Chinese calender big and small month

I tell many stories, but not sure if I told this one publicly. My big sis's birthday is born on the 30th of the lunar year. I on the 29th. 

 Some years are small months, so there was no 30th. Rose would have her birthday on my birthday. So we only have one chicken slaughtered on that year. I was angry because I didn't understand slaughtering even one chicken was hard on my parents' budget.

ABC Wednesday: Dry July

https://au.dryjuly.com/profile/katiebruggy

 ABC Wednesday letter Y,  spelling the words Dry and July and Bruggy backward for letter Y. My very beautiful, talented , clever and kind niece Katie for staying Dry for a month.

Dry July













http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

Sign up to the challenge of a month off the booze and help make a positive difference to the lives of adults living with cancer. Now in its 7th year, Dry July participants have raised over $15m for cancer services in Australia to improve the lives of adults living with cancer.







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Booksigning

Facebook is amazing. It keeps a record of my travels. It tells me that about 8 months ago, I was at Merdeka Plaza in Kuching with Maggie Tham.

I wore my lucky red top.



http://rubytuesdaytoo.blogspot.co.nz/

FSO: Memories

Back in 1974, when I was young and green, and a really enthusiastic teacher, I accepted the invitation by three boys in a Form 2 class. I taught them English. They said they would take me to a long bike ride. It was long indeed. I rode and rode and rode, and went off the main road to the SAN BA aka country. We went to one of their houses, and the mother couldn't believe a teacher would come with them.
When I got back to town, I could hardly walk. I went to Jenny Chew's apartment. Her Dad (now my Kai Dad) must have notice the way I walked. I told him, and he was very displeased. He said I could have been killed by soldiers mistaking me to be a communist. and my bike could have a puncture. I should at least have got my bike check out by their bike repair boy.
In hindsight, I know how silly I was. Those of you who are not aware of the history of that region, I went to the nest of the communist.
I have been back to Kai Chung, no one could tell me who those 3 boys were.

Open Theme Friday [Friday My Town Shoot Out]

 

 

 

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.co.nz/

ABC letter X, XX and xylogenous

 A grill has XXXX joined together. So has a trelise.

xylogenous means growing on wood, so I take it that the Chinese Ear Fungi is xylogenous.

I went for a walk to a park next to Mt Albert Grammar school. I came across this tree stump which has some Chinese Ear Fungi growing. I have never been here, so I walked rather slowly and clicked as I went along.

This fungi is eaten by the Chinese and has a rubbery texture. You can buy them in dry form, soak it to reconstitute and it expands about 5 times its size. Not many people like it as it feels slimy and rubbery. I used to pick them when I was a child in Borneo.

I remember reading how this Chinese man made his fortune in New Zealand by shipping them to China. The Kiwis, Pakehas and Maoris laughed at this China man, but he had the last laugh. He laughed all the way to the bank.

So now, I will be keenly looking at tree stumps and hope to make my millions.

Wood ear fungus

The first commercial sale of edible fungi in New Zealand was in the 1870s, when Taranaki merchant Chew Chong sent bags of dried wood-ear fungus (Auricularia cornea) to his homeland, China. The fungus was in demand for the crunchy, chewy texture it added to food.

Wood ear fungus grows naturally on dead trees in lowland forest. Tonnes were harvested as settlers cleared forest for farming, and exports to China continued until the 1950s. In the 2000s, the fungus is now mostly imported to New Zealand from China, in dry form. Taiwanese growers had started cultivating a closely related fungus on sawdust blocks in the 1960s, and it became uneconomic to harvest it in the wild. A small quantity is now grown in New Zealand for the domestic market.



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Making Siew Mai

Making Siew Mai.









When I was growing up in Sibu, Borneo, we didn't have Dim Sum or Yum Char. As kids, we longed for one dish when we went for wedding or birthday banquets. It was the Siew Mai in my Cantonese dialect. Most of the restaurants were Foochows, I am not sure Siew Mai was a Cantonese specialty or a Foochow's. It is also called Sio Bee.


Ingredients :

800 gram of ground meat (pork or chicken)
200 gram of shrimp (roughly chopped)
6 dry wood fungi (soak and cut small)
6 dry shitake mushroom (soak still soft and diced small)
4 stalk of spring onions - finely chopped
2 eggs
4 tsp of corn starch
1 tbsp of oyster sauce (Optional)
1 tbsp of soy sauce (optional)
1 tsp of sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp salt.
1 tsp of sugar.

60 pieces round dumpling wrappers, these are ready made Jiao Ji Dumplings that the Northern Chinese use. (You can roll them out yourselves,)
some green peas or grated carrot (for garnish)

1) Mix all the ingredients for the filling.
2) Cover with glad wrap, Chill for 30 minutes.
3) Spoon one teaspoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper.
4) Thinly grease the plate you are going to place your Siew Mai to steam.
5) An important step as this stops the Siew Mai from sticking to the plate.
6) Shape the wrapper up around the filling with a small space at the top.
7) Sit the Siew Mai flat at the bottom.
8) Press a green pea on the top of half the Siew Mais.
9) Press some finely shredded carrot on the top of the other half.
10) I use a rack and a special tray with holes the Chinese use for steaming.
11) Steam over high heat for 12 minutes.
12) Serve warm with chili sauce. I prefer the Thai sweet chilli sauce for chicken.
13) Arrange them alternately, one green one orange for nice presentation, and the small bowl of chilli sauce in the middle.


Verdict: All 60 Siew Mais were gone in a flash!

Comment: Authentic Siew Mais were made with crab roe instead of grated carrots. I wasn't going to use crab roe because I might get people say, "what's that? I am not going to eat crab roe." Besides, I am too stingy to use expensive crab roe.

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Yellow: Cheesecake

Grace, the youngest of the Chan girls makes beautiful and delicious cakes. This bought back reminds me of her baked cheese cake.
http://mondaymellowyellows.blogspot.com.au/

  
Stay mellow with yellow!

Auckland Refugee Community Coalition

www.aucklandrefugee.org.nz

 Our family's first involvement with refugees was in the mid 70s, a Vietnamese boat landed at the mouth of the Rejang River. The police presented Father with a letter written in Chinese.

The family was a Chan, and he addressed Father as cousin, claiming that they were the branch of the family who went to Vietnam. He heard that Father had become a big official, and asked if Father could sponsor his family to Sarawak.

Unfortunately, Malaysia's policy was to send the boat people away. Father was unable to help. He gave them some money. We never heard of them again.

When I came to New Zealand, through church, we befriended refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia.

Now I teach students, children and adults. I teach students from Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the latest were 2 men from Tibet.

My life have been enriched through these connections.





As long as there are wars, there will be refugees.



http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

FSO High above, Facing Straight and Down Below

 we had a bad storm, looking up.

 looking forward at the beach

 Looking down and see the fallen branches

our Borneo was once full of tropical trees. But over felling has exhausted the jungles.

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.co.nz/

Jun 13: Scavenger Hunt: High above, Facing Straight and Down Below - Show us these three plains wherever you are. Take a shoot looking up (sky, ceiling, tree branches, etc), then a shot facing straight, and lastly one looking down (earth, grass, floor, etc). Optional: If you know how, you can even post a vertical panorama and stitch all three shots together! (Mersad)

Organic bait for snails and slugs

 first day, 2 snails

2nd day, my enzyme bait caught a slug.

  I made my own enzyme to wash my floors and dishes, and use as fertilizer, and lately I found out that snails and slugs get attracted by the yeast. So I experimented and found I can use the enzyme as a bait.

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

Vegetable garden.

We used to eat different kinds of Taro/yam leaves. The only drawback is the sap is very itchy, and we didn't have rubber gloves then.

Fijian Indian recipe. I am very fortunate to meet friends from different nationalities and eat their food.This one was very unfamiliar to most of you. 
It is made of Taro leaves ( Yan in South East asia)

Seina
Ingredients:
10 taro leaves, washed
1/2 cup uradh dhal, soaked overnight
1/2 onion, optional
Juice of 1 lime
3 chilies
3 cloves garlic
1 tspn. Salt
Cooking Instructions:
Grind dhal. Add lime juice and salt. Make a paste of garlic, onion and chilies and add to ground dhal. Smear dhal paste on the wrong side of a taro leaf. Take another leaf, put paste on and place the second leaf on top of the first one. Repeat spreading the paste on every single leave until about 5 leaves are done. Roll up tightly, plastering loose ends with the dhal paste. Tie with a string and steam for about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove string, cut into 1/2 inch slices and deep fry in good quality oil (preferably olive oil) a couple of minutes each side or until slightly golden.

http://www.healthy-life.narod.ru/wor_ek71.htm

http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/



Taro root.

Planting rice and garlic.

This blog was done with my friends who had experience in planting rice.  The song stayed in my mind, and when my Australia friend Glenice tells me that she is growing garlic without a machine. I told her about this song. 


Today, I put in some garlic to grow, and found it hard to get up, I thought of the "Oh My Back, like to break." I hope I am not too early in putting in the bulbs as traditionally, it is plant in the coldest day, and harvest in the hottest.

This "poker" rice planting equipment children had to used to help their parents can really turn kids off planting rice.
Thanks Francis Chen for this photo and lending me your son as the model. I guess in the past, kids didn't wear shoes.

This is a traditional South-East Asian nursery rhyme originated from the Philipines. It tells the of back-breaking, dirty,squishy muddy work under a sweltering sun. 

My music teacher taught me this song, and I in turn teach my New Zealand students. Rice is a valuable commodity and we are taught not to waste it. A common grandma's warning to kids who don't finish their bowl of rice will marry a spouse with pock marks.

When I was teaching in Kai Chung School in Binatang/Bintangnor, I went back to my parents' home in Sarikei in the weekends. Sometimes, I caught a bus, sometimes I took a boat called an express. The bus took me pass rice/padi fields like the photo. I took this during our recent reunion. 
My student/friend Francis explains how he used to plant rice.
Francis Kim Hung Tiong I use to when I was in Form 2. My dad asked me to move in front to poke holes into the soft ground so that they follow behind to plant the rice. That tools got 4 pokers, so it make 4 holes in a roll. At the end of the line, ONLY THREE HOLES REMAINS!

• Ann Chin Thanks for first hand info, I have added it to my blog, and will use it when I teach. Don't understand this line. At the end of the line, ONLY THREE HOLES REMAINS!

  49 minutes ago · 

  

  Drawn by Francis Tiong
• 
  

  
  

  
  

  Francis Kim Hung Tiong That means I didn't go straight! Instead of 4 holes only 3 remains. My dad did the first row already. So he ask me to continue with the 2nd rowl only when my elder sister realized that she has no hole to plant her rice seedling.
  
  
  
  

  • Drawn by Francis Chen.
    
    Chen Francis that's part of my childhood life..lol

    7 hours ago · Edited ·  · 1
  • 
    

    Ling Liong Lai We used to have one in our farm.

    7 hours ago ·  · 1
  • 
    

    Mag Yaw Lee Chewchia I have seen this at my friends' house too during my childhood years....this is for racking the soil and to put fertilizers in, right?

    
    

    
    

    
    

Planting rice is never fun
Bent from morn till the set of sun,
Cannot stand and cannot sit,
Cannot rest for a little bit.

Planting rice is no fun
Bent from morn till set of sun,
Cannot stand, cannot sit,
Cannot rest a little bit.

Oh, come friends and let us homeward take our way,
Now we rest until the dawn is gray,
Sleep, welcome sleep, we need to keep us strong
Morn brings another workday long.

Oh, my back is like to break,
Oh, my bones with the damp still ache,
And my legs are numb and set
For their long soaking on the wet.

In English "Planting is no joke"  We did the actions. We loved nursing our 

sore bodies. It is no wonder kids don't want to plant rice.

 I modified the song for teaching and added my own humorous last stanza

to make it current affairs. This post has evoked memories of my friends 

who once planted rice  helping their parents. Today, they are engineers 

and bankers.

I feel so privileged as their ex teacher, especially when I did not teach 

them in their class. They ave submitted work that I needed.

Thank you all for brainstorming and helping me out . This post is an unexpected one from the Kai Chung Reunion.

Planting rice is never fun

Bent from morn till the set of sun, Cannot stand and cannot sit, Cannot rest a little bit.

Oh, my back, wants to break, 
Oh, my bones are so painful,
And my legs are numb and set
Because of the soaking in the wet.

Planting rice is never fun
Bent from morn till set of sun,

Cannot stand and cannot sit,

Cannot rest a little bit.

Papa, I am not going to plant anymore,

I am going to work very hard,

I am going to be an engineer,

Or a banker in the nice office.

Oh, my back, wants to break, 
Oh, my bones are so painful,
And my legs are numb and set

Because of the soaking in the wet.

Children today don't want to eat rice,

They want to go for fast food,

French fries and Hamburgers,

Or  pizzas and spaghetti.

Oh, my back, wants to break, 

Oh, my bones are so painful,
And my legs are numb and set

Because of the soaking in the wet.

http://youtu.be/J3gVaXm8Z2Q