Walking Down Memory Lane: Cheryl (Part 1)

When I was in Kuching, I met up with my best friend, Cheryl, whom I have known for 15 years.

Yours truly with childhood friend, Cheryl

We went out for a lim teh session after dinner one evening, just to catch up with each other. We last seen each other during Chinese New Year in Sibu and she's been so busy with her work ever since. As I was craving so badly for that particular drink I saw on someone's blog, we went to this place called Huising Hawker stall to talk cock.

The White Lady and the lady in white

Click over to my other blog to know more about the drink. Two thumbs up for the icy cold drink. 15 sticks of pork satay followed and some other things that ended up in my tummy to be digested, all in my other blog.

Anyway, back to Cheryl. We first known each other on the second day of school in Primary One, SRB St. Rita (all girls' school). Why second day? Well, simply because I knew no one on the first day of school and was minding my own business all day, even at the tuition in the afternoon but I noticed one girl in school uniform at the tuition class. As innocent as I could get then, I was wondering why she was in school uniform after school and why couldn't she just changed her clothes like everyone else.

I saw her again the next day at school and was surprised that we were classmates! I went, "Eii??? You were the one at the tuition yesterday afternoon right?" She smiled and said, "Ya hor, you were also at the tuition yesterday afternoon" and we became friends, best friends ever since.

We played together during recess, went to the canteen together, shared the food our moms packed for us during recess, went to the toilet together, copied each other's homework, went for our morning prayers together, etc. She was a bit plump and I was skinny like cicak back then but she sure ran faster than me! We played the usual games that kids our age played, i.e. the aeroplane, rope skipping, eagle and chicken, police and thief, dragon catch, ABC stop, etc and plump little Cheryl beat me in all the games.

Even in sports. We were both chosen to represent the whole Primary Two in long jump during Sports Day. You guessed it, she beat me in that again! LOL! She got the 7th position and I was not far behind. I was in the 8th position. I was not even a bit angry when she beat me in sports and games. I did not know the meaning of envy yet.

Food at the canteen back then were so cheap. We could get two packets Hiong Hiong Mee for 10 cents. That was when the sharing came in. As we were not given much pocket money back then because we usually brought something from home, one of us would go to the canteen and bought 2 packets of that Hiong Hiong Mee and gave one packet to the other. The following day, the other would do the same. I couldn't recall how it started but it seemed like an unwritten sharing among the two of us.

We were very good friends and the other classmates were so envious of us that some Iban girls started to call us lovers. LOL! We were so close that eventually our families got to know each other's family and became friends. Our moms shares their cooking and baking recipes and gardening skills, even until today - her mom specializes in baking biscuit and cakes while my mom specializes in making fruit jelly.

Cheryl and I practically grew up together. We were classmates since Primary One until Form Five. She's one of my friends that I've known all my life. She knows me inside out and vice versa. We know each other so well that when it comes to our personal flaws, we would just accept them as a part of ourselves which make us different from each other.

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On the side note:
OMG!!! I sounded like a lesbo in this post!

Food For Thought

Chinese New Year is the time for merriment and celebration. Many people will flock to the shops and stock up on food supplies to catter to the impending requirements. That is why I am here blogging like nobody's business, not going out because it would be so jammed with cars and people. In this mad rush, we must not forget that certain food have a gloomy significance.

First off, it is a taboo to eat leftover rice - a practice that has been passed down since the farming days of ancient China. To do so on the first day of Chinese New Year would be regarded as complaining that the gods in heaven were too kind and their bestowal too fruitful. If you eat the overnight rice, it may start to rain as soon as you step out of the door. But this is no fun drizzle, the rains of the olden days come in torrents and break dams. The paddy fields would be flooded and all the farmers' effort would come to nought. It would be a difficult year ahead indeed.

If you are a bachelor or a spinster living alone, it is advised that you do not go to other people's home for meals during Chinese New Year. Not only will you be cheapening yourself, you may dampen your luck as well. You may not be able to get a good meal thereafter and will have to depend on charity.

Wah, really or not I don't know lah. But the old folks have a lot to say mar. They somehow also ate more salt than you eat rice what. So eat wherever you please during Chinese New Year. Even rat-infested coffee shops should not be discriminated against!

Chinese New Year Traditional Food

What's with Chinese and food? Chinese just love to eat, and they will make sure the person they meet is eating well. If the chao ang moh greet people with "How are you doing?" and "How do you do?", the Chinese greet people with "Lu jia pa boi?", "Ni shit pao mang?", "Sek pao mei?", "Nv siak pa mui?", "Ni chi pao le ma?" (Have you eaten?) - all in Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Foochow and Mandarin respectively.

The Chinese hor...just love to eat, eat and eat and most of them do not have the slightest idea of what they put into their mouth. So, during Chinese New Year, a lot of us just eat everything that is prepared without question just to fulfill the demand of our drumming stomach. It is well understood that only during Chinese New Year, certain food are prepared. So, we all plead innocent for the setahun hanya sekali gluttonous eating habit.

On New Year's day, the Chinese family will eat a vegetarian dish called jai. Although the various ingredients in jai are root vegetables or fibrous vegetables, many people attribute various superstitious aspects to them:

The Lotus Seed

Signify having many male offspring

The Gingko Nuts

Represents silver ingots

Black moss Seaweed

Is a homonym for exceeding in wealth

Dried bean-curd

Homonym to fulfillment of wealth and happiness

Bamboo Shoots

It sound like "wishing that everything would be well"

Some more got Fish lor to represent togetherness and abundance, Chicken that symbolizes prosperity (with head, tail and feet to represent completeness) and Noodles (mee sua) to represent long life.

In the southern province of China, the typical favourite dishes are the Nian Gao, the sweet steamed glutinous rice pudding and Zong Zhi, those eaten during Dragon Boat Festival wan. The northern part pulak love Man Tou, neh the white white bread like those in the typical ancient kung fu drama.

All that were some of the traditional chinese New Year food lor. But I never know some of them. Because during Chinese New Year, all we eat are Chicken Soup Mee Sua with red wine, Bak Gua, Kao Bak Hakka Style, Sio Bee, Chap Chai, etc. All totally different from the traditional thing.

You can eat all you can and all you want. Just don't over-eat and become fat lah.

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Durian Flood

Terengganu, Pahang, Melaka and Johor where Johor being hit the worst! Not by durians like the above picture. Many states in Peninsular Malaysia is badly hit by flood. Real water, not durians! The flooding news had flooded the media for the past flooding week. Haha!

Sarawak is not even spared! Especially Sibu. Sibu has been flooded with durians, lorries of durians and more durians. Haha! I mean, Sibu is flooded with water too but only the longkangs are full. But I think Sibu people will be drowned, literally, eating too much durians rather than by water.

But it is hard to buy good durians, as in D24! Foochow folks here say, "Nii may liulian, ai tanggong hoh, nii choh mui neng, uh tanggong pau sang kiang?" *gasp* I couldn't even pronounce that properly. That Foochow proverb means: When you buy durian, you want a good quality guaranteed but if you are a matchmaker, can you guarantee the bride will bear children?

I have no idea what does buying durian got anything to do with bearing children but maybe in Foochow, they rhymes and thus the so-called connection.

This is DABAI. The olive-like fruit (or vegetable?) that always come together with durian. It is actually a local olive. We Sibu people call buah dabai "karang" (in Foochow) because they look like olive.

Dabai is cooked in boiled water. You have to soak the dabai in boiled water for a few minutes. Then after you drain the water, add a few teaspoons of soy sauce and then sprinkle some sugar evenly onto the dabai. Or just sprinkle some salt only. Either way, the dabai is ready to be eaten.

If you boil the dabai in boiling water, it will not cook. Weird, eh? Well, that is one of the uniqueness of Sarawak.

Taufan Durian

Walao! It has been quite a long time since I last post an entry. I didn't realize it until one of my readers pointed it out last night. Its a long story (and a long journey too) and I'm not going to get into that in this post.

When I was in Langkawi last week, there were news that Taufan Durian will sweep the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia and Langkawi Island will not be spared. People were scared. Would it be something like tsunami? Or worse? *shrugged*

But all I could imagine is this:

Ouch! It would be painful if kena hit by durians though.

I won't mind if being hit by the soft, yellow, aromatic durian minus the hard and spiky shell.

Well, I just reached home yesterday morning and on my way home from the airport, I requested for some D24 and we stopped by the roadside and bought some fresh durian. Yes, the King of Fruit is in the season now! I just couldn't get my hands off those juicy, slimy, yummy, yellowish, aromatic isi. They are cheap also. Approximately RM2-RM3 sebiji only. Bought about 8 biji yesterday.

Practically, I had all nothing but durian for breakfast, lunch and dinner today (and tea breaks as well). Finished all 8 biji one go.

Of course, a big glass of salt water after each durian-eating session. To cool off the heat consumed in the durian, as told by the old folks. It would have a better effect if drink the salt water from the durian shell. This also need some kungfu master's skill as not to hurt your lips drinking from the spiky shell. Haha! Well, no. It's a lot easier than you thought, even a 3-year-old can do it and survived!

PS: Don't drink (alcoholic beverage) and eat durian at the same time! It is FATAL!!!

Beware of cross-symbol biscuit

*inhale deeply* *exhale deeply*

Alright, enough about the pervert old man! Three continuous posts about him, wasting my bandwidth only. Good thing I did not pollute my blog with his hum sup face. Heheh!

Well, here's something interesting enough to ponder:

Biskut lambang salib? PPIM buat laporan polis

10-11-2006 08:39:44 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia (PPIM) hari ini membuat laporan polis terhadap sebuah syarikat pengeluar aiskrim terkemuka kerana kepingan biskutnya mempunyai imej salib.

Rombongan PPIM ketika membuat aduan di Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Cheras itu disertai anggota beberapa badan bukan kerajaan termasuk Kongres India Muslim Malaysia (KIMMA) dan Yayasan Bakti Khidmat Masyarakat Malaysia (YBKMM) dengan diketuai Pengarah Sekretariat PPIM Dr Izham Nayan.

Ketua Polis Daerah, ACP Rosli Ahmad mengesahkan bahawa pihaknya telah menerima laporan itu.

Beliau enggan mengulas lanjut.

Dr Izham memberitahu pemberita pihaknya bertindak demikian selepas menerima aduan daripada beberapa orang pengguna yang menyedari kewujudan imej salib pada produk keluaran syarikat itu.

Katanya PPIM telah menghubungi syarikat ais krim berkenaan untuk mendapatkan penjelasan namun sehingga kini belum ada sebarang jawapan. BERNAMA

source: mSTAR

In short, some idiots went to the ice-cream company and complained that there is a cross on their biscuit, a symbol of Christianity. On the oreo-like biscuit got the capital letter T and a small letter t. And they took offence of an innocent small letter t!

I'm going to try that ice-cream though. It's WALL'S. What's the difference does it make after you eat and swallow it, right? After all, everything will come out as shit after the digestion. So, what's the fuss over an innocent t? Moron!

*speechless*