Yummy Fried Kueh Tiaw

I like this Penang style fried kueh tiaw a lot.


This stall is now relocated to the Pelita Hai Ma coffee shop. Before this, they sold at Seng Guan Cafe. Seng Guan Cafe is now non-existent. And so the fried kueh tiaw vendor, together with the ban mian vendor moved to Pelita Hai Ma.

The fried kueh tiaw comes with cockles, thin slices of chinese sausage, prawns and eggs. The kueh tiaw is moist, yet fragrant with wok hei.

Highly recommended indeed.

Forsaken

so minute
that is none in people's eyes
that even the great one
does not bother
so insignificant
hence being left to own devices
to suffer in silence
so lowly
that is passed but not looked at
thus shrink even smaller
and return to the empty shell
locked up
in pain
forsaken
and
even death will not help

Learning To Conduct

I'd never learned conducting. I do not know the basics of conducting. I never knew how to teach my students to conduct, even when I was handling the school choir.

This weekend, the opportunity came for me to learn conducting. The teacher was imported all the way from Singapore, even though she was originally from Kuching. Her credentials were colourful, and I had looked forward to learning some basics.

I'd indeed learned a lot this weekend. I came to know terms that I had never heard of before - home base, rebound, ictus, direction. So technical! But then it was not enough to know the jargons. Practice was important. And we had opportunities to put into practise what we had learned.

It may have looked easy. But it far from easy. Everything had to be taken into consideration. The posture was important. There mustn't be movement for the head and the body. Yet you could not be tense. The movement of the hands have got to be precise, and any unnecessary movements were forbidden. Phew, it was so difficult. Even more so, my hand co-ordination has always been quite poor.

However, the workshop had rekindled my interest for choral music. It had been a while since I sang in a choir. Though practice sessions were tedious and time-consuming, the music was always beautiful. I wondered if I could be committed enough to re-join to the city choir?

Back To Work

Today is my third day in school, despite it being the second week of the academic year. Today, I was suddenly enthusiastic about work. I feel more positive and more enthusiastic, and am really driven to teach my students and to teach them well.

This morning's lesson was great too! Perhaps the number of students in the class is now smaller and it is not difficult to command the attention of every student. I vow to help the students relate to the subject matter they listen to, speak about, read and write about - even though the materials are very academic. Only then will it capture their attention.

There are plenty to do. I have to slot in "Research" for the Form 6 students. That is something new that I have to look into. According to my colleague who attended the Form 6 teachers' meeting on my behalf, Form 6 secondary schools in Sarawak and Sabah are left behind as we have yet carried out any.

According to the new Form 6 blueprint, each Form 6 teacher must carry out a research. And each student must have gone through the process of carrying out a research. I am much blessed as my Principal is an enthusiast in action research. No doubt he will help the teachers where they are lacking.

Anyway, back to work for the year, as my work with the exams officially concluded yesterday. I'm much relieved, and I do plan to do the best I can this year!

A Simple Homecooked Meal

I have not cooked a meal for a long time. It is too much of a hassle to cook for myself. And it is not easy to cook in small amounts. But most of all, I do not feel comfortable cooking under the watchful eyes of Miss B****. Making comments that make people cringe is her specialty.

This weekend, my housemates and I have the kitchen at our disposal. And hence, we decided to cook and eat together at home.

We went to the market to buy chye sim or mustard leaves and prawns. A quick stir-fry of chye sim with prawns and garlic is sufficient for us.

Stir-fried chye sim with prawns

My friend brought this barbecued sausage all the way from Kuching. I haven't eaten this kind of sausage here in Miri. My friend said it isn't available here in Miri, not like the way they make it in Kuching anyway. Apart from chopped liver, I do not actually know what are the ingredients that go into the sausage.

Barbecued sausage, coiled up in a Tupperware
Both my friend and I thought it looked kind of disgusting ;))

Sliced up barbecued sausage

Very simply, we fried some eggs too.

Eggs over medium

And there we had a simple and wholesome meal at home, which is quite a rare event ;).

An Ethnic Lunch

It's a stressful day today, as we checked through a huge bundle of papers. We needed to kill plenty of brain cells going through the pile of papers set for today. Hence, we certainly looked forward to our meal times, where we could take a short break.

We did not even want to go out for lunch, as we did not want to waste time navigating through the busy lunch traffic. Such workaholics, aren't we ;p? Hence, my colleague ordered and had some food delivered to us.

Today, our orders were from The Summit Cafe @ Centrepoint Miri. This eatery serves authentic Kelabit fare, and according to my colleague, is always packed during the rushed lunch hours.

My colleagues ordered the nuba laya, or leaf-wrapped rice. The rice was compacted into a bar, and wrapped in a leaf. I had tried it before, but I was not really used to the soft texture of the rice, which is akin to a softer and smoother version of nasi himpit.

Leaf-wrapped rice

Hence, I ordered the ordinary rice, which came in a polystyrene container.

My tapau

With the rice, I had a pork belly stew, a minced fish, and the compulsory tapioca leaf. The dishes were quite tasty. The meats and vegetables were mildly-flavoured, and I could still taste the natural flavours of the ingredients used. I especially liked the tapioca leaves, which had this fragrant 香 taste. The dishes went very well with the rice.

No doubt it was a simple and quick lunch, but I felt that it was really wholesome and satisfying.

Honeyed Korean Red Ginseng Slices

After a troubled night last night, in which I barely had enough sleep, I woke up groggy and with my eyes swollen. My mood is rather foul, thanks to Miss B**** and her horrible friends.

And so, today I had Honeyed Korean Red Ginseng slices to chew for breakfast, hoping that it would get me going and keep me energised for the day.

It was bought by siltb for my parents on her last trip to South Korea in 2009. Mom gave me 2 little packs as she knew I liked anything Korean!

The packaging

The red ginseng slice

Well, the honeyed ginseng slice does not taste sweet at all. It has a mild ginseng taste, and the texture was like dried fruit sold in the market. Dried mango, dried apricot and what not.

I'm supposed to eat 1 or 2 pieces at a time for 3 times a day. That would keep me awake and alert for the whole day.

Well, it's sure something I need to jazz me up today!

Really Annoying

A group of people like to come over to my house. They are friends of Miss B****. They used to come only once a week. Then, they started to come twice a week. Sometimes, they come three or four times a week. Worst of all, they come unannounced, and we will be caught off guard at home.

Once a week is tolerable, even if they are noisy. More than once a week is just plain annoying.

For me, I am upset with the noise that they make. They are so rowdy that they can wake up the dead. I dislike it if they come on week nights, when they will be making merry late into the night. That means I cannot turn in early even if I am sleepy and tired after a stressful day at work.

For my friend, A**** who stays downstairs, it is worse. She cannot cook her dinner. She cannot even come out to bathe. People stare at her like she's an alien. Even though she lives here.

I can think of a few other places these people can congregate. But hell no. They had to make nuisance here in the house. So it's apparently okay to sacrifice the inconvenience of the people who live here, just so that they can gather? How VERY selfish of them.

How can we resolve this perennial problem? I am coming very close to the point where I may just lose it. And when that happens, I may just storm downstairs and scream my head off at the whole bunch of them. Who cares if they think I am a freak?

What sort of people cause so much inconvenience to others? I would say, inconsiderate ones. And to think that you should be of the holier-art-thou category? SHAME ON YOU, people!!!!

Dinner @ MG Hakka Restaurant

My friend, W**** suggested we go to a Hakka Restaurant for dinner. Huh? Since when was there a Hakka Restaurant in town?

Well, it is located opposite Yu Lan Plaza here in Miri, next to Bormas. It is called the MG Hakka Restaurant. At about 8.00 p.m., there were a lot of people dining there. We preferred to sit outside the premise, as it was noisy inside. There was a Chinese horror flick playing on the big screen television mounted on the wall, and so it was not that conducive to talk.

We ordered the house specialty, braised pork belly with yam slices芋头扣肉. The yam is layered with pieces of pork belly, seasoned and then steamed for hours. As a result, the yam and the pork belly were infused with the flavours of the sauce, and had this soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Braised pork belly with yam slices

We ordered a serving of braised mushrooms too. The mushrooms were really thick, tender and flavoured with the rich sauce. Quite yum.

Braised mushrooms

After musing at the menu, we decided to order stir-fried bitter gourd with three types of eggs. The bitter gourd came, thinly sliced and stir-fried with egg, salted egg and century egg.

Stir-fried bitter gourd with three types of eggs

The sea cucumber soup had pieces of sea cucumber in it. The usual ingredients were of course shredded shitake and minced pork. The soup was alright, but we had to put lots of malt vinegar in it as we liked it sour!

Sea cucumber soup

The food almost as soon as we ordered them. I suppose the braised pork belly, and the braised mushrooms were pre-cooked.

The bill came to RM57.00, which was quite reasonable. Unfortunately for me, the food was just mediocre. It definitely did not leave me craving for more.

Kolo Mee @ Tiong Hua Cafe & Restaurant

The address says :
Tiong Hua Cafe & Restaurant
No. 1302, Ground Floor, Jln Kwang Tung,
98000 Miri,
Sarawak

Now, looking at the address, many wouldn't know where this eatery is. However, if I tell you that it's behind Dynasty Hotel, it will give you some idea.

What compelled me to go there? Well, the story is like this. I came back from my holidays finding my favourite coffee shop, Seng Guan Cafe at Pelita Commercial Centre gone! I had so loved the kolo mee there. From hearsay, the ban mian moved to Pelita Hai Ma Food Centre. I have yet gone there to check it out. But where is the kolo mee? Does anybody know?

My friend and I had wanted to eat a good bowl of kolo mee. But with our regular haunt gone, we did not know where to go. So she suggested Tiong Hua Cafe & Restaurant behind Dynasty Hotel. The kolo mee stall is at the corner, and it dishes out bowls and bowls of noodles. Business is definitely good!

My friend ordered the kolo mee with char siew sauce or mee merah as she calls it.

Kolo mee with char siew sauce

While I ordered a regular bowl of kolo mee. So how did I find the noodles there? Hmn. First, it was a bit too soggy for me, like the noodles were blanched for too long. So, the noodles lacked the bouncy texture. Next, the noodles were not 香 enough. There was something missing and I can't quite make out what it was.

Regular kolo mee

Well, the noodles were alright, I suppose. But I still prefer the one at the former Seng Guan Cafe.

If anyone knows where the kolo mee stall has moved to, please give a buzz.

So Much For A New Year

My new year began with a bang. What banged? Well, the door banged. I really do not want to write this. But as the door banged and I roused from sleep, I was really fuming.

I mean, I was not disturbing anyone. I was sleeping because I was sleepy and tired. And there, the door had to bang at 2 a.m. in the morning.

I'm not a light sleeper. But if I woke up, you can imagine how loud it was.

Now, it's 4 am. And I'm wide awake. So who's fault is that?

No courtesy. No consideration. I don't know what else to say. . .