the Golden Arch Cafe. One bowl of this was RM5. Fish Fish personally prefer this stall than the back one, as the back one a bit too creamy for me. Well, it is just personal preference. Next time you can order both for a judgement by urself. :P Bert Bert was satisfied with this bowl of laksa. He said it was very good. ;) Laksa in Sarawak very different from the one in west Malaysia. Sarawak laksa more to a curry laksa using chicken and prawn as main material whereby the west Malaysia laksa is more like an assam laksa with fish as the main material. For sure, I'm a Sarawak Laksa person.



I owez have my kosong kolok mee (empty kolok noodle meaning just noodle and vege) in this stall. One bowl only for RM1.20. This owner knows my whole family as we are his very long time customers.



I saw this Natural Vegetables Noodles in front of his stall. And so, instead of my old time favorite kosong kueh tiaw soup, I decided to try this new type noodles.



Heee... fish fish kosong vege kolok mee. The taste was not bad. But he somehow made the noodle a bit too andante for me this time. I told the owner later... He said next time I should let him know if the hardness not good enough. Kekeke... I will.

For those of you who are not familiar with Kuching's food... Kolok mee is a famous local delicacy in Sarawak. Different stalls have different way in doing it. But in Kuching, you can find many stalls selling good kolok me. Some even use red char siew oil to make the noodle looks red red. Too bad, I dun have one to show you all this time.



As for daddy, he ordered his favorite, mixed curry rice from the noodle stall too. Bert Bert said the moment he saw this pic, his saliva will start to drip oledi. Heeee... does this pic has the same effect on you??



Outside the coffee shop, I spotted morning glory was blooming very prettily. Ar~~ it made fish fish heart felt more opened too.



Later, I went home and went out with mum again. Mum went to a fren's house to gift her hand-made cake. This pic was her neighbour doggies. See... aren't these little puppies so adorable? The mummy looked at me like an alien. Maybe it was so cautious I might do some bad things on its sweeties. Kekeke...



Then, I followed mum to Sing Chew Coldstorage in Hui Sing area for buying some beef imported from Australia and New Zealand.



While mum busy buying her beef, fish fish busy taking pic of this beef cutting process. It was fun... to see how a very hard block of beef can be separated easily by using this machine. He has a very fast movement.

Mum turned up bought 15kg of beef for CNY cooking.

To be cont...