Next morning

The next morning, we went to the hawker centre for breakfast.

8 something in the morning. Luckily we were able to find a parking right in front of the centre. 

I came for the fried roti telur, a local's favourite. Crispy and delicious big piece of roti telur.  A must-have when visiting this small town. 

We also ordered a plate of roti kosong for Jamie to try. Rounder piece compared to a squarer roti telur. 

Sweet sambal and slightly spicy curry dippings to go with the roti. RM11 for 2 plates of roti telur and 1 roti kosong. 

Usually we came for roti telur everytime we were back to Kapit but this round, the boys also get to taste the kampua from one of the stalls. Rm3.50 for this kampua. 

Hubby had this fried noodle for RM4. Look like Foochow version of fried noodle with slices of liver and meats. 

First dinner

Continue my post on my short family holiday in Kapit.

We were hungry when we entered Kapit on Monday evening. So we headed straight to this coffee shop which was a minute drive from my in-laws' house. 

Hubby ordered 4 dishes for our dinner. First was this soft tofu mixed vegetable dishes. 

Then stir fried midin which was alright but big portion. 

The sweet and sour soup was tasty. Or maybe we were hungry so everything tasted nice. 

They have the deep fried pork trotter so we had one as well. Big trotter!! But it was nice; skin was crispy and meat wasn't too hard and dry. 

There was another dish which was onion omelette but I did not take shot of it. RM150 plus drinks for our first dinner in Kapit. 

Miscellaneous Picture #101 : Christmas

A Christmas tree in my residential hall

Our Christmas eve lunch. KFC! 

A Christmas gift from a friend

 Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!! 

Back for the Christmas

We went to The Spring mall on Sunday, a day before we drove back to Kapit. We were back to the mall for the Christmas decoration. The last time we were here was last December as well, a day before we flew for our China holiday. 

I love to visit The Spring especially during the festive season, where their decoration is amazing and breath-taking. 

This year, I guess the concept was a White Christmas with the white snowy patches. 

After spending time taking shots and admiring the decoration, we went to Ta Kiong supermarket for a quick look and shopping. Then we walked over to the Food Bazaar for lunch. 

No, I did not ordered anything for myself. Hubby took the initiative to order for both of us while the kids bought themselves meal from Sugarbun. 

Some dessert before we shared this Nasi Arab lamb. First time tasting Nasi Arab. And I liked the taste. The lamb was so tender. Bitg of us enjoyed it very much. Around RM17. 90, hubby can't remember the exact price. 

It was wonderful to be back to The Spring after a year absence. The kids especially were jovial as able to come out and enjoy the best season of the year amidst the current pandemic situation. 

More than hundred miles

When cross district travelling was allowed this month, we have been planning to go back to hubby's hometown by road. 

Early this week, we drove more than hundred miles from Kuching to Kapit for a short family holiday. Considered this our first trip since MCO.

Road in small village was bumpy. Not a very good drive. Passed by 2 ferries and then we drove along the Pans Borneo highway. 

Some parts were smooth journey but certain parts were hard to maneuver due to work in progress. 

We started our journey around 7am and by 12, we had our lunch in Jakar. 

The big prawns noodle in Jade Restaurant. We opted for smaller prawns which cost RM25 per bowl. Bigger prawns noodle was RM35!! 

The boys had the fried noodle since they don't fancy such flavourful and soupy noodle dish. 

Then we headed to the next row of shop for the famous Jakar sio bee. The corner coffee shop (far right). 

RM1 each, you can choose either warm or frozen type. 20 pieces for us on the road. 

Very very nice. Big and meaty sio bee. 

We continued our drive all the way to the new Kapit road but warning!! 

The road wasn't fully completed so we had to adhere to the road opening schedule. We reached there before 4pm so we waited for its opening for almost 2 hours. 

We encountered rain on and off along the way and as we waited there, we saw a beautiful rainbow. 

They opened the road at 540pm which was 20 minutes earlier than scheduled time. How happy were we to continue our journey again. 

Nice, smooth road in most parts. Another 1 hour drive and as it rained and sky was getting dark, we had to drive slower. 

One of the uncompleted parts (above) while the other was the bridge. Only one side for the cars while another side of bridge was under construction. 

We reached Kapit slightly before 7pm. What a long drive but we were glad we reached our destination safely. 

Made from scratch

Long time I did not make pork lard sambal from scratch as I rarely buy pork lard from outside.  My mum loves pork lard sambal; she would make it occasionally and sometimes passed some of her sambal to me.

It happened that she bought 3 packs of pork lard from the market on a Sunday morning.  RM5 per pack. She gave me a pack and the very next day, I used some of it for my pork lard sambal.  

All you need is pounding and chopping!! And lots of work.  I have improved my previous recipe and I believed it was tastier and more fragrant. Ingredients included the pork lard, shallots, dried prawns, belacan, chilli and salt.

Chop the pork lard to smaller bits.

In mortar, pound the dried shrimp, belacan, sliced chilli and sliced shallots.

Add in the pounded the shrimp and shallot mix to the pork lard.  Add some salt to taste.

Mix well.

Heat up a pan.  No oil needed, add in the mixture once the pan is hot.  Saute the sambal under low heat till it turned brown, crispy and fragrant.

Then drain onto kitchen towel. Soak up the oil few times with kitchen towels by pressing onto the kitchen towels till towels not so oily. This will make the sambal crispier. 

You can lime juice if you like. I like my pork lard sambal to be drier and crispier instead of wet like some people do. 

Enjoy!!

Red paste

Ang chow (or red wine residue) is not a common ingredient in my house.

I rarely cook ang chow chicken, much say for pork, which I discovered that it was tastier and more appetizing. I could have 2 bowls of rice with it!!! 

It happened that we saw the pork shop that we patronized frequently sold few tubes of ang chow paste for RM4. My man asked me to buy since we seldom seen this red paste sold around our place. Or probably we did not look at right place or properly. 

So one evening I tested out the red paste and cooked ang chow pork belly. I did not follow proper measurement in my recipe, I 'agak-agak' and based on my preference and taste. 

Ingredients:

Pork belly, sliced 

2 garlic cloves, choppe

Ginger about an inch, sliced

2 tbsp ang chow paste

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp cooking wine

1 cup water

Salt and sugar to taste

Methods:

1. In a wok, heat up cooking oil. Not too much as pork belly will release oil. 

2. Toss in garlic and ginger; saute till fragrant. 

3. Add in pork belly. Saute till colour is no longer pink. Add in the ang chow paste. Mix well. 

4. Add in the cooking wine and water. Simmer till water reduce and meat is cooked. 

5. Add in light soy sauce, salt and sugar. Taste accordingly. Turn off heat when water is reduce.