I try not to let politics taint my blog – after all, we have good doses of them in our daily life, news, twitter and facebook.
But I also am starting to get really mad because this country is starting to go crazy and crack in the wrong places. Malaysia is never famous for the good stuff – we’re a country of crooks and cons, and I suppose foreigners shudder if they hear news about us.
We’re possibly the craziest of the crazies. Whenever I am listening to webinars or talks, Asia is about Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and sometimes The Phillipines. What happened to Malaysia? It’s as if we don’t exist as a country! We’re THAT notorious!
And yet, Malaysians are the nicest, kindest folks – hardworking, amiable, pleasant, great with languages, difficult to pin down and full of character!
I’ve stopped reading newspapers because everyday is full of the same crap. Nic and I have given up eating at mamak places in Penang mainly because we don’t want to support people who are obnoxious. Our ringgit should go to more deserving makan places. We don’t even want to go to a particular breakfast place in Langkawi because his politics suck.
Anyway, the latest episode of craziness stirred U-Jean, a friend who’s passionate about the arts, to write a heartfelt missive to the Malaysian Insider. I first watched her perform a few years ago, as a kapitan Cina, and thought to myself, “Wow. This girl can act and sing and dance.” (U-Jean is wearing the light blue coolie baju in the photo. See if you can spot her!)
When I got to know her, she’s every bit as quirky and audacious as she writes. (And by the way, I don’t know much of Banting’s history either… so if there’s a similar programme for Selangor, all teens should join!). Politics should never taint the pure intentions of children and youth who are passionate about the oral histories of the place. If Farid is so upset, he should set up his own team and write his own oral history! But then again, we know what ‘tin kosong’ does! It’s all noise but no action.
And bravo, U-Jean! I know Malaysia WILL be a better place if we had more people who really learnt and loved history!
Speaking up for Arts-Ed — U-Jean
February 13, 2011
FEB 13 — If you and I are of the same generation (born in 1988), plus minus a few years, you would probably agree that our History education sucks. Mindless memorisation of useless facts, overemphasis on naming the correct years and characters, uncreative and dreadful learning experience, and the oh-so-clearly disproportionate reading of “world” history, all for the sake of getting an A for the SPM History paper.
Coming from a top school in Penang, where we were groomed for A’s by practising on revision books, trial papers, forecast papers, and past-year papers, I got my very well-deserved A.
This A, however, represents nothing but a failure in our History education.
In the Form 1 textbook that we used, it tells you why you should learn history. One of them is to “mengenal jati diri”. Till today, I still have no idea what that means. We all learned “history” because it is a compulsory subject in SPM.
In 2006, I got myself involved in a heritage project sponsored by Digi. Digi conferred the title of “Amazing Malaysians” to heritage champions in this country and these heritage champions had to carry out a heritage project with young people. I was a participant under Amazing Malaysian Janet Pillai (of Arts-Ed), and that year was the turning point of my life.
At the age of 18, I was one of the oldest participants in the project. At the end of the project, we were to stage a musical drama on the history of George Town. For three months, we spent our weekends discovering for ourselves what heritage is.
We had the privilege of being brought on historical walks around George Town, we scoured the streets to document the sight and sounds of George Town, we spoke to and interviewed people about old George Town, and we learned about performing, making music out of random objects, boria, gamelan, wayang kulit, and composing.
I came out from that project a transformed person. I found history amazing, I found Penang amazing, I learned different ways of learning history, I learned to be inclusive of people, I learned that I very much enjoy performing, I learned humility, I learned to work with people of different ages and ethnic, and most of all, I had fallen in love with Penang.
People around me see me as “the Penang girl”. Some would claim that I’m the unofficial Penang tourism rep for always being so gung-ho about Penang. I am the unpaid tour guide for my non-Penang friends because I am almost always so willing to show them around. I am so Penang that one can take me out of Penang but they can’t take the Penang out of me. Oh, do ask my friends…
Now, we have the learning of our national history in place but what I find missing is the learning of our local history. If you are from Banting, what do you know about Banting’s history? If you are from Ipoh, what do you know about Ipoh’s history? If you are from Kulim, what do you know about Kulim’s history?
This is basically what Arts-Ed, the NGO trapped in the recent Balik Pulau controversy, does.
Or at least what they have done for me. Through them, I learned the value of local history.
For people unfamiliar with the “Arts-Ed” style of executing a project, Arts-Ed works with young people in creative ways. Things one does not get do in school. We use cameras to take pictures, produce photo exhibitions, shoot and edit videos, compose lyrics from interviews, create dance moves through observation of people’s movements, perform history of the common people, produce booklets and newsletter, carry out visits and tours.
I learned that history is not limited to textbooks and history experts but what the average layperson experiences and remembers are also part of history. There are stories and legends about the place we live that we can never read from books.
Things like coolies running to the port with their handcarts to carry sacks of spices, that they were paid 50 sen for each bag they carried, the system of loading and unloading goods from the ship to the boat, the “stairway” arrangements of the sacks, and that the head of the coolies were called “tandaal”, and the division of profit between the coolies and the “tandaal”.
History books do not tell me this. Laypeople do.
Arts Ed encourages young people to leave their books and collect stories. These are called oral histories. Stories that are transmitted verbally, that some of us youngsters classify as “grandmother stories”, and will be lost when its bearer dies. And when you learn how cute, distinct, and special the place you live is, that’s when you learn to love the place you live.
This is what Arts-Ed is doing in Balik Pulau. Documenting and presenting oral history of the people of Balik Pulau, preserving them so that the younger generation would know, understand, and carry them on.
As a proud graduate of Arts-Ed’s projects, it saddens me that the only NGO who gives a voice to young people, who works in creative ways, who educate for free (almost), who believe that everyone has a right to tell their story, and runs on fewer women-power than the number of fingers on your one hand, is now accused of spreading fallacy, a scapegoat and victim of a political agenda.
How irresponsible for people ignorant about the learning of history nor care about them to put Arts-Ed in a bad light when they themselves are not clear about Arts Ed methodology of education.
Muhammad Farid Saad, here’s a lesson on history. History does not belong to experts. History does not belong to the state. History belongs to everyone and we all have a say in history (yes, that includes you).
Your recollection of history matters just as much as the laksa uncle’s and the aunty jus buah pala’s. As has been clarified, MyBalikPulau is not a textbook and is was not intended to be so, it is but a compilation of oral history.
Stories from uncles and aunties. People whose opinions and memories will never ever appear in the history books just because they are not history experts. Will you deny them a chance to share their history of Balik Pulau?
Though you may never have the chance to be in Arts-Ed’s programmes (as they usually only for young people) I hope you will make the effort to learn about Arts-Ed and their ways because they have changed my life. They have played a major role in shaping who I am today and I hope other children will have the chance to experience what I have experienced.
Someday, should I become the chief minister of Penang, I know that Arts-Ed has started this path for me.
Cookies and Snacks of CNY
I’m still in the CNY mood though we officially started work on Monday.
I still have lots of CNY cookies so I decided a little pictorial glimpse of what’s sitting on my kitchen counter would be good.
This year, I didn’t manage to get a jar of my aunt’s famous pineapple tarts. I dare say that Mrs Wong’s jam tarts are the most looked forward to item in my repertoire of edibles and munchies. This year though what with me running around doing this and that, we placed our orders too late (gah!) and didn’t manage to get any. Hmmm….I must remind myself to get my orders in earlier NEXT year. Even clients love these tarts.
They’re bigger than the usual supermarket variety with a beautiful melt-in-the-mouth buttery goodness. As the pastry dissolves, the sweet pineapple jam oozes out! It is that delightful! I call them artisanal tarts because they’re all made by hand.
Anyway, my sis made me some jam tarts so here’s how her’s look like. Mrs Wong’s are similar – they’re actually in a roll form.
This year too I ordered some lovely mini popiah from Cecilia. They’re little deep-fried spring rolls with pork floss. They’re highly addictive and make good munchies for TV time. Fortunately, I managed to order two jars from her. She usually makes these for her family and they’re really not for sale. What I especially like is the fact that the pork floss is also made in her kitchen! These days, people normally take the easy way out and buy ready-made pork floss. (I used to help my Grandma make pork floss and it is such back-breaking and hot work! Sitting for an hour or so in front of a charcoal stove and stirring the pork meat in a wok is no fun. And after all that hard work, all you ended up with was a small clump of pork floss!). Cecilia’s mini popiah is crunchy and tasty and best of all, not at all oily (as one would expect from deep-fried snacks).
I also ordered ‘ngar ku’ chips from Cecilia. Made from arrowhead bulbs (a clear sign that CNY is coming), ‘ngar ku’ chips beats potato chips any day, hands down. Expert technique is much in need because the thinly sliced arrowhead must be deep-fried in hot oil just so. Any longer in hot oil and the edges singe, giving off a bitter and unpalatable taste. Now Cecilia and her family again are maestros at this. Her ‘ngar ku’ chips are a shade of lovely gold and not over-fried at all.
Another favourite cookie for CNY is definitely the ubiquitious butter cookie. Now everyone has their own butter cookie recipe. And it all boils down to using the best butter you can find, according to the people I’ve spoken to. Of course butter is mighty expensive these days so a good butter cookie must be fragrant like butter with a totally melt-in-the-mouth quality. Some people prefer a crunchier butter cookie; others like a butter cookie which melts as soon as it hits your tongue. This year, I ordered butter cookies from my cousin and Mrs Hor, my neighbour plus my sis made some for me too. See, I’m very blessed!
My sis made me some Almond London (or are they called London Almond?) cookies. They were amazingly in vogue some years ago but now almost everyone knows how to make them. Essentially it is a whole almond encased in a light biscuit-like crust; the entire almond-biscuit is dipped in melted chocolate. I believe these are popular among the Malays for Hari Raya celebrations and somehow, we’ve managed to ‘borrow’ them for CNY.
I also ordered cheese cookies from Mrs Hor. I love anything and everything cheesy so these were perfect for guests (and me). It makes a good complementary cookie because its savoury taste is much welcome after so much sweetness! Her cheese cookies are pretty heart shape cookies and full of parmesan yumminess. Oh and a jar of her much-loved cranberry oat cookies. Chewy and healthy, they go best with a cup of hot Ceylon tea!
Finally, seaweed snacks. This is all the rage (and perhaps is still all the rage) due to its addictiveness. It is also easy to make. Like all deep-fried snacks, go easy on this. My aunt gave me a jar of this and I am keeping this for times when I really need to snack.
I had wanted to make some buttercrunch since all my cookies are ordered from other folks. In the end, I didn’t make any because I ran out of brown sugar and Tesco ran out of their brown sugar supply the week before CNY. I was raring to try this buttercrunch recipe from my bread sifu. Hopefully I’ll get around to this before Chap Goh Meh!
In case you’ve wondered why all the cookies in my kitchen are ordered or gifted, truth be told is I’ve never had much patience or inclination to make cookies. I’m just not that kind of cook. I love cakes though but even so, I don’t bake that much. Isn’t it great that I’m surrounded by family and friends who bake yummy cookies?
If you’re salivating…..now it’s time to tell me, what’s your favourite CNY snack or cookie? (Speaking of snacks, there’s a whole different ballgame going on for Kuchingites and their snacks.)
Not so shameless plug for the bakers mentioned above:
My sister, Mei, takes cookie orders all year round. Please note she lives in Banting, Selangor. Her email is alyagoon [at] yahoo.com (Here’s one post where you can see how she looks like.)
Mrs Hor also takes orders for cookies – she lives here in Penang.
The Food of My Memories
I truly enjoyed and appreciated this Chinese New Year – without the mad rush to get air tickets to Kuching, we took things a little bit easy and had a more laidback celebration with ourselves, with my parents and sisters, and with my grandma, aunts and uncles.
This year, no one was going to slave over a hot kitchen, or so I thought. That was why my youngest uncle decided to invite all of us out for a sit-down 8-course dinner on Tuesday night at this Chinese restaurant along Logan Road, opposite Loh Guan Lye Specialist Centre. Even so, the restaurant was packed and bustling! Later I heard that the restaurant will be operating throughout the CNY – it goes to show the kind of demand in Penang for food and feasting!
Anyway, my aunts still cooked on Wednesday after because they needed dishes for prayers at the home altar. In the end, everyone sat down for another round of dinner which actually resembled a proper reunion dinner, minus the noise.
I was still busy cleaning my apartment till the very last minute – but then I reasoned, who really cares if there’s dust or dirt? I mean, I can clean as much as I can but dust will still settle somehow somewhere. So I did my best but really, will anyone penalize me if there’s a mote of dust under the bed?
Sometimes I also wonder: what’s all the rush all about? When I was a kid, the rush was for ‘balik kampung’. In those days, I lived in Banting and CNY is always celebrated in Penang. For me, that was the ultimate prize – packing our bags, getting into my dad’s car and making that long, hot, crazy drive (on trunk roads no less) to get back to Penang. When we spied the Penang Bridge from afar, we’d all get excited and couldn’t wait to see our cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandma.
The thrill was the anticipation of the drive up to Penang, of thinking of our new dresses and of course, the ang pows we’d be getting. I admit, the money was so important to me then. We cousins were in a race to see who could amass the most ang pow money.
The thrill these days is to meet with family and friends, people we have not seen for a while, and to catch up. Even the food, in my opinion, isn’t that important anymore. Especially when we can all afford all the abalone, oysters, fish maw, etc. (My cousin and I retreated to her room to talk and talk when the buzz of the relatives got a bit too much for us to bear. These were the extended family – my dad’s cousins and their kids. The best moments were just lying on the cool marble floor of her room and chatting! That to me personified a good CNY moment.)
In the end, it is the experiences which we hold on to. Even when we reminisce about food, it is always tied to the memories and experiences of that time when we were partaking in the food.
Just the other day, as we were lunching on the first day of CNY at my Grandma’s, we spoke about my Grandma’s favourite vegetarian dishes. In my mother-in-law’s house, everyone was vegetarian on the first day of CNY. It was a must. We could be having vegetarian meehoon or vegetarian fried rice.
In my grandma’s house, she was the only one who took vegetarian food on the first day of CNY. She often cooked a few dishes for herself while she made meat dishes for us all. (Many older Chinese folks observe vegetarianism on the 1st and 15th day of the Chinese Lunar Calender.)
Two of those dishes were re-created this CNY by my aunt for her husband. He too missed the vegetarian food my Grandma used to prepare. One was a simple dish of stir-fried salted black beans with julienned young ginger. It is such a simple dish yet one full of flavour. The other was stir-fried black olives which is an acquired taste. Eating these two dishes with warm rice was an experience. It reminded me of my Grandma – she’s too feeble to cook now; she’s forgotten too many things now. She now needs to be cared for like a baby but the dishes were a beautiful reminder of what CNY was like before.
Cantonese folks don’t do steamboat for reunion dinners like the Hokkiens – we prefer to have our dishes with happy symbolisms. So the table is laden with dishes like prawns, chicken, pork, colourful vegetables and soup. The signature soup of the reunion dinner (at least in my Grandma’s house) is the “tuu thor th’ng” or pig stomach soup, an incredibly delicious soup made with pig stomach, gingko nuts, water chestnuts, peppercorns (lots of it!) and pork bones. Every family has its own version of this soup. This is the food of my memories. In my own family, we often served a tangy yet tongue-searing prawn kerabu to offset the cloying meat dishes. I miss that kerabu!
I am such a traditionalist when it comes to CNY. I think I’m getting old. I love sit-down dinners at home. Restaurants may serve tasty course dinners but nothing beats the idea of a home-cooked meal because that is totally priceless. Restaurants are impersonal, the waiters can be off-putting sometimes (can’t blame them, they are overworked souls on busy days) and everyone has their own opinion about each dish.
What did you have for CNY? What food reminds you of your family?
What I'm Growing In My Garden
I’m quite pleased that my garden (little though it may be) is growing quite well, thanks to the rich compost I make. (In case you want to make some compost of your own, you can read about the composting method, that a very gungho couple from Bukit Mertajam taught me.)
It’s been a little more than a year since I started to use compost for my own plants and herbs and I can tell you, there is a BIG (pardon the pun) difference with regular soil. Compost is full of nutrients and plants love it!
Here are some photos I took just this morning – I’m already in the Chinese New Year mood so I decided to take it easy and show you what I like to do when I am not busy with website design projects or doing business writing or networking or going out.
Besides cooking which I love (I think I like experimenting with food), I enjoy pottering about the garden, watching my plants grow. It’s quite fulfilling to see something growing from a seed – and I have had much success growing plants from seeds or cuttings (thankfully). I do know some people who can’t seem to grow anything or rear anything. Unlike Midas with his golden touch, certain people have poisonous touches, killing plants with their vibes.
At the moment, I’m satisfied that my little roselle sapling (is it a sapling or a baby plant) actually has roselle fruit! Look at the photo below. It is about 4 inches tall but it is mighty cute with a single roselle bud. I grew this from seeds which I saved after I made roselle syrup. Roselle is one of those plants which need a lot more publicity because it can be grown in Malaysia and it is full of vitamins and tastes better than the sugary-rich Ribena.
The next plant or sapling which I am quite pleased with are my markisa plants (also grown from seeds, after I ate most of the markisa or passionfruit which I so adore). Nic isn’t too keen on passionfruit as it’s a tart fruit.
I figured I could grow the fruits I like to eat so this was one of those experiments. Passionfruit seems to be making a comeback now as I see lots of fresh passionfruits sold in the Lip Sin market. The flowers of this fruit tree are gorgeous, I am told, and a little research online confirms this. However this passionfruit is a climber vine sort so I have yet to find out how to let the little ones climb and where! I cannot wait when it fruits!
The next plant which I really love is pokok kemuning. For the longest time I didn’t know what it was called because Nic calls it by its Mandarin name “chit lee xiang” (roughly translated, “seven mile fragrance”). But a search and some garden blog scrutinising later and I found out it is called Murraya Paniculata.
Like most plants with nondescript tiny white flowers, it needs an added ‘feature’ to get the bees and butterflies excited (and come over and help them pollinate!). That is why Murraya Paniculata has an enticing fragrance, one so heady I swoon (in a good way of course).
The tiny white flowers are five-petaled, with each petal curved back. Their fragrance gets released as the days grow into nights and I can tell you, it’s an unbelievable aroma, coming from smallish white flowers like the kemuning.
When I was in HK last year, one particular white flower caught my ‘nose’ too. The osmanthus plants I saw grew in the HK Botanical Garden – the plants were grown around the bird cages where their delicate aroma masked the stink of the birds. I thought this was a splendid idea. When I came back, I was dismayed to know that our tropical weather did not bode well for the temperate osmanthus. Luckily I got to know about the Murraya and it is as good as the osmanthus! The Murraya can be grown as hedges, in the ground, or in pots (like what we’ve done). It loves the sun so anywhere which gets the sun is good place to position your dark-green plant.
By the way, the city of Gui Lin in China is named after the osmanthus. In Mandarin, the osmanthus is called “gui hwa”. Osmanthus flowers are also used in TCM; its dried flowers are steeped as a tea. I have seen dried osmanthus flowers sold by local herbalists to promote beautiful skin.
Here’s a photo of the fruit of the Murraya. The fruits are oval-shaped green berries when unripe but become attractively orange when they ripen. As with all plants, they entice birds to come eat their berries and help spread the murraya seeds far and wide. My mom-in-law grows saplings easily from these seeds back in Kuching. You can do the same too by plucking the ripened berries and putting them into separate pots to help them grow.
Since this post is quite long, come back for the next post of what else I’m growing in my garden and why!
Do you have a garden? What do YOU grow in your garden? It doesn’t have to be a garden at all. When I was in my old apartment, all I had was a tiny balcony. Even so, I had pots and pots of plants. I believe all of us derive great pleasure from seeing things grow and progress. Plants are one of the easiest and when they grow well, we get the added benefit of seeing their flowers or inhaling their fragrance.
So tell me, what are you growing right now?
Little India Walkabout
After a dinner of frog leg porridge in Chinatown with my sis and her Penang friends (there’s a whole bunch of Penang people in Singapore – I told my sis to set up her own Penang Club even), Nic and I decided to drop by Singapore’s Little India for a quick look-see.
After all, visiting Little India in Penang is my favourite pastime, besides eating banana leaf rice at Sri Ananda Bhawan’s. I wanted to see how similar things are down south, particularly as it was nearing Deepavali then. Singapore’s Little India would be bustling!
Was I right! The streets were decked out with gorgeous lights and a sense of gaiety punctuated the air. Although it was almost 10, the streets were still crowded.
Some Indian vendors were just in the midst of arranging their vegetables – oddly people were buying carrots and tomatoes at night. I guessed these people were very busy indeed and could only come out at night to shop for their food.
Within a specific bazaar place set up for this Indian community, we gawked at the trinkets and decorations, the bells and the incense, the biscuits and the prayer items.
Finally after walking about, I felt a little smug. This Little India, while clean and not very noisy, couldn’t really compare to our Penang version.
Ours is noisier, busier and an assault to all your senses. Loud music, smell of burning incense, people talking loudly – all these make our Penang an undisputed winner in the cacophony department.
With that, we were ready to stop for a cup of masala chai at one of the Indian shops.
One clear similarity was that the sweetmeats were still the same garishly pink and green!
Loi Ah Koon…Modernized
When I was visiting my sis in Singapore last October, we were of course feted.
I mean, Singaporeans are just as proud of their food culture as we are. We’re so similar in many ways. And to add to this, I met up with so many Malaysians (not to mention a whole group of Penang folks, thanks to my sis). Like all good hosts, food was definitely the order of the day.
As we stayed for a few days in the pleasant suburb of Tiong Bahru (actually come to think of it, which suburb isn’t properly planned and pleasant by Singapore standards? It better be nice or else the complaints will rain!), we particularly enjoyed having breakfast at Ya Kun, just a 5-minute walk away from her apartment.
Ya Kun is the modern version of the old-style kopi tiam – something like our Old Town Cafe. It serves half-boiled eggs with kaya toast. Small yet cosy (but with airconditioning), Ya Kun is really an old establishment, started yonks ago by a Hainanese man named Loi Ah Koon – the picture of the founder in the typical white cotton shirt is on the wall.
Probably Ah Koon would never have thought his old-style Hainanese coffee (made the same way since 1944) would be transformed into a modern coffee and breakfast place. Ya Kun is an upgraded version of the old days. Ya Kun has personality too – there’s an indelible pride in the Hainanese coffee culture with a very Asian twist too.
Ya Kun is creatively funny – I liked most their cheeky and clever posters on the wall. It made me chuckle!
One said “Screw the French press – we’ve got the sock”. Another said “Want a skinny latte? Stop at half a cup!”
Like Andrew Sia’s article in The Sunday Star a few weeks ago, I find that we Asians have a lot to be proud of.
Slowly but surely we are realizing we are living in an area steeped in fantastic culture. That’s the reason why Ang Mohs are here. While I love blue cheese, there’s nothing compared to durian. While I may enjoy going elsewhere for a while and wishing for spring weather all the time, there’s really nothing like rain which seeps into your bra and sun so strong it makes your skin freckle. Or the familiar smells of street food. One can never go hungry in Malaysia – there’s some food stall on some corner open at some ungodly hour.
Other than Ya Kun, there’s another famous breakfast place called Toast Box. Some who have eaten at Toast Box say it’s nothing special though people have been seen lining up for the food. But then again, every place we go to seem to have lots of Singaporeans especially cafes and restaurants.
What is lovely though is that customer service is taken very seriously in the island republic. You do get service with a smile, unlike some cranky waiters and waitresses in most restaurants in Malaysia. And if you complain, someone somewhere will respond to you. Here we’d be lucky if they even bother to open their emails!
I wouldn’t want to live in Singapore – but visiting for a few days and eating my way through the island is indeed fun!
Full of Beans
I was in Langkawi last week – it was a very quick trip to visit a client. At the same time it was also a meet up and discussion about a marketing project we are doing with another client.
As we were visiting a client who just had leg surgery, I was wondering what I could bring. Fruits was out of the question – I was not going to carry fruits onto the AirAsia flight (as an aside, I was on the same flight to Langkawi as celebrity chef, Chef Wan!).
Finally I settled on a very healthy gift – a packet of nutritious cereal powder from my favourite Buddhist society – Tzu Chi.
I’ve always been in awe of Tzu Chi because they’re a charity organization like no other. Instead of asking for handouts, they prefer to engage in honest business to help them fund their work. Their dialysis treatments for kidney patients are completely free. Amazing.
Nic and I decided to go to their Macalister Road building to get the nutritious bean powder. (You can also buy them from the Jing Si Book shop on Beach Street which is a lovely serene cafe with Buddhist books for sale. However, I prefer their Macalister Road outlet which is actually a huge grey building – you can’t miss this. Plus like everything else in Penang, parking is important. In this place, parking is very convenient. No doubt about it.)
The interesting part is, the ingredients for their products are mostly grown by themselves in Taiwan. Taiwan is the headquarters of Tzu Chi Merit Society – this is where they started some 40 years ago with just 1 nun (Master Cheng Yen) and 30 housewives. Today, Tzu Chi is a global phenomenon with a task force of volunteers all over the globe, ready to serve at any moment’s notice. Their dedication is truly incredible.
The bean powders are purely vegan and consists of ingredients like Job’s tears, almonds, Chinese yam, oats, sesame seeds, lotus seeds, black beans, brown rice and more. The bean cereal powder are suitable for both young and old and a good replacement for sugared beverages. I also discovered a plant called Jew’s Mallow when I bought one of the bean beverages which contain Jew’s Mallow which is cultivated in Taiwan by their master and her disciples. Jew’s Mallow is also called Kerria Japonica – a yellow flowering shrub with leaves used as a vegetable.
While I was there buying these bean powder beverages for family and friends (and you know how suddenly one thinks of everyone who could and would benefit from this healthy beverage), the Tzu Chi volunteer asks if I’d like to try their instant noodles. She said their noodles were often in high demand and taste great, without the MSG! I am not a noodle fan so I politely declined.
They also sell a quick version of rice gruel or instant porridge where you just add hot water and presto, your porridge is ready. I heard that this was an innovation of theirs especially when Tzu Chi serves in disaster areas – easily cooked or hot food makes a big difference to disaster survivors. Even their rice is of this instant version – just add hot water and you get rice immediately.
What I especially like about Tzu Chi products is that they’re made with the Earth in mind. Their packaging is recyclable. And their design is simple yet elegant. None of the Jinjang designs – no way. Like their founder, Tzu Chi volunteers live a simple, practical lifestyle and often are serene, calm people. The entire Tzu Chi organisation lives and breathes simplicity and practicality.
And if I have a choice when buying responsibly, I will. In this case, you are not only buying a healthy bean beverage for yourself but also supporting an organization which does good.
In Those Days…
It came up when Nic and I were at Vern’s little birthday do a few nights ago.
After a very filling round of Japanese style cheesecake which her mom had lovingly baked, we sat around her dining table, talking with her friends.
“Remember those days of dial-up Internet?” I asked casually.
Now that set off a round of reminiscing – I thought Vern was not old enough to know “those” days, circa 1996 when dial-up Internet was the best we thought we could have. (She does remember!)
I was lucky – I was working part-time for my professor and could use her PC and it had a pretty smooth Internet connection, thanks to USM. Still when I got back to our shared student house, I borrowed my housemate’s PC and Internet to check email (which was Hotmail then! It was so cool to have a Hotmail address).
Remember those annoying dial-up sound which told the world you were connecting to the ‘Net?
Remember how you had to quickly download your emails to Outlook so that you could disconnect?
I had an obligation to disconnect the line quickly because in those days (gosh, I feel ancient now and it was just a little over 15 years ago) if one used the phone line for the ‘Net, no one could call in! And of course, every minute I was online was costing money so it was best to read one’s email offline!
So if there’s anything to be thankful for, it has to be broadband Internet and wifi.
It has to be the convenience of all the gadgets we all own and use now which allows us to connect easily to the cyberworld which has become part of our life now. (For most people, it is a MAJOR part of their lives.)
I mean, I wouldn’t even have a business if not for the Internet! I’d probably still be slogging in some 9 to 5 corporate job. OK, I did slog once many moons ago but I actually had fun when I was in the corporate world. I’m the sort who embraces the good of anything that comes my way.
Do you remember those early Internet days? What were you doing? What was your first online experience?
Mine was in campus. We lined up for PCs in the Makmal Komputer (we each were alloted an hour only!) and we could use the Internet for free. In those early days, we had Hotmail addresses and funnily enough, we only emailed our own coursemates, whom we saw each day during classes. That was also because not everyone out there was as sophisticated as we were. Email addresses were unheard of!
Isn’t it fantastic how far we’ve all come?
P/S: Merry Christmas to you too as you have been an important part of my Mayakirana – my Internet journey. If you weren’t supportive, I’d have no one to write for! 😉
What's In The Air Over There?
Over the last few months, I have heard that friends of friends have decided to uproot themselves, give up their citizenship and go away to a better place.
The first question out of my mouth is “Why?”
Then I go all silent.
I know why. We all know why. It’s not just about “better education for our kids” or “free education” or “they use English over there”.
It’s all of the above and more. More is the unspoken fear and worry because Malaysia today is not like the Malaysia we grew up with. (I assume you are in your 30s and understand what I mean.)
And more and more people are leaving, whether we like it or not.
Our southern neighbour does a great job of luring people – better pay, cleaner living, safer living. I felt so safe when I was in Singapore although my sis cautions me with “Low crime does not mean no crime”. But you see, I have that much of faith in Singapore and its governance. I cannot say the same for Penang or Malaysia.
When I was 14, I had a friend who made the big move to Australia. Her entire family upped and left. Her parents were teachers and they decided staying in Malaysia wasn’t worth it anymore. I didn’t know it then that she was moving to Australia. She told us that she was just moving to Sabah. It was a convenient cover-up, lest we all probed too much. It never occurred to me to ask her why Sabah of all places?
Once her family was settled in Sydney, she wrote and apologized for lying to me. I didn’t see much reason to be angry with her. It was easier telling a lie than having to explain why she had to uproot and go to Australia.
Over the years, we wrote and wrote. In those days, we used the thin blue paper Aerogrammes, writing till the very edges before they were sealed and posted. I could see that her Australian education was so much better than what we were doing in secondary school. Her first Sex Education class surprised her – taboo subjects (well, taboo in Malaysian classrooms anyway) – were taught openly in a mixed class of teenage boys and girls. No one flinched or giggled embarrassingly either. Pictures were shown too.
It was a truly global experience back then reading her letters of how she was coping in school. In comparison, my school life seemed rather dull!
Most friends are upping and leaving for Australia or New Zealand. Some became Singaporeans (happily).
And through it all, I wonder how it feels like to move away.
Then someone tells me this – isn’t it very much like how our ancestors in China did it? One day they decided they had to leave for green pastures and to find a better world for their future children so they hopped on a ship sailing for this part of Asia. They heard of the money to be made. They landed here and decided to make this place their home.
Perhaps it is a new wave of ‘seeking greener pastures’. But I can’t help feeling melancholy over these news.
Will I also do this one day? Get fed-up of all this and leave, never looking back? But how about the people who are fighting against the system, hoping to change it so our future children can have a better country to inherit? Will I give up so easily or will I fight to right the problems in this current system?
It’s that one question which flummoxes me.
What do you think of emigration? Will you do it? What would make you leave and give up your Malaysian citizenship?
Ferrerro Rocher Chocolate Banana Muffins
Yeah, you read right.
And it all happened because Mary told me that chocolates never expire, especially if you store them well in the fridge. Sure, they may look a bit different but unless the white spots are fungus, you’re generally all right with chocolates.
She recounted how she dug out all her lovely imported chocolates and melted them all down in a bowl over a hot stove. Next she chunked them up into bite-size pieces and put them into an airtight container. So now she gets to enjoy her chocolates – actually all her chocolates – with one bite!
For me, I always get Ferrerro Rocher chocolates. You know, the type with gold wrapping paper? I have way too many of these chocolates in my fridge sometimes, especially with the holiday season and people look at me and think,”A-ha, I think she needs a box of Ferrerro Rocher chocs!”
So I thought about Mary and her advice.
I decided to make some Ferrerro Rocher chocolate muffins.
I always improvise a recipe when I have the time. And I like digging my fridge, unearthing all manner of ingredients I could pop into the recipe.
This time, I had some frozen leftover bananas and a box of Ferrerro chocolates. And making muffins are like the easiest thing to do on a Sunday night. You just mix up the wet or liquid ingredients; then mix up the dry or flour ingredients. After that, it’s really child’s play. Fold the dry into the wet, spoon mixture into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes. That’s it.
I call this the basic muffin recipe. With this basic muffin recipe, you can add anything you like. Or in my case, I added anything I could find in my fridge. (I made dark chocolate and cranberry muffins previously using this recipe and it turned out fabulous.)
YOUR BASIC MUFFIN RECIPE:
Dry ingredients (mix in a bowl):
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients (mix in another bowl):
1 egg, beaten
180 ml UHT milk
125 ml corn oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method:
Using a spatula, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Work quickly with swift strokes to blend them well. Add your Favourite Stuff* but do not over-mix.
Spoon into muffin cases and bake in a pre-heated oven (180 deg Celcius) for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean. This recipe makes 12 small muffins.
* Favourite Stuff
Here is where the combinations get really fun.
For this recipe, I roughly chopped up 8 Ferrerro Rocher chocolates. Don’t chop too fine or you won’t get anything to munch when the muffin’s done. I also added 3 large mashed bananas. The combination is good because anything chocolatey and banana-like is always yummy.
In my other muffin recipe, I added chunky chopped dark chocolate and dried cranberries which are also a good pairing. The dark bitter chocolate offsets the cloying sweetness of the dried cranberries.
You can make savoury muffins too. Using the same basic muffin recipe, omit vanilla essence and brown sugar. Replace with 1 teaspoon of dried thyme and 1 cup grated cheese. Then you can add everything else savoury which you like: olives, more cheese, bell peppers, nuts. It’s really about your taste and how you like your muffins.
Do try out the muffin recipe and come back with your feedback. I’d love to hear about your baking success.