Seri Mengasih's Food Fair 2008

Participated in numerous fund raising over the years. Mostly only involved in setting up stalls in the fair and coupons selling. 

This Seri Mengasih food fair was the first time I went in as an organizing committee (consisting of parents and teachers of the centre) and found out what an entirely different ball game that was! 

From conception to the actual event, it took so much planning, organizing, manpower and most of all, the goodwill and generosity of so many supporters and donors in kinds, cash and sweat. You learn fast on the job as to what are the avoidable and unavoidable pitfalls and to be prepared for all eventualities.  

We started off in February and submitted our food fair permit application to the relevant government authority intending to hold the food fair on the 18th May 2008. 

That was the first hurdle we encountered. When constant enquiries as to the outcome of the permit yielded no response we had no choice but to postpone the event to the 15th June. Without the permit we could not proceed to the next stage, which is to print and distribute the coupons which had to have the permit number issued by the relevant authority. 

Distribution of coupons and collection would required a minimum of two months for the amount we hope to raise. 

Meantime we concentrated on finding donors to set up stalls in the fair.  

We then encountered a gigantic hurdle, the unexpected Sichuan earthquake on the 12th May. Every kind hearted person was donating towards the disaster relief team and we felt very petty asking for donation for another cause at this time with the constant TV news broadcast of the disaster.  

We were finally granted the permit on the 15th May and had the first batch of our coupons out on the 19th May. We managed to let out more than half of the coupons, mostly to the parents in the school. Sales of coupons were slow but looking good.

Then came the next hurdle (the expected but didn't think it would happen that soon), the shocking fuel price increase of almost 40%! That put a real damper on our fund raising activities. When came together with family or friends, it was (and still is) the only topic that came up which made it doubly hard to bring out the coupons to sell or to ask for donation.

The never-say-die atittude of our committee members got to be the only reason the food fair ever got off the ground.  

Despite all the hurdles, it was a very enriching and fulfilling experience. It is heart warming to have met so many big hearted and generous souls. Their kindness and supports truly give meaning to this word 'HOPE' to our children in Seri Mengasih.

Four days before the day. The DBKK were requested to come and help give the school compound a makeover.

Trees pruned, lawn mown, hedges manicured and the school was looking good.

  

One of our biggest supporters for years, Kathy Ong fully sponsored about 20 hugh tents plus 60 tables. The tents went up in one day and gave the school's compound an instantaneous festive mood.

The day before. Donated goods started coming in and with the many hands of  the volunteers, stalls began to sprout like mushroom overnight all over the school compound. 

On the day of food fair, as early as 6 am the volunteers were already busy preparing the stalls for business. There was a very jovial mood with smiling faces and laughters heard from stalls to stalls.

To each and everyone of you out there that was involved (in any way, big or small) in this worthy cause, our sincere thanks and heartfelt gratitude. Without you there would not have been such a successful food fair.

Once again, THANK YOU!! 

Note : All the pictures on the day of the food fair was taken early (before 7 am) before the crowd and the rain that decided to pay the fair a visit at about 10 am. Luckily it didn't stay long and it helped to cool down the place. The crowd kept coming at a constant stream right until closing at 2 pm. 

Stir-Fried Winter Melon With Dried Squid

Bought a hugh winter melon (almost the size of a water melon) from one of the stalls along the Lintas highway near the Kepayan Police HQ. Gave half the melon to Ben and he divulged me with his braised winter melon recipe which I would surely cook when I get another kampong chicken (uses rice wine and dates too, can't wait to try it out). 

Meanwhile, we just have to make do with what we have in the fridge. 

Normally I would used it to cook soup but this time I had to do something different as another soup was already brewing at the stove and there was no veggie dish. 

I borrowed this idea from the jicama (yam bean or sengkuang) dish that is usually cooked during festive season with belly pork and thin dried squid strips (Hainanese dish? Not quite sure).  It turned out so well and well received even with Keshia who is a real fusspot where veggies are concerned.  I wasn't very keen to blog this as the picture didn't turn out too well but K and Leanne insisted that I should. 

As you can see the picture is not very attractive as there isn't much color contrast but that is deceiving as far as taste is concerned. The sweetness and the aroma of the winter melon infused with the squid strips is just simply delicious.  

500g winter melon, skinned and cut into strips

1 small dried squid, washed and cut* into very thin strips (can buy it finely cut, in Penang, ie)

100g chicken meat or pork, cut into thin strips

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 T soy sauce  

1 t corn flour

salt and ground white pepper 

Marinate meat with salt, pepper and corn flour.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in wok, add garlic and fry until fragrant. 

Add meat and dried squid, keep stirring until fragrant and the meat browned. 

Put in winter melon, mix well, add 1/2 cup water and soy sauce, bring to boil and cover. 

Cook for 3 - 5 minutes or until winter melon is cooked through but still with a bit of crunch. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Note: *I find it easier to cut the dried squid before washing and with scissors instead of a knife.

When buying winter melon, better to get one that has thicker skin and thick white powdery surface (which indicate a mature fruit) which is sweeter and more aromatic. 

Chicken Wine Soup

Thought the rainy season had passed but it has been so wet and cold the last two days that it got me thinking of the bottle of rice wine from Terri. What could be better than wong ziu gai (rice wine chicken) at this time? 

During confinement, twice a day I would have the wine soup consisting of only kampong chicken, old ginger (loads of it), sesame oil and wine (not even water to dilute the wine a little).  That worked out to almost 2 bottles of rice wine a day. It is a wonder I didn't turn alcoholic after 5 confinements and how did I manage to stay sober during the 30 days of imprisonment? Or maybe I wasn't after all, happy hour for a whole month! That certainly helped to keep the post-natal depression at bay.

This version is very much toned down. I opted for the Cantonese-style with black fungus and goji but omitted the mushroom as I find it overpowering (I like to taste the wine in my soup). 

1 kampong chicken, cleaned and chopped into pieces

2 thumb size old ginger root, wash off grits and flattened with side of chopper

1/2 cup black fungus, washed and soaked 

2 T goji (wolfberries), washed

3-4 cups rice wine

1 T sesame oil

3-4 cups water

Heat sesame oil in wok, fry ginger until fragrant and add chicken. 

Stir fry chicken pieces until color changed and aromatic, add in black fungus and water. 

Bring to boil, lower heat to simmer for about 15 minutes or until chicken meat is tender. 

Add in the rice wine, bring to boil and lastly, stir in the goji.

Dish out and enjoy with white rice and a simple stir-fried veg.

Note: The water and wine ratio is entirely flexible and so is the soupiness. My family like to drink the soup more than eat the meat and as there are still a few minors around I have to watered down the alcoholic content to a more legally acceptable level :-p. 

I still prefer mine 100% rice wine...  

Tung Po Ruo

Su Tung Po, a famous Chinese poet was reputed to have concocted this ravishing dish. A romantic who could also cook...

This dish takes a while (a long while!) to cook but the procedures are very simple and easy to follow and the result is simply a mouth watering, melt-in-the-mouth sensation. Definitely a dish for a special feast. Duan wu jie, dragon boat festival is just round the corner so this would be a good dish to consider if you are celebrating.  

 

1.5 kg pork belly

1 T light soy sauce

3 cups oil for deep frying

3 stalks spring onion

5 slices ginger

1 star anise

500 ml water

Sauce

3 T sugar

5 T light soy sauce

150 ml shaoxin wine or mei kuei lu (Chinese rose wine) or brandy

Garnish

200 g taiwan bak coi, blanched, dipped into cold water and drained

Submerge pork in boiling water for 10- 15 minutes. Drain. 

Rub all over with light soy sauce and let it marinate for 10 minutes.
Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain.

Arrange pork and all the remaining ingredients except the bak coi into a casserole.

Cover and steam at high heat for 3 hours or up to another half hour more (if pork doesn't yield easily to a poke with a chopstick) until pork is meltingly tender.

Remove and leave to cool.

Cut pork into slices and arrange on top of the blanched bak coi in a serving plate.

Reheat the remaining gravy on high heat until thickens and season to taste.

Pour gravy over pork and veg.

Serve hot. 

Have a lovely weekend, everyone...

Note: Using different wines will yield subtly different aroma and taste to this dish but they are all delicious (to me).

Yoko Farm

One fine Sunday, crawled out of bed at 5:30 am to participated in a home-farming workshop to learn about compost making and to learn to appreciate and communicate with nature. 

The 40 odd participants, young and old, made it to the small farm with eager enthusiasm. It was refreshingly pleasant to get up and out at that hour. The air so cool and fresh it took the lungs a while to acclimatize. 

The tiny farm greeted us with such beautiful and vibrant flowers, plants and veggies. I was controlling  myself from shooting everything in sight but later gave in and went completely trigger-happy and ended up with more than 500 shot! 

Took me more than a week just to edit and sort.  Imagine if I had to use films and to develop the shots into hard copies...

Here is a chronology of the day's activities:

1. Be one with nature

Everyone was asked to place their palms onto the soil and close their eyes..

Feel the soil...

Communicate with it...

Pondering on the preciousness of our soil...

Now, what do we do with these soiled hands?

Then we were told... 'and now, please rub your face with your palms.'

What?! Do we really have to do that??

2. Tune in with nature

He was communicating intensely with these lovely bunch of kai choi and all I could think of was how good this would be as ham choi (salted veg) ;-p

3. Be healthy in body 

A most energetic Sharon led the workout.

4. A lesson on how to eat 

Be mindful of the food we are eating (no more TV dinners).

Each of us was given a banana (that's all for b'fast??). We were told not to gobble 

(the hungry look on our faces must have been so obvious) down the fruit but to follow Toni's instruction. 

 

Close eyes again. Feel the skin of banana, inhale the fragrant of the fruit and slowly peel it. 

 

When taken the first mouthful, chew slowly and  let the sweetness of the fruit lingers in the mouth for a while, resist the urge to gulp down. Taste the food with all your senses, appreciate and give thanks.

5. The real breakfast

Bread pudding with apple, raisins, nuts, carrot(?), milk and eggs - a power-packed meal.

We, Malaysians, will always have to have our national breakfast, nasi lemak!

Thanks to TSH, we had a very sumptuous breakfast with tuna sandwich, whole-meal bread with gaya + cashew nuts spread (yumz) beside the nasi lemak and pudding.

After breakfast, the participants were divided into groups and were assigned different tasks.

Before proceeding with the tasks we had a few speakers to share with us various topic :

TSH let us into a secret about this wonderful tree of life called the Drumstick tree. Anyone heard of this tree before? Well, now I have and know that it can be eaten, full of vitamins and best of all, easily grown.   

This is an experiment done by an earlier workshop. They were given two containers with compost and were given some seeds to plant in them. Both were looked after in exactly the same condition except for one difference - one of the containers of growing plants was talked to with kind, encouraging words whilst the other being talked to with very harsh and negative words. The results of the experiment showed very clearly why it is so important for us to use encouraging words all the time especially with our growing children!

6. Compost Making

 

Instructions on composting given to this group by Robert.

The banana skins collected to be used for the compost too.  

Recipe for compost making:

A thick layer of cut grass or any plant materials followed by a thin layer of chicken dung then a sprinkling of rice bran.

Water generously. 

Second layer of grass goes in and take note of the few young girls waiting anxiously at the right hand corner.

This is what they were waiting for, the highlight of this excises, to dance on top of the compost heap. This is to compact the heap so that more layers can be added on. 

When the compacted pile reach up to a height of about 4 feet ( about 1 1/2 meter), cover it up with plastic sheet and leave for 2 weeks to decompose.  

It will look like this after a month or so...

It needs to be turn over every 2-4 weeks as this form of composting requires oxygen to work. In 3 months, it will turn to black peaty soil which will be ready to use for the plants and veggies. 

7. Harvesting

These lucky few were assigned to harvest the Kai Choi. See what they managed to reap...

 

He got what he was eyeing.

This uncle was harvesting some wild raspberries with a trail of eager beavers holding up teacups waiting to collect from him.

With the harvesting going on these few lasses were busy preparing lunch (main masak masak).

8. Lunch!!

Mrs. Loh did make ham choi with the kai choi and cook them with sardine (a first for me). Unlikely combination but so, so delicious.

Alma cooked these leaves from the tree of life cooked with pumpkin and santan fragrant with lemongrass. Delicious.

Eggplants from the farm cooked with spicy sambal udang. A favorite from Margaret. 

Jenny's tasty soy sauce chicken was sold out. 

Another delicious home-cooked dish, chick-peas Indian style also from Margaret. 

Really don't mind waking up so early on a Sunday morning with so many yummy fares awaiting ;-p.  

A big 'thank you' from the bottom of our well-pampered stomach to all the ladies who had to wake up even earlier to prepare all these for us. 

In between sessions, I sneaked away to capture these lovelies and crawlies in their natural habitat which we rudely intruded for a day to learn.