: : Poison : :

It’s amazing how mislead people can get when searching on the net. River posted a recipe for an interesting salad with shumac (powder?) as one of the ingredients. Next thing you know, a smart-alec goes and says she’s out to poison them with poison shumac.

Oh yeah. Watch out you Westerners! We Asians are out to poison you all! Muahahaha!

Okay, I’m just kidding here. Poking fun at that American. Fell off my chair laughing my head off. I finally found the page that the American was referring to so here it is. If that guy is so worried about sumac, buy the spices from a Middle-Eastern shop who would be able to differentiate between what is poisonous and what is not. Haiya! We will be civilised to let you walk into the shop and purchase the goods.

Ok ok ok. Will finally stop the teasing. Do not take me seriously as I’m just making light of the incident. Live a little people!

All food that we eat can lead to health problems and at times, dangerous. Look at the list of Chinese food alone :

Lap Cheong (processed pork literally soaked in nitrates which causes cancer)

Cangkuk Manis (if you do not know how to cook it, don’t bother)

MSG (too much will cause shakes, blackouts, etc.)

Artificial Vinegar (nearly pure acetic acid! used by hawkers because it’s cheaper than malt vinegar)

The list is endless. What are we going to do about it? I know! Do what the Koreans do : use metal chopsticks whenever you’re eating. If the food reacts to the metal, chances are it’s poison. Wait a min! Aren’t you using stainless steel forks, knives and spoons? Should work just as well.

So, and live a good life today!

: : Kartoffelpuffer ~ Potatoe Pancakes : :

It all started back in November 03 when Alberto cooked Kartoffelpuffer for dinner and graciously providing me with the recipe. Then, I promptly forgot all about it and when Josh did another posting, then I remembered and wanted to do it in US. Since Jas was in the midst of moving apartments and packing up her cutleries, I didn’t do it until today with Granny. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon so I thought, why not?

Wena : Eh! Want to make potatoe pancake ah? Very nice wor! But you got tepung biasa (wheat flour) or not?

Granny : Errr…don’t think so lah! Have to check one!

After checking the fridge.

Granny : Don’t have flour lah but got this one! Can make very very crunchy! Better than KFC wor!

Wena : See see!

The powder was a batter mix by Hup Loong which is famous in Kuching for making crispy dishes. My Granny searched everywhere for it and finally found it at Top Point Supermarket in Tabuan Jaya. Click on the last picture above to read the ingredients and instructions on using the powder. We didn’t follow those instructions but used the one from Josh’s posting although we did add more flour in. More information here on the various batter premixes that they manufacture and sell. The reason why we decided to use this was because it was raining very hard and we didn’t want to tackle the traffic jams in Tabuan Jaya.

So we prepared the ingredients to fry the Kartoffelpuffer. I didn’t dry the grated potato as much as I should have but oh well. The batter more than made up for it. I added in another bowl of batter in upon Granny’s instructions since she said that needed a lot more of this flour to make it crispy. So it was another quick mix and in it went with the others. I did notice that a lot of water was seeping out of the potatoe, making the entire mixture very soggy. Hmm… must bear that in mind the next time.

We used a Chinese wok for this as to pull out a pan out of the kitchen mess (undergoing massive renovation works since July). Looks okay from the picture no? The ends were extremely crispy and tasted just like potato chips.

Pipeman : (Crunch munch) Sweet potatoe ah?

Granny : No lah! Normal one lah! Eat with chilli sauce chun (good)!

The chilli sauce is an Asian touch to it all. I didn’t want to be stuck with 1.5 quarts of applesauce and with it raining and all, didn’t go down to Choice Daily to get a small bottle of it. Oh well. I ate it plain as it was good enough to do so. I luv the crunchy ends a lot.

Granny : Can start good business wor! We sell during Chinese New Year want?

Wena : Ahem…

Having said that, we decided to prepare a batch for visitors on CNY. Figured that the crispiness would last for probably one day or rather, fry it when people are around. We don’t get a lot of visitors so phew! Am also thinking of making some Rice Krispies treats as Jas showed me how to do it in the US. She got it off the cereal box but I found a recipe online via Stef’s blog. Only problem is that people will definitely compare it to the crunchiness of Bee Pang (local rice version). The Rice Krispie Treat will not be as crunchy as that but just as oily.

CNY entails too much preparation, methinks.

: : Kartoffelpuffer ~ Potatoe Pancakes : :

It all started back in November 03 when Alberto cooked Kartoffelpuffer for dinner and graciously providing me with the recipe. Then, I promptly forgot all about it and when Josh did another posting, then I remembered and wanted to do it in US. Since Jas was in the midst of moving apartments and packing up her cutleries, I didn’t do it until today with Granny. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon so I thought, why not?

Wena : Eh! Want to make potatoe pancake ah? Very nice wor! But you got tepung biasa (wheat flour) or not?

Granny : Errr…don’t think so lah! Have to check one!

After checking the fridge.

Granny : Don’t have flour lah but got this one! Can make very very crunchy! Better than KFC wor!

Wena : See see!

The powder was a batter mix by Hup Loong which is famous in Kuching for making crispy dishes. My Granny searched everywhere for it and finally found it at Top Point Supermarket in Tabuan Jaya. Click on the last picture above to read the ingredients and instructions on using the powder. We didn’t follow those instructions but used the one from Josh’s posting although we did add more flour in. More information here on the various batter premixes that they manufacture and sell. The reason why we decided to use this was because it was raining very hard and we didn’t want to tackle the traffic jams in Tabuan Jaya.

So we prepared the ingredients to fry the Kartoffelpuffer. I didn’t dry the grated potato as much as I should have but oh well. The batter more than made up for it. I added in another bowl of batter in upon Granny’s instructions since she said that needed a lot more of this flour to make it crispy. So it was another quick mix and in it went with the others. I did notice that a lot of water was seeping out of the potatoe, making the entire mixture very soggy. Hmm… must bear that in mind the next time.

We used a Chinese wok for this as to pull out a pan out of the kitchen mess (undergoing massive renovation works since July). Looks okay from the picture no? The ends were extremely crispy and tasted just like potato chips.

Pipeman : (Crunch munch) Sweet potatoe ah?

Granny : No lah! Normal one lah! Eat with chilli sauce chun (good)!

The chilli sauce is an Asian touch to it all. I didn’t want to be stuck with 1.5 quarts of applesauce and with it raining and all, didn’t go down to Choice Daily to get a small bottle of it. Oh well. I ate it plain as it was good enough to do so. I luv the crunchy ends a lot.

Granny : Can start good business wor! We sell during Chinese New Year want?

Wena : Ahem…

Having said that, we decided to prepare a batch for visitors on CNY. Figured that the crispiness would last for probably one day or rather, fry it when people are around. We don’t get a lot of visitors so phew! Am also thinking of making some Rice Krispies treats as Jas showed me how to do it in the US. She got it off the cereal box but I found a recipe online via Stef’s blog. Only problem is that people will definitely compare it to the crunchiness of Bee Pang (local rice version). The Rice Krispie Treat will not be as crunchy as that but just as oily.

CNY entails too much preparation, methinks.

: : Chinese New Year Celebrations : :

The Year of the Horse Goat (thx to moniqus for the pointer. somehow, the horse made a better impression on me than the goat!) is coming to an end and the Year of the Monkey is about to start. Already, the madness of traffic jams at departmental shops and supermarkets have started to drive everyone nuts. At a snail’s pace, owning a car during this trying period is enough to drive one insane, being made to go round and round a parking lot where cars are double-park.

However, after successfully finding a parking slot, it is now time to play Push-&-Shove at the supermarkets. Everyone has the same idea to get their shopping down early. Squeezing through any available space with their shopping trolleys and baskets, they aggressively plow through the shopping lanes, grabbing nearly everything in sight.

Then, it’s off to the pay for the shopping goods. The queue is worst than the airport flight schedule with 2 counters out of 4 being open and at least 10-20 people standing in line with a mountain full of Chinese New Year (CNY) goodies. The supermarket drones workers rush to pack the plastic bags and fill the shelves. The worst times are on CNY eve where shops are opened until midnite!

As for drinks, people are rushing to place orders at the cheapest place selling them. Carbonated drinks are usually bought at either MJC or Top Point for the cheapest deals whereas the crates and crates of beer and other alcoholic beverages are ordered at MJC or other means and ways. For me to tell would get me into trouble. Suffice to say that it’s ironic that it is in front of a police station but it isn’t in Kuching.

Flight tickets are booked at least a year and a half in advance. Buses going back home will be filled with Chinese families going home to meet up with relatives. Cities and towns all over will come to a standstill with most hawker stalls and business being closed for at least a week. Jackie Chan movies will be the rage on the 1st day of celebration with many a youngster going out to watch the movies.

On the telly, CNY advertisements will be shown at every available interval. Dunhill will have it’s traditionally lion dance theme advertisement with unbelievable kung fu moves. Petronas will be having their family theme advertisement on showing multi-racial relationships between children. Perodua will always have an amusing parody them advertisement. The one aimed at the younger generation would be Coca-Cola with their Cuba Try and tongue-in-a-cheek jingles. Not to be outdone, F&N and Miranda carbonated drinks will be giving Coca-Cola a run for their money with their old advertisements.

The post office will be flooded with pink envelopes with CNY greeting cards in them, travelling the world over. Everyone is sending everyone else a red greeting card with pictures of good luck pictures : Japanese carp, Chinese characters fortelling good fortune for the New Year, Mandarin Oranges, Firecrackers, AngPow (red packets), Chinese gold ingots.

On the eve of the 1st day, Chinese families will be sitting down and having their compulsory dinner together. Yee Sang has now become a firm tradition amongst all and orders will be placed at various restaurants all over the nation for early bird orders. Note that Yee Sang does not come cheaply so be forewarn for 1st timers wanting to try it out. That is, the fresh Yee Sang is not cheap. The supermarket version would be much cheaper.

The gambling starts on the eve of CNY where all the Chinese males will start playing 21 (blackjack) or chow tay tee (throw the big two) or it’s a family do for a long session of mahjong. This will go on into the wee hours of the morning where the gamblers sleep at dawn and wake up at noon all panda-eyed and hangovers from the heavy amounts of beer drinking and XO toasting.

Firecrackers is now banned in Malaysia but during CNY eve, everyone is playing it all at once that it’s impossible for the police to hunt down the offenders. However, the ban has managed to curb the all-night playing of firecrackers which is suppose to scare away the ghosts. Fireworks are allowed though. The nightline will be filled with beautiful colors and sparkles falling down to the amusement of children all over.

Little children will be jumping up and down with glee knowing that they will be receiving a lot of angpows (red packets) filled with money. However, their parents will usually grab it all and put it into their children’s savings account for the future. The children will find (to their dismay) that as they grow older, the quantity of the packets will be less and less as they grow older. My memories of angpows were my father giving us empty boxes that used to contain JD or JW bottles, to put all our packets together. It is a tradition that the married couple must give out angpows and the unmarried singles receiving them.

It is now quite fashionable to have one’s food catered from outside. Not only does it save a lot of planning for the family in terms of food preparation but it also ensures that the food is halal for the muslims. It is expected of daughters to be serving the drinks and monitoring the caterers to ensure the food is constantly replenish. This is a chore from sunrise to moonrise whereby guests would be pouring in during the lunch hour to have a nice meal and chit chat with the family, or rather, the family member that is free to chit chat with them.

It’s a crazy time during Chinese New Year. And the Chinese do it every year. I haven’t even covered most of what is practice during CNY but perhaps within the next few days, will be able to post something up. Dr. Liew, how about some help here?

: : Chinese New Year Celebrations : :

The Year of the Horse Goat (thx to moniqus for the pointer. somehow, the horse made a better impression on me than the goat!) is coming to an end and the Year of the Monkey is about to start. Already, the madness of traffic jams at departmental shops and supermarkets have started to drive everyone nuts. At a snail’s pace, owning a car during this trying period is enough to drive one insane, being made to go round and round a parking lot where cars are double-park.

However, after successfully finding a parking slot, it is now time to play Push-&-Shove at the supermarkets. Everyone has the same idea to get their shopping down early. Squeezing through any available space with their shopping trolleys and baskets, they aggressively plow through the shopping lanes, grabbing nearly everything in sight.

Then, it’s off to the pay for the shopping goods. The queue is worst than the airport flight schedule with 2 counters out of 4 being open and at least 10-20 people standing in line with a mountain full of Chinese New Year (CNY) goodies. The supermarket drones workers rush to pack the plastic bags and fill the shelves. The worst times are on CNY eve where shops are opened until midnite!

As for drinks, people are rushing to place orders at the cheapest place selling them. Carbonated drinks are usually bought at either MJC or Top Point for the cheapest deals whereas the crates and crates of beer and other alcoholic beverages are ordered at MJC or other means and ways. For me to tell would get me into trouble. Suffice to say that it’s ironic that it is in front of a police station but it isn’t in Kuching.

Flight tickets are booked at least a year and a half in advance. Buses going back home will be filled with Chinese families going home to meet up with relatives. Cities and towns all over will come to a standstill with most hawker stalls and business being closed for at least a week. Jackie Chan movies will be the rage on the 1st day of celebration with many a youngster going out to watch the movies.

On the telly, CNY advertisements will be shown at every available interval. Dunhill will have it’s traditionally lion dance theme advertisement with unbelievable kung fu moves. Petronas will be having their family theme advertisement on showing multi-racial relationships between children. Perodua will always have an amusing parody them advertisement. The one aimed at the younger generation would be Coca-Cola with their Cuba Try and tongue-in-a-cheek jingles. Not to be outdone, F&N and Miranda carbonated drinks will be giving Coca-Cola a run for their money with their old advertisements.

The post office will be flooded with pink envelopes with CNY greeting cards in them, travelling the world over. Everyone is sending everyone else a red greeting card with pictures of good luck pictures : Japanese carp, Chinese characters fortelling good fortune for the New Year, Mandarin Oranges, Firecrackers, AngPow (red packets), Chinese gold ingots.

On the eve of the 1st day, Chinese families will be sitting down and having their compulsory dinner together. Yee Sang has now become a firm tradition amongst all and orders will be placed at various restaurants all over the nation for early bird orders. Note that Yee Sang does not come cheaply so be forewarn for 1st timers wanting to try it out. That is, the fresh Yee Sang is not cheap. The supermarket version would be much cheaper.

The gambling starts on the eve of CNY where all the Chinese males will start playing 21 (blackjack) or chow tay tee (throw the big two) or it’s a family do for a long session of mahjong. This will go on into the wee hours of the morning where the gamblers sleep at dawn and wake up at noon all panda-eyed and hangovers from the heavy amounts of beer drinking and XO toasting.

Firecrackers is now banned in Malaysia but during CNY eve, everyone is playing it all at once that it’s impossible for the police to hunt down the offenders. However, the ban has managed to curb the all-night playing of firecrackers which is suppose to scare away the ghosts. Fireworks are allowed though. The nightline will be filled with beautiful colors and sparkles falling down to the amusement of children all over.

Little children will be jumping up and down with glee knowing that they will be receiving a lot of angpows (red packets) filled with money. However, their parents will usually grab it all and put it into their children’s savings account for the future. The children will find (to their dismay) that as they grow older, the quantity of the packets will be less and less as they grow older. My memories of angpows were my father giving us empty boxes that used to contain JD or JW bottles, to put all our packets together. It is a tradition that the married couple must give out angpows and the unmarried singles receiving them.

It is now quite fashionable to have one’s food catered from outside. Not only does it save a lot of planning for the family in terms of food preparation but it also ensures that the food is halal for the muslims. It is expected of daughters to be serving the drinks and monitoring the caterers to ensure the food is constantly replenish. This is a chore from sunrise to moonrise whereby guests would be pouring in during the lunch hour to have a nice meal and chit chat with the family, or rather, the family member that is free to chit chat with them.

It’s a crazy time during Chinese New Year. And the Chinese do it every year. I haven’t even covered most of what is practice during CNY but perhaps within the next few days, will be able to post something up. Dr. Liew, how about some help here?