August 31, 2010

Kiangeh Market of Bandar Seri Begawan

A day out at the Kiangeh Market is very exciting.Image result for Sarawakiana Kianggeh Market Brunei
Typical traditional food covers from Brunei

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Salad leaves

Image result for Sarawakiana Kianggeh Market Brunei

Ikan sembilan - this fish has "electric whiskers" which may be fatal to some small children
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Chinese cakes for Winter Solstice.

Old Butcher Shop in Krokop

Krokop in Miri started off as an immigrant's settlement. Here Chinese of different descent especially Hokkien and Hakka came to settle down and build their wooden houses for their growing families in the 1910's. Their main occupation was rearing domestic animals like poultry and pigs to meet the growing demand of the expanding Miri which had then discovered oil. And with a fairly benevolent Brooke government at that time many new people were arriving in this once fishing village.

Along this Krokop or Chu Pah (Pig Farm) wells were dug for personal use (in fact each early household had one I heard) and safe potable water was supplied by Shell and the old SESCO in Pujut 1. Many older people remember bringing their tins with their bicycles and even "bian dan" to carry water. Some men even made some money out of carrying water for others. The river water was murky and salty. However some dug wells only for washing and bathing. Drinking water was thus from the safe water from Shell and SESCO (or government)

Did the Malays and Meriaks have the same stories of where their ancestors get their water supply? Did they also have wells?


I remember this old wooden shop house well. Today upstairs or first floor continues to be  the dwelling place of the towkay and family. Downstairs is still the sundry shop and kitchen.This wooden building is next to the Krokop Chung Hua Primary school which was established in 1946.

This photo shows the shop from the outside. Students and their parents still come here to buy drinks and some cooked food from the lady operator. The stand  and meat  hooks used by the original pork seller are still there.



This shop used to have a fresh pork outlet more than ten years ago. And I used to pop into this window to buy my pork whenever I passed by this place. There were two reasons I would drive through Krokop when I first came to Miri: I was on my way to visit a friend  who lived in Piasau Camp and also to take my family to shop at Ng Siang Hap(a huge supermarket in those days and is larger today) next to the Piasau Bridge. If it was a school holiday it would be very convenient to buy meat from this old towkay....the white tiles which acted as his table are still there.


The other shop window is now all planked up and Celcom banner flies over it. It was actually kind of sad when I took this photo. The shop "has closed its doors" in Hokkien ring very true in my ears. It is a pity really that time has speedily passed by and young consumers are looking through glass windows and loaving (lepaking) in huge malls.

Today the present generation of the family  continues to stay here  and also acts as one of the school canteen operators. Some drinks and tit bits are still being sold here. So it is more or less a convenience stor.

In a way I feel that this family has been serving thousands of - parents well in the hot afternoons especially. I like the idea of driving by and stopping for a cold drink. You don't even have to find a parking place.

Perhaps this was the first drive in butcher's in Sarawak. I would like to remember my experience in this way.


P/s I am glad to see that after all  these years the shop is still there but the old man has since retired - "too old to work now" according to a young relative. Mirians should be proud that they had an old butcher's outlet here to serve school children's parents...it was a very strategic place chosen by the proprietor to do his business.





August 30, 2010

Taiwan : Hotel Room Spa

Some hotels in Asia wish to attract as many customers as possible. Some even try to have a theme park within the hotel grounds.

But there is one small hotel that is doing quite well in TAiwan especially for South East Asian tourists.

This hotel provides special spa products (it sells spa products too and other health care items).

So here -- you can have a peep into one of the hotel room spa....YES each room is equipped with a huge tub and the first day's spa products are all free.....



All the other products can be purchased at a special price .....but then things in Taiwan are not really that cheap...

But I must say the Taiwanese are good in business and they are so good in their tourism industry.

Kampong Wireless - Embun Citra Cake House

At the end of the Kampong Wireless (another story coming up) is a delightful old time kampong like home store which sells delicious Sarawak Kuih Lapis (famous until KL bah).

This Embun Citra Cake House is owned by Ibu Siti and her young sons. It is definitely business by the river side or "tepian sungai"


Mother and Son....They have a good system of doing business . Normal days they operate a decent kedai makan (eating place) and during fasting month they close shop and make thousands of cakes and cookies for the Raya. They even have a few days of promotion in KL!!

Siti is sister to my university mate - Zainal Matassan Abidin. And the family was originally from Lawas. ZAM and his siblings grew up in Kampong Wireless when their father was transferred to Miri. And soon after Ibu Siti opened her shop many friends and relatives started to bring their guests to enjoy her food. As her children began to help her in her business their business started to expand and flourish!!

 Ibu Siti is generous and warm hearted! She is very helpful and above all very kind and understanding.

This is their signboard at the end of Kampong Wireless in Miri.


Their excellent promotion for their cakes.


These are their signature cookies.

One of my all time favourite - dodol

All cakes are placed in their several freezers.


Samples of their kek lapis Sarawak....They have pretty names. So check it out for yourself by going their. Their doors are always open like all olden day kampong houses....


Pretty and friendly Ibu Siti. And what I really liked when Naomi and I visited her place was her openness in allowing us to photograph anything we liked or ask any questions we wanted!! Her sons were very hospitable too. When we were there she had so many customers and yet she never lost her wide smile.

You get more than your money's worth. You get to see a river view. You can even sit there and enjoy the scenery or the boats which pass by. When it is not the fasting month you can order your coffee and drink in the beauty as well as your fix!! A few months back when I was there in the evening I told my friends that life would be just so good if I have a place like this too...just a small hut will do by the river side....By the way....there is broadband here.

Some reflections too....

And she is landscaping the place to ensure that you get a good equatorial rainforest feel. The sons use nibong stumps for their decorations too. I think one day her children might even have a great dining place within an art gallery.

So do give her and her sons your support this coming Hari Raya.....or any other day throughout the year!

August 29, 2010

Twirls of Potato Goodness....

Want to have some new business ideas? Creative thinking helps an enterprising business student to come up with a good plan for his future business.

What can one doe with a potato from the good earth?

Mashed potato - potato chips- potato salad - potato pie - potato puffs - etc....

What about these twirls?


These are twirls of goodness...and exciting to look at !! Your head goes round and round looking at them.


Do you know how to make them?



Here's the lady who can cut one potato into twirls like this with a sharp knife. Can you do the same thing?

find out more in Taiwan!! Synthesis......Some bright business student thought of this idea.....

August 28, 2010

Kapok for your pillows

Years ago before supermarkets and departmental stores started to sell imported rubber foam pillows (Dunpillo) most of our mothers bought kapok by the katis made our own pillows.

Kapok is a natural fibre from a huge tree and I would consider that it is better than any other man made fibres for pillow making.

When I was young I loved my kapok pillows after they had been sun dried for a few hours in the hot tropical sun. The smell of freshness was heavenly and the aroma of the healthy sun and the smells of the outdoors filled the air of the bedroom for the whole night!! As I slept on the sun dried pillows I would have better dreams.



Today the smell of sundried pillows will still bring back lots of memories of yesteryears and of grandmothers chatting with aunts in the kitchen while waiting for chicken soup to boil or kuihs to cook in the steamer!!

It will also bring back memories of giggly girls whispering interesting stories in big beds - big enough for five little girls under the mosquito net!!

i must say kapok is still the best material to use for pillows to this day!!

August 27, 2010

Is it a Brinjal?

The proprietor of Luak Bay Mini Mart who is Marudi-born said that he did not know what this plant was and I was very welcome to take photos of it. It is very fulfilling when shop keepers welcome a photographer who seems to be lurking around the corners of s shop lot looking for Chinese cultural artifacts or Chinese momentoes. He and his wife were very cooperative and supportive of my interest.Sometimes he would jokingly ask "Haven't you photographed enough yet?"


This is the first time I have seen a plant like this. Probably a bird dropped off some seeds here. The soil is extremely fertile at the end of a block of shops in Luak Bay of Miri. In a few days I hope I can get to cut up the fruit and see what is inside. It would be another kind of brinjal I suspect. But I could be very wrong.





This is the fruit after the yellow trumpet like flower drops off.


This is a small fruit before it is full grown.


This is the young yellow flower before it opens.



This is the whole plant - look at how green the leaves are!!



A view of another flower before it opens. The stalks and branches are deep purple.

Could any one help by giving the name of this plant and can the fruit be eaten?





With a parting shot the proprietor told me that he would like to know the name of the plant. I hope I can find that out soon.

August 26, 2010

Baby Boy Photos - Foochow Style

For the past few generations amongst the Foochows in Sibu it has always been the joy of parents to photograph their baby boys in the buff especially in a bath tub. You can call this parental pride or glory for having a male child in those earlier days. And it can also be called a photographic keepsake of a baby's maleness.

A picture like this brings a lot of smiles definitely. No doubt some of you might even have a photo of yourself when you were babies (male or female) in different cute poses in a bath tub.

However in retrospection I really feel that it  indeed is very significant is that the baby's first bath time is momentous . As a new parent I had my camera ready to take photos of my babies when they were born and when they were having their baths.And I am sure now in this digital age many parents are even more ready with  their camera to take photos of their new baby boy (especially)!

There many different poses parents can put the child in e.g. baby in towel - father bathing baby - father and mother bathing baby etc...All these photos would enrich the photo album and the memory of the child. Most of us remember things and events up to four or five years. So it is good to  snap baby photos for the baby as keepsakes.

Here's a beautiful one - baby boy in a blue tub. (Baby girls in pink tubs..)

And to day we not only have photo albums but Face Book Albums!! As I look at my former student's Facebook I just can't help but fall in love with her new baby boy....and this is such a beautiful baby photo...which I am sure will be treasured by all.



These are other photos I collected from the Internet for my post today. I hope you can see how happy babies are when they are in their bath.


And kudos to Mag for taking beautiful photos of her children and thanks for giving me the permission to use the photo ....And may angels protect baby boy always. Happy memories. And I do hope that all these innocent babies would have happy childhood surrounded by good parents who only want the best for them.





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!!...