Yunnan olive

Ba Tze said this is called oil olive in Yunnan and suggested that I tried one. I bit into one. It tasted siap siap. The surprising thing is each time I needed to cough the urge went away when I bite on it. The husband was surprised I still had it in my mouth.



Kam Lin Chow 這種果实我們叫油甘子，吃了對喉嚨痛有幫助，它的叶還可以用來做枕頭的。

The Fruit of this kind of fruit we call oil gan, eat it with a sore throat, and its leaves can be used to make pillows.

A

socks

I never forget when I was pre U, my uncle and all the late teens in the village were arrested suspected as political prisoners. I told my Grandpa aka Ah Kung to pack some socks. Ah Kung didn't understand why as he never wore socks in tropical Sarawak. Anyway, he listened to me.

When my uncle was released as he was never a communist., he thanked me saying it was the best item. He wore it as gloves as well to repel mosquitoes. He gave the rest to those who were still kept for further interrogation.

My friend Lian Lian collected old clothes for prisoners and reminded me of this.

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Living in China in the village

In November 2017, I went to my ancestral home. I found the time had stood still. My cousins lived like the way my great grand father had lived. The only thing they had changed was they built an indoor toilet. even then it wasn't flushing. On the upstairs toilet, they had to carry the water up. They built the toilet when they saw relatives from Malaysia feeling so difficult going to the outdoor toilet.

There were mosquitoes and they slept in the mosquito nets. 

Fish Maw

Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like croaker and sturgeon. It has has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients. It is graded according to sex: male bladders are better than female ones.

I belong to a  food group , Home cooked delight though I m a terrible cook. The theme for today is fish maw, and I told them I have no food photo but I have a funny story. I googled and found fish maw may be from the croaker fish I ate last Sunday.

The above photo was taken at the end of 1973. The little boy is Henry who is now the head of WWF , 

World Wildlife Fund: WWF - Endangered Species Conservation

https://www.worldwildlife.org/

Malaysia and Indonesia.

The story goes, Dad was a Senior Education Servant. The fish monger was his friend and he gave mum some wet unprocessed fish maw. He told mum to string it in a bamboo pole and dry it in the sun. It rained as it has been in Auckland the last few days, and the fish maw started to smell. Dad threw them in the garden.

The next day, Henry pick it up and brought it into the house. Mum smelt it and the bad odor was gone. After drying it, the fish maw was ok to eat. We enjoyed the fish maw and thank Henry for it.

These days, eating shark fins are frown upon and fish maws are substituted.

kuih lapis

Every new year, I tell this story. I learn to make kuih lapis in 1977. This woman had baking classes. Her oven had a separate grill and oven. The grill was doorless and just right for making kuih lapis. She had a custom made baking tin, which has a handle. 
The batter was a normal cake batter. One spoon into the tin, In goes on the rack of the grill. once the batter dries, out comes the rack, one spoon of batter. and it repeats usually twenty times if you want twenty layers of pencil thin cakes.
Was I impressed? I swore, I will never make another, and if I was given a cake, I tell the family to nibble it.
I drew this oven, because people normally don't have a grill and oven separate. Without a doorless grill, I am sure the procedure is even harder, when you have to open and shut the oven.

Price : SGD$2.00 / Slice SGD$43.00 / Medium SGD$58.00 / Large Chin Yenlooi Yes, Ann Chin. I saw my mom making this cake once and it was laborious. Eating it was never the same again. I developed a heightened sense of appreciation for the cake. Like  · Reply · 12 hrs Manage Ann Chin replied · 1 Reply Rose Kalang FitzGerald Sounds so tedious for me. Those who baked this must be for labor of love. Like  · Reply · 6 hrs Manage Hilda Diane Seumahu made real to me when my Indonesian motherinlaw made at the village in a metal baby bath .She squatted on worn dirt lovingly attending to each layer. Yes, passion and perseverance with asmile. This is my special.memory of my hubby,s Mum . Like Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry  · Reply · 4 hrs Patricia Yam The most labourious cake to make. Tried once and never again, My hands got scorched so many times.

Chan Kee Seng

This is Chan Kee Seng, my grand

pa. Before the World War Two, he went collect money to save the Motherland. In my From China to Borneo to Beyond, I wrote about this as his social work. I fictionalised him in my World War Two book.

When I went back to China in November, my relatives told me the National Government of China honoured his work and made him a member of two school boards. It was also because of his work that the Communists did not shoot my uncle, but banished him to the North East for ten years. Grandpa's name is still written on the two school walls.

Dr Sun Yat Sen , Father of Modern China.

I came back to China to fulfil one personal mission.

My grand pa aka Ah Kung aka Chan Kee Seng reverved Dr Sun Yat Sen. In his house, when the Chinese people have an family altar. Ah Kung had a big photo of Dr Sun. Ah Kung told us to respect him.

According to Dad, Dr Sun stayed in Penang, Malaya to get the overseas nanyang Chinese to raise money to save the mother land.

Ah Kung was one such person. I wanted to know if there was any documentation.

I went today to Dr Sun' memorial to find out for myself. I was glad to be referred to William Chan, their tour guide that indeed Dr Sun did stay in Malaya.

Dr Sun Yat Sen ,Sun Yat-sen (/ˈsʊn ˈjɑːtˈsɛn/; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)[1][2] was a Chinese physician, writer, philosopher, calligrapher[3] and revolutionary, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China. As the foremost pioneer and first leader of a Republican China, Sun is referred to as the "Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China (ROC) and the "forerunner of democratic revolution" in People's Republic of China (PRC). Sun played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty (the last imperial dynasty of China) during the years leading up to the Xinhai Revolution. He was appointed to serve as Provisional President of the Republic of China when it was founded in 1912. He later co-founded the Nationalist Party of China, serving as its first leader.[4] Sun was a uniting figure