RUBBER TREE LEAVES AS A VEGETABLE

Leaves of the rubber tree can be eaten as claimed by an avid listener who called in to a very popular radio station this morning. She told the DJ that the leaves can be cook with preserved dried meat (Kinoring) and also can be prickled with rice water and after a couple of weeks, can be mix with Bosou (fermented meat or fish). Only the young leaves of the rubber tree are use to prepare for this dish.


The caller from membakut, Sabah who herself open a food stall in her district claimed that even the seeds of the rubber tree can be eaten. There were many listeners who listened to the radio show last week who went to look for her food stall asking for the rubber seed dish.

It was indeed a surprise to me that even the leaves of a rubber tree can be consumed and I would like to try how it really tastes like. Since the price of rubber latex has taken to a low price due to global recession, it might be recommended that we sell the leaves as a vegetable to offset the price of rubber latex.

If you want to try the dish make sure that it was prepared by those who have tried and eaten it before otherwise just forget it.

MY SUNDAY BREAKFAST


Restaurant assistant : Boss mau makan apa?

Me : Bubur kosong dan Baikut.

Restaurant assistant : Minum?

Me : Bagi saya lemon tea ping.

The restaurant assistant shouted towards the kitchen ;

" Bubur kosong satu, baikut kosong satu dan lemon tea ping"

I wonder what he meant by Baikut kosong as in bubur kosong, meaning no meat just simply plain porridge. Maybe I did not asked for the noodles that was why they called it Baikut kosong.




I visited one of my favourite restaurant this sunday morning for breakfast and ordered my favourite breakfast dish after trying cutting down on calories. It's a great change after having fish soup noodles most of the time. The meat was tasty and delicious and usually I try to pour the Baikut gravy to the porridge followed by a spoonful of not so hot chilli paste.

In the afternoon we went to a place called Kasih Sayang Spa and Resort but unfortunately after travelling some distant, drove back due to unforseen circumtances. I was dissapointed but maybe next time I will try to visit that place. I should have post great pictures of the place if I did manage to reach it. I shall write more about it on my next posting.

Enjoy my sunday's morning breakfast.

MY GAS TANK

This morning I checked the position of my gas tank on the gas gauge of my car dashboard and found the position as in the picture. My gas tank position is on the left side of the car (front passenger seat). I use our Malaysia national car proton. So which is the correct position?

WHICH SIDE IS YOUR CAR GAS TANK?

I have been receiving this email twice but dumb enough not to check which side of the car is the filler cap (gas tank). I am aware that my filler cap tank is on the passenger side but honestly don’t know that I can check it right in front of me at the dashboard of the car.

There was a time when driving company’s vehicles or borrowed vehicles, I wrongly park on the other side of the filler tank for filling up the fuel.

If you look at the picture, the filler cap will be on the side where the handle of the gas pump is fixed i.e left or right. Check where the handle of the gas pump on your gas gauge next time if you are not sure which side of the filler cap is on.

Share this with your friends.

WORDS OF WISDOM

NINETEEN TULIVOT

Anda mungkin tertanya-tanya apa kah dimaksudkan dengan tajuk posting kali ini. Kepada anda yang pernah dengar perkataan ini pasti tahu akan maksudnya. Tunggu kita akan bincang nanti.

Melihat gambar budak budak mengejar ayam terbayang nostalgia masa lampau dimana apabila emak suruh kejar ayam kampung maka makan besar lah konon sebab dapat makan daging ayam kampung --- sedap bah tu. Dulu ayam berkeliaran dihalaman rumah dan memakan apa saja yang boleh dimakan. Itulah sebab daging ayam kampung sedap sebab sentiasa berlari ada training dan mungkin juga tidak ada stress. Stress lah juga bila kena kejar waktu kena potong tapi sementara saja bah tu stressnya.

Kalau kita kejar ayam tanpa disuruh mesti kena marah oleh ibubapa seperti apa budak-budak buat dalam gambar itu. Ayam-ayam akan buat bising bila dikejar dan emak kita akan berteriak supaya kita berhenti mengejar ayam tersebut.

Maksud tajuk 19 Tulivot (dalam Kadazan) adalah era masa lampau atau tahun-tahun dahulu kala. Ianya sebagai umpamaan sahaja. Selalunya bila seseorang itu ditanya bila kah peristiwa itu berlaku, dia akan jawap masa nineteen tulivot. Selalunya jawapan ini adalah jawapan selamba sahaja dan kadang-kadang jawapan lawak.

Terkenang masa dahulu dimana pembangunan belum lagi masuk di pelusuk kampung seperti dalam gambar dibawah.

Waktu 19 TULIVOT ……..

THE FIRST TELEPHONE CALLED KUKUK

I read about an article about the first telephone that the writer mentioned and I was astounded by his great knowledge and remembering of the things teenagers does during his time. The writer mention about the role of communication during the time when there was no telephone as a form of communicating with other people. It was then revealed that the media of communication during his time was by using sound signal.



It was mentioned that the first telephone was using the hands which was clasp together and air was blown between the hands which will make a ‘KUKUK’ sound. When lost in the dense jungle, the signal was used to find the lost person until found.

The article also mentioned about the advantages of the “KUKUK’ telephone as there were no gray area and need no charging battery. What you must have is that you are able to make a sound from your hands and can make loud ‘KUKUK’ sound.

During the time when I was small, I tried to make ‘KUKUK’ sound from my clasp hands but every time I blow air, no sound came out. I give up after years of trying and thankfully the actual mobile telephone are available or I will be lost forever from the dense jungle of Borneo.

PAKAIAN BUNGKUS

Have you noticed used clothing and household items hanging in rows and lying in bundles at any Bazaar or Tamu’s in your district? Maybe some of us are now using the branded pants or shirt that we bought from the bazaar. Never mind the secondhand tagging because it is cheap in price, it is a leading branded item and they are in good condition.

I am bluffing if I say I haven’t bought any clothes at that bazaar. When I started working and my work required me to work on shift, I usually wear jeans during my night shift for convenience sake. There was a time that I visited this bazaars looking at all the branded jeans which at that time cheaper as compared to the price now. I bought three branded jeans from the bazaars and I still keep it and still in good condition and it is faded too. I only wear it now when doing some cleaning or going to an orchard.

I wasn’t surprise that any well to do family are seen at any of the bazaar as I happened to know one well to do lady telling that she bought her curtains at the bazaar. She says that the materials were still good.

When I bought my used jeans, I poured hot water and washed it thoroughly to get rid of the smell and bleach it with a good detergent. So next time when you see me wearing well jaded jean, it might be the jean I bought from the Tamu.

TROPICAL FRUIT



Grab from DE

EATING OUT – FISH CAKE

Fish cake has been a long time favourite dish that I used to have for my lunch as a side dish but never manage to post it. It just comes up when one afternoon lunch hour, we ordered the fish cake as a starter and ate it all before the main dish arrived. As we were eating our food, we were told that somebody at the other table (a towkay – a friend’s friend) was paying for the food. To take advantage of the good gesture of the towkay, we ordered another fish cake but unfortunately the dish was already sold out.



The restaurant owner (we are used to her and always make jokes) will tell us that a fish cake is available every time we came to her restaurant. She knew about us taking advantage of the good gesture by the towkay and she teased us by telling us that she will keep extra fish cake in case a Good Samaritan will treat us again another time.

The good thing about speaking and joking with the restaurant owner (better if wife of the owner) is that you have that much better service from them and you tend to enjoy your food. The owner sometimes come to your table and chit-chat and will tell you how difficult when some of the workers absented themselves from work without due notice. There was a time the restaurant was closed and when we inquired from the owner, it was about workers absenting themselves from work.

The fish cake is delicious when dipped in a gravy with a dash of chili paste and eaten with pickles of carrot and cucumber.

EMAIL

Email or electronic mail has made the greatest impacts on the workplace. It has changed the scenario where any work to be done or directive from your boss is send to you by emails. While some see this as a very important tool especially from the management, others welcome this as a means to chat and forward jokes, video clips and what have you to co-workers.

I received quite a number of emails from co-workers not as directive for any work but which I put in my created personal folder as “MACAM-MACAM”. All forwarded email that I received from co-workers is kept in this folder. Most of the emails contain humorous messages, words of wisdom and quite a number of it if not majority are the 18X (video clips or pictures).

I welcome these emails as part of relaxation of minds whenever there is some stressful work to be done and need some hard thinking then this is the right tonic. When you read all these messages, watched forwarded video clips, we may feel refresh and can think wisely after a good laugh.

I do not share my office email with family members or friends as I use free public emails like yahoo or hotmail. Do not be surprise when your friends having multiple public email as long as it is free.

WINDOWS ON YOUR DRESS

I attended sunset mass last Saturday and the rector talk about teenagers and their dressing nowadays. He reminded them about proper attire when attending mass at the place of worship. Sign board about the proper attire was at the strategic places around the place of worship and teenagers should wear properly when at the place of worship.

It was humorous when the priest called teenagers dressing as having windows in their dress. The congregation was in stitches when mothers were also seen having windows on their dresses. Parents should teach or advice their teenage children to use proper attire to attend a mass. It was unbecoming of parents to dress up as if going to the beach and this will be imitated by their young teens to dress up like them. The rector advice them that their action of wearing dresses with windows will disturb other congregation’s concentration during prayer. We must all together follow the dress code all the time in any places of worship.

CEMPADAK WITH BAMBANGAN AROMA

When I came home from work today, I enter from the kitchen door as it was not locked and my mother was at the kitchen. I was met with a very strong Bambangan aroma which was so aromatic. I asked my mother who gave her the Bambangan which was inside a plastic. She answered me that there was no Bambangan without telling me what was inside the plastic. I opened the plastic bag and there was this big Cempadak (Jumpulut in Chinese). How wrong was I thinking that it was a Bambangan aroma? Mother told me that my brother gave us the Cempadak.


As I said at my last posting, the seasonal tropical local fruits are now at its season and this posting will not be the last on the tropical fruits. The Cempadak have a pulpy, thick pulp which sorround its seed and really sweet taste. The pulpy seeds were as big as buah Salak and not really packed. That was why the pulpy seed were bigger.

My mother told me that she just want to taste one pulpy seed only. My mother is not the type that really likes to eat fruits. I wonder where I get the genes as I am fond of fruits.


I opened the Cempadak and the texture of the pulpy seeds was amazing. I ate a few of the pulpy mesocarps and decided to make Cempadak fritters. I read in the internet how Cepadak fritters that can be cooked by using rice flour. I went to Pakistani (localized) stalls to buy the rice flour.

It was about an hour later that all the Cempadak fritters were cooked and I gave my mother few pieces to try. She did ate it and take another few pieces again. I was really happy that she likes the Cempadak fritters. Next time I will experimented by using sticky rice flour to deep fried the fritters.

Apart from making Cempadak fritters, the Cempadak just like the Tarap when young is good for making simple Cempadak soup. The preparation is the same as making young Tarap kampung style soup.

Ever tried eating dried Cempadak pulp? It was years ago when I was introduced to this dried Cempadak by a friend. The seed was taken out of the Cempadak seed and the pulp was spread flat and dried on the sun for few days until dried. I was again given by the same friend the dried Cempadak and I still enjoy eating eat. I recommend guys out there to try this dried Cempadak.

As I was typing this post, I ate few pieces already as it’s so yummy and not to worry as I use cooking oil with Omega 3. Healthy ….. what!!

ARTOCARPUS ODORATISSIMUS SOUP

Many of you must be wondering what type of soup that I am posting here. Artocarpus Odoratissimus is a scientific name for our local fruit called TARAP. I was at the Tamu market today when I saw young Tarap with its outer skin removed and need just to cut it in pieces to make simple local soup.

Many of you out there must not have had tasted this type of soup as it only popular with the Kadazandusun. It is a very simple recipe to prepare. This soup is even more appetizing if using kampung chicken. Since I don’t have kampong chicken, I used mince pork (ready made) in small ball like and drop it in the broth when it was boiling and let it simmer and cooked a while.

Tarap is a seasonal fruit and when ripe it has a very strong scent and sweet. There’s the pulpy seeds as big as the fish ball and white in color and very soft. It makes a good Tarap fritters and fried with its seed. Why bother to remove the seeds when it is done as it can be eaten just like nuts. As the Tarap is a seasonal fruit, it can only be eaten during this time of the year. So guys, visit the Tamu or market to taste this amazing fruit.