Gift of Indian Muslim Dinner for Lunar New Year

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 :-)

Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa)

The Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) or BaiRiHong, in Mandarin, is certainly an old time favourite of mine - having grown it as a small boy on the roof top garden of my father's shophouse along India Street in Kuching.

In our garden, we have one round flower bed in the front for this plant but the seeds spread throughout the garden bringing colours to odd nooks and crannies in the garden.

  

There are three colours that I know of - red, pink and white. For some reason, I never like the white version so I never grow them. 

The globe amaranth is relatively easy to grow, pretty hardy and brings a strong splash of bright colour to the garden. Having said that - the garden is mainly these red ones as the pink ones seem not to thrive so well!!