The Green Flower Coffee Cup and Saucer Set

 this is what we call a coffee shop cup and saucer set. Most people will call it the green flower set and this coffee shop crockery is actually made in China a long time ago for south East Asian countries. Today many of these green flower sets are made in Thailand.

The ubiquitous coffee cup set are well loved by coffee drinkers. The saucer is quite deep. A grandfather would pour a bit of the sweet coffee into the saucer for his grandchild to drink. However ideally a man could pour his coffee from the cup into the saucer to cool the drink. I have seen many men do that. so it is really a practical thing to have a cup and saucer set.

Besides, if you do look at the place where coffee is made you can see all the cups in a special trough filled with hot water. This special aluminium trough could have been a innovation by as coffee shop owner to keep the cups hot and clean!! But then again, serving coffee in hot cups really help to keep the drink warm. So you can actually nurse your cup of coffee over a longer period of time while you chat with your buddies.

Coffee shops are really great places for you to relax and enjoy your fellowship.

Disappearing Miri : Miri Old Airport 1968

This is really a nice phto from the Fozdar family. The Bahais were on a visit to Miri when this photo was taken. 

Please note the kajang (palm leaves) which were woven together to make walls.

This was the beginning stage of the Miri Airport, Before Miri Airport was started, the Lutong Airstrip (used by SHELL and the public) was very functional, with small planes landing almost ever day. 

 

Fruits of Sarawak Jungles 1

  Have you ever seen this jungle fruit?

Actually it is the fruit of a wild rattan and is more on the sourish side. Some people love the sourness from this fruit.

Some of the fruits can be beautifully red in colour. When it is too ripe, it becomes brown and really not edible at all.

Foragers enjoy pulling them out of the tree if they see them, But a down side is that snakes love to  hide in these rattans. So be careful .

Soh Mien on First Day of Lunar New Year

 Today 10.2.2024 is the first day of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. Yes I have cooked the chicken and made the soh mien. Happy New Year!! Praise God we have come this far in our life.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Foochows originating from Minqing, Fujian, living in Sarawak would always prepare SOH Mieng or longevity wheat noodles with a chicken soup. A generous amount of red rice wine would be added to the bowl of noodles besides chicken  meat, shitake mushroom and a whole hard boiled egg.,

The hard boiled egg is a must because it will symbolise peace. Eggs are always held as an auspicious food by the Foochows. Egg in Foochow sounds like LONG or WAVE. so when you eat an egg or two, or you bring hard boiled eggs when you travel, you are actually indicating you are controlling the waves in the sea or river.

In the early days hard boiled eggs were even sold to travellers at the Tua Pek Kong Wharf. Relatives would buy the eggs and give to the travellers, remarking..."Eat eggs, control waves. Peace."

Today many people have forgotten this symbolism.

Pusa : Where my Cousin taught for a few Years

 My cousin Lau Kung Sieng was trained in Rajang Teacher's College after she completed her Form Five in Methodist Secondary School in 1966. The Sixties were turbulent years in Sarawak. There were political changes after the formation of Malaysia and education needed to be provided in the rural and urban areas as demands from the population were strong

Many schools in the rural areas were started and there was a dirth of teaching staff. Missionary teachers, priests from foreign countries had to leave Sarawak and there were more vacancies. Some schools were even staffed with one or two teachers only!!

But then again the Teacher Training institutes were not able to train more than they had the capability to do so. The supply was not able to meet the demand.

And fresh graduates from the teachers' colleges had to be sent to places they had never heard of. Many experienced having to walk for a few days to reach their school and at night they had to use kerosene lamps.

A trained teacher was sent to school where he had to share a hut with three other teachers and when it rained they had to catch the rain water with their pails and find some dry spots to sleep.  In less than a month they repaired their roofs on their own. Not that they had the experience to do so. There was no canvas in those days, and the town was a week's walk away. Besides they had no leave to make that journey. About 15 years later the same teacher said that a car could finally drive to the school using logging road but the quarters were still in poor shape.

Back to my cousin.

She was happy there as she was able to board in a good kampong house with two other lady teachers and they walked to the school to teach. Pusa was a small fishing town and the fishermen;s children were keen to study.

Her frist month was fine and all three lady teachers were able to cope with their food supply, some salt, some sugar and some condensed milk, They were able to buy fish very cheaply. Sometimes they received gifts from grateful parents.

Blacksmith Road Hock Chu Leu

In Dec 2023 the heritage Foochow Restaurant at Blacksmith Road finally closed its doors after more than 70 years of business. The older family members called it a day and the old chefs retired.

Even the waitresses cheerfully bade farewell to many of their loyal customers in the last few months of 2023. They would not consider joining the new outfit which will move to Alan Road in Upper Lanang.

At the time of writing I have not been able to visit Sibu. So I cannot say anything about the new restaurant.

But I will always remember the siew muai, the Foochow char chii mien, the moon mien...and the sweet and sour fish. But most obviously they had the best Steamed Tapah fish..all hot and fresh...The restaurant was the first one to seve sizzling tofu too.

The restaurant actually is older than I.

 

Local Rice Varieties and their Future

 Life in smaller towns of Sarawak often bring people closer to padi fields and rice producers. I have lived in Limbang and Kanowit, and now I am living in Miri where some good rice is grown nearby Bekenu and outlying areas.

It is often a nice outing to visit farms whenever there is a holiday with friends. I can even play tour guide and drive friends along the smaller roads to Bekenu , Beluru and a very small place called Sg Tiris where farmers continue to grow rice.

Further away from Miri are two places where good rice is grown, Bario and Long Banga. A friend still has a padi field in Pa Ukat and I have a good Saban friend who grows both hill and wet padi in Long Banga. Some friends continue to bring to Miri rice grown in Long Lellang, which is served by Sarawak Rural Air Serice.

In December 2023 I went to buy Kanowit Rice, a special fragrant rice and was told by the friend rice vendor at the tamu  that since the MCO it has been very difficult to get the variety. Oil palm has taken over as a very important cash crop and padi farmers have become oil palm growers in the last 10 years. And slowly more and more padi farmers have abandoned their rice fields for oil palm.

That is also one of the reasons why local rice is getting more expensive. It is difficult to say what the future of local rice varieties would be like.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and pray that farmers will consider growing more local rice in the next five years to keep the heirloom rice varieties safe.