Old time...

I have stopped writing my blog for nearly a month, but it is always on my mind. I have had lots of activities going on in the last 3 weeks and wanted to share them with you. Recently I have been invited to Easter celebrations, house warming, elevenses, trips to Liverpool and meeting with friend from Malaysia and I'll share these on the next blog. All this reminds me so much of the culture in Malaysia.

I love to meet different people from different culture and always discuss food with them. My passion for food developed when I was very young and my mum is the one who influenced me the most. Being brought up in Malaysia does help and I am proud of Malaysian food. I always want to share with all the people I know and let everyone know how fabulous Malaysian food is.

Traditional greeting in Chinese society always starts with "sek pau fan mei?" in Cantonese, "sit pau fan mau?" in Hakka, and "chiak pa liau boey?" in Hokkian. Unlike here in the west, it does not mean "How are you?" or "Hello". It means "have you eaten yet?" If the answer is no, it is quite likely you'll be offered food by them and my neighbour always shared new food with us and vice versa. I grew up in a village, even though it is now a town. But most people living in the same village grew up knowing each other and most of my relatives lived in the same village. All my grandparents lived within 1-2 miles away and we always had the chance to have meals with the relatives from both families. When we went to play with my cousins we are always asked if we have eaten yet and quite often we will have given some fruits or snacks. My grandparents from my dad's side were Cantonese. They have lots of fruit trees and vegetables, from Rambutan, Durian, Ciku( Sapodilla), Guava, Jambu Air (rose apple or water apple), Mango, Papaya, Pineapple, Watermelon, Mangosteen, Jack Fruit, Cempedak(look like jack fruit), Stat fruit, Kumquat to groundnut, sweet potato, yam, cassava, choy sum, water morning glory(water spinach)... Also lots of chicken, ducks, geese and fish from the pond. So country life is familiar to me and I enjoy every moment when I had a chance to visit my grandparents. Me and my brother & sisters, as well as my cousin, would run in the orchard, plucking ripe fruits, helping grandma collecting veg & fruits. It is such a shame that now people don't really bother to do farming that way. With these planting and domestic animals we always had fresh ingredients in our cooking.

However, when there is any celebrations we always gather at our grandparents house (we often call it ancestor's old house). Celebrations such as Grandparent's birthday, Chinese new year, Duanwu Festival (Dragon boat Festival), Mooncake Festival, Winter Solstice Festival, Veneration of the dead ancestors, Ching Ming Festival(tomb sweeping day), Ghost Festival....and it always ended up with a big meal. My mum is the only one who is good at cooking from the women in our immediate family. As me and my other female cousin will help out to cut, wash vegetables and helping on setting up tables. And in my grandparent's house they used a wood-burning stove and I love to watch when my mum did the cooking as in our house we used gas. They had a big wok which you can't move away from the stove so all the cooking and cleaning is done without moving it. It is fascinating to me and I love to help out by putting wood in the fire and to hear & see the sparkling flames. Meals prepared from a wood-burning stove always taste better. The only thing I would never do is slaughter the chickens, no matter how my mum raised her voice to me and said that I have to learn how to do it. That was an old idea for all ladies to learn before you are ready to get married. I was crying for the whole day feeling guilty on helping mum to hold that poor chicken when she made the cut, even though I am not the one who carry the knife. Since then, I never committed any murder.

I miss my childhood's life, there are so many things I can experience. From the farm, the pond and getting fruit right from the tree or vegetables fresh from the ground. I wish I will have the chance to experience it again or with my children.

On this Easter holiday I was offered the chance to plant some vegetables in her allotment by one of my neighbours and I really can't wait to have that experience in the UK when the weather is a lot warmer. Then, I'll tell you my experience.



King of the fruits - Durian. You either love it or hate it. When we were younger, every time we finished eating durian, we will put some salt in the shell and top up with water and drink it after. People believe it cools down the heat if you have had too much durian.

Queen of the fruits - Mangosteen.Quite often we have it after durian as we believe it counters the heaty feeling after having durians.

Mangosteen - This is how it looks like inside,beautifully white.

When paying visit to grandparent's orchard, me & my cousins like to climb up the rambutan trees when they are in season. On the tree we trim the rambutan's hair before eating and pretending we are barbers. I had 2 cousin that are now hair stylists, not sure if the childhood rambutan hair cutting helps...