Emerald Garden

恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai

2012-01-22T20:49:00.003+08:00

恭喜发财 新年进步

心想事成 万事如意

Crystal Kek Lapis for Chinese New year

2012-01-22T20:42:00.000+08:00

We received a lot of cakes every year and each year, the ones from one of our Malay friends, Rashid, are exceptional, His Prune kek lapis, Haw Flakes kek Lapis and Oreo kek lapis are excellent. This year we receive one with a new pattern ..... Crystal Kek Lapis.

Is it not beautiful? Yummy, too!

Preparing Food Ingredients for Lunar New Year

2012-01-22T13:27:00.000+08:00

During the run-up to the Lunar New Year, there is a lot of food preparation going on - ingredients that requite a lot of time to prepare - weeks, in fact. This year I started on two main ingredients about a week ago ....

On the 2nd of January, I started preparing a special kind of dried bamboo shoot called "ming dried bamboo shoot" (明笋干).

On the 8th of January, I started preparing the sea-cucumber （海参).

Once done, I will put up the entire processes of preparing these two amazing food ingredients.

Ancestor Worship during Chinese New Year

2012-01-21T17:40:00.002+08:00

For many Chinese families, the New year is not just for a celebrations of family reunions but also the occasion to pay respects to one's ancestors (拜祖先）. Our family is no different. While busy with preparations for the New Year, we are also busy getting the various things required for the ancestral worship to be conducted on New Year's Eve (除夕) and on the Second Day of the New Year (年初二).

Besides the offerings of food which includes three types of meat (三生）, tea, wine, sticky rice cake （年糕）and mandarin oranges (柑橘), there are also two types of paper offerings. Preparing them is like doing origami :-)

One of the paper offering is for the Spirits of the Earth （土地神）

while the other type is for the ancestors.....

There are only six pieces of the paper offerings for the Spirits of the Earth. Here is how I folded them ....

For the ancestors, one has to prepare a lot more but they are rather simple to make. We normally prepare about two large bags and here is how we folded the paper into gold and silver ingots....

We are all ready for the ancestral worship tomorrow (New Year's Eve).

Gifts of Chinese Food for Lunar New Year

2012-01-20T21:45:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday, we received a gift of fried noodles, curry chicken and stewed pig trotters from my nephew, Foh, the second son of my third brother. His wife is a very good cook. Mum, TK and I had a delicious lunch.

We are all putting on weight :-)

On Thursday, another much anticipated gift of dinner arrived :-). This is from one of my nephews, Fah, the third son of my eldest sister. My nephew and his wife cooked the meal. They are both good chefs and they run a very successful business that specialise in making fresh noodles,

From the family that makes noodles for a living, their fried noodles for family festivals is one of the best dishes during family celebrations! Traditionally, for Chinese New Year, the noodles are made using duck eggs ( 鸭蛋面 ) but this year due to the scarcity of duck eggs (for some reason), they use chicken eggs. Normal noodles （面）are made with eggs and water but for egg noodles （蛋面）, no water is use - just eggs and wheat flour!

This dish is stewed belly pork and meicai ( 梅菜 ) with dried squids, dried scallops, cashew nuts and mushroom. Lovely dish!

I love this dish of chicken wings in a sweet sauce. The chicken wing is cut into three segments and the skin/meat folded up into a ball at one end of the bone. We called it "Chicken Boxing" ( 拳头鸡 ).

Next is my mum's favourite dish, bean curd roll ( 豆腐卷 ). This is a mix of minced pork, scallops, mushroom, water chestnut, etc rolled in bean curd skin and then deep-fried. This dish is best if the pork is minced by hand and not an electric mincer! In the old days, pig's liver is one of the main ingredient but today, the pig's liver is no longer used. I still prefer it with pig's liver!

Next dish is the Curry Chicken (咖喱鸡）.

Finally, the yummy fish maw (鱼鳔) soup with Chinese radish (菜头）, long cabbage, pacific clams（鲍贝） and mushroom. The chinese radish is stuffed with seasoned minced pork.

The whole family enjoyed the meal ... as usual, there was just too much food!

Mushroom for Chinese New Year

2012-01-19T13:24:00.001+08:00

A MUST item for the Chinese New Year menu is mushroom - whether dried, canned or fresh.

This year a new type of fresh mushroom from China hits town. This particular mushroom was introduced many years back but always in canned form. This year, it is available fresh. I remember many many years ago in Petaling Jaya when TK and I ordered a dish of jialan (伽蓝菜, a type of green leafy vegetables) and bailing mushroom (白灵菇). When the dish was served, we were shocked to see the kailan interlaced with slices and slices of abalone! We were shocked at the seemingly VERY expensive dish and asked the Captain. He told us that the white slices that looked likes sliced abalone were actually the bailing mushroom (白灵菇) . We sighed with relief :-)

Here is the Bailing Mushroom (白灵菇) .... larger than the size of my palm.

Sliced bailing mushroom ...

Steamed, stir-fried or in steamboat, it looks like sliced abalone and is really delicious. Yummy!

Lunar New Year Waxed Duck

2012-01-15T14:12:00.001+08:00

Every year as the Lunar new year approaches, we will receive or buy various traditional food items; one of which is the sweet waxed duck (甜腊鸭).

Note the SWEET (甜) part. Our family does not eat much of the salted waxed duck (咸腊鸭). Another tradition that is probably unique to our family is that we do not eat the sweet waxed duck in any of our new year meals but during the pre and post new year periods as a "追饭" dish (rice-chaser dish).

How do we eat the sweet waxed duck? Well, here is how.

Two main ingredients, the sweet waxed duck and the red leeks (红蒜）with one or two teaspoons of light soya sauce.

Mince the duck and the leek into small pieces. The duck may be difficult to mince so I use a pair of sharp kitchen scissors to cut the meat into small pieces.

First, lightly fried the duck over a very low fire as the duck can char pretty fast! No need to add any oil as the duck was preserved in oil . Remove the meat and retain the oil in the pan. Use the oil to fry the red leek at low heat until soft and fragrant. Add the duck back to the leek and mix well. Add some light soya bean sauce. Stir well and transfer to the serving dish.

Well, that is our family's favourite "追饭" dish (rice-chaser dish). Yummy!

Gift of Indian Muslim Dinner for Lunar New Year

2012-01-11T09:26:00.002+08:00

Ever since my late father started his business in India Street, Kuching, just after WWII, our Indian Muslim neighbours and friends would prepare full set of dishes for dinner and sent them over to us to enjoy as their Lunar New year gifts to our family.

This year is no exception and the first meal arrived last Sunday (8th of January) prepared by our Indian Muslim neighbour from across the street. They are dealers in textiles.

The dinner ......

Mouth-watering spicy rice with lots of vegetables like chunks of potatoes, cauliflower, french beans, etc ....

Fragrant and tender dry curried lamb on the bone ... lots of serai makes this a lovely dish!

My favourite dish each and every year .... they know we all love this dish and always include this in the menu. Yup, brinjal in a spicy sauce with lots of whole garlic, cinnamon and pandan leaves! Really yummy!

Dessert is this sweet milk-based sago, sultana and almond dish .....

All of us had a great dinner :-)

Year of the Dragon Cookies Bag

2012-01-10T14:03:00.003+08:00

As the Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon approaches, our family tradition is to prepare scores of bags of goodies to 回礼 or give “Reciprocal Gifts". As each branches of our extended family and family friends arrive to present gifts of red packets or food to the Matriarch of the family, she will 回礼 and give them a bag of goodies ......

This year we decided not to make any cakes but to have four types of cookies and two oranges in the goodies bags .....

Meanwhile, we try to cope with the deluge of food heading our way..... :-)

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T09:00:00.000+08:00

Wishing All of You

a very

Happy Birthday! 祝你生日快乐！

2011-12-27T07:30:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday Wishes to my brother, Khiong!

生日快乐！

It is a lovely mango cheesecake with a ice cream centre chock-full of mango bits!!

Yummy!!!!!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T13:30:00.000+08:00

Wishing All of you who celebrate

Christmas

a very

Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice 冬至

2011-12-22T17:30:00.000+08:00

Today is the 22nd of December (农历十一月二十八）and we are celebrating the 冬至 (Winter Solstice, Dōngzhì)) festival. Tonight is the longest night of the year.

Technically, we are all older by one year today. To celebrate this festival, there is the standard festive dinner but the key festive food item today is a sweet dish. This is the TangYuan or 汤圆 or sweet glutinous rice balls.

To make the dough for the tangyuan (汤圆), just knead water and glutinous rice flour until the dough is a nice consistency that does not stick to the hand or fall apart when making the balls. The rice ball is usually about 1.5 cm in diameter. In our family, mum always make the rice ball in the traditional pink and white ... nowadays you get them in rainbow colours!

Cook the tangyuan (汤圆) by adding them to boiling water and cook until the rice balls float. Then they are ready to be added to the sugar syrup.The sugar syrup is just water and sugar though we flavour the syrup by adding the very fragrant pandan leaves (which are removed after the syrup is ready).

Just add the cooked tangyuan (汤圆) to the pandan-flavoured sugar syrup and there you have it!

Have a good time and enjoy your tangyuan (汤圆) and the festive dinner with your family!

Festive Fare for Winter Solstice 冬至

2011-12-20T17:28:00.000+08:00

The 冬至 (Winter Solstice, Dōngzhì Festival) festival is on the 22nd of December (农历十一月二十八）and as for each of the festival days in the Lunar Year, my nephew, Fah, who is the third son of my eldest sister, will send over festival food a few days earlier for my mum in a 4-tier tiffin carrier and a big bowl of fried noodles.

The Lee （李） family of my eldest sister is a family of chefs but in their businesses, they specialise in making fresh hand-made noodles and have three companies supplying the bulk of the fresh noodles used in Kuching. They also export to Kuala Lumpur, Johore and Singapore. For family festive occasions, they will make and cook special noodles for the celebrations. I love their duck eggs noodle specially made for the Lunar New Year!

Back to the food for the 冬至 (Winter Solstice) festival......see the spread of three meat, one soup and one noodle dishes.

Fried egg noodles （炒全蛋面) using their specially-made all-eggs noodles.

Curry Chicken （加里鸡）

Deep-fried shaomai (烧卖)

Stewed Duck in Sweet Sauce (甜卤鸭）

Seafood And Meatball Soup (海鲜肉圆汤）

The menu varies from festival to festival but the noodle dish is always part of the menu. Yummy!

Rambutans - 红毛丹

2011-12-18T11:34:00.004+08:00

Besides the sea of durians that can be seen at the Satok Market, you can also see the rambutan (红毛丹, Nephelium lappaceum).... the hairy fruit. We do not have a rambutan tree in our garden but they can be seen in most of our neighbouring gardens. The trees are big and the crown spreading but they do attract lots of ants - especially the big fire ants that we rather do without!!

The fruit is shaped like an egg and varieties are in red, yellow and all shades in between with soft spiny hairs. Some are red with green tips on the hair.

The Chinese called them 红毛丹 even for the yellow varieties except the character for yellow is added in front - 黄红毛丹.

These yellow rambutan are from the garden of TK's eldest sister, Sai Cheng. TK visits them regularly to collect these large plump juicy fruit :-P

The fruits can range in acidity - the yellow varieties tending to be more acidic than red. However, most cultivated varieties are plump, sweet, juicy and aromatic; the translucent flesh surrounding a large seed. Some cultivated varieties are freestone.

Here is what the fruit looks like cross-section longitudinally .

Some varieties tend to have the flesh comes off with the skin of the seed attached to it, known to the Chinese as "脱壳“.

We all love eating rambutan though my mum and I have a slight preference for those fruits that do not have this trait while TK does not seems to care. My nephew, Liang, loves rambutan and cannot get enough of them so he is the beneficiary of TK's largesse!

At Satok Market now, it is RM2 (USD0.70) for a big bunch. So it is time to indulge!!!

Queen of Fruits (果后)

2011-12-14T11:50:00.000+08:00

The Sarawak fruits season is here again. After the huge deluge of the King of Fruits (durian), the Queen of Fruits (果后) can now be seen everywhere and we are all spoilt for choice!

Indeed, it is one of my favourite fruits - the mangosteen (山竹).

They are arriving by the lorry loads from various parts of Sarawak and from Kalimantan in Indonesia. The local Sarawak mangosteen is slightly different from that of Indonesia in that the local fruit is more fragrant.

Just look at the delectable snow white flesh of the mangosteen! It is as sweet as honey!

One interesting bit of information courtesy of my brother, Khiong .... just take a look at the base of the mangosteen.

See the remains of the style? See the six or seven petals? I was told that there are also those with five petals but I cannot find one in my batch of mangosteen.

So what is so interesting about them?

Take a look at the photograph below ....

Well, the number of petals seen in the style indicates the number of segments of the fruits inside.

Enjoy eating the Queen of Fruits!

Singapore : A Parade of Elephants

2011-12-10T11:03:00.001+08:00

While in Singapore, on the 11th of November, we went chasing after 165 elephants to be found all over Singapore ....indeed it was a Parade of Elephants. What!, you may asked. 165 elephants wandering around the big metropolis of Singapore?! No kidding!

Of course we were not kidding - we found a lot of them along Orchard Road and some in Marina Bay Sands though all in all, we managed to find only some 40 of them. Never saw the rest of them ...... all spread out at 19 locations in Singapore. We had only so much time! It was fun!

Here is the very first of them all.....

"165 fibreglass elephants, each designed and decorated by the biggest celebrities and international artists. This is the world's largest outdoor art exhibition in support of Asian elephants conservation, seen for the first time in Asia."

These elephants will be on display until 6 January 2012 and then on view for auction from 8th-11th January 2012. The auction will be on the 12th & 14th of January 2012.

For more Information, visit Singapore 2011 Elephants Parade.

Mud or Sand Prawn Dish

2011-12-06T21:07:00.001+08:00

Just an update - finally decided to cook the sand prawns in soya sauce (light and dark with garlic and chilli).

What a yummy dish it was! Even TK who does not take prawns enjoyed it!

The texture of the flesh is a cross between that of a crab and a prawn. The cooked flesh is really sweet - that from the body is sweet, firm and juicy while the meat from the claws and legs is more, I am not sure how to describe it, tender and sweet but falls apart in the mouth. Totally different sensations!

Mud or Sand Prawns

2011-12-04T21:25:00.001+08:00

In Sarawak, the Mud or Sand Prawns appear to be seasonal and usually seen at the end of the year at the height of the North-East monsoon. Apparently they live and burrow in the mud/sand along mud banks of estuaries or mangrove swamps.

They are exposed when heavy rains washed away the mud banks and are collected by local fishermen for sale in the local wet markets in Kuching - albeit in small quantities. The photographs were taken by my brother, Khiong.

They are about 6' - 8" long with one big and one small pincer, pretty much like the sand crabs. The big pincer is for fighting or self-defense and the small pincer for picking up food. I think the baby aliens in the series of science fiction movies, ALIEN, were modeled on this creature! Here are some close-ups taken in my kitchen!

To clean them, remove the head carapace and wash away all the insides and remove the gills. There is also a thick (3mm) vein full of mud that starts from the head to the base of the tail. I use a chopstick to push out the vein. Note that in a normal prawn, the vein is along the back of the prawn but in the sand prawn, the thick vein is along the underside of the prawn!

The sand prawn can be eaten steamed, stir or deep-fried. I have not gotten round to cooking it yet. Apparently amongst the Malays, they use it for treating asthma.

Wedding Dinner

2011-11-29T22:20:00.001+08:00

The wedding dinner was at the Li Garden Restaurant (梨菀大酒家） at Hock Lee Centre, Kuching. It is one of my favourite restaurant serving good authentic Chinese food at a reasonable price.

For the wedding dinner that night, the food (10 courses) was excellent - as always. However, there were two outstanding dishes and both are my faves!

The Cold Platter ...

and the Peking Duck....

The Peking Duck served in this restuarnt is probably the best of all the Peking duck dishes served in various restaurants in Malaysia or Singapore and certainly better than those I have eaten in Beijing!

Yummy：-）

Another Family Wedding

2011-11-24T17:25:00.001+08:00

Today is the 29th day of the Tenth Moon and there is a wedding in the family again.

The first female of the 30th Generation (三十世) of our branch of the Peng (彭) Family getting married today is the granddaughter of my third brother and the eldest daughter of his second son.

The wedding ceremony is at the Sungai Maong Methodist Church. The groom is a Methodist Christian. The tea ceremony for the bride side was at the home of the bride at 12th Mile Kuching-Serian Road. Mum is the guest of honour there today.

A happy Mum with the bride, her great-grand daughter.

Great-grand mother accepting the offer of a cup of tea from the newly-wedded couple.

Mum with her grandson, father of the bride.

Mum taking a rest after a hectic morning.

Mum with the newly-married couple.

The wedding dinner will be held tonight.

Preparing for Year of the Dragon

2011-11-20T20:48:00.001+08:00

The Lunar New Year of 2012 is the year of the Dragon or Chinese Year 4709 or 4649 depending on who is counting :-) It is only about 9 weeks away.

Every year, on behalf of my mum, we will make cookies for distribution to relatives and friends. We need to decide what cookies we should have and the following four met her and our approval for taste and texture.

Final selections .......

My mum likes strong warm colours like pink or red for Lunar New Year. So her choice is to change the green mint chocolate to the pink strawberry chocolate! We may add some decors like silver /gold dragees or hundreds-thousands to the other cookies.

Baking in our kitchens will begin in earnest after Christmas. usually we include one canister each of the four varieties in the gift pack. Each year, we have to bake some or more forty sets :-O

Singapore

2011-11-08T19:30:00.002+08:00

Heading to Singapore - my first visit in 11 years, a long time considering that I spent 8.5 years there in the 1980's. A lot of catching up to do with old friends! Will update on my return.

Wild Star Fruit

2011-10-29T17:16:00.000+08:00

The local Sarawak fruits season is in full swing ....and one of the fruits unique to Borneo is the Baccaurea angulata or tampoi belimbing or Wild Star Fruit (山杨桃). At this time of the year, you can also see the use of these fruits for great table decor in hotels or at large public functions.

This is also one of my favourite local seasonal fruits.

The fruits come in this bright red, or pink and I have seen some that are yellowish pink.

When you cut the fruit open .....

Just eat the white juicy, sometimes translucent segments! They can range from very sweet to a sweet tangy taste.

Nostalgia Food 3 - Salted Eel

2011-10-21T10:03:00.002+08:00

In our family, salted fish was always a side dish on the dining table be it for a porridge breakfast, or for lunch, dinner and supper. Being Hakkas, our cooking have a bias towards preserved food whether vegetables, meat or fish. It is part of our clan history as nomads during the thousands of years our ancestors moved around China. In fact, the very name "Hakka" or "客家" means "Guest people".

In the past, my mum often made her own salted fish, particularly eels, as she said that the ones made commercially were not so tasty. So recently, when she said that she wanted salted eel, I had to trot off to the market to look for fresh eels. After a couple of unsuccessful forays to the fish markets, I finally found some at the 3rd Mile Market, Kuching.

Now to make the salted eel.

First, de-fin and de-gut the eels and use the handle of a spoon to gouge out the "spinal cord" along the length of the fish. Wash and the cut the eel into about 4" lengths.

Add salt and mix to make sure that the fish is coated with salt.

Lay out on a rack and allow all excess water to drain off. I did this in a sealed container with a draining rack inside. Leave in a fridge for about 3 days.

Next is to dry the wet salted fish. I laid out the fish on a large enamel tray and then covered with a fine stainless steel netting to keep out any flies. The trays need to be out in the sun for a couple of days until the salted fish is dry but not hard. The fish should look like those below.

Once done, put the dried salted fish into a tightly sealed container and store in a fridge. Just take you what you need and fried until golden brown ...

Eaten with porridge or rice, it is a great side dish to improve your appetites - especially when you are feeling poorly without much of an appetite!!

Yummy!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Mum

2011-10-09T10:37:00.001+08:00

To Mum on her 87th Birthday

福如東海長流水

壽比南山不老松

The cake is from friends, Peter and Zhen of "Bake and Chilled". We just wanted a basic cake - simply decorated. The cake is a red beans-green tea cake.

Mum's verdict? DELICIOUS!!! Two helpings!

If you want to know more of "Bake and Chilled", search for Peterzhen on FaceBook and you can see lots more of their beautifully decorated cakes.

Buah Kedondong / Ambarella

2011-09-21T12:40:00.000+08:00

This is the Buah Kedondong (Spondias dulcis / Ambarella). The tree is a tropical tree with edible fruit containing a fibrous pit. The traditional varieties are big tall trees of up to 20 feet tall or more. When I was a kid, I used to go to the farm of my maternal grandparents where they have a couple of these trees beside the pond in which they reared fresh water carps. I love the ripened yellow fruits. Peeled and dipped in sugar, it makes for a delightful snack! We also snacked on the pickled kedondong which we called bakolong in Hakka.

At the beginning of last year, my youngest sister-in-law, Ling, gave me a dwarf variety of the ambarella which she had collected from her mother's place. It was planted on the right side of the house beside my mum's apartment. This was what it looked like three months later .....

.. and it grew and grew..... :-)

This tree is a prolific producer and even though we continuously picked the fruits, there are still some twenty or more clusters of fruits at all stages from flowers to ripened fruits all the time and each cluster can have 20-30 fruits! The fruiting is so heavy we had to propped up the branches with belian posts!

The flowers ....

The fruits as they set, grew and then ripened ....

So how to eat this fruit?

Well, you can eat this fruits at all stages ...

The whole young fruits can blended with some dried sour plum and sugar. Add ice to make a truly nice and refreshing drink.

Both the unripened green and ripened yellow fruit can be peeled and segmented and eaten as they are or with a sprinkling of sugar. I prefer the ripened yellow fruits!

The fruit contains a spiky fibrous pit - see the above picture.

Of course, who can forget the pickled kedondong! The peeled kedondong is segmented and sugar is added to the fruits. You can also add in dried sour plums and/or salt. No need to add water. Keep in the fridge for 2 or 4 days.

Yummy!

Mid-Autumn Festival - 中秋节

2011-09-12T15:46:00.004+08:00

Today is the 15th Day of the Eight Moon and is 中秋节or Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the past, the family sat down to a sumptious dinner and then all adjourned to the flat roof-top of our old house to worship the Moon Goddess .....

Then all drank tea and ate melon seeds and mooncakes while the children carried Chinese lanterns.

Nowadays, it is just dinner and then off to the garden to play fireworks or send off Chinese flying lanterns (孔明燈, kongmingdeng).

Of course, the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) is still mostly about family gatherings and eating mooncakes. When it cmes to mooncakes, there are now huge varieties of mookcakes in all flavours, shapes and hues. Following are some varieties we have at home....gifts from families and friends!

Green Tea 禄茶

Teochew 潮州

Baked 烤

Shanghai 上海

Snowskin 冰皮

Soya Bean Paste 豆沙

White Paste 白糕

Air-Dried 风吹

Soft 软糕

Whichever mooncake you enjoy, just remember one of the stories behind this festive tradition - STAND UP TO OPPRESSION.

Happy Mid-Autum Festival! Enjoy your mooncakes!

Family Wedding

2011-09-11T14:46:00.002+08:00

Today is the 14th day of the Eighth Moon and there is a wedding in the family.

The first male of the 30th Generation (三十世) of our branch of the Peng (彭) Family getting married today is the grandson of my third brother.

In the front hall is the altar for the Peng (彭) Family Ancestral Worship Ceremony. The Peng (彭) family is part of the LungSiTang (隴西堂）Clan. Hence, the heading on the altar.

The young couple performing the offering of tea and wine to their ancestors - conducted by the Master of Ceremonies.

This is followed by the traditional tea ceremony where the newly-wedded couple offers tea to all their elders.

My mum, the matriach of the family, as the great-grandmother is the first to be greeted. She accepted the offered tea from her great-grandson and great-grand daughter-in-law and then gave them a red packet in return.

Each of the elders take their turns and finally the newly wedded couple got to sit down to accept tea offered by their younger siblings, cousins and nephews and nieces. The new couple then give each of them a red packet of money.

The ceremony is then followed by lunch in the house.

My mum posing for a picture with my second sister on this happy occasion.........

Both are hale and healthy!

Bauhina Kockina

2011-09-03T12:33:00.003+08:00

The third sturdy flowering climber in our creeper garden is the Bauhina Kockina. This plant is certainly my favourite climber and in our old PJ garden was the climber at the main piller of our front porch. Our plant in the creeper garden is about a year old.

It takes a while to get established and may not flower for years but once it starts flowering will produce year-round a profusion of bright orange flowers. So I was quite surprised to see the first few flower buds appearing after just a year or so .....

One of our neighbouring gardens has a very old bush ...... just look at the amazing flowers! It covers the entire side of one house and looking at the main trunk, reckon it has to be at least a couple of decades old.

Don't you think it looks amazing?

Talking about that PJ plant, it did not flower at all for more than two years despite the vine being a inch or more thick! I was so frustrated that I "threatened" the plant that I would cut it down a few months later if it did not produce any flowers ...and lo and behold - flowers :-) To this day, TK said t that it was just plain coincidence!

Sadly, after we sold the house in PJ, the new owner dug up the front and back garden and concreted over the entire area - our 20 years of hard work demolished in a few days!

TK's Birthday

2011-08-28T19:00:00.000+08:00

TK's 58th Birthday celebration was at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching .... fabulous buffet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Our Trumpets

2011-08-16T11:57:00.002+08:00

The trumpets referred to in the subject are not musical instruments but rather the Angel’s Trumpet (Datura Metel, 洋金花 , 曼陀罗). I always like this plant but have never planted it in the past as the plant requires open space and bright sunlight to do well.

A year or so back, we managed to get a Double Purple Datura Metel and it was planted in the front garden.

Once the flower faded and dropped off, it leaves behind a spiky pad which soon develops into a spiky ball (like the durian), the size of which is slightly smaller than a golf ball.

When totally dried, the ball opens to reveal rows and rows of brown seeds.

On one of our morning walks around the neighbourhood, we found a Double White Angel’s Trumpet. The owner gave us some of the seeds and, in return, we gave him the seeds from our purple Angel’s Trumpet. The seeds soon germinated and we just had the first batch of white Angel’s Trumpet.

For households with small children in the family, the Angel’s Trumpet is NOT a suitable plant for your garden. All parts of this plant are extremely toxic and should not be ingested in any form. Ingestion of part of the plants can have severe side effects.

Kuching International Orchid Show 2011

2011-08-04T14:43:00.006+08:00

The Kuching International Orchid Show 2011 was opened to the public last weekend and so we went on the 29th of July.

It was a small exhibition even by Malaysian standard but they do have some very nice flowers and while I am not a big fan of orchids, they are still spectacular to look at. In our garden, we have very few orchids.

Just too many beautiful orchids at the exhibition - so I just post some of the ones I like best! No need for any descriptions - just enjoy the visual delights!

Garden in Bloom

2011-07-21T11:22:00.008+08:00

It has been a very busy last few weeks with visitors, seminars, business meetings and QC checks for compliance/certification of bakery diplomas courses. On top of that, our cat gave birth to three kittens, our serama hen just hatched five new chicks the sizes of small marbles and our dog got tick fever :-(

As for the five serama chicks, here they are when they are about 2 days old...

This is their lone two months old sibling from a previous batch.

This one is a beautiful pure creamy-white in colour but the new batch will certainly be coloured as can be seen from the dark markings on their feathers.

Meanwhile, the weather have been pretty kind - bright (albeit, hot) sunny days followed by downpours late afternoon or evening. The garden is doing well and looks and smells good. An evening walk in the garden is a visual and aromatic delight and especially, due to the profusion of fragrant flowers, in particular, the "Queen of the Night" .....

The entire garden is strongly scented with a delightful fragrance. It is really fantastic!

Just look at some of the other beautiful flowers in bloom now ........

Great life in a beautiful garden :-)

Curry Tree and Leaves

2011-07-05T21:11:00.003+08:00

As in many Malaysian gardens, we also have a Curry Tree (Murraya koenigii) in our garden.The curry leaf is an aromatic leaf used in South Asian cuisines but now commonly use in other Asian cooking. At home, in addition to using the curry leaves in curry, we also fried them to add to various meat dishes for the aroma.

This is the young curry tree ...

It took a year or so to reach this size.

I love the arrangement of the leaves.

Few people realise that the curry tree produces flowers but they do. Seen here are the small flower buds.

The flowers are white and have a very light fragrance.

Finally, the fruits. The unripe ones are green and as they ripened, they turn red and finally looks like a black peppercorn.

Propagation is by seed and you need the naturally ripened fruit to plant. They must be fresh as dried or shriveled fruits are not viable. Potting medium must be kept moist, and never wet.

Curry leaves have many medical uses in folk medicines. Do a search if you are interested.

One interesting medical use is to control diabetes or to reduce one's sugar level. Apparently the leaves contain agents that slow down the rate of starch-to-glucose breakdown in people with diabetes and could control the amount of glucose entering the bloodstream.

So just chew and eat ten leaves every morning on an empty stomach!

Birthday!

2011-06-20T09:47:00.002+08:00

A really nice reduced sugar birthday cake ..... and the birthday celebrations was at the Big Oven - which serves very good Western food.

Pink Ornamental Banana

2011-06-17T13:02:00.001+08:00

We saw this beautiful pink ornamental banana (musa ornata pink) growing in the over-grown garden of an abandoned house ... so we went in to harvest a couple of rhizomes. It was very difficult as the undergrowth was really thick and we had to bring a hoe and a garden saw! Still, it was worth it. We planted the rhizomes in a couple of pots first and when fully established, transferred them to the back of the garden against the fence.

See one of the plants with the banana inflorescence. It was only about 120 cm tall.

The banana inflorescence grew pretty fast.

Just look at the beautiful opened banana inflorescence.

The growing bananas ....

Finally, the fully-formed pink bananas.

We heard that the pink bananas are edible but they did not looked very appetizing! So we waited to see what happened next ....

Indeed, the bananas are self-peeling. One day, the bananas just opened and they look like flowers and they are beautiful!!

By the later part of the day, the birds had finished off the fruits!

This plant certainly add colours and interests to the garden as well as providing food for the birds.

Bunga Kesidang or Bread Flower

2011-06-12T14:28:00.000+08:00

What smells like the lovely fragrant pandan leaves but is not pandan. Of course, this is the Bunga Kesidang, also known as Vallaris glabra or Bread Flowers.

I love the fragrance of this plant - a very light and sweet smell.

In our garden, we have this vine in a large dragon pot and have the vine going round and round the central stake. This plant can do much better in the ground but as we have limited space for growing climbers have to be contented with this plant in a pot!

The small white flowers .....

The flowers are magnets for insects, especially ants!

This is certainly one of the nicest plant to have in a garden and if you can get this plant, make sure to have it in your garden. My friend, Harmit Kaur, in Subang Jaya have this lovely plant in her garden with the Bunga Kesidang on one side of the walkway and the rangoon creeper on the other side! Lovely place!

Recently, I was told that there is this house in Siniawan, outside Kuching, with hundred-years old Bunga Kesidang vines that forms the bulk of the fence of the house and the whole neighbourhood is scented with the lovely fragrance of the flowers when the plants are in bloom! Unfortunately, recently, the owners' descendents started to cut away some of the old old vines to make way for concrete fence..... :-(

What a great pity!

Duan Wu Festival (端午節).

2011-06-06T09:06:00.001+08:00

Today is Duan Wu Festival (端午節).

The day started off with hanging the Shi Xiang Fu (stone-joss stick-symbol/mark) on both sides of the main door and then preparing standard "SanSheng" (chicken, pork and eggs/cuttlefish), rice wine, tea and for this festival, the savoury and alkaline dumplings, for the ancestor worship ceremony. I blogged about this last year.

How many of you know what this is?

It is made from bamboo and cut into thin strips up to the node where they are all joined together.

For those of you who are old enough, this is what was used to tie the wrapped dumplings. Beside this, they also used "salted straw" or 咸草 (茳茳咸草 Cyperus malaccensis) 。The bamboo is now rarely available while the "salted straw" or 咸草 can still be bought in the market. Both are 100% GREEN!

Nowadays, for convenience's sake, most people use nylon or cotton strings.

Enjoy your Duan Wu festival.

Barbados Cherry

2011-06-03T18:06:00.001+08:00

I have this bush in the garden which I really like for the flowers and the fruits and is very attractive to bees, butterflies and birds but was not able to identify the plant until recently. I asked at the GCS Forum and Wisteria told me that it was Barbados Cherry (Malpighia glabra). It is also variously known as Acerola or West Indian Cherry.

This is the Barbados Cherry bush in my garden.

I think I got it more than two years ago from the Satok Market in Kuching. It took a while to get established and is very slow growing. Only in the last year or so, did it started branching out profusely and is now a nice bush - not having been pruned at all.

When it blooms, the plant is really beautiful with masses of small but beautiful pink flowers. Lots of bees and butterflies visited this bush.

The fruits are the size of small cherries and they looked like cherries. Birds seem to like them!

Close-up of the fruits ....

The plant with the fruits looks really nice and is very popular with our visitors. I have eaten the fruits - really sour but edible and I have tried making juice with it - nice cold drink for a hot day! According to a University of Florida report :

The flesh is yellow-orange and very high in vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Vitamin C content ranges from 1000 to 2000 mg per 100 gm in the edible portion of fully ripe fruit and may be as high as 4500 mg per 100 gm in partially ripe fruit. A single fruit of some selections could supply the daily adult requirement of vitamin C. The fruit from most seedlings is rather tart but from some it is sub-acid to almost sweet. The more acid fruit has the higher vitamin C content.

The plant self-sows but you can use the stones from the fruits. It takes a while - just be patient!!

Gawai Dayak

2011-06-01T06:56:00.000+08:00

Today is Gawai Dayak.

Selamat Nyambut Ari Gawai

Terung Dayak

2011-05-28T20:45:00.000+08:00

The Terung Dayak (Sour Brinjal, Solanum ferox L.) can be found throughout South East Asia but this plant/fruit seems to be unique to Sarawak in the sense that the fruits are used in a multitude of dishes in "Sarawak" cuisine.

I use the term "Sarawak" as it is used in cooking by nearly every community in Sarawak be they Chinese, Iban, Malay, Bidayuh or any other local races. I have not seen this fruit sold or eaten in West Malaysia or Singapore.

Easily grown locally, the plants in my garden were the result of the seeds left in the water, after washing/cutting the fruit, which I then used for watering the plants in the garden!

The ripened fruit is very sour and used in many ways to make delicious dishes and amongst my favourite dishes - in thin slices to steam with fish, quartered to cook in soup with belacan/chilli or with fish (especially terubok), and so on.

One thing about this plant - just take a look at the hook-like needle sharp thorns.

They are lethal!

Nostalgia Food 2 - Pickled Squids or Sotong

2011-05-20T08:18:00.001+08:00

Most of you oldies should remember, in the old days, seeing at the wet market, basins of small pinkish-white pickled whole sotong (local name for squid (English)) for sale. They are not not seen any more as the pickled sotong are now sold pre-sliced in capped bottles! More hygienic but one can on longer sniff at them to see how good they are before purchasing! That whiff is a dash of nostalgia ...

In the past, my mum used to make them, albeit very rarely, during the squid season when the price of fresh sotong was low. However, with the disappearance of the pickled whole sotong from the market and the introduction of the bottled ones, she started to made the pickle at home. According to her, the bottled ones do not taste as nice and I do agree with her.

Recently, she decided to make a fresh batch at home .... and so I trotted off to the wet market at Sg. Maong, Kuching to buy 3 kg of sotong. I was told to pick the smaller ones.

The fresh sotong ....

Rinse the sotong with running tap water - just once. No gutting is required - and make sure that the ink sacs are still intact. Any sotong with a burst sac would turn the whole batch of pickled sotong black! Drain well.

For 3 kg of sotong, add about three handful of salt to the salt.

Mix well.

Place the salted sotong into glass jars and top off the jar with a thin layer of salt. Seal well.

After about one month, the pickled sotong is ready. Just slice into thin strips and add sliced chilli and some vinegar. Instead of the vinegar, you can also use the juice from a small lime (limau kasturi).

This is a delicious side dish and a great "rice-chaser"! Yummy.

Bananas ...

2011-05-14T11:06:00.001+08:00

A while back, TK's second sister-in-law gave us two offshoots from her banana grove in her garden. She told us that the banana plant is of the dwarf variety and fruits well. The two offshoots were planted right at the back of the garden next to the chicken hut and our local guava tree.

The banana plant grow to about 2 metres and then produce the inflorescence.

The unopened banana inflorescence.

The banana inflorescence, now, partially opened.

Partially opened with fruits.

Just look at the amazing symmetry of the bunch of bananas!

The bananas looks like they are of the the dwarf cavendish variety.

First sign of the ripening fruits ....

The bunch of the bananas was cut down and the harvest was a grand total of 84 bananas with a total weight of 17 kg.

The naturally ripened bananas are very sweet but ripens pretty fast. There is no way we can finish them so we gave most of them to my younger brother. At least he got lots of employees at the shops to eat them!

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T12:55:00.012+08:00

Today is Mother's Day but we celebrated the event earlier as there are the expected big crowds at restaurants today and my brother is also away this weekend on a business trip. So, last Saturday, we all trotted off to BIG OVEN, just off Jalan Zainal Adruce (Kereta Api), which served western cuisine.

This is mum.

She is 86, hale and hearty with very good appetite. She loves eating and enjoys most cuisines. At home, we mostly restrict her to fish, fruits and vegetables. However, when eating out, beside Chinese dishes, she loves eating at Italian restaurants (especially meals with vegeroni spiral pasta and pizzas) and all fast food chain restaurants (you can name any one!! ).

At the Big Oven that evening, she had bruschetta and calamari followed by braised cod with a tomato-based sauce, on a bed of mashed potatoes with salad. The meal ended with a slice of the cheese cake.

A very enjoyable meal for her:-)

Garlic Vine (Pseudocalyma alliaceum)

2011-05-06T10:18:00.000+08:00

Another sturdy flowering climber in our creeper garden is the Garlic Vine (Pseudocalyma alliaceum). This plant is a favourite of TK and I think he got it from his second sister, Chuo. It is a dazzling vine when in full bloom with bunches of purple-white flowers. It also has a pleasant garlic-like smell.

They are gorgeous, are they not? If you have the space, it is a must-have plant - very easy to maintain and flowers consistently. However, when all the flowers withered, it leaves an unsightly mess which must be cleared immediately!

Apparently, the garlic vine is used in cooking for its garlic-like smell, in traditional herbal medicines for a variety number of ailments and to keep snakes away from the garden. I really have no idea as to the culinary, medical or practical efficacy of this plant!.

The War in the Garden ...

2011-04-30T13:24:00.001+08:00

.. against the birds and insects :-)

We have a number of fruit trees in the garden. Some are still maturing but others are already fruiting. Each morning, it is a battle to get to the fruits first before the birds - like our mulberry and our figs. For the mulberry, it is quite difficult and we have to make sure we picked the fruits as they ripen as once ripened, the fruits do not stay long on the tree - the birds get to them fast. Our figs are different - they ripen over about 3 days. The birds start eating the fruits as soon as they are edible but we need them to be as ripe as possible to get the maximum sweetness. We tried covering with the soft net used for orchid sheds but it cuts down the sunlight too much, stunting growth.

TK's sister told us of a fruit net available in Australia. As far as we are aware, we have not been able to get such nets in Kuching. When TK went to Melbourne in March, he carted back two such nets and we put one around our fig tree.

Well, the net is doing it's job. The birds cannot get in and we can let the figs ripened properly. We have already harvested a number of the naturally-ripened figs and they are PERFECT!!!

A Most Unwelcome Visitor ....

2011-04-24T12:23:00.002+08:00

... to our garden and the strange mysteries of the disappearance of our five cats over the last year or so may have been solved!

On Friday, TK got up early and went to the shed at the back of our garden to get some gardening tools. The grey striped cat was there at the back of the garden. He then looked for the calico that we kept in the cage at the back garden. This calico was 5 months old and from my sister-in-law's mother. We just got it about 3 weeks ago and it was just getting used to us and our garden. TK could not see the calico cat in the cage and then, to his horror, saw this ......

....... a 2-m long reticulated python!

Obviously, the python had eaten our calico cat - judging from the bulge in the middle section of the snake. TK then called all of us (my niece, mum, her maid and I) to look at the snake. My two nephews and sister-in-law also joined us. Looks like the python squeezed through the wire netting, ate the cat but got trapped inside as, with the meal of a cat inside, it cannot leave the cage!

I called 911 and when told of a snake, the call was transferred to the Malaysian Civil Defence Force. They immediately sent a team of four to catch the snake.

It was all over in minutes. I was told that they will release the python at a forest reserve.

Just behind our house is a large bamboo thicket and it is quite common to find snakes living in this type of garden growth. We had previously seen a 60-cm long green grass(?) snake in our garden but it was just like a long thin rope of about 2-3 mm!

Until we saw the python, we could not understand how five of our cats/kittens had disappeared over the last year or so! This 2-metre long python certainly could have been eating our cats! We are now down to one cat! According to the guys, there may be another snake in the vicinity as usually there may be a pair nesting in the same area. We have been told to watch out for it!

Well, no more wandering near the bamboo thicket at night!!

Surinam Cherry

2011-04-21T11:35:00.000+08:00

The Surinam Cherry (Eugenia uniflora) is a beautiful shrub/tree which can grow up to 8 metres tall and is the most widely known of the edible-fruited Eugenia species.

I cannot remember where I saw this plant but I know that it is a must have for my garden!! It took some 18 months for the plant to grow to 2 metres and it had not been flowering much nor fruiting until recently.. Now it is a sight to behold!

The flowers are very small but very very beautiful ...

The green fruits ....

See the changing colours of the fruits as they ripen - green, yellow and then orange-red.

These are the beautiful ripened fruits.

The surinam cherry shrub...

The fruits are edible but should only be picked when they ripened until they fall off at a touch. Even then, they cannot be eaten immediately as they are still resinous.The fruits should be halved, de-seeded and keep in a fridge for 2 or 3 hours to get rid of the resinous aroma. The fruits can then be eaten sprinkled with some sugar or as fruit topping (like strawberries) with sugar and cream like strawberries, etc.

Each fruit consist of a single seed, from what I have seen of those I sliced opened. Apparently the seeds are only viable for about a month and germination takes place in about 3 week.

Busy busy busy ....

2011-04-18T10:42:00.000+08:00

Had been very busy the last week or so .. what with the Sarawak 10th State Elections and also the changeover of our domestic help. It does not help that it is also Income Tax time....

I will continue on with blogging on my garden in the next two days on this beautiful plant ....

Can anyone guess the name of this plant? It produce a really beautiful fruit as well.

Herbal Drinks

2011-04-09T20:29:00.002+08:00

The weather in Kuching have been very hot these few weeks ...

My mum complains that she is feeling very "heaty" and asks to drink a herbal drink make from 車前草 (Plantago asiatica, cheqiancao).

We do have this herb in the garden and one should use the whole plant to make a drink. though I always remove the root - being a bit fastidious about the soil :-) To make the drink, just boil a small bundle of the herb in one litre of water for an hour or so. You can also add pandan leaves. Drink it neat. This herbal drink is to alleviate "heatiness"‘ or "熱氣" in the body and to increase urination.

Another herb we have is 雷公根 (Centella asiatica, leigonggen).

The herb 雷公根 (Centella asiatica, leigonggen) has the same effect as 車前草 though it is also suppose to make the urine acidic to help remove kidney stones. Again, to make the drink, just boil a bundle of the fresh herbs in a liter of water and drink neat.

Please note that the above herbal drinks are part of our family herbal remedies and while I do enjoy drinking them, I certainly do not vouch for the efficacy of these herbal drinks! The usual applies - if in doubt, do not drink!

White Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior)

2011-03-29T14:08:00.001+08:00

Right next to our Red Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior) is our White Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior) and both plants look very similar. The plant was also from TK's brother, Hoo in Miri.

Actually, we were not sure what type of ginger it was and it only started flowering recently (after some 2 years?). So it was a very pleasant surprise to see the flower buds coming up ... as we were told that it is rather rare.

It is a beautiful flower - snow white with a tinge of yellow at the base of the petals.

If you have a large garden, even though both the red and white ginger flowers do take up a lot of space, they are both highly recommended for the corners at the end of the garden.

Yellow Butterfly Ginger

2011-03-27T11:28:00.002+08:00

I have previously posted on the white butterfly ginger (Hedychium coronarium var. coronarium) and mentioned that there are other varieties of this beautiful frgrant flower.

In the garden, we had the yellow butterfly ginger (H. coronarium var. coronarium) as a small tiny offset. It is now 3' tall and in bloom - producing flowers that are just as fragrant as the white butterfly ginger but even better with the yellow centre in the flowers.

Do make sure you have one in the garden!

The Glorious Rangoon Creeper

2011-03-15T10:08:00.003+08:00

As mentioned before, the Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) is one of my favourite creeper for its showy flowers and subtle fragrance. This plant in our garden certainly did not disappoint!

Don't you think you want one in your garden? Find a sunny spot! If you have small garden as in our previous PJ home, it does pretty well in a well drained pot.

Propagation is by cuttings - you need to use cuttings from firm new growths. Use a rooting powder and keep the cuttings out of the sun in a moist shady spot. Some people use bags to keep the cuttings misted.

Enjoy!

壽山亭 (Shou Shan Ting) or 大伯公廟 (Da Bo Gong Temple) Part 2 Selection of Temple Committee

2011-03-07T19:47:00.003+08:00

Part of the the temple celebrations also included the ritual selection of the new members of the Temple Committee to handle the temple affairs from the 3rd to the 8th Lunar Months. The Temple Committee comprised of the 爐主 (Master of the Incense Pot) and five 頭家 (Headmen).

Only the names of Chinese businesses can be submitted for selection as committee members. Personal names are not permitted. Other than this there is no restriction with respect to sex, clans or dialects.The owners of the businesses selected will be the new committee members.

It may be of interest to note that the current 爐主 (Master of the Incense Pot) is a lady who is also a biochemist/accountant with her own biotechnology firm.

The setting for the prayers to select the new temple committee. with a row of vegetarian dried food....

The Altar all set for the selection to begin ...

The current batch of committee members and helpers in front of the temple worshipping Heaven.

Then they all moved back to the main table ...

The 爐主 (Master of the Incense Pot) was the first to pour the wine into the five glasses, then face inside the temple to pray to 大伯公 (God of Prosperity). Each of the five 頭家 (Headmen) did the same thing. Specially invited guests also repeated the same ritual.

All six of the committee members and invited guests then repeated the whole ritual two more times.

The offerings ....

The 爐主 (Master of the Incense Pot), five 頭家 (Headmen) and invited guest then moved to the inside of the temple to add oil to the oil lamp beside the statue of 大伯公 (God of Prosperity).

Following that, the ritual moved back to the main altar and all the Temple Committee members drew names of business from a box to select the new temple committee members. For example, the 爐主 (Master of the Incense Pot) will draw for the name of the next 爐主 (Master of the Incense Pot) while the five 頭家 (Headmen) will draw the next five 頭家 (Headmen).

Each of the drawn name have to be approved by 大伯公 (God of Prosperity). This is done by throwing two kidney-shaped stones on the floor. Approval is when there is there is Yin and Yang. Otherwise, a second name will be drawn. If there is still no approval for the second name, the next committee member than takes over to select the name. This was repeated until all six committee members have been selected.

Once all the members of the new Temple Committee have been selected, the ritual is completed by burning "gold paper".

The very last part of the ritual was for the Temple Committee members to deliver gifts of food to each of the new committee members and informed them of their new roles in the temple affairs.

壽山亭 (Shou Shan Ting) or 大伯公廟 (Da Bo Gong Temple) Part 1 Temple Celebrations

2011-03-06T21:53:00.004+08:00

壽山亭 (Shou Shan Ting), more popularly known as 大伯公廟 (Da Bo Gong Temple), is the oldest temple in Kuching and is the Temple of the God of Prosperity.

It is believed to have been built in 1843, while the official records only recognize its existence in 1876. All these years, as they say, the temple has been 香火不斷 (xianghuobuduan) - meaning that it has been the centre of worship for many Chinese in Kuching since it's establishment. Despite it's age, the temple is well maintained. Record showed that there were renovations to the temple dating back to 1856 though the land title was only granted by the second Sarawak Rajah, Sir Charles Brooke, on the 29th of August 1871.

The Kuching Chinese Community Charitable Trust Board is entrusted with the care of the temple and, every six months, a new committee will be "elected" to handle the day-to-days affairs of the temple, organising fund raising campaigns and temple celebrations.

Today﹐ 二月初二 (second day of the second moon) is the Birthday Celebrations of 大伯公 and huge crowds of worshipers throng the temple with incense and various offerings.

The offerings brought by the worshipers ....

To be continued.

Our Creepers Garden

2011-03-01T23:52:00.001+08:00

I have mentioned before that on the west side of our garden, outside the main wall of the living room, we intended to create a number of wooden frames for our favourite flowering creepers. This was done in October last year and we had three sets of frames made from belian wood.

Once we have prepared the bed, we planted four of our favourite creepers....

Garlic Vine (Pseudocalyma alliaceum)

Red Trailing Bauhinia (Bauhinia kockiana)

Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica)

We had these three plants in our Petaling Jaya Garden and of the three, the Red Trailing Bauhinia (Bauhinia kockiana) was the last to flower - nearly two years after planting it!

The fourth creeper is the Chalice Vine (solandra longiflora) about which I had written last year.

All our four creepers are doing very well. As each of the other three creepers bloom, I will upload the pictures.

Chinese New Year - Twentieth Day : 女娲再补天 or Nüwa Patch Up Sky Again

2011-02-22T15:02:00.000+08:00

Today is the Twentieth Day of the Chinese New Year and is the day of 女娲再补天 or Nüwa Patched the Sky Again.

Legends has it that on the Twentieth Day of the Chinese New Year, a really big hole appeared in the sky and the Goddess 女娲 (Nüwa)补天 had to expend great efforts to patch up the hole in the sky.

As for the Tenth Day, on this day, in our family, we all eat 年糕 (niangao) to commemorate Her deeds.

My Golden Penda

2011-02-19T11:56:00.002+08:00

This is one tree that I always admire and the glory of them in full bloom can be seen in the little paved spacer at the end of Ban Hock Lane in Kuching between the Kuching Central Police Station and BSN. I used to stare in amazement at the trees covered with the golden flowers and it was a glorious sight! I have not been there recently to see the trees in bloom.

This tree is the Golden Penda (Xanthostemon chrysanthus). We have one in our garden but not in the ground - rather in a large pot - which produces nice profusions of golden flowers every so often. We have not decided where to tranplant it in the garden! This plant is now in bloom.

This is one "must have" plant for any garden and if you have the space, plant it in the ground - it makes for a beautiful tree!

Chinese New Year - Fifteenth Day : 元宵节 (Yuan Xiao Jie)

2011-02-17T13:05:00.002+08:00

Today is 元宵节 (Yuan Xiao Jie) - the Fifteenth Day of the Chinese New Year and is also known as the Lantern Festival. It is also the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations

This morning, the family set up offerings to pray to our ancestors while in the evening, there will be a big family dinner.

However, for those young and unattached or unmarried, the evening is also for them to meet each other and possibly meet their future love or life partners. A lot of places organise evening riverside events where giggling females write their names and phone numbers on oranges to throw them into the rivers. Young men on boats will net them out for blind dates!

For the oldsters and the kids, it should be an evening of eating, fireworks and fire crackers!

Happy 元宵节 (Yuan Xiao Jie)!

Chinese New Year - Tenth Day : 女娲补天 or Nüwa Patched the Sky

2011-02-12T11:40:00.000+08:00

The Tenth Day of the Chinese New Year is the day of 女娲补天 or Nüwa Patched the Sky.

Legends has it that on the Tenth Day of the Chinese New Year, a small hole appeared in the sky and the rain fell non-stop. To save the people on Earth from drowning, 女娲 (Nüwa)补天 or patched up the hole in the sky.

On this day, in our family, we all eat 年糕 (niangao) - sticky rice cake made only for Chinese New Year).

We just slice the 年糕 into thin slices and eat them as they are, fried plain or with egg batter and best of all, fried as a sandwich of yam and 年糕.

Here is a plate of the fried plain 年糕 (niangao) ...

and another plate fried with yam slices...

Yummy :-)

Chinese New Year - Seventh Day - 人日 or Birthday of Mankind

2011-02-09T13:09:00.002+08:00

The Seventh Day of the Chinese New Year is 人日 or the Birthday of Mankind. Traditional belief is that the Goddess 女娲 (Nüwa) during the first ten days of the New year made the on each succeeding day, the Chicken, Dog, Goat, Pig, Bull, Horse, Human, Grains, Heaven and Earth.

On this day, one of the dishes during lunch must be a single dish of seven types of vegetables ..... for our family, we celebrate with 七樣菜茶 or seven types of vegetables and tea, the tea being our 客家擂茶 (Hakka ground tea).

For lunch today we have .....

Piping hot 客家擂茶 (Hakka ground tea).

Steamed rice with fried garlic and oil.

Dish of 七樣菜茶 or seven types of vegetables.

A platter of bean curd, dried turnips, Chinese leek and dried prawn.

A plate of 樹菜 (Sauropus androgynus)。

Of course, last but not least, the roasted peanuts, whole or ground as required.

A most satisfying and healthy meal to celebrate the Birthday of Mankind.

Chinese New Year - Third Night - Wedding of the Mice

2011-02-06T12:10:00.000+08:00

The third night of the Chinese New Year is also known as the Night of the Wedding of the Mice. The are lots of Chinese folk and orchestra music that celebrate this specific event and the music are some of the nicest to listen to!

On this night, people go to bed early and all the lights in the house are switched off so as not to disturb the Mice on their weddings. Some people also leave out some new year candies on the floor for the wedding :-)

Actually, after a week of frantic activities, it is nice to go to bed early and have a good rest. With all the lights out, no visitor are likely to turn up!

Chinese New Year - Third Day - Day of the Poor Ghosts

2011-02-06T12:00:00.001+08:00

The third day of the Chinese New Year is also the Day of the Poor Ghosts - poor in this case being lack of money! This is the day,we also clean up the house and then dumped the rubbish.

Story?

Well, there was a woman whose second husband was a very rich man. The first husband was a gambler and ne'er do well.

One New Year, on the first day, her ex-husband came begging at her home. She recognized him but he was not aware of his ex-wife. So she asked him to wait and then went into her house to make Chinese dumpling. Into each dumpling, she hid a silver ingot. With some thirty or so of the dumplings, the husband would be able to lead a good life. She passed the dumplings to her ex-husband and reminded him to eat the dumplings while still hot.

He left with the dumplings but instead of eating them decided to sell them to get cash. When one guy bought one dumpling from him for two cents and bit into it, he found the silver ingot. The customer realised that there must be more to it than just plain dumpling and decided to buy the whole lot from the vendor for one silver ingot.

On the third day of the New Year, the woman again saw her ex-husband begging or food at her house. She wondered what happened and asked him into the kitchen. On hearing his story, she was so enraged, she took up the fire poker and hit him on the head, accidentally killed him. To hide the deed, she decided to clean up the house and throw the corpse out with the rubbish.

Hence, that day is now known as the Day of the Poor Ghosts. Not a day for visiting as the visitors are known as Poor Ghosts and, anyway, everyone is supposed to be cleaning up and clearing out the rubbish :-)

2011-02-04T11:19:00.005+08:00

恭喜發財

萬事如意

3 days to Chinese (Lunar) New Year of the Rabbit or 4701

2011-01-30T17:36:00.000+08:00

The family of my eldest sister specialises in making noodles and my three nephews all run their own noodle making businesses supplying fresh noodles to restaurants and noodle stalls in Kuching . They also supply (by air) to customers in West Malaysia and Singapore. My eldest brother-in-law was a chef before he became a noodle maker and he was a really good chef. His festival dinners were meals to look forward to! Since he passed away, three of his children have mastered their father's skills in cooking.

Our festival meal today meal was prepared by his third son - Fah.

To start off, we have the (five fragrances meat roll) ....

Next, we have chicken wings in a honey sauce. This is certainly one of my mum's favourite dish.

Then curry chicken ....

This next dish is my favourite - a thick slab of pork (back thigh meat - with a thick layer of fat) stewed with mushroom, cuttle fish, scallops and chestnuts.

For soup, we have stuffed winter melon ....

Finally, fried fresh noodles - this noodle is specially hand-made with flour and eggs only. The egg noodle is much nicer than the normal noodle.

Yummy!!!

11 days to Chinese (Lunar) New Year of the Rabbit or 4701

2011-01-24T09:53:00.003+08:00

It is still 11 days to the Chinese (Lunar) New Year of the Rabbit and the feasting has already started :-)

As in previous years, our non-Chinese friends and neighbours start to cook and send over the food. Yesterday, one of our Muslim Indian neighbour send over, as he had done for decades, various home-made dishes.

For this year ...

Briyani Rice .... chock full of vegetables and herbs. Our neighbour certainly cook the best briyani we have ever eaten in Malaysia or Singapore or elsewhere!).

Grilled Chicken drum sticks .. yummy!

This sour and spicy brinjal is another favourite of the family ... again, we have no eaten anything similar yet over the years to beat this dish!!

The nice cold cucumber side dish ....

Finally, the yummy sago and oatmeal dessert!!

A really great meal to start off the countdown to the Year of the Rabbit!

Takakura Home Composting Part 3

2011-01-20T16:16:00.000+08:00

To aerate the compost, I mixed the compost well and then even out the seed compost.

Add in the chopped and diced fruit peelings and vegetables.

The end-result should look like this.

I had earlier cut a couple of cardboard boxes to fit the top of the basket.

Then I covered the basket with a piece of thick cloth. A black piece of cloth was suggested but since I had an old towel, I used this instead. To keep out the light, had earlier added cardboard lids which helped to keep the compost in the dark.

Twenty four hours later, on opening, you can see this .... the bacteria had been hard at work!

Just repeat the whole process every day.

Take note that the compost should be slightly moist - not dry. If the compost feels too dry, spray some water into the compost and mix well befoe adding the next lot of chopped vegetables/fruits.

Broody Hen

2011-01-12T16:06:00.001+08:00

At the back of the garden, we kept a pair of local chicken - gifts from TK's eldest sister. They are not as small as seramas but ,still, they are miniatures of the normal local chicken.

The hen had been laying eggs every alternate day ... final is a clutch of nine eggs though one was broken when it fell off the box on which she laid the eggs.

Last Friday (7/1/2011), the hen started to incubate the remaining eight eggs.

I am not sure if we will get to see eight miniature chicks in three weeks time ....