: : Prologue to IMBB No. 5 : :

Here is a bit of a teaser from Gil in New Zealand and his Malaysian friend. As soon as he got wind of IMBB No. 5, he immediately sent me some photos of great catch from the sea. So, in the run up to IMBB No. 5, here is a read on great things to eat from the sea, albeit uncooked ones.

Red Snapper

Red Snapper are in good numbers here and the most common recreation sport and table fish. Snappers are part of the Sea Bream family and NZ snapper is : Chrysophyrus

auratus. ‘Ikan Merah’ is also part of the sea Bream family. Snapper fillet are about

NZ$20 to $23 per/kg (x $2.25 for RM$!!!!)

Coromandel John Dory

The ‘funny’ one is Oreo Dory or commonly known as John Dory.A delicate fish and a welcome catch to any fisherman. The fable is that black ‘thumb’ mark on it is John The Baptist’s thumb mark when feeding the hungry 5 thousands ( or was it three?) in the Bible.That’s why it’s called John Dory/ JD for short.

Shark!!!

Octopus

New Zealand manages its ocean resources very seriously. There is strict Quota allocated for commercial catch each year. Recreation fishing have size &/ Bag limit for snappers and most other seafood like Hapuka(grouper), Blue Cod, Flounder (pomfret) scallops, oysters, crayfish and the big buggers like Marlin, Swordfish and Tuna. Snapper can only be taken at 27cm length from tip of nose to the V of the tail. Any under this 27cm must be thrown back into the sea.Bag limit is 9 per person, per day. Any undersizes are illegal subject to hefty fines, confiscation of Boat and vehicles involved by the Crown. We can usually catch a good feed of snappers 1/2 to 1 hour from the Central Auckland either from the shore or in a boat. That big pile of snappers was half a day fishing on my boat during summer.Unlike in most Asian countries, 2 -4 hours (100km) stretch from the coast , the sea is basically ‘dead’ due to overfishing & pollution.

The Clean Green image of NZ comes with alot of funds for Resource Management Acts and volunteers Fisheries Officers. Although the laws do get broken by a small section of the population, the majority of Kiwis have this mentality drilled-in since young to respect and treasures the natural resources of the land, sea & birdlife.

Also, Claudine is the very first person to submit her recipe as she was going to be away for the weekend. So, as an appetizer to the event, here it is : a marvelous and tasty dish called Bouillabaisse. Enjoy the read! Also, don’t forget to pop by tomorrow! There will be a lot of people trying out different recipes of fish. So, join us tomorrow!

Cheerio!

: : Sick : :

Phew! What a bad day yesterday. Stayed in bed because of a bad case of flu with high fever to boot. Had too much fun over the weekend. Not to mention being in contact with a lot of people who were also recovering from a very bad flu + fever. Urgh.

Pics up tomorrow.

Cheerio.

: : Abat : :

Hey you! Why are you taking a picture of me!!!

How could I not? She look so cute carrying the huge plate with pieces of watermelon. The plate looks as big as her! Taken after the church ceremony, she was such a darling. So cute walking around in her brown boots. She was also snapping pictures everywhere as well. Her name is Bianca Abat Wright and she is one of my many nieces who are sweet, cute and bubbly. Not to mention that she chatters up a storm.

: : Passing of my teacher : :

It was so sad to hear this morning that one of my secondary school teacher has passed away at around 2 a.m. this morning. Her name was Rose Agan. She was a fun Math teacher (believe it or not) and always had something good to say to everyone. She would tell us off when we were unruly and still joke with us a few minutes later.

The funeral is to be held on Sunday 13 June 2004 1 a.m. at the Krokop Evangelical Church, Miri.

: : Ten-Ichi ~ Japanese Restaurant : :

Last week, after taking Granny to the clinic, we had lunch at Ten-Ichi, the Japanese restaurant owned by the Lok Thian family. It’s her first time there and was a bit apprehensive about going. She doesn’t quite take to uncooked food like sushi so it took me quite a while to persuade her to go out and eat here. Still, she enjoyed herself in the end.

As usual, I ordered my favourite dish of pickled seaweed. Again, it was a little bit too salty but Granny quite like it. Said that it tasted so different and was already thinking of ways to make it.

I also ordered a plate ot tai teri (think it’s that in the bill) @ chicken teriyaki for Granny. Not too sweet and the blend of the teriyaki soy sauce and sugar was just right.

As she loves beancurd and wanted to have some noodles, we ordered the kitsune udon @ beancurd skin udon. Huge bowl! It was not easy to finish it but both of us nearly do. Yum! And there goes my diet. Sigh. Ah well. Once in awhile is alright, I suppose.

Ten-Ichi Japanese Restaurant

No 315-319 Bangunan Bee San

Jalan Pandungan

93100 Kuching, Sarawak.

Tel : 082-335 042

Fax : 082-337 736