Another day

It was a nice Saturday morning to sleep in and that what we did. Hubby and I slept in late till it was 8am to go out for breakfast. 

Jan and Jamie have been up earlier. They usually wake up early even though it is a weekend. To them, Saturday or Sunday is like another day where they could get up early but no need go to schools. Anyway, hubby and I went out, hunting for food and buy takeaway for the rest.

As usual, hubby's current favourite place for his ham and egg sandwich. 

RM4.50 for 1 set; both of us shared the sandwich toast. Hubby had his kway chap cheng (without kueh) other than the sandwich. 

As for me, I decided to have Cantonese fried kway teow (RM6). It has been a while I tasted it's noodle, so it was quite satisfying to enjoy the warm, slurpy egg gravy with the well fried kway teow.

After Jamie has his breakfast, together with hubby, the three of us went to clinic. I had sore throat (not that serious; but could feel the discomfort) while Jamie had some rashes on his body. We spent almost 2 hours there. When we were done, we called my mil to see if she has cooked lunch. She did, so we only bought some lo bak (braised pork) and braised egg home. 

Our home cooked lunch, thanks to my mil. She took out some fish parts to cook fish curry. The fish was caught by my man. Tasted like mackerel but not mackerel. Not sure what the fish called in English but hubby told me it was called "bak chio" in Hokkien. 

And my kids'  favourite, fried chicken wings!! They could not have enough of my MIL's fried chicken wings. 

And tomorrow is Gawai Festival in Sarawak, so I would to wish all my Dayak bloggers, friends and readers, Selamat Hari Gawai!! Happy Holidays!!

Daddy

It was Friday, few days before school holiday ended. My man had early start that day, busy packing and ready for his first fishing trip of 2022! He was up before 6am, and with all those noise, I couldn't help but got up myself and helped him out. He left the house around 630am. 

My mil was up as well but since she didn't wanted to go out for market or breakfast, then I decided to cook noodle myself. I found this Daddy 3 in 1 instant noodle in my pantry. 

My hubby bought this pack of instant noodle home from Sri Aman.  He actually brought some of his noodle and canned food home as he could not finish all by himself there. So when he was home for over a week for the Hari Raya holiday, we tried to finish up some of the canned food like spam and sardine. 

I never tried this brand of Sibu-packed instant noodle before. However I remember my blogger friend, Suituapui blogged on it before like in this post so I was excited to give it a taste since I have a pack at home. 5 individual packs, and the noodle could be eaten as snack, or cook as dry or in soup.

Jan had a taste of the noodle too. She went for the dry version. I did not add anything; I just used up the 2 packets seasoning in the noodle pack. Her verdict?? Rather bland, but the noodle texture was nice. 

Soupy version for me. Not as flavourful or salty like the other noodle brand that we always have, but the chicken soup was tasty to me. If I am to choose, the soup version is better than the dry one.

With her around

My mil has been here since last month. With her around the house, I don't have to worry much about cooking during the school days. I only concentrate on driving the kids to and forth to school while she does most of the cooking.

I also learn new recipe and cooking skill from her. For instance, this simple dish. I understand this dish was pretty common in Kapit. 

Stir fried paku with Smiling Fish sardine in chilli oil. Simple recipe, with few ingredients but it was appetizing (put the spiciness of the sardine aside). I actually quite liked it. 

Stir fried garlic and shallot in oil, then add in the paku. Stir fry till withered and then add in the sardine. No seasoning needed since the sardine has seasoning!! 

We only cooked half of the paku that I bought at the market. RM2 for a big bunch of paku! The rest, I cooked the next day. Simple stir fried paku with garlic. 

My mil made her ngoh hiang for lunch too. She used mackerel meat and pork mince to make ngoh hiang. 2 methods of cooking the ngoh hiang, namely steam first and then, deep fried. You can keep the steamed ngoh hiang once cooled in a container and freeze for future consumption. 

I penned down her recipe for ngoh hiang so I could refer in the future. No measurement, all is up to your taste and preference.  The kids gave their grandma's ngoh hiang a thumb up!!

MIL's ngoh hiang 

Ingredients:

Minced pork

Minced mackerel meat

Carrot, thinly minced

1 big onion, minced

5 spices powder

Chicken stock granule

Salt

Pepper

Beancurd skin

Methods:

1. Mix all the ingredients together. Pound on the mince till they combine well. 

2. Cut the beancurd skin accordingly. 

3. Arrange the meat in the beancurd skin, fold the sides first, the roll till the end. (You can brush egg white at end to bind the skin, but we omit that).

4. In a steamer, arrange the ngoh hiang. Steam for about 10 minutes under high heat. After off the heat, you can keep the steamed ngoh hiang in container and store in freezer for future consumption. Either reheat in steamer or deep fried after thawed)

5. In a pan, heat up enough oil to deep fry the spring rolls. Once oil is hot, slowly fry the ngoh hiang till brown.

6. Drain and once cool, cut into desired size. 

Three of us

Hubby's cousin and family was still around but we didn't meet up with them after our Bau trip. They went to the beach and shopping by themselves. We could see that they were enjoying their time in Kuching as they posted photos in FB.

So that Tuesday morning, only me, hubby and Jan went for breakfast while my mil and the boys stayed at home. 

We went to this food court for our breakfast. The place was packed as usual but we still could find a table for the three of us. 

 

I went for the fried stall, and ordered myself tomato kway teow. RM6 for my noodle. Portion was just nice for me although I remember the portion was bigger in the past but still, I was full and satisfied with the portion and taste.

Hubby had his usual sandwich plus trying out the vegetarian stall. A vegetarian Sarawak laksa for RM7, anyone?? Taste-wise, sweet and slightly spicy. Not something I would like to have that often. 

As for the girl, she always have her usual whenever we come here. By now, the stall operator already known her preference. RM10 for this breakfast set.

What's in there?

Yi Zin Cake House has been around in Poh Kwong Park commercial area for as long as I could remember it. We never patronised there but heard many commented on its good bakes especially butter buns. 

Just recently that hubby and I dropped by twice when we passed by the area to kids' school, both occasion to buy its acclaimed butter milk buns.  First time, hubby went down to buy while I drove the car. Second round, I went down while he drove the car. 

Other buns are available too, next round for them. For now, we are in love with its addictive, tasty garlic bread and butter milk bun. 

Hubby's favourite garlic bread from this bakery. Definitely longer and tastier than what we could get from other bakeries. 

Garlic bread

6 mini butter milk buns in a pack. RM5 per pack. We bought 2 packs, so the kids could bring some to schools. 

Mini butter bun

Very buttery and fragrant filling. The bun was soft and so good, I could have 3 in one go!!

I wasn't sure the exact price as I didn't really checked on the price tag. For 1 garlic buns and 2 packs of butter milk buns (12), it was RM12.60. If my calculation was right, it should be RM4.80 per pack for 6 butter milk bun and RM3.00 for 1 garlic bread. Next time when I drop by again, I will notice on the individual pricing. 

On our latest visit (on Monday), my mil went down to buy mini butter bun but unfortunately it was sold out. 

2 bakings per day (as stated on their notice), and it was selling like hot cakes! She ended up buying 3 red bean buns and these mini coconut buns. 6 coconut buns per pack. 

Red bean bun

A generous filling of red bean paste in the soft bun, which my mil enjoyed very much.

Mini coconut buns

Other than butter buns, I love coconut buns as well. These coconut buns (RM4.40 for 6) were so soft and tasty. I liked them!! I took 3, my mil took 3 as well. 

More trips to this bakery as I foresee!!!

(Up to date, I have patronised this bakery 4 times this month!! Their bakes are really good!)

A morning in the museum

Borneo Cultures Museum is the second largest museum in South East Asia (the largest in Malaysia) and has opened its doors to visitors early March this year. No charges for visitors for the first three months of operation, so it has been a popular destination for locals.  The museum only host around 300 visitors at a time in view of the Covid-19 SOP and online booking is needed to book your slot. They do accept walk-in but one needs to wait for their turns to go in.

Photo credit : Borneo Cultures Museum

I tried my luck in booking for April but no weekends slots were available.  They finished up in quick time.  So I tried again for May when the online booking is opened back in April.  Count our lucky star, 4th May morning slots were available, so I immediately registered for 6 of us. One booking per person, so I needed to register 6 times for us via the booking forms.  

When the day came (3rd day of Hari Raya), it was a rainy morning.  Rather heavy rain that morning but that did not dampen our mood to visit the museum. We reached the museum slightly after 9am and there were cars queueing in the parking bay.  I dropped the others off first at the entrance while I went to find a parking, which I managed to find in one round.  

So, after met up with the others at the entrance, we went straight to the registration counter and shown the staff my email and we got green light to tour the museum. 2 lanes at the entrance; one for walk-in and one for online booking. Quite a crowd that day, and due to rain, everyone was standing and blocking the main entrance. We just went in without any queue and inquired on our booking at the counter. Adults were given a visitor pass which we needed to return upon exit. 

The museum consists of 5 floors but the galleries were all on other floors. So we went to the 1st floor (Level 2) to visit its Children's Gallery first.  Arts & Crafts section was closed for time being.

Children's best area, the Children Gallery as it was more fun and interactive for them. 

The kids roamed around by themselves while we waited for them to enjoy and look around. MIL also cannot stand walking for a long time, so she and hubby had a seat at one corner while the kids toured the gallery.

The theme of the gallery was "Love Our Rivers", and it focuses on the concept of sustainability using rivers as the foundation of the exhibition narrative. 

After they were done, we went to the next floor to visit other galleries. Antiques and ancient history were displayed and depicted. More details are explained in this release by Sarawak Museum Department. Few photos I took for sharing here. 

Old tools

My favourite gallery would be at the Level 4, titled Time Changes. We got to see the evolution of Sarawak through old times, during Brookes time and after war  A good couple of hours for everyone to walk around (did some exercises!!) and away from the phone and tv!!! 

Weaving Craft

Ganesha Statue found in East Java

We spent more than 2 hours in the museum, and when we left around 11.30am, there were more walk-ins and the rain hasn't stopped.  

Resting

Continue from our Bau trip, we drove to Siniawan. Siniawan is an old town which was dubbed the 'cowboy town' that is well known for its weekend night food street. 

As expected, nothing much during the day but yet, there were some local tourists walking around, taking photos. We spent some time in Siniawan, had a drink and rest in Ah Long cafe,  one of the coffee shops that opened that Monday morning. 

While resting there, we bumped into a friend and family who planned to have early lunch there before headed to Bau. Such a small world!! 

Hubby's cousin suggested to go to the newly opened hot spring in Bau, so we headed to Paku Hot Spring which was not that far from Bau town. 

Entrance fee was RM5 for adult, RM3 for children. Different charges for non-Malaysians.

It was my first time in this new hot spring. The other hot springs that I have been to in the past were Annah Rais and Panchor.  Both places were much established and well known among the locals. 

As for Paku Hot Spring, it was developed and maintained by the local community here. There was changing and bath room available. 

We spent almost an hour there, resting and dipping our tired feet before headed back to Kuching for a late lunch.