Grandpa's 71 and mum's baking

This was a very formal event. Here he is wearing the formal attire of a royal offical of the Ming Dynasty. It was a black silk top on top of a black silk gown.

Mum made his cake. An aunt brought some red chinese cutting of auspicious words. Making it a perfect fusion of East and West. For beakfast, all of us were served with sweet long noodles. yes, you read it right, the sweetness signifying a sweet life, and long noodles for long life to all who ate this noodles.

There was great feasting, and hundreds of guest were invited. My dad told me that at the birthday of a very healthy and successful person, people like to come to these parties. Some even gate crash. They believe in taking away a bit of the luck of this birthday boy. They will take away uneaten food to share with their family at home.

Vice versa, if the birthday person was a sickly person, people will avoid going to the party. It is seen as taken home the bad luck of the sick person.

mum's baking

I have been looking for mum's make shift oven, and this aluminum flat top and flat bottom looks quite like hers. Mum was a very clever person. The World War two aka Japanese war interrupted her education when she had to marry father.
Dad was a civil servant and we didn't have an oven. She fashioned a very big pot which was flat on the top and flat on the bottom.
Her first try was to put embers on a rack, place the cake on top of the rack. She also put embers on lid of the pot. Alas the embers were too hot and burn a hole on the lid and one the base of the pot. She smartly put metal sheets to block the holes, and put the embers underneath the pot.

From there, there was no stopping her. She made beautiful cakes.

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Mother's cake making

Cake making in Mother's house was a big business. Mum learned cake making. Then she would make the cakes for the family and aunties during new year. She used the golden butter churn and her cakes smelled heavenly.
We kids would come back from school, have a quick lunch, and start breaking one hundred eggs, and use the hand held whisk, and beat the eggs. When one of us get tired, we transfer the beater to another.
When mum deemed the eggs had been aerated enough, she measures the flour, vinegar essence, baking power. Transferring to a wooden spoon, we stir the mixture in one direction.
By five pm, the cake mixture is ready. Mum bought a very big flat top pot She fashioned the pot into an oven and baked her cakes at the void deck. , she already had made a fire from charcoal .It's a pity, mum didn't let us watch over the baking. She said, one had to be very careful to watch over the fire. She continued to bake way till the wee hours of the morning.

The next few days, she suffered from a headache. When my girl Kong Hie Ding said it was too hot making kueh Lapis, I remember my mum. I also remember making Kuih kapit which is a crispy and delicious wafer, which is also called love letters.

4th Aunty Ngui Nee Kong Wah Mee, mum's youngest sister told me and my cousins that I was her favourite niece. Thanks aunty.

Before Dad went to England, he begged Aunty to leave Sibu town with Ah Tai to go up to the Lanang Road village to keep my mum company. She really didn't want to go to the village, but she loved Mum, seeing Mum had a brood of 4 kids. I was only 20 months.

So she came, Mum saved Dad's family allowance and went to tap rubber. Aunty took care of us. I presume she cooked lunch too before she went to the village school.

This is the most significant part. She fed me before she went to school. As I was a slow eater, she chewed my food and fed it to me. That's how the story came about. I became her favourite niece as I had eaten her saliva.

During my 2006 trip, I stayed with her. We stayed up late in the night and she told me stories that I wouldn't have known.

my pigs

Visiting my mum's Ah Pia aka Kai Dad in the Rejang Basin.

4 times a year, my aunty would buy from the Ibans a little piglet like thee in the photo. We kept the piglet in a big box, and I was the pig farmer. In fact I was the farmer for chicken, ducks, and one turkey.

My aunty had a curry stall at Pulau Babi. She collected all the leftover food from her customers, and mother drove me to the stall and pick up the bucket. I had to dilute the food, so that it wouldn't be too spicy for the pig. I had to empty the old stale food and clean the trough. Sometimes, I was too lazy and just dumped the food over the now staled food. I pay for my tardiness. The pig won't eat stale food. Then I had to rinse the trough and find some food for him. I also gave him kangkong which was growing aplenty in the garden.

The pig loved it most when I splashed buckets of water from the pond. It also like the occasional brush.

I knew this was a pig reared for food and when it was grown. It had to make way for another piglet. We shared the meat with my aunty and other aunties and uncles.

Sonia Lahung J We seem to have the same experience at feeding pigs Ann Chin. When my siblings and I were in Primary, we helped our parents to feed the pigs. We collected yams from the garden esp planted for pig food, chopped and cooked with some fine paddy husk. I once cut the side of my left thumb while chopping the yams. My parents sold the pigs and piglets aside fr hvg it slaughted during planting or harvesting season. Nice feeling to reminish😅

Ann Chin poor thumb, u still have the scar?

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Ann Chin my pig ate kangkong, so no need to chop. but have to remove the old twine as pig ate only the young leaves.

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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