Soh Mien on First Day of Lunar New Year

 Today 10.2.2024 is the first day of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. Yes I have cooked the chicken and made the soh mien. Happy New Year!! Praise God we have come this far in our life.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Foochows originating from Minqing, Fujian, living in Sarawak would always prepare SOH Mieng or longevity wheat noodles with a chicken soup. A generous amount of red rice wine would be added to the bowl of noodles besides chicken  meat, shitake mushroom and a whole hard boiled egg.,

The hard boiled egg is a must because it will symbolise peace. Eggs are always held as an auspicious food by the Foochows. Egg in Foochow sounds like LONG or WAVE. so when you eat an egg or two, or you bring hard boiled eggs when you travel, you are actually indicating you are controlling the waves in the sea or river.

In the early days hard boiled eggs were even sold to travellers at the Tua Pek Kong Wharf. Relatives would buy the eggs and give to the travellers, remarking..."Eat eggs, control waves. Peace."

Today many people have forgotten this symbolism.

Pusa : Where my Cousin taught for a few Years

 My cousin Lau Kung Sieng was trained in Rajang Teacher's College after she completed her Form Five in Methodist Secondary School in 1966. The Sixties were turbulent years in Sarawak. There were political changes after the formation of Malaysia and education needed to be provided in the rural and urban areas as demands from the population were strong

Many schools in the rural areas were started and there was a dirth of teaching staff. Missionary teachers, priests from foreign countries had to leave Sarawak and there were more vacancies. Some schools were even staffed with one or two teachers only!!

But then again the Teacher Training institutes were not able to train more than they had the capability to do so. The supply was not able to meet the demand.

And fresh graduates from the teachers' colleges had to be sent to places they had never heard of. Many experienced having to walk for a few days to reach their school and at night they had to use kerosene lamps.

A trained teacher was sent to school where he had to share a hut with three other teachers and when it rained they had to catch the rain water with their pails and find some dry spots to sleep.  In less than a month they repaired their roofs on their own. Not that they had the experience to do so. There was no canvas in those days, and the town was a week's walk away. Besides they had no leave to make that journey. About 15 years later the same teacher said that a car could finally drive to the school using logging road but the quarters were still in poor shape.

Back to my cousin.

She was happy there as she was able to board in a good kampong house with two other lady teachers and they walked to the school to teach. Pusa was a small fishing town and the fishermen;s children were keen to study.

Her frist month was fine and all three lady teachers were able to cope with their food supply, some salt, some sugar and some condensed milk, They were able to buy fish very cheaply. Sometimes they received gifts from grateful parents.

Blacksmith Road Hock Chu Leu

In Dec 2023 the heritage Foochow Restaurant at Blacksmith Road finally closed its doors after more than 70 years of business. The older family members called it a day and the old chefs retired.

Even the waitresses cheerfully bade farewell to many of their loyal customers in the last few months of 2023. They would not consider joining the new outfit which will move to Alan Road in Upper Lanang.

At the time of writing I have not been able to visit Sibu. So I cannot say anything about the new restaurant.

But I will always remember the siew muai, the Foochow char chii mien, the moon mien...and the sweet and sour fish. But most obviously they had the best Steamed Tapah fish..all hot and fresh...The restaurant was the first one to seve sizzling tofu too.

The restaurant actually is older than I.

 

Local Rice Varieties and their Future

 Life in smaller towns of Sarawak often bring people closer to padi fields and rice producers. I have lived in Limbang and Kanowit, and now I am living in Miri where some good rice is grown nearby Bekenu and outlying areas.

It is often a nice outing to visit farms whenever there is a holiday with friends. I can even play tour guide and drive friends along the smaller roads to Bekenu , Beluru and a very small place called Sg Tiris where farmers continue to grow rice.

Further away from Miri are two places where good rice is grown, Bario and Long Banga. A friend still has a padi field in Pa Ukat and I have a good Saban friend who grows both hill and wet padi in Long Banga. Some friends continue to bring to Miri rice grown in Long Lellang, which is served by Sarawak Rural Air Serice.

In December 2023 I went to buy Kanowit Rice, a special fragrant rice and was told by the friend rice vendor at the tamu  that since the MCO it has been very difficult to get the variety. Oil palm has taken over as a very important cash crop and padi farmers have become oil palm growers in the last 10 years. And slowly more and more padi farmers have abandoned their rice fields for oil palm.

That is also one of the reasons why local rice is getting more expensive. It is difficult to say what the future of local rice varieties would be like.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and pray that farmers will consider growing more local rice in the next five years to keep the heirloom rice varieties safe.

Lessons from Aunts

 Christmas time is time for reflection and nostalgia. Mum has been gone since 2020. And this is the 3rd Christmas we dont have her.

Each Christmas as kids we would think of all our aunts and uncles, grandparents and parents who have left us. Time passes all too fast.

This year we remember Aunt Carrie who left us 4 years ago..The photo shows her in blue. The other are still around. I am grateful.

My father was very fond of his sisters who were extremely beautiful. My aunts' beauty was well known in the whole of the Rajang Valley. They were tall as teenagers and well eduated in the Yuk Ing Girls' School Three of them went to St Theresa in Kuching to study in the 1950's, at the time when I was still in lower Primary school. My father asked all of us to emulate them.

Lessons from 7th Aunt. By the time I was to understand social dynamics in Sibu, I had two lessons from Aunt Chiew. She taughtme hwo to live in harmony with in laws, She was such a upright Christian, caring and full of conerns for others.

She also taught me about being polite to all, especially customers. She was one of the owners of Chop Ching Chiong Textile in High Street Sibu and I used to observe her selling materials and other necessities to young and old, men and women. She was ever so polite and thoughtful.

From Aunt Pick I learned to value the art of cooking for big families and keeping the kitchen clean. She was a good seamstress when she still had good eyes. These days she does not do any more sewing. I used to watch her us paper patterns to make new year clothes for us. She actually learned tailoring from Mrs. Hoover and Aunt Chiew. Aunt Pick taught me to do smocking too but I never captialized on the skill I had in those days and made money.

Aunt Greta taught me Maths in school and I was terrified of making mistakes. May be it was because of her sterness I was very good in Maths. My Indian teacher later could not be believe that a girl could score 100% in three consecutive tests in class. Aunt Greta was a Maths teacher until she retired.

Aunt Carrie was the glamourous aunt of our family and she lived in Hong Kong. She used to work for BOAC. She taught my sister and I to be creative in making of jewellery. But she too was a good dressmaker. She made dresses for us for Chinese New Year when she was staying with us and she was only in Form 4 and Form 5!! We all missed her after staying with us for 5 years to live in Hong Kong.

Sibu : Chinese New Year Couplets

 My friend Wong Meng Lei is famous for Chinese New Year Couplets.

In the olden days, just before Chinese New Year, many older Chinese , including a famous artist, Lau Mang, would go around visiting the towkays, to wish them a happy Chinese New Year. The towkays would hand out a red note or ten dollars or sometimes even more. Some old ladies also join the Chinese New Year couplet business. They would get their grand children to write the auspicious words and then they would go from shop to shop to say their greetings. They often receive less like a few ringgit. But it was a good way of getting some cash.

I would always count the number of those red paper in my uncles' shops. Those whowere very generous would have more than 20 on their walls.

The Methodist Message Chief Operating Officer Wong Meng Lei wrote many couplets, and had them printed. The couplets were enclosed in the Wei Li Bao, the Chinese Methodist Message and every read would receive one. Those who want freshly written ones would visit Meng Lei...

This year is his last year with Wei Li Bao., And we really thank him for making WeiLiBao world famous. He has done a very good job. Brilliant!!

Sibu Tales : Boat Ferry

 The rivers of Sibu, which are the Igan and the Rajang, are still served by small boat ferries like the one in the photo. (By Pro Steve)

I would like to share two tales assoicated with boat ferries. I will share the happy tale first.

My cousin James was a very hardworking son and one Sunday he went back to Nang Chong to help his parents cut the grass in the back yard. Unfortunately he had a heart attack. Every one tried to help him get to the jetty and hail a motor launch to send him to the hospital. There was no long boat in sight and as it was quite laste in the afternoon any boat going to Sibu (20 minutes away) would be very rare. However a friend was able to resuscitate him and as he recovered from his fainting fit, a small ferry came up the river and the family flagged it down and sent him to the Lau King Howe hospital. A short stay and some medication revived him and he was saved. Many years later he got a stent.

In 1967 my third uncle visited our relatives in Sg. Bidut, akong the river Igan. After a short visit, the family waited for the ferry to corss the Igan to go back to Sibu. But in the heat of the morning my third uncle collapse and passed away. It was a cardiac arrest.

The whole family was over wrought even though the ferry was there at the right moment my uncle could not be saved.

Thus jetties and river ferries would always bring a sadness over me whenever I see them, either in photos or in real life.