Pasar Malam Goodies

The pasar malam in Miri is held on Friday and Saturday evenings at the Bulatan Commercial Centre. The vendors begin their businesses as early as 3.00 p.m. come rain or shine, and business is brisk after 5.00 p.m., as the crowds come in.

What is there to buy? Well, there are fresh vegetables and fruits, local cakes, rice and noodles, barbecues, magazines, trinkets, clothes and scarfs, handicrafts, and even potted plants.

This evening, my friend and I went to the pasar malam in search of food, and came home with these.

The curry puffs cost RM1.00 for 3 pieces. They are filled with diced potatoes and a bit of minced beef, and then deep fried to a golden perfection.

Beef Curry Puffs

Cempedak goreng, which is cempedak dipped in batter and then deep-fried, sells for RM0.50 a piece.

Cempedak Goreng

My friend wanted to try the Grilled Sardine, so we ended up buying a whole fish. It cost us RM5.00. The fish came with a chilli-garlic sauce for dipping.

Sardin Panggang

Sardin Panggang Close-Up

Dipping for Sardin Panggang

Meanwhile, I opted for Nasi Kerabu for dinner. Nasi Kerabu is a specialty of Kelantan, and I happen to love this dish a lot.

Nasi Kerabu

The rice is blue because it is cooked in bunga telang juice. It is topped with dry fried flavoured grated coconut, and raw vegetables and herbs. Okie, among the herbs and vegetables that I can identify are long beans, cabbage, daun kunyit, bunga kantan, and daun kesum. The vegetables and herbs bring a refreshing taste to the rice. Apart from that, there's a packet of sambal tumis, a sliver of salted egg, and a piece of deep-fried ikan kembung.

Nasi Kerabu

Mix all the rice, the veges and sambal well, and wallop. Yum, I like ;p.

Well, the pasar malam is a convenient stopover to buy food on weekends.

Dinner @ Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club

I attended the divisional teachers' day celebration at Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club here in Miri tonight. All the primary and secondary schools in Miri were represented, so my school was allocated a table for 10.

It was a Chinese-style banquet dinner, and the food was pretty good. I would say that tonight's food was better than a similar dinner that I had just 2 weeks ago at Dynasty Hotel.

The starter was none other than the Triple Hot & Cold Combinations. It consisted of two types of dumpling-like thingy - one was steamed and served in a starchy egg sauce, and the other was deep-fried. Of course, there was the seasoned jelly fish as well. The seasoned jelly fish had strips of fresh cucumber and cucumber that gave it an additional crunch. It was flavoursome too - sweet, sour, spicy. Not bad at all.

Triple Hot & Cold Combinations

Tonight's soup was the Braised Fish Maw With Seafood Soup. I could see and taste the fish maw which was cut into thin strips. I visited another table, and colleagues there sang praises of the soup.

Braised Fish Maw With Seafood Soup

The Pe Pa Roasted Crispy Chicken followed the soup. The chicken was quite tasty, its skin crisp and meat tender. The accompanying sauce tasted salty and tangy. The taste of taucheo or fermented bean sauce came across quite strongly in the sauce too.

Pe Pa Roasted Crispy Chicken

Next up was the Deep Fried Seasonal Fish With Sweet and Sour Sauce. I think the fish was tilapia, fried to a crispy perfection and then drenched in sweet sour sauce. I liked the generous amount of diced vegetables that came in the sauce. There were onions, red and green peppers, tomatoes, and pineapples.

Deep-Fried Seasonal Fish With Sweet and Sour Sauce

Stir-Fried Baby Kailan With Assorted Mushrooms was served next. This dish was quite balanced - not too starcy, not too salty. The vegetables were crisp, and the mushrooms soft and slippery. Quite yum.

Stir-Fried Baby Kailan With Assorted Mushrooms

Yangchow Fried Rice was the last of the main course. The rice was fluffy, fragant and thus quite tasty too.

Yangchow Fried Rice

We had Seasonal Fresh Fruits for dessert. Quite fresh indeed, wish there were more! I particularly liked the pineapple which was really sweet.

Seasonal Fresh Fruits

We had use of the Grand Ballroom, and it looked pretty posh. I liked the a lighting and decorations. Overall, an enjoyable dinner - good food and good company.

Back to Square One

The Star Online published news about reverting the teaching of Maths and Science to BM. It was mentioned that the small number of teachers sufficiently proficient in English was one of the causes of the decision. The paper also stated that the MOE will re-introduce Literature in English. Hmn. Include a subject on grammar. Hmn. Add a subject on composition. Hmn.

My first reaction. What?? Add more subjects?? Doesn't MOE know that secondary school students are taking far too many subjects now?? Many have to attend "luar sidang". That means classes have to be held after official school hours. In my school, these are the subjects that students learn.

Current subjects in Forms 1 - 3 : BM, English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Living Skills, Arts, PE, Moral/Religious Education, Civics Education, ICTL
Current subjects in Form 4 - 5 Science Stream : BM, English, EST, History, Moral/Religious Education, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Add Maths, PE, Civics Education. Some students are taking additional subjects like Arts, Literature in English, and Bible Knowledge.
Are we Malaysians trying to produce a generation of super human beings? Dr. Low Guat Tin said that in Singapore, students are only encouraged to take 6 - 8 subjects.

Being an English teacher, I have been directly involved in PPSMI since 2003. I see laptops being supplied to PPSMI teachers, and courseware after courseware arriving from MOE for teachers to use. Maths and Science teachers attended ETEMs. The Buddy Support System, EMS, SisBT and SAL were implemented in schools. BISP was paid to PPSMI teachers. All these efforts were to help PPSMI teachers speak in English, to teach their subjects in English. Even a MUET-like test (PTP) was carried out to test teachers' proficiency in 2008.

The effect after 6 years? Well, I can only speak for the teachers in my school.

Those who were confident to speak the language and to teach in the language were those who were already proficient in the first place. Those who spoke the language awkwardly tried to teach in the language stipulated, but often resorted to BM, and those were the teachers who despite going through all the programmes listed in the above paragraph, failed to improve their English language proficiency.

Now, I don't blame them. Many many many Malaysian students out there, after having gone through 11 years of education in school, still suck in the language. I know. I mark the public exam answer scripts. About 80% of the scripts suck. How do we then expect these teachers, who are non-speakers of the language, to improve overnight?

I'm a bit sore. With this change, it meant that I was harrassed into carrying out the Buddy Support System, EMS, SisBT, and PTP for nothing. Sigh. What a waste of time and effort and energy. I really do feel like I'm caught in a circus.

How about the students? In 2012, Form One students are to learn Maths and Science in BM. These poor children are currently in Primary 4 or 5, and are learning Maths and Science in English. Won't it confuse them when they switch languages in 2012? Sigh.

Sometimes, I wish the MOE has a better sense of direction of where it is steering the country's education system to. Stop leading us in circles.

School Choir

This morning, a letter was minuted to me. It was an invitation to participate in a choir competition, organised by a government department. The date of the competition is 25 - 26 July.

Hmn. Do people really think it is that easy to organise a choir? It's about two and a half weeks to the competition date. I have no scores, no pianists, no conductor, no singers. What am I to do?

Besides, it is the 2nd semester. I need to concentrate on my SPM students. I can't be supervising practices every afternoon.

Well, I am perpetually frustrated with organising the school choir. There are so many obstacles :

1) Lack of musical talents
Many of my students are tone deaf. They cannot discriminate the musical notes, and thus cannot sing the notes at the correct pitch. I was told that tone deafness can be overcome. But I do not have the time, the inclination, the energy, nor the know-how to train the students.

As it is, I have a difficult time training the students to sing in parts. The second voices always sing out of tune as they are always influenced by the first voices. Sigh.

We are also lacking in pianists. So far, for the past four years, I am so thankful for the 1 or 2 pianists among the students every year.

Conductors are hard to come by too. All the conductors I've had cannot read music notes. They were conductors, only because they were willing.

2) Lack of time for training
Well, training is really very time consuming, especially if I were to teach the students to sing from scratch. Teach them the melody, the rhythm and timing, the dyanmics.

3) No access to music scores
Competitions always requrie schools to sing lagu patriotik, and scores for these songs are so very difficult to obtain.

Usually, we arrange the song ourselves. But we are not trained in music, and can only come up with very amateurish arrangements.

Therefore, taking charge of the school choir really gives me a lot of stress. Now, I love choral singing, and I really wish to bring the school choir to greater heights, but there are just too many hindrances.

Taunted

Every time
Someone so as to mention him
My heart really hurts
And the hole that I am struggling to cover up
Gapes open
And the wound surfaces
I long to weep
To scream and shout my frustrations away
But the tears will not shed

Someone told me this morning
She saw me walking with him
Huh?
When?

Oh
I remember now
We had met coincidentally at that time
I did not think someone would see us
And got the wrong impression
All this while

Am I being taunted?
He is right there in front of me.
Yet
He is beyond my reach.

Sugar Bun : Fish Burger

Sugar Bun has been in Sarawak for a long time. Way back when I was a kid, there was a big outlet just opposite my school. Sometimes, my classmates and I would have our meals there during our lunch break, especially when we had extra curricular activities in the afternoon.

Do you know what I remember the most about Sugar Bun in the old days? Well, it was the chilli sauce. I remember it because I really liked the chilli sauce. In the past, 2 clear plastic squeeze bottles were placed on every table. One was tomato sauce and the other was filled with chilli sauce. The chilli sauce was light and hot and sweet, and it went very well with the broasted chicken, fish, burgers and fries. Now, Sugar Bun, like every other fast food restaurant, resort to factory manufactured sauces like Kimball or Maggi or Life.

The thing that always disappoints me about Sugar Bun is the quality of the food. It fails to keep up to a standard. I used to like the savoury rice. But now, the rice practically has no flavour. It is just salty. The other thing is the shabby look of the restaurants. The Boulevard Hypermarket Miri outlet, for example, looks ever so dim. Every time I walk past, I am just not tempted to eat there. The best looking outlet to date would be the one at The Spring Kuching. Clean. Colourful. Brightly lit.

Many of my friends said that they liked the Fish Burger at Sugar Bun. One of my friends from KL specifically mentioned that she never failed to eat the Fish Burger at Sugar Bun every time she came to Sarawak.

Well, I liked the Fish Burger too. It is just that I don't really eat it often, afraid that I will be disappointed. I prefer to remember the Fish Burger like it used to be, rather than to eat a mediocre one now, and then to have to delete the yummy Fish Burger from my memory. Like I said, Sugar Bun can really disappoint at times.

Today, my friend and I dropped by at Sugar Bun Bintang Plaza Megamall, only because we could not get a table at Pizza Hut. It was 2.30 p.m., and the place was packed and the queues were long, and the service was thus slow. Only one poor worker was clearing the tables. As soon as a table was clear, it was snapped up by customers.

Only 2 tables were not occupied. Why? They were meant for elves.

Tiny tables and tiny chairs for tiny tots @ Sugar Bun Bintang Plaza Megamall

Well, actually they were meant for children. They were real cute. I wish I could sit on them. I believe that the Sugar Bun management meant well and considered seating for children. But children obviously have to sit with their parents. Duh!! How do they expect parents to sit on those tiny chairs. They would look ridiculous!!

My Fish Burger arrived in a white paper bag.

I peeked inside my bag, and saw my Fish Burger nestled comfortably inside.


I slid it out and unwrapped the grease-proof paper to see my Fish Burger.


See what's between the buns. Thick slices of cucumber, tartare sauce, and deep-fried fish fillet.

Pour chilli sauce over fish. Put back the bun and take a bite.


It is the tartare sauce that makes the Fish Burger yummy. I'm glad today's Fish Burger was nice.

Talking about Sugar Bun Fish Burger, I will always remember a story that my friend told me. Tired and hungry after a long day at work, my friend dropped by a Sugar Bun outlet and ordered a Fish Burger to takeaway. When she reached home, she thought she would wind down and take a relaxing shower before she enjoyed her Fish Burger. When she was done, she sat down and unwrapped her burger happily. She lifted the bun and to her horror, there was no fish. The cucumbers and tartare sauce were there, but the fish fillet was missing. Fuming mad, she wrapped up the burger nicely and put it in the refrigerator. The next day, she went back to Sugar Bun and demanded her money back!! Lol. My poor friend had to eat instant noodles that night.

The moral of the story? Always check your orders the next time you are at Sugar Bun!

My Thoughts on The Little Nyonya

I'd finished watching The Little Nyonya. It gave me a lot of angst, especially where Yueniang and Chenxi's relationship was concerned. They faced obstacles at every turn, and ended up separated from each other.

What irritated me was the fact that Yueniang rejected Chenxi time and again. I understood her refusal to elope with Chenxi, after Yuzhu was raped. To make it up to Yuzhu, she decided that she wanted to bow out from the relationship ,and made Chenxi promise to marry Yuzhu.

But after that, it became inevitable for Yuzhu to marry Robert Zhang. Why did Yueniang still refuse Chenxi? Sure, Chenxi was married to Zhenzhu already and divorce was frowned upon in the 1950's. But then again, Chenxi ended up divorcing Zhenzhu and marrying Libby after all. If Chenxi were to marry someone else, I think that someone else should have been Yueniang.

Yueniang was supposed to be someone who did not submit to fate. She was married off to Liu Yi Dao, and yet she refused to become his wife. If she was so defiant, then why couldn't she defy all circumstances and married Chenxi?

Of course, there was a 3-minute final chapter which justified why Yueniang and Chenxi could not be together. Sadly, it did nothing to appease me. I still wanted Yueniang and Chenxi to end up together so that Yuzhu would not have sacrificed in vain.

Other than that, I found it unbelievable that Yueniang escaped the fire unscathed. In reality, if I'd gotten out from a fire that massive, I would run straight into the arms of my loved ones. I would want to assure them that I was safe and unhurt. Yueniang did the exact opposite by hiding from Chenxi, the fact that she was still alive. How cruel she was, I thought.

Anyway, I loved all the Yueniang and Chenxi scenes. They make a nice looking couple. Don't you think so? Jeanette and Yuwu did exude onscreen chemistry, perhaps due to the fact that they had co-operated in other dramas many times before The Little Nyonya.

My favourite scenes :
1) Yueniang and Chenxi's witty wordplay at her backyard. She demanded him to return her chicken soup, and he told her that he was a poor chaffeur.

2) Yueniang and Chenxi met up on the streets after the kidnapping incident - he wanted to ask for her hand and she coyly told him that he'd have to get the approval of Tao Jie and her Ma Ma.

3) Yueniang and Chenxi singing pantun by Chor chor's bedside. I thought it was so poignant.

So, I would agree with Aunt that the ending has to be re-written. For all their trials and tribulations, Yueniang and Chenxi deserved a happily-ever-after ending.

The ending should have been like this!!