We were attracted by the Malt Sugar Art in one of the stalls in the Kuching Festival this year.  It is an art from China which is categorized as “non-material inheritance“.

There were some samples being displayed at the stall, but their prices were very costly, from RM 4 to RM 20 or more, depending on the design.

We chose to turn the wheel with RM 4, and the artist would make the design where the pointer has pointed to.  Luckily, we have got a dragon.  He said that it cost RM 10 if we did not take the wheel.

This is what we have got.

I thought it might take 5 to 10 minutes, but the entire process took less than 3 minutes.  I have taken a video clip as well, but since it was so fast, the video clip is very short.

He first melt the malt sugar.

Then he used a tool which is similar to the one used for storing wax for batik.

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The Food Fair and Fun Fair
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It is the main attraction here and we can’t skip introducing to those who have not been here.

But since SiewPeng and I are vegeterian, we do not have much choices.

Come and try hundreds of types of food next year.

Besides, there were also some games to play to win a prize or two.

This part of the festival was the area for a mini fun fair.  At the entrance, we were welcomed by a few dinosaur statues.  Don’t be threatened by them though.  They are friendly! Haha… If you take a good look, you can see a merry go round at the far end.

Every year, there will be a massive jam outside the venue of the Kuching Festival and it is often difficult to find a parking space.  The jam usually starts around 5:30 p.m. and you can see people walking in and out of the festival with all kinds of food which they have bought.  There is also a big crowd within the festival and it’s hard to move around.  But that is okay if you like to be in the crowd.  So, if you have missed it this year, don’t be disappointed.  It will be on again next year with more exciting ‘tummy adventures’!

We had Bunapi Shimeji Mushroom with our lunch today.  SiewPeng fried them with broccoli.  When I put this mushroom in my mouth, it felt like a spring jumping inside my mouth.  It was smooth, elastic and crispy.

This is the first time we bought it from a hypermarket.  The first thing that came to my mind when I saw it was - I wanted to take its photo, it looks cute.  We decided to buy it although it is expensive compared to the other type of mushroom that we usually buy.  Later SiewPeng worried on how to cook it and have done some research on the Internet.

As I have just learned about this mushroom, there are many types of Shimeji Mushroom.  Bunapi Shimeji mushroom is also know as Japanese white beech mushroom.  The other type is called Buna Shimeji which is the brown beech.

View from the top, - the Shimeji mushrooms’ caps look like the enlarged molecules that we have learned in chemistry.

View from low angle, - I like to see the lines underneath the mushroom cap.

The bottom part of the Shimeji, - I wonder if each of the mushroom stem is grown from a big main trunk.

-  Taken with flash.

-  Taken with my light-box’s lamp.

This is the making of the series of photos above.  I used an energy saving bulb as the light source.

I like its taste and the smooth feeling in my mouth.  We are going to buy it again.  :D

“Ice Kacang Puppy Love” is the latest hot Malaysian Chinese Movie which was just released about a week ago.  Have you watched this movie?  Do you think that ice kacang and puppy love are always related?  I think it is.

Ice Kacang (red bean ice) is my favorite.  ”Kacang” means beans, ice kacang is a popular dessert served in Malaysia and Singapore.  In other country there may be similar dessert with ice, but with different recipe and name.  To my reader who have not been to Malaysia, if you come to Malaysia, do not forget to try the ice kacang.  Nowadays, many stalls selling ice kacang have their own formula, they give more than one choices, and allow customer to customize the ice kacang also.  Ice kacang is a common name, some stalls in my hometown - Kuching here even have given name to their invented product such as “white lady” (icy lime and fruit).  However, the new icy product might not have kacang (bean).

I have not watched this movie yet but I believe it is a good movie because from the review I can see that the production team have had good ideas, and it is localized to Malaysia culture.  Yes, I support local production.

This movie also reminds me of a song which I have almost forgotten.  It is a Taiwanese singer, HuangAn’s song called “ChuLianDeGuShi” which means “The Story of First Love” in 1989.

From this song, we can see that first love / puppy love is always related to icy dessert.  :)  In Malaysia, it would be the most popular ice kacang.  I think it might be because of the beautiful weather when a couple is having a date which is sunny and hot, and the heat generated from a couples’ love which needed to be cooled down.

SiewPeng is my first love and also the only love… forever…

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ps:  If this post involves any copyright issue, please tell me and I will remove it immediately.  I just want to share my thoughts and share a nice movie and a nice song.

ps again: Sorry for those who do not understand Chinese, but I am sure you can feel the romantic feeling that radiated from the movie and the music.

Last weekend, my mum gave us some Buah Keranji.  It has black soft shell skin in oval shape and its diameter is about 3cm.  We seldom eat this fruit.  I remember the last time I had it was more than 15 years ago.  This is the first time SiewPeng tastes this fruit.  Her first reaction was a sour face because she couldn’t accept the feel of the fruit in her mouth.

I have tasted it carefully but I still cannot think of a best way to describe its taste.  It has a very little of sour combined with sweetness.  The taste is something similar to lemon tea, but the feeling in the mouth is totally different.  Its mealiness is strong but when put in mouth, it is a bit sticky.

Its black shell skin is not really hard, but I always press too hard to open it and hurt the fruit inside.  Therefore I have used a pair of scissors to cut its skin.

This is how its fruit looks like.

The edible part is actually the thin layer that covers the seed.  You cannot bite it because the seed is hard, but you can only eat it with your tongue by taking out the thin layer of the edible part from the seed.

After the first bite, it looks like this.

I have eaten a few of them with two seeds in one fruit.  Two seeds shared one layer of fruit covering them.  I discovered it when I found 2 seeds in my mouth, I thought I have bitten the seed into 2 pieces, but when I tried to bite them again, they were really as hard as rocks.  Then I washed them and looked carefully, they were twins actually.  Usually a bigger Buah Keranji has two seeds inside.

Buah Keranji is its Malay name.  Its scientific name is Dialium indium.  It is a local fruit, and there is not much information about it in Wikipedia.  In Iban (a Sarawak native’s dialect), it is called Pun engkeranji.  This fruit is native to West Malaysia and Borneo only.  In Kuching, Malaysia, there is a road in Tabuan Jaya area called Jalan Keranji (Keranji Road).

This is the leftover that I am going to throw into the rubbish bin.

I am not sure how high is the economy value of this fruit, we have never found it in the supermarket / hypermarket, ( May be we seldom go to rural area or wet market).  It can be considered as a rare fruit in the city.  Another reason is that not everyone can accept its taste.  If it can be sold at a good price, I am sure that the supermarket / hypermarket will sell it.

Have you tasted it before and do you like it?

This is the first time we saw a green radish.

In Chinese, no matter it is a white radish, purple radish, green radish or even carrot, we called them “LuoBo”.

“HuLuoBo” - Carrot.
“HongLuoBo” - Red radish.
“BaiLuoBo” - White radish.
“ZiLuoBo” - Purple radish.
“QingLuoBo” - Green Radish.

We bought it from a hypermarket.  My mum said that it is uncommon to see green radish here and it must be imported from other country.  My sister-in-law quickly took out a piece of newspaper and show us that there are different types (about 20 types) of radishes and carrots.  The articles with pictures was published in the health section of a Chinese newspaper a few days before we found and bought this green radish.

We were not sure how to cook it, and finally we used it to make soup.  It tastes similar to white radish.  I wonder if the green radish can be used to make Chinese radish cake (”ChaiTaoKueh” in Hokkien - a Chinese Dialect) which is usually made using white radish.  Chinese radish cake is our favorite delicacies.  Yes, it is delicious.

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