May 31, 2010

Disappearing Miri - formic acid bottle

In the 1950's and early 1960's Miri was progressing rapidly with lots of rubber gardens and pepper gardens. Many farmers grew rich not only from their rubber tapping but also from their market gardening. The Hainanese especially expanded their market gardens in Lopen. Oil of course was its economic mainstay. And lots of people migrated from other parts of Sarawak to work in the booming town. Timber also began its flourishing business by then. I heard that Kok Chee Restaurant and Amigo Nightclub saw thousands of ringgits passing hands most nights!! I think many of the local Mirians remember those days with fondness.

An interesting part of the rubber processing would include the use of formic acid for firming up latex to form the more solid rubber sheets. Formic acid usually came in big glass bottles and I believe that there was little control of this dangerous acid until many women started to drink it to commit suicide!! There were tons of stories involving the drinking of formic acid. There were lots of stories involving men and women having fights using formic acid as well. These were fodder for good novels !!

And as the rubber industry almost came to a standstill during the Communist Insurgency in the 70's the formic acid bottles disappeared from our social scene. Today not many people would even remember these beautiful transparent bottles.



Lucas Johnny (from Sibu) had the foresight of collecting a few while he was a civil servant with RTM. He has been using these lovely bottles for bottled fern garden.

Here he is explaining to Honey Bee who is admiring the fern garden in a bottle.

Lucas Johnny's fern garden in a bottle on exhibit in Pustaka Miri recently!!

P/s The Sibu Fuzhou Cultural Heritage Gallery also exhibits one such formic bottle.

May 30, 2010

Cikgu Kok of Kuala Belait and Nasi Katoki

I love listening to stories of brave pioneers who crossed seas to seek their fortunes.

Cikgu Kok a familiar and lovable retired National Language teacher of Kuala Belait (Brunei) is the son of such a pioneer. His father sailed in a small boat across South China Sea and landed on Brunei soils just before the Second World War. He worked the oil fields and every other job available. Finally he had enough money to send for a wife . Cikgu Kok was born in Brunei.

From young he was enrolled in a Malay language school where he cultivated a love for the language and especially Jawi.


He later trained as a teacher and helped many students to master the National language besides passing the Jawi component. Those who set for the Citizenship Test also obtained help from Cikgu Kok. Cikgu Kok himself has a Yellow IC - his pride and honour.



These days as a retired teacher (He told me that "we teachers can never grow rich - but we have just enough to eat") he goes around looking for friends like the fishermen on the beach to chat with and food to enjoy. My friends often say that if you find Cikgu Kok in one shop the food there must be nice. You don't need a GPS when he around. He knows his directions very well.


He told us that one of the stories related to the name Nasi Katok came from the Indonesian word "tok tok" which is the sound of two bamboo sticks hitting each other. Pedlars in Indonesia would beat the bamboo as they walked from place to place selling their tasty home cooked nasi bungkus in the past. Thus their rice came to be known as Nasi Katok. Do you have another origin of the name?


Nasi Katok from this home (Haji Yusuf) is excellent. The chicken is succulent and the rice adequate. I liked the bamboo shoot and the soup (which was beef stock) to which I added lots of spring onions. You can ask for extra sambal and I think that was charged. Otherwise the Nasi Katok here is the same as anywhere else in Brunei - Only Bru$1.00 . You cannot get anything better than this nasi katok and at this special prize.



this is the entrance to the nice little (8 tables) Nasi Katok outlet. It is in Seria. Hope you can find it.

I am sure our friendly Cikgu Kok can bring you there. He is such a remarkable man and always a teacher. He will entertain you with very educating kinds of stories.

He is related to one of my friends by marriage. Thus he is very often seen in Miri too....enjoying breakfast or lunch!!

May 29, 2010

Dublin's Organic Pigs

It is not every day we can get friends to sell us good quality organic pork in Miri.

My friend Dublin has been in the pig rearing industry for a while. This year he is advertising his new batch for the Gawai.....

Congratulations to him! Towkay Kingsir!






HURRY !! HURRY !! HURRY !!



While stock masih ada !!!


BABI KAMPONG ( BABI DAYAK LAAH), BABI SAMBAS TIDAK MAKAN BAJA!!!!

JUALAN HIDUP !! (Live Pigs for Sale!)

50 KG KE BAWAH(50 Kg and below) : RM14 / KG
50 KG KE ATAS (above 50kg) : RM 13 / KG
TRANSPORT CHARGE : RM50 / DELIVERY (TIDAK KIRA BERAPA BANYAK SATU KALI HANTAR PAKAI NISSAN FRONTIER DARI WHITHIN 50KM RADIUS DARI LADANG)

SILA HUBUNGI/Contact TEL : 0138343566

BOOKING....BOOKING...BOOKING

SEKARANG TUAN-TUAN DAN BINI TUAN-TUAN



TERIMA KASIH

May 28, 2010

Machine Embroidery for Baju Kebaya


It is good that the Kraftangan Malaysia organizes many workshops for women (and men) to take part. One of the workshops organzied by them recently in Miri is on Machine Embroidery for Baju Kebaya.
Image result for sulam for kebaya
It was fully booked and those who could not participate came to have a look.
There should be more workshops like this for the ladies of Miri.


The Gawai Dayak around the World 2010

 Nearer to Gawai as I see many of my friends and relatives leaving for their kampongs I get a little misty in the eyes. How are  friends celebrating theirs in Saudi or Qatar? Some are even as far away as Florida...may be Gawai will just pass by like any other day or may be Gawai would be a nice reunion for some. I heard one family in England had a street party and the neighbours had a great time one year some time ago..

I was talking to my colleagues that it would be nice to see how  the Ibans and other indigenous Sarawakian communities have spread around the world. And it would be even nicer to see how they keep their traditions alive!! But they all think that the community is too small to have a big do...may be a small bbq would suffice ... But again my colleagues say that when people are overseas traditional celebrations may be set aside because people would be too busy working!

Having studied some statistics and having searched for  photographs of Gawai  and news available both on the Net and elsewhere I must say that I did not get much. info at all to show signs of Gawai around the world.

Very well designed (See the Terong) ticket.


Ted worked in Sibu Old Airport in the 1960's and has been blissfully married to Menai for more than 30 years! He has a large collection of antique and new Sarawakian books.



However from Perth my friend May Dan has done us PROUD!! Perth has a thriving and very healthy Sarawakian (Malaysian) community. And to let you in the Malaysian community has been holding a Gawai bash for several years now.

This year they have celebrated Gawai with a gusto again at the Willeton Community Hall.. Thanks to their chairperson Mrs. May Dan Lingoh!! Well done! I have her permission to use her photos (as I was not available for the celebration over there). So many cross-cultural married couples turned up for the makai and the entertaining programmes. The costumes every one  and even the guests wore were colourful and vibrant.

Tourist(?) Joseph Jinggut - elegant with his Sarawak scarf and camera ready to shoot!

May - the organising chair and her daughter Kirsten -one of the two MCs of the evening.

Great food!! All Sarawakian fare

Lovely ladies from Sarawak....


OOOOOOOhaaaaaaaaa Toasting the Sarawakians and guests and wishing them success and great harvest.



The organising committee with our favourite aunty Menai (Advisor) from Aup of Sibu.

And so the next Gawai will be again in May and in  2011.....Be there

And with this post I wish all my Sarawak friends Happy and Blessed Gawai.....

besampi ka nuan enggau kita sebilik gayu guru gerai nyamai lantang senang nguan menua. Ngarap ka Tuhan majak meri berkat ia ngagai kita seblik.


All photos courtesy of May Dan Lingoh. Thanks May.....

May 27, 2010

Pre-Gawai Reflections

Today I am delighted to share an old Kodak box camera photo belonging to my friend Robert M.. Retired Colonel Rizal Abdullah (Robert Madang) came from Lachau of Sarawak and is now part of the Kedah society..He continues to take great photos (with upgraded cameras of course) and write.

He had this one  brilliant opportunity to take a photo of his brother Linggir who was making parang in the traditional style sometime in the 1960's..He wrote

Mr younger brother Linggir doing the "Ngambuh" (making parang, duku etc). Is "ngambuh" still practised in long houses? In my long house Lachau, the practise is gone. People buy their parang/duku at the nearby bazaar. The quality? Questionable!!


May be many people say that a picture is worth a thousand words (quoting from Confucius ). I would say this picture is worth a fortune to an archivist or a beloved sibling. I would like to thank my good friend for allowing me to use this in my blog. With a grateful heart Sir!

Just before Gawai I am sure one would become nostalgic and think of the past and how far the indigenous people have come. In 1958 my grandfather (TPK) carved out a little bit of Bukit Aup to manufacture the first machine made bricks in Sarawak and provided jobs for the Ibans in the vicinity. My Foochow clansmen and women lived alongside the Ibans in peace and harmony. When three of his sons passed away the brick factory went into disuse as no one wanted to take over. Only the land was left after a decade or two. It was only very recently that my large extended family sold off the property and as the saying goes  our last roots have now been pulled out of Sibu. None of my immediate male relatives reside in Sibu now.

Today Aup has indeed produced Iban lawyers and engineers and several teachers and other professionals. The padi fields are still there. Many of the rubber trees are still standing. The Chinese used to rent the rubber land from the Ibans and tapped the trees. In less than one generation they made enough money to send their children overseas or move to Sibu or Miri. They perhaps also used their savings to buy a piece of mixed zone land. One of my cousins even rented  a few  acres of padi land from an Iban landowner in the 1950's. Now this family is in Kuching.

Today cars can reach the various longhouses right under the ruai. The community spirit is still intact. But needless to say progress is still not complete. A quantum leap must still be made.

In many ways many Linggirs of modern day Sarawak have a lot to catch up as good education and fair opportunities and even having a chance to become modern farmers might be still illusive. If it is survival of the fittest than many of our brethrens are not able to run to first base to a certain degree. The goal posts of modern days have been changed (or as I often say - they keep changing) and survival in the jungle and survival in the concrete jungle are totally two different things. But I am glad that several are now overseas earning a decent income to provide for their children's tertiary education.

There are so many challenges ahead of every one. The vicious cycle of poverty must be broken first.

I support  "No Child Left Behind" campaign!!

My Gawai wishes to all my Iban friends who grew up with me in Aup and Sibu - Jugah - Yat - Bulla - Peter - Catherine and others...oh yes.. don't forget :  Agi idup agi ngelaban!

Photo courtesy of Rtd Colonel Robert Rizal Abdullah

May 26, 2010

鎮海樓Zhen Hai Lou

No photo description available.
Visiting Zhen Hai Tower in a Heavy Rain

鎮海樓(嗚,正在下大雨)
Zhen Hai Lou (heavy rain...)


It was not easy travelling around in Fuzhou city if you have a bit of physical problems. I had a bad knee and I could not really walk very fast and catch up with the younger members of the team.

We were to visit the famous Zhen Hai Lou and the rain started to pour. We were really lucky to be able to hail a taxi which took only four of us. The rest walked quickly to the famous venue.

I must have been careless and dropped my glasses in the taxi when I wiped my face. 

Although it was the first time I experienced a heavy rain in Fuzhou, it was not pleasant because we were in such a hurry and the rain was impeding our movements.
No photo description available.
However when we got into the magnificient tower, we were at peace. There was a certain calmness in the building.

the Fuzhou Provincial Government has really spent money to refurbish this Tower.

the tower looked like this during the end of the Qing Dynasty:

Zhen Hai Tower, End of Qing Dynasty, Photo by Ernest George (Chinese) Morrison

( His daughter in law, Hedda Morrison and his son Alaistair who served as a Govt Officer, stayed in Sarawak for 20 years.)

Bakelyn in Bandar Seri Begawan

My friends Olivia and Honey Bee went along with me to Bandar Seri Begawan a week ago and we stopped by Bakelyn Bake Shop for a snack. For me it was my first visit so I was pretty impressed by the " greenery" and eco-friendly decor in this trendy upstairs cake and snack outlet! Actually the windows were the first to impress me as they gave the outlet a large spatial feel.

The music was pretty good and many of the songs brought an air of nostalgia to the cafe too and I am sure this would appeal to a large spectrum of customers. I never like the loud music often heard in our part of the world.

The the food was elegantly served by a nice waiter who kept smiling. I wonder if it was his smile that cheered us up or the nice tea which was served in a tea set which was  a shade of a lovely green and black. The tea set reminds me of some very classical Japanese earthenware and there is this fine touch of earth and forest.

Obviously Olivia was pleased. She has been here many times.It is nice to be back she said.


Tea came with some biscuits which were fresh and crunchy.

The windows  let in a good light and there were flowers in the window boxes. Very delicate and very European.

I ordered one portion of Vietnamese spring rolls.  Came out in threes and just nice for the three of us. Delicate again and very fresh. The coriander and basil within the roll gave the rolls a distinctive Vietnamese flavour. If only they could serve some really good sauce to go with them.

 We also ordered a pasta carbonera. Well done!! Creamy and not at all heavy.

Bakelyn is  not exactly a new bakery at Kiulap, just next to Baiduri Bank. It was opened sometime in 2007.

You would like the cake display even though there are not many choices. You can order fudge cakes and an array of other chocolate cakes.  Their cakes are usually $40 per kg.

The menu is pretty decent with a good selection of pasta and several Asian/Asean items.

You can spend a quiet afternoon with friends upstairs (for a change).
\
The other customers were politely quiet when we were there. And I really think that was a nice and appealing feature of this cafe.

It would have been even nicer if the rain had come down heavily and I could watch the raindrops on the beautiful windows.

tamsui : Lovers' Bridge


I was lucky to be able to join a group of business women to travel to Taiwan. My friend needed an interpreter as she cannot speak Mandarin. So we went twin sharing, following this group of fast talking, and fast spending business women. It was supposed to be an ALL women's tour group but it ended up with two ladies taking their husbands and children along.

The tour leader was from Miri and we cheered her on whenever trouble blew up. It wasn't easy to lead a tour group to a foreign place when every one wanted to see every thing and buy everything.

My friend and I was definitely on Sight Seeing Tour.

The Lovers' Bridge in Tamsui was magnificient at night. Because I did not have a good cameral, I had to grab a photo from Google to show you.

There is a lot of history in Tamsui and one can learn so much from the Fishermen's Wharf.

We went there just before sunset which was really lovely, if not for all the people who wanted to crash into you. Every one wanted to have their photos taken with out an "Excuse Me." Well we just joined the crowd and took some photos, which were not remarkable at all.

When the sun went down and the lights went up, the pedestrain bridge became magical in the lights.

It was quite cool because the bridge is near the Taiwan Straits and the sea breezes came in nicely.

Note : It is better to go there after a light meal. You might become too hungry meandering around the crowd of people. The walk is fairly long. Go during the off season and probably spend 2 hours there and take some lovely photographers.


May 25, 2010

A Good Long House Style Meal - A Cyber Birthday Card

Today is my eldest daughter's birthday. It has been too many years she has not celebrated a birthday in Sarawak.

This is a birthday card which includes photos and text on a possible feast for her - organic food from the longhouse.

This is her favourite dish - ubi leaves cooked in the same as Mrs. Kuntai our relative would cook. Young tapioca leaves (the top leaves - yes as in tea leaves) are plucked and then pounded using pestle and mortar)and then squeezed with salt. This is then fried with ginger and some pork or ikan bilis. The texture is lovely and the taste heavenly.



This is Winter Melon - a soup simply cooked by throwing in cubed winter melon and ikan bilis into a large pot of boiling water. Add salt towards the end.
 For better taste use a chicken stock.

Kampong chicken or free range chicken cooked in oyster sauce slowly over a wood fire until the flesh leaves the bones at the touch of a fork.


Bell chillies cooked with ikan bilis and belacan. You can eat double portion of rice with this alone.


Long house rice - black organic rice from the hills. Very fragrant and very sweet.

Iban terong - cooked slowly over a wood fire - until the sugar present in the golden brinjal caramelises. It is all at once sweet and tangy at the same time. It can be eaten cooked like this or it can be used as part of tom yam prawns or fish or masak asam.


Our all time favourite - home grown and organic cangkok manis fried with free range eggs.


Freshly plucked jungle fern (paku) stir fried with some belacan and home grown ginger.

Happy Birthday to you across the Pacific.

May 24, 2010

The Girl without a Smile

She first captivated me with her green and yellow dress. Her face was round and and her eyes were big. I kept following her with my eyes.

She was with a group of boys here and I managed to get her to pose with the boys but she won't smile.


This is the face of a little girl who has been in my mind all my waking hours since meeting her.



Why is she not smiling at all?

Lang Ging Ern (Red Vegetables or Gynura bi0colour)

This is a perennial from chrysanthemum family and has dual coloured leaves. dark green on one side and purple underneath.

Because it is rich with iron and can improve blood circulation many of our Foochow elders recommend it to be eaten very often, especially for girls who have just started their menstruation cycle. This was the age old villagers' barefoot doctors' medical advice.

That was the reason why of all the vegetables, the lang ging ern must be planted in every home garden in the villages along the Rajang River.Image may contain: flower, plant and food

Besides, this Okinawa spniach (another name) is high in vit A. The westerners also find that its tender leaves and shoots  are good for salads.

A famous Foochow dish is made from this vegetable  - a special hoong ngang dish which turns pink in colour. Image result for sarawakianaii hoong ngang and okinawa spinach

The Malays and other non Chinese groups cook the vegetables with sambal belacan.

Wild Ginseng Leaf (Talinum Tirangulare)

The leaves are similar to ginseng in structure and are eaten in salad by Singaporeans and the Philipinos.
Image result for talinum

It is high in protein calcium and vitamines ABC

According to a missionary working in Miri, the stems and leaves cooling properties to readuce body heat and it contains traces of ginseng elements to improve energy levels.

It has been documented in many articles that Indians use the flowers to cure asthma

It can also be cooked in soups which is very appetising.

This vegetable can be easily grown and its seeds spread in large areas of Miri.

Home made tofu Dishes of Sibu

Here are two of my favourite dishes made from Tofu. One is the cold dish, with a good sauce and garlic. We often make it at home.

Then we have our favourite Foochow soup - tofu with oysters soup.



A First Class Man from Bintulu

Thoughts of Pancakes

Do you ever think of when was the first time you ever ate pancakes?

I was probably only 13 when Ai Ing came back from the US and she wowed all of us in the school. I often visited the Methodist Girls Hostel because I had good friends there like Tiurida Manurung and Minar Sirait who were in my class. Then my cousins were also there. I would be there for a good hour before Hockey in the afternoon.

Ai Ing was one of the first Methodist Children's Home "orphans" to receive an American education. She later went back to the US. The Methodist Children's Home has been instrumental in educating hundreds of children with an American education and helping them to become very successful members of the Sibu society. This was all started by a great American missionary - Mrs. John Pilley in 1949 in Sibu. (More in another post)

One Saturday morning Ai Ing who together with Miss Ida Mamora decided to make American breakfast for us girls and we were thrilled. I did not know what American breakfast was so it was really something to look forward to. I even forgot to do the chores at home just to be early in the school hostel on Saturday morning.

My mother said probably I was the only girl in the world who wanted to stay in a school hostel. (Smile) So many girls did not want to stay in school hostels because of the strict discipline (think Mrs. Lu) and even poor food. I would have fried peanuts and soy bean sauce and porridge any time if I could be with my friends 24/7!!

I was so play- oriented then.

My SIL's pancakes.

All the things we needed for a pancake breakfast and more!

Later one very important recipe we learned in the school Form Three Domestic Science was how to make pancakes. And I remember I really begged my mother to buy a frying pan (not Tefal mind you) just for making pancakes. Foochows with their Foochow stove did not have to buy saucepans or fying pans because we had the big wraught iron kuali. But when my aunts came home from the US we not only had saucepans  but  a very good  New World gas stove which was the rage in Sibu then. (We continued to have our Foochow stove until we demolished the wooden house in 1970's.) I cannot remember how many pancakes I have made in my life since then.

One of the first things I would teach my children was to make pancakes. By the way I did forget to teach them how to make "rock cakes".

Talking about pancakes and Ai Ing also bring to mind that the Methodist Children's Home would celebrate its 60th Anniversary this year!

Ai Ing left Sibu not long after our pancake breakfast. And we lost contact.

How many years have gone by since my first pancake and my exposure to American breakfast culture?

Where could Ai Ing be now?

(P/s Pancake news : all ingredients can be easily obtained in Brunei and Miri supermarkets . Even premix pancake flour is available. Maple syrup still costs a bomb. Honey has gone up in price and good imported honey costs an astronomical sum. Varieties of pancakes have new names like flapjacks etc. )

May 23, 2010

Hailam Family - Chicken Rice

Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe - Garnish with cucumber and cilantro

Hailam or Hainanese Chicken rice is not originally from Hainan Island It was adapted from the Wenchang Chicken recipe of Southern China.

the WEnchang chicken is a special breed of chicken, which was popular even duing the Qin dynasty.

An article from San Francisco Chronicle stated,"the dish maps 150 years’ immigration from China’s Hainan Island...to Singapore and Malaysia, where the dish is often known as Hainan chicken rice; to Vietnam, where it is called “Hai Nam chicken”; and to Thailand, where it has been renamed “khao man gai” (“fatty rice chicken”)."

In Miri, the best chicken rice is from two Hainanese coffee shops. One can tell the difference in the cooking of chicken and the
 special flavour of the oily and pale yellow rice.

Today many different ethnic groups can actually prepare chicken rice but the best rice is still from Hainanese coffee shop owners. 
Their dipping sauce makes a great difference.



Golden Needles

No photo description available.


Lily flowers  both dried or fresh are used in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese cooking, and are known as golden needles.

The plant is the hermerocallis fulva, can also be found in Malaysia.

The flower forms a long, thin bud, blooms for one day only, and withers to a long, thin shape again. The name golden needles stems from their fresh state; dried, the flowers are an unassuming brown.
The dried flowers can be bought in many Chinese medicine shops all over Malaysia. Today they are sold in supermarkets in packets.
Image result for day lily buds
The flavor is described as "earthy" or "musky-sweet."  Most Foochows use it to make soups slightly sour. Plain pork soups become very tasty and flavourful with a hand ful of the golden needles. They are also very important ingredients for dian bian hu, chao chai hoong ngang and other rice vermicelli soups.Image result for dried daylilies

Because they are cooling in nature, cooks don't usually use a lot of them.

They also help to make some vegetarian dishes very flavourful.

The dried flowers are soaked in warm water for a half hour before use. They are often tied in knots to keep them from unfurling, or shredded or cut into bite-sized pieces to spread throughout a dish


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!!...