: : Christmas Dinner ~ Part II : :

Hello everyone. It’s been a hectic week and so, not much postings. But, let’s continue on with the Christmas dinner

A quick note to say that we enjoyed 3 bottles of wine. I’m a lousy shot at explaining about the different tastes of wine. Plus, I had a glass of each wine but problem was, my tastebuds sort of soured when I tried different wines at the same time. Anyway, needless to say everyone had a sip of the bottle on the right since it came all the way from France, courtesy of Kula, my cousin-in-law. However, I did enjoyed the Penfolds as recommended by Sina’. “Nothing can go wrong with Penfolds.”

We had a lot of salads. Upper left is the potato salad mixed with chopped hard-boiled eggs and peas. It was simply mixed with mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste. Bottom right were some boiled French beans served with chopped tomatoes. Fresh tasting.

Yummy yummy roasted potatoes? I love the crispy edges of roasted potatoes. Had a few, I can tell you that.

If you notice the dinneware, most of them were bought from a shop located along the Miri-Airport Road called Twinkle Star. Sina’ saw them being sold in the USA about 2 yrs ago for about USD10-USD30. In Miri, there were going very cheaply for RM10-RM30 (USD2.63 – USD7.89)!! Twinkle Star is a shop specialising in cheap goods from China. For the Kuching folks, I’m sure you’d be able to find something at MJC.

That’s all folks!

: : Christmas Celebration : :

My Christmas Celebration with family was a simple affair on Christmas Eve. However, at the end of it, it was a grand affair for the family. We love to get together during Christmas and get together to show off in our new clothes. We swap news of what has been happening since the last meet up (for me, it was a few weeks ago!!).

Well, we had the roast ham. We also had the traditional Kelabit Nuba’ Laya’ @ soft Bario Rice wrapped in banana leaf. Bario rice is very fragrant and similar to the Siamese Rice found in Thailand. The difference is that it is slightly more sticky although not as sticky as glutinous rice. The Bario rice is cooked until it’s very soft and then wrapped in banana leaf.

Wena : Yzara, want to share one portion?

Wena : …

Well. 🙂 The rice is very delicious and since it’s very soft, it gets digested very fast. One portion may seem a lot but if you eat that only, you’ll get hungry very fast!

We also had some roasted pumpkin (with the burnt sides removed) as well as some buttered vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and something-like-miniature-cabbage-that-isn’t-brussel-sprouts). In the front, is the fried tapioca leaves, known in Kelabit as Udong Ubi. It is made from wild tapioca leaves that are pounded until it is completely smashed up to get the sticky sap out. The sap is not edible so needs to be removed. It is then boiled to remove the sap from the leaves. After that, the water is drained out and then it’s stir-fried with some garlic. My favourite vegetable dish. It’s a common vegetable dish amongst all the indigenous people of Sarawak. So far, there’s only one shop in Kuching town that I know that serves this. Most shops don’t prepare this dish as it is quite tedious to do it.

And, the Christmas Tree in the house. And I see a little handmade decoration I made a few years ago. Can you spot the little bead Cross? 🙂

: : Screwball Scramble : :

OH MAN!! Can’t believe I’d be seeing this game again. My sis was posting about it on her blog. LOL!

We spent hours and hours on this, timing ourselves.

They’re selling it at amazon.co.uk for 9.89 pounds.

More on toy’s on TV Cream’s site. A lot of them look very very familiar.

Man, talk about childhood days.

: : Dropping in for Dinner : :

On 24 Dec 2004, I was literally dropping in for dinner, so to speak. Rather, I was flying in for dinner. My cousin-in-law, Kula, picked me up at the airport with his son and we rush back home to everyone getting things ready.

It was a potluck Christmas dinner with almost everyone contributing something. Well, except me. Flew in from Kuching without any food items. Did bring presents though.

Anyway, instead of a tablecloth, Sina’ laid huge banana leaves everywhere. Think this was the leftover leaves from the Nubat Layak. The leaves created a great contrast. As for the candles, they played a duo role in this dinner. Not only do they serve as great decorations but they also act as a fly deterrant. Flies seem to avoid candles so it’s pretty common to see one or two more candles lit at food places which is open-air i.e. not enclosed but expose to the outside. Also, in the corner, was a Christmas bunch of roses from my sis and her hubby in the USA.

Will post up the dinner spread over the next few days.

Hi Dad! 🙂 He’s doing the honours on the roast ham. And, the electric knife is one useful device when it comes to slicing a huge portion of meat. You know, avoiding muscle aches and all. He was cutting the ham and the turkey as well.

: : Post-Christmas Teaser : :

Hi all! It’s now into the 1st week of 2005. Sorry for posting a bit late. 1st week of work for me so things have been pretty hectic.

Anyway, here is a teaser of the Christmas Eve Dinner which I will be writing about this weekend. It was a fun time at home and the food along was an amazing spread of both Western and Asian cuisine. As usual, we had a lot leftovers and everyone was struggling during the last week of 2004 to finish it all!

Roast ham with an amazing ingredient in it. Would you believe that the chef soak the ham in huge amounts of Guinness Stout? It came out very well and we could not taste the Stout at all. Well, maybe a bit but it’s not the alcoholic taste. It was the malt taste that got into the ham to tenderize it. The ham was bought from a small supermarket in Miri which has a huge cold storage business. It wasn’t fresh ham but still, it tasted great.

And this is my cousin, Ms. A. One of the many chefs of the night. Here she is showcasing her masterpiece.

Now that was just a teaser. Will probably have to post the pictures up in parts because there were more than 10 dishes altogether.

Cheerio!

: : Greetings for 2005 : :

Hi Everyone! Happy New Year and all! I hope that you all have had a great celebration and a great day today.

I went to this great Chinese coffee shop for lunch today for a New Year Lunch cum Birthday Lunch for Auntie Caleena. The shop we were at cooked a great meal so the pictures will be up some time next week once I’m back in Kuching.

It’s been a really eventful week here in Miri and …errmm…. suffice to say that every time I come back here, I put on more than a bit of weight …so… time to tone it down when I’m back in Kuching.

After one and a half year of blogging and taking pictures, I’ve come to realised that it would be very easy to have a gastronomical tour of Kuching. Well, provided that the shops and stalls are still around.

Cheerio all and have fun in 2005!