Flood and I Love Yoo!

 

Photo credit to my brother. Taken after rain has ceased at Jalan Batu Lintang traffic light

Kuching was hit by flash flood last Saturday. The rain started in the morning and just so suddenly it turned into a thunderstorm and soon, most parts were submerged in water.  

3rd mile Underpass turned into a river!

The flood caught everyone by surprise I think. The famous 3rd Mile Underpass with rising water turned it instantly into a river. 2 cars spotted submerged in water. 

Jalan Green when we were on the way to school

If not because that Jan needed to go to her school to collect her Form 5 textbooks (SPM finished on that Monday and ex-Form 5 students returning books the next day), we wouldn't be witnessing the chaos and caught in the jam.  

We dropped her off at school and then headed home to pass the boys their breakfast. That time the rain wasn't heavy, and the route was alright. It was around 730am. And when it was about time to pick her up at 9am, the rain suddenly poured so heavy that we hardly could drive and see anything in front of us. Visibility was really poor. We used hubby's 4WD to pick her. By then, the traffic was getting heavy as some cars stuck, or unable or reluctant to pass through. More cars pulled at the roadside, and some did illegal driving (U-turn and reversing) to avoid the water. We managed to pick her up after all the manoeuvre, and since everywhere was jammed and chaotic, we decided to stop by Aeon Mall. Just to get away from the traffic and flood for the time being. I think other cars also did the same, because soon the Aeon car park was packed!! Everyone seemed to find a breather in the carpark!!

We waited for 10 am when the mall was opened and we went to this snack outlet for brunch. I Love Yoo!!

It has been a while since we last tasted its yue tiaw. We used to buy from the Boulevard Mall outlet but it has since closed down.  

Now mostly selling yue tiaw, unlike we remember it sold other snacks as well. Only one staff working at this outlet so it took sometime for our order to come. 

Freshly made yue tiaw by the staff. We waited for him to do and fry the snack before serving us and few other customers. 

The yue tiaw after they were done!!! Now I can't wait to enjoy them. Lol. 

Hubby's set RM10.90 of dry scallop porridge and 1 yue tiaw and 1 fresh soya milk. The porridge not to our liking. Felt like baby food. Lol. 

Jan and I went for 2 sets of RM7 (1 fresh soya milk and 1 yue tiaw). 

We also bought 2 sets of similar order for the boys. Total bill was around RM34. 

After we were done with our brunch, we braving the road again. The rain has stopped, only drizzle but the jam was still on-going. We used 3rd Mile roundabout to go home as we were worried on the flood at Stapok area. Anyway, we reached home safely regardless of the jam and chaotic moment in 3rd Mile area. And the rain did ceased around noon time. Thank God for that!!

Muara Tebas Seafood

Gosh, has it been that long since our last visit to this Malay village?? It was back in 2015 that we visited the same seafood restaurant as well in Muara Tebas, or Ching San in Chinese. 

Muara Tebas Seafood restaurant, one of the well known restaurants in this small fisherman village. It was known for its tasty and fresh seafood. 

The weather was good two Sundays ago, so we drove all the way to Muara Tebas for lunch. Slightly over 30 minutes since I was the driver. And lucky star on our side as we found a parking once we entered the village. Local collected RM5 for the parking fee. 

Not many people at the village that day.  It wasn't noon yet and maybe because of many days of rain, we didn't expect many crowds in the village. Only 2 occupied tables when we reached the restaurant. So we quickly ordered our dishes and waited for the delicious food to come. 

Soon enough, out first dish arrived on our table was this Kung Pau cockles. Just enough for everyone to enjoy few before everyone's favourite came. The o'chian!! Deep fried oyster pancake, Kuching's specialty. Big oysters with crispy flour pancake, who could resist!!

Simple stir fried midin to balance our diet. No comment on this vegetable.  Young, crunchy midin ferns, which we enjoyed.

Hubby wanted this white sand clams soup. Sorry, not sure what the exact name for this clam but it was called white sand (translated from Mandarin) as you could see how white the shell was! Mild, peppery soup with the flavour of clams; really reminded you on the ocean. Lol. 

2 big crabs cooked with egg for everyone to enjoy. They were meaty and fresh. 

Another clam dish. Steamed clam with minced garlics and spring onions. That was another way on how I take my clams. 

Lastly we had a pan fried threadfin fish (ngor hu). This was my favourite. Crispy and slight battered outside yet moist flesh inside. 

Our scrumptious lunch cost RM300 plus drinks. Most importantly everyone enjoyed the meal. And a little outing for the kids before they started their new school calendar.

 

Of course we didn't only came to Muara Tebas for its seafood. We took a stroll around the small village and went up to the Chinese temple. 

 

The view from the temple, and the breeze from the river worth all the stair climbing. It wasn't that high but somehow I was running out of gas once reached the top. Lol. Blame on my lack of exercises in recent month!!

After few minutes of resting and enjoying the view, we took our leave and went back to our car to head back home. 

One month

The one-month school holiday is coming to an end when they are going back to schools tomorrow. 

No, we didn't do or go anywhere special this holiday. The kids are busy with their stuff. Boys with their respective tuitions, Jan with occasional online classes and her piano practice. She is going to sit for her Grade 8 piano practical this June, so only few more months to go. 

However, Jay was doing something out of ordinary this school holiday. He was doing part time in my dad's shop. My dad is running a car spare parts shop so I asked whether he would mind having Jay around, which he didn't. So Jay went to his shop on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to do and learn something, and same time earn some pocket money. He was willing to go and no complaint from him. The reason was because he is rather introvert and spending most his time idling, watching videos and playing phone at home, so we thought of getting him out and see how things are done in my dad's shop. 

Anyway he was happy to earn some pocket money and also been fed well. Somehow I feel he has slightly put on weight over this holiday. Lol. 

As for the others, I did tried to get them out so they didn't feel bored at home. Followed me with errands, and in the evening if the weather was good, they had a walk around the neighbourhood. 

Earlier this month, I brought these two to Malaysia-China Friendship Park for a stroll. It was after few days of rain and the sky has finally cleared up. How happy were we to go for a quick stroll and some fresh air. 

It was Jamie's first visit to this park. Can't blame us as it was pretty far from our place. When we stayed in BDC back then, I used to bring Jan and Jay for evening walk. Reason for bringing Jamie here was because he has never been to. Another reason, it was convenient to pick Jay up from my dad's shop after that. And Jamie seemed to enjoy the park, especially seeing the fishes in the pond. 

On another day, I brought three of them to this Batu Kawah Riverfront. Newly done but not fully completed. We explored the place and the boys had some playing time at the playground.

Will definitely visit again since it is around 15 minutes drive from our place.

Wrap the papaya

If you are wondering why we wrapped our papaya, it is to prevent papaya theft!!

We started growing this papaya tree last year after my mil tasted a good, sweet fruit and threw seeds at the back and soon, it grew flowers and then bore fruits!! And it was so fertile, that many fruits keep popping out of the tree. Then, another papaya tree grew along the side. And another small tree as well. So we have three papaya trees at the back now and the first one give us many fruits 

Then along the way, few fruits started to turn yellow. Meaning it will ripe and we can taste it  we didn't get to taste. But somehow the fruit was stolen!! Yes, it was gone. And not once but twice. Apparently there was a papaya thief in my neighbourhood. Not only stole one papaya, but stole two more on 2 Nd time within the span of less than a week!!! Geez!! My mil was so upset she didn't get the chance to pick and taste when she was here last month.

So an aunt (her sister) suggested to wrap the papaya tree to prevent theft. So we did that and true, no more theft after that. And there was once we spotted an old lady walking at our back, apparently peeking at our tree from a distance. We suspected she was the one. And maybe the same person who stole a neighbour's vegetables!! But no proof and since now we protected the fruits from being stolen, there no longer any suspicious person walking at our back yard. It was very rare to see people walking at the back, outside of our gate. Even we also seldom go out, and when we do, we are trimming our lemon tree, papaya tree and curry plants and others. We know the surrounding neighbours, and they also rarely venture out from their back gate.

Another reason for wrapping, it also speed up the ripen process!!! Now we got many ripe fruits when we checked it out after many days of rain earlier this month!!! 

My papaya tree and its big fruits!! Really good plant; big size, sweet and juicy flesh. Now we need to give some away!! Lol. 

That afternoon, we passed one big fruit to a neighbour and I cut and packed one container for Jan to bring to school to share with her English Club members. She is this year club secretary and had a meeting and some errand with few members that Sunday afternoon. 

Ginseng and salted mustard chicken soup

This is one chicken soup that I enjoyed growing up as my mum cooked it pretty often. Ginseng with salted mustard chicken soup. It was very appetizing and flavourful, just go so well with rice or simply having it to warm your body.

The salted mustard off set the ginseng taste as some may not like the ginseng bitterness. In the past, I just added salted mustard and ginseng with the chicken parts in my soup. No salt needed. 

On my recent cooking on Chap Goh Mei, I added few mushrooms to it. Simple recipe, nothing much to it. You can cook in slow cooker, or in a pot or claypot over the stove. I used claypot for this recipe.

Ingredients:

Half kampung chicken, chopped to biteable size 

Water for boiling, about 3 cups (700ml)

Handful of salted mustard, soaked, drained, rinsed and cut into strips

2 - 3 strands of ginseng (any ginseng would do but I used American ginseng from the CNY  hamper), cut into shorter strands

3 shitake mushrooms, halved

Light soy sauce to taste (optional)

Methods:

1. Blanched the chicken parts then drained and washed before adding into a claypot of boiling water. 

2. Add in all the other ingredients except light soy sauce. Once boiling, turn the heat to lower heat. Let it simmer for at least 30 minutes or when chicken is tender. Serve warm. 

3. Add light soy sauce to your preferred taste. Or serve light soy sauce in dipping saucer together with the soup. 

Peach gum

We received few hampers this year. On Chap Goh Mei, we unwrapped the hampers. One of the hampers had this peach gum in it. Oh wow!! Never cooked peach gum before so it is first time for me to do it.

Well packed in 6; handful of peach gum, few slices of red dates and few rock sugar cubes. Before I took one pack to cook, I googled for some information. Oh, need to soak first then can be used and cooked. 

It called for overnight soaking, so I did that. The next morning, I simply added the peach gum into a pot of boiling water, added the spiced date and rock sugar cubes. Let it simmer. Then ready to drink!!

Jan and I shared this bowl of peach gum tong sui, both of us liked it.  Will finish up the remaining peach gums and maybe will buy it from health shop. 

Her pansuh

I grow to acquire the taste of pansuh, our tribal dish. I started to taste pansuh when I was in Kapit. It was pork pansuh then. It was rather strong in taste, very gingery, herbal in taste. They added some tuak in it as I remember but I tasted pansuh without wine along the way. 

Then I tasted chicken pansuh which I prefer more. Not hard to find as few Dayak cafes and restaurants opened up in Kuching. I even bought a home based catering for pansuh during MCO. However I had never cook it at home. 

And my mil knowing that I like pansuh so she went to cook it one weekend. That morning we went to wet market to search for bunga kantan (torch flower), and we found from one Iban seller. Once home, mil seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper and red wine and added in ginger, garlic and torch flower to the claypot. No, we didn't used bamboo stalk as traditional way of cooking it. Claypot was the utensil we used to cook pansuh. 

Ingredients:

Half chicken, chopped into biteable size

3 Torch flower / torch ginger, cut into smaller length 

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Slices of ginger

Few garlic cloves, mince

Dashes of red wine (optional)

Water

Methods:

1. Season the chicken in claypot with salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, wine and torch flower. Leave for an hour. 

2. Heat up the claypot. Once boiling, turn in small fire and let it simmer. Cover the lid.

3. If you like more gravy, add in some water. Let it simmer and turn off the heat when chicken is cooked. 

Breadcrumb coated

My mil's recipe that she shared with me. Breadcrumb coated fried chicken. 

I seldom use breadcrumb in my kitchen so it was quite new thing for me. I remember I used breadcrumbs for croquette and fish fillets, but many years ago. Hardly use breadcrumbs in my recipe. 

Anyway, going back to my mil's fried chicken, she bought a kilo of deboned chicken chops from Emart hypermarket one weekend. And bought 2 packs of breadcrumbs (white and yellow) and mixed them together. 

And here is the recipe of her fried chicken thighs. They turned out crispy and crunchy outside yet moist and tender meat inside. I like that!!

Ingredients:

9 pieces of deboned chicken thighs

Breadcrumbs, enough to coat all the thighs

Cornflour for coating

2 eggs,  beaten 

Cooking oil for deep frying

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Methods:

1. Season the chicken thighs after cleaning them for few minutes. Then coat them evenly with cornflour. 

2. In a bowl of beaten egg, coated the chicken thigh one by one. Then in another bowl of breadcrumb, coated the chicken thigh one by one evenly. 

3. In a hot wok, heat up cooking oil for deep frying. Add in checked thighs in batches, not over crowd them. Flip to the other side during cooking. Drain the oil and once cool, chop the meat and serve!!

It was over

Chinese New Year celebration was over with Chap Goh Mei on 5 February.  My mil insisted on cooking that evening instead of going out for dinner. 

Fortunately not all needed to be cooked, as we bought some dishes in the morning. 

The one that we needed to cook was this ginseng salted mustard chicken soup. My mil never tasted such soup, so I made this tasty, appetizing chicken soup for her to try. 

We cooked half of the big prawns that we bought in the morning. Steamed with lots of garlic and egg. 

We also bought this pre-packed jelly fish from the wet market. This pack cost around RM15, it was hubby's favourite. 

There was some Kuching sio bee (siu mai) in the freezer, we took some to steam and have for Chap Goh Mei dinner. 

We also bought 3 pieces of ngoh hiang from wet market. RM7 per piece. We ate the ngoh hiang with this lettuce. I took few leaves from the lettuce and remaining, I stir fried with garlic.

How we ate the ngoh hiang?? Just wrap it with the lettuce and pop into your mouth. 

Learn this eating way from my dad. 

After we were done with our dinner, we played firecracker to end the Chinese New Year celebration. And then it started to rain so we waited till around 7pm to bring the kids out for some fireworks fun before calling it a night.

A cousin of hubby from Sibu passed this biscuit to my mil who loves this snack. Crushed peanut coated rice cracker. And we managed to finish it off that evening with the help of our niece!!