Monday, October 24, 2011

Burmese Tomatoes Fish Curry


If you get tired of Malaysians’ way of fish preparations, this is something exotic that you can try out for your dinner







Written by Money Tai Tai



Steps:

Fry generous amount of onion and healthy oil (can use olive oil) and salt until softened, then add fish paste (or shrimp paste) and turmeric powder.

Add fish fillets on the oily onion, half fry the fish skin until crunchy, add chopped generous amount of ripe tomatoes, fish sauce but no water, then turn down fire, simmer until cook.

Garnish with cilantro








MONEYTAITAI’S CHEESECAKE


I used assorted nuts for its crust

MONEYTAITAI CHEESECAKE

I appreciate friends, Karen Ting who gave me the best species mango seedling and Angela who always baked me yummy assorted kind of yummy cheesecakes as I don't have an oven



Written by Mrs. Money



I lose my passion of baking cakes and cookies when I quitted playing dolls at the same time when I lose my sweet tooth, these days I am more interested to eat and create new dishes or eating exotic foods rather than preparing foods from recipe books.

Recently, first harvest of fragrant golden yellow mangoes tasted so sweet and smooth, it gave me an inspiration to prepare innovated cheesecake, as I am a very lazy person when talk about preparing sweet treats, this will only take less than 10 minutes an express way of preparing an extravagant dessert.


I would advise my friends to plant mango tree near the road side, and plant lemon grass to surround its patch. Only choose the best species mango to grow, my mango would turn to golden yellow but the fresh wouldn't turn soft like tofu and its fragrant ones thought that it's artificial mango essence!


Step 1:
Cut 4 slices of butter placed in a small Pyrex rectangular container, melt in microwave oven
Grounded assorted nuts (almond, walnuts, pine nuts and macadamia nuts will taste nice) and assorted dried fruits (I prefer big size raisins and cranberries); mixed the grounded nuts powder and mixed dried fruits with butter, press them into the bottom to form a thin layer crust, store in freeze.
'

 

Step 2:
250g cream cheese (leave in room temperature earlier on)
2 sachets of tasteless gelatin, heat up with 1 ½ grass of milk or cream (just a quick boil)
2 sweet fragrant mangoes – cut into pieces (or two cups of durian meat)
Honey (At one’s discretion)
Pour everything into a glass blender; give a quick blend until well-mixed.


Step 3:
Pour this mixture to the top of the ready crust.
Store at least for 4 hours in refrigerator before serving.
Enough for 8 slices


Mango Cheesecake in a rectangular pyrex container

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

CHINESE-MALAYSIANS’ EDUCATION IS BASED ON ISOLATION OR SPECIAL ATTENTION?


My metamorphosed son is now sitting next to the rubbish bin in class!







Written by Mrs. Money







      Mr. Money is 100% Chinaman; he supports Chinese education in this Malay speaking country Malaysia.



      This phenomenon hints me whether most of our Chinese race is not just another bully but damn smart bully, with the wisdom gained and accumulated from 5000 years history Chinese instinctively could detect the winds direction to move its sails?



Yet when those Chinese forefathers ended up in USA or Britain, under the thumbs of so call “superior” or “domineering” whites, their descendents wouldn’t have much chance to accept Chinese education, even Singapore where its street filled up with Chinese-Singaporeans yet they wouldn’t have a dog luck of setting up Chinese schools in their communities like Chinese-Malaysians.



Or was it another possibility that when particular "long sighted" Chinese forefather who could tell when a particular culture was much superior they would choose to dump their own inferior culture and education to accept a far superior one to prosper their offspring, but when they reached a country if they noticed that a particular culture was not that great as theirs, they would insist on setting their own Chinese institutions to maintain their own Chinese values and cultures over a new settlement?



Mr. Money is 100% Chinaman, in his wife’s eyes, she thinks he fell the same fate like her being born and educated with "short-sighted faithful Chinese" in lower Rejang Sarawak by Chinese elementary education, thus he can’t speak good English, neither perfect Mandarin (except perfect Foo Chow which is the mother tongue), he can’t write good English and neither perfect Chinese. He went to study in USA but he ended up being dubbed as the “president of Foo Chow association in OU, Norman”. Mr. Money is too proud as a Foo Chow, he tried to convince me his wife that she must let their Money kids to learn Foo Chow as the mother tongue, he told his wife the richest Chinese in Malaysia is a Foo Chow, but his wife told him off that the richest Chinese in the world is a  Cantonese!



Mr. Money is 100% Chinaman, but he has married a wrong wife who is not a 100% Chinawoman. She believes in accepting the essence of the best of every exposed cultures, educations and values to enhance our life in every aspect.



Once Mr. Money’s wife was a career woman, with sufficient money and rights on hand to overcome a Chinaman's rule, thus she could afford to let her kids both born in New Zealand which is the world best country in treating babies and children. She would send her son to attend the best and the most expensive kindergarten, in those days though her son was attention deficiency kid but he was a perfectionist, he would take out a sticker which didn’t fall exactly into a space perfectly and he would return home automatically taking out his books to study by himself.



Mr. Money is 100% Chinaman, because he didn’t like the idea having a wife running around to earn her own money, even if he couldn’t afford his wife the monthly allowance as much as she earned but he would use a crook and hook to give her an illusion that he has a lot of money like his sir name, so eventually she got rid of her hard earned career with cheap sales! And he convinced her to move to a complete strange city where she didn’t know where was the head, the nail and the whiskers of this cat city, only then she found one after another she falls in dead traps of financial freedom, marriage and family life!



Now Mr. Money is in control of his family, he sent his son to the Chinese primary school and his son couldn’t speak a single Chinese word on the first day, he blamed his wife of letting his son learning English as his mother tongue, but only God knows that it was not his wife’s fault because the Money son was just able to speak his English when he reached 5 years old! And Mr. Money thinks his son is very smart because his son was able to speak perfect English when he reached 5! He has a same dream that his son would be able to speak perfect Mandarin when reached 10! But he has forgotten that the Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) is the compulsory subject for his son to master if he wants to survive in Malaysia since Mr. Money loves Malaysia more than USA, Australia or NZ. In short Mr. Money from an illiterate parents’ family thinks he knows education or special education better than his wife who is the third generation Malaysian educator.



If a kid is not born a language talent or photographic memory, it is never wise to let them take up so many languages to hinder his earlier development on his other talented/interested arena. Language for a non-language talented kid is just a tool for them to acquire information that they need for their specific purpose, language for them is not to write a poem or to express their feelings!



*********



I remember after my son’s first year studying in a Chinese primary school, I chatted with his form teacher, she told me, “The number 1 in this class, he has a very good memory, anything you said once, he remembered!” I felt very sad, frustrated and bad about my son after hearing what his form teacher told me, as my son could only get 20+ position in his class and his countable Mandarin words were spoken like singing.



Soon on the first school day of second year, without any acknowledging from the school authority, the best students from all the four classes had moved to a best class, my son remained in his old class. Students and even students’ parents felt proud being selected to the best class. I was not happy when I was not being informed there was such a selection went on also with best teachers by then teaching the best class to foster outstanding students.

 for the school.

On my son’s second year primary school first half journey, he still spoke Mandarin like singing, soon I noticed if teachers and mothers couldn’t speak perfect Mandarin, how to perfect their children to speak good Mandarin? Again like what I trained on my son’s English speaking, I turned on TV for helps, with the help of Chinese TV programs through satellite; my son improved his Mandarin speaking within three months time. This might probably also help him to learn in simple arguments, so towards the end of year two time to time he would return home with tearing shirt or injured knees due to bullying cases, when he wouldn’t dare to do things on his bullies in school he would spit and bully his sister at home instead.



How much I wish that my son’s form teacher could tell Mr. Money to let him aware that his son is not a photographic genius, but merely an attention deficiency kid!



When in this third year, when my son was placed to sit next to the front entrance door, always facing the reflection from the blackboard, I complained to the form teacher that my son has developed short sighted due to the reflection that harmed his sight. Then the teacher kept moving him around the class, because all those classmates hated his annoyances when he sat with each of them. Eventually the teacher politely explained to me that if my son was placed to sit in front of the class, he would always annoy the whole class attention paid to the teacher. So eventually my son was moved to sit at the very corner end of the classroom isolated a distance far away from the rest of the classmate, where usually the dustbin sits, last month when my sister came to visit me she took a picture, she complained, “Students should not be isolated but should be paid special attention!”



I replied to her, “Hey! This is a public school, where got teacher trained in special education to teach your ‘special’ nephew without paying expensive school fees?"  When her Money brother-in-law doesn’t believe that his son has attention deficiency problems on his non-interested subjects, has “improved” extra naughtiness and developed immunity (defensive ability) to bullies!



Then this month my son moved his seat again, but to the opposite corner, again isolated far away from his classmates .... to the left corner, this time where the dustbin sits! It simply denotes to me that he is just the rubbish in the class where the teacher couldn’t put him into the rubbish bin yet, so he has to place next to it! But the worst habit my son has developed this third year round in the Chinese primary school is: He learned to retaliate, if the teacher give him a can, he would beat the teacher back with his fist. Similarly he would do that to me.



But Mr. Money still insists that Chinese education is better, and never one day he has helped me to teach his son nor he has ever involved in family life yet due to his job requires him to move like a nomad; he didn’t know Chinese education only pays attention on the best students, like scholarships only awarded to only the best students. For criminals they are subjected to isolations, move a distance away from normal people, confined to the jails. Naughty student begins to get isolated since early school days, nothing wrong right?!!



There was an argument like this on and off, “Now, if your son can’t become a somebody in the future, you are responsible for it?”



“Oh yeah! How about if you send him to Lodge ends up he gets kicked out? OK if you send him to study there if anything turns out bad you are responsible for it too!”



So I called my educator old dad to complain, so he said, “OK, you take the responsible then, so what?!”

I need a job, jobless Money Tai Tai needs a good job again, but "the job murderer" Mr. Money doesn't know it's so hard to start all over again when his wife's age reaches almost half of a century time!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Growing Pains



Endured bondage of unspeakable agonies


9.10.11



SOMETHING FOR YOU TO THINK, ONE DAY YOU MAY BE ABLE TO HELP OTHERS WHEN THEY FACE SUDDEN (OVERNIGHT TIME) CRISES SIMILARLY:

HOW TO HANDLE SUDDEN CRISES?

When your infants suddenly became so sick …… later became mentally or physically handicapped or invalid

When your daughter or son got raped … Emotionally invalid

When you got diagnosed with 4th stage cancer …. May leave this physical world soon

When you or your closest kindred ran into deadly accident …. Visit coffin shop?

When facing sudden crises, everyone drops their EQ and IQ to zero and soon faces depression, some simply fallen fainted and unconscious, but how to keep cool head and accept the facts instead of lament?





Two months ago when I visited my old folks, I told my son that was probably the last time to see her grand aunty and the family pet coli cot staying alive. When I saw my old aunt I gave her a piece of lightly sweeten carrot cake baked by my old classmate’s wife and my san ku was so happy because she was a diabetic patient, normally my parents wouldn’t give her such sweet treat.

She finally passed away yesterday with the faded sunset; I planned returning my hometown to attend her funeral but I was asked by someone who knows my darker side of face, “Don’t you hate her?”

“NO! I don’t hate her.” I never hated her; because I "rather think" that she was merely an unlucky “cursed” victim as well as me.

I could sense the moment she passed away even though it was only four hours later I found out the news; I was weeping right during the time she left this physical world. Suddenly I would cry over almost 40 years bondage of unspeakable pains, bad childhood memories and bad experience of being wrongfully accused as forever black sheep in relatives’ eyes (even up to these days some distance cousins still acted so hostile and threw condemning glances to me). My aunt in her middle age years was a rogue tongue story-maker and liar, although mentally handicapped she could trigger first family war to prolong later into consistently wars between my grandma and my mom through me as a medium.

I never ask a mentally handicapped aunty what and why the reason she dragged in a 7 years kid to provoke arrays of family fights? I witnessed my grandma and my aunt were always the winner but my parents were the only ones who always apologized even they were never wrong.

These days I learned to forgive my unreasonable deceased grandma. How many people knew my growing pains and agonies while they kept barking behind me to get me married off when I was reluctantly conformed just for their own respective selfish sake?

How many people know why I swore at 13 years old that I never wanted to get married to get into this kind of mother-in-law, aunty and daughter-in-law family problems? Do they know that even if I have married the painful past may still on and off returning to haunt me?

Even if my own parents died I think I would not cry, (I didn’t cry when both my maternal and paternal side grandmas died) but when my aunt died I could cry over my accumulated hidden pains brought by her. People mistakenly might think her decease could give me a relief, what they didn’t know was she was mentally handicapped as a curse passed to me; WHY ME? The true fact is I am now an emotionally handicapped person. I don’t miss much over my parents, sisters, husband and children, if I expressed to a person that I missed her /him that could be only when I was in emotionally healthy condition ot I was simply telling white lies.

My aunt was mentally handicapped since young; she only didn’t know what she was doing to me and to the rest of the people she had inflicted pains directly and indirectly on them. Before she died she was lucky enough to have my sensitive kind eldest sister staying by her side, the only one who would clean her dirty body and shits while even other relation or nurses would stay away from her.

Imagine in the early 1930s in lower Rejang, when people got sick there was no western medicine available; most people without knowledge of how to use the medical weeds and herbs and worst still they were mostly very poor immigrants from China - country pumpkins from China. Many weak and fragile ones died but my aunt survived after a high fever attack, the most painful experience would be my grandma who saw her daughter who was healthy, cute and pink but in overnight time her daughter could become a mentally handicapped girl for the rest of her life and that also brought the burden and depression to my grandma, she endured on the unspeakable suffer until her last breath and she passed her "only worry" to my parents (and my eldest sister) until my mentally handicapped aunt quitted her last breath yesterday.

No lucky mothers in this modern world would have the feel of my grandma razor pains in her hearts when she had to face a fact and fate to bring up a mentally handicapped girl, what grandma didn’t know was despite in this modern world of modern medicine but delay treatment due to a doctor’s wrong diagnostic for such high fever infants could also give unlucky mothers a similar tragic.

I vividly recalled when my two years old daughter had a croup, only God knew why my family doctor’s wife never picked up or replied my SOS call, and another doctor I brought her to see would give her a wrong diagnose, while I kept waiting for my family doctor’s reply, my eldest sister came in the rescue, she said, “If you don’t want to bring her to see a child specialist now, she may die tonight due to short of breath!” Or I think now she might face the similar fate like my poor aunty!

For the past few years I was worried or even I might have suffer a minor depression due to worry if my daughter’s croup has resulted her any minor mental handicap until my old parents and sister who take care of her now could proof to me that she could score 14 100% in a roll for her last semester kindergarten exams. I was lucky enough but I can always feel the razor pains of those mothers who have their kids suffered from physically handicapping unable them to live like normal kids. Wrong diagnostic and delayed treatment usually have brought such life-time suffering causing lots of resentments and regrets to handicapped victims’ parents and family members.

For more than 70 years my mentally handicapped aunt also suffered poverty, rude and robust treatments in this physical world, my grandma could leave this world peacefully it was because my dad promised her to take good care of his sister. I would have loved and cherished her differently if the adults in the family knew how to handle their own EQs and a mentally handicapped relation, if my aunt was exposed in American system of handicapped education, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so “stupid” as people described and thought of. I remember when I was merely 6 years old, she could bring me to visit nearby neighbors to pass through jungle paths, she never once mistakenly showed me the wrong red wild berries that could be eaten raw, she would teach me how to identify the another same red berry which was inedible and poison. So who said she was stupid? I merely think that she had bad memory and slightly lower IQ . Just because most of her sibling was smart, in comparison unfortunately she became a “stupid” one!

NOTE:
If your infant’s high fever continuously maintain or over 38 degrees for prolong hours even after taking the prescribed antibiotic and Panado (like more than 4 hours without any dropping or only with slight dropping); IMMEDIATELY you must send your infant to another child specialist for the second opinion. Use a cold wet tower to cover the head of the infant and don’t let him wear thick cloth.

Don't leave your very sick infant to your so called "experienced" mother-in-law or baby-sitter because you have to work.

If you are first time mommy, you are always inexperienced, you must always ask your elder sister or experienced "mommy" friends to come visit you if your infant's high fever persists, someone experience can make good decision for you when you are helpless and nervous.

Don't make your babies and infants sleep with aircond 8 hours/day. My children's health only improved after I fixed the whole house with ceiling fans. Use the air-cond to dehumidify bedroom only just before sleeping, after two hours you must switch off the air-cond, this will help you to save both your medical and SESCO bills.






Mashed Olives Salad Dressing



If no fish available, prawns can do!




Written by Money Tai Tai







Last Friday night after a bite of Burmese lahpet (or laphed) salad introduced by my Burmese neighbor, I got addicted to it. If there is any tea leaves available now, ones would not be surprised that I could probably going to pickle my own Kuching lahpet. It is one of the best salads I ever tasted, its’ texture is unique. This is also one of the best dishes for vegetarians, you can eat the lahpet salad simply with the rice and you will feel very satisfy after the meal, and I heard that it is one of the most favorite dishes amongst Burmese students.




As laphet becomes a limited item even amongst limited numbers of Burmese in Kuching, my Burmese neighbor even gave me a pack, but I treasure it only for special occasion.




Lahpet is a fermented tea leaves, in wet form almost taste like Chinese pickled kan lan chai (pickled olive vegetable), but almost as hot as (mild) Kuching version Korean kimji. What Burmese did is they rolled the lahpet with a kind of big leaves into cylindrical long tube shape.




If you have this kind of cylindrical long tube in hand, what you do is once unwrapped it you have to rinse the lahpet with water in order to get rid of the strong tangy bitter tea taste. Prepare a mortar pounding the fermented tea leaves with green chili and slices of young ginger to half-mash. The laypet dressing is ready after you add salt, ajinomoto and at last add generous amount of sesame oil to the mash. Use (or use softened (by salt) long white cabbage) lettuce, cucumber or tomatoes, garnished with assorted Burmese laypet assorted crunchy nuts (fried dried prawns, pumpkin seeds, broad beans, chick peas, peanuts, and sesame seeds before adding laypet dressing.




So if ones really can’t get the fermented tea leaves, another converted version you can prepare easily is using the green preserved olives. Use the mashed olives to replace the laypet dressing; you can add olive oil instead of sesame oil in this case. For assorted nuts you can replace it with pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, almond slice, broad beans, cashew nuts, walnuts.




Bon appetite!


Sunday, October 9, 2011

WHAT WOMEN WANT?


Don’t buy wrong kind of gift to your wife!





Written by Money Tai Tai


 

I am quite amazed of how Mr. Money could still keep his wife “legally intake” after 10 years of marriage without any luxury gift; China factories would never close down due to there are so many Mr. Money kind of men living in our community.


After the day of 10th wedding anniversary, I thickened my face asking Mr. Money, “Why you didn’t give me any gift for my birthday and 10th wedding anniversary?”

He replied me, “Wait until I go to China!”


Chinamen would buy fake i-phone, fake LV or fake jade as a gift to their wives, and any of these gifts would never exceed RM300 (less than US$100).


Honestly Mr. Money’s gifts from China never thrilled me, except once when the HP got exploded! But his kids were the ones who usually appreciate those Chinese manufactured toys, I have no complain because anyhow kids' toys and their passion towards it would never last long!


I finally realized that Mr. Money’s secret of keeping his wife is exactly following our Malaysian prime minister’s approach to please Malaysians; I also received extra cash bonus from Mr. Money recently!

 


What do women want? Many good men may doubt, but this not including those Chinamen, because exactly like those corrupted politicians towards the poor civilians, they don’t give a damn what their wives want, unless their wives begin to voice out a divorce.



I observed there are few categories of women’s favorite gifts:

1. Women from poor background when they were young - They love gold, diamonds, Rolex watch and jewelries.

2. Women from moderately poor background when they were young – They love shoes, branded handbags and beautiful dresses.

3. Women from rich background when they were young – They love refined items like sport car, exotic house and exclusive collections of favorite items, e.g. big diamonds, limited editions goods or art works etc.



4. Women from super rich background when they were young - They still love money and even love more of acquiring a richer men!



BUT one thing that all women no matter from rich or poor background: They all like is MONEY, because they learn it from the men, especially Chinamen!