Sarawakiana@2

 The Chow Chai Hung Ngang is now a well known Foochow delicacy in Miri, In 1970's if a customer asked for CCHN the waitress or towkay neo would have laughed outright,
Times have changed. I am glad after 30 years of living in Miri, a lot of changes can be seen....

 Tumeric or yellow ginger is a good colouring to use to collour tofu. It is also a good colour, as yellow means wealth and prosperity/
When Chinese New Year arrives many Chinese gates and walls are painted yellow.
One of the colours to help make tofu fragrant is tumeric yellow, the colour derives from pounding yellow tumeric with mortar or pestle and rubbing the juice into the solidifiying tofu. It also gives the tofu a good taste...

 Peter Wong a retired teacher and education office now residing in Kuching sent this photo to me.
What he has on was called Ah Pek Shirt (actually a singlet) which was considered a clothing which coud be worn in the public any time in those days.
Such a singlet was even good enough to visit the Resident in the government office. It was worn by wharf labourers, trishaw drivers and boat men throughout Sarawak. No one would have felt under dressed in those days,...

My Ngie Mah was best in drying soh mien in the sun.
Our neighbour in Brooke Drive, the Ting family were soh mien makers. So they would always give us the best soh mien (in 5 katis or 10 katis in those days) tied with a red thread per set.
When we took the soh mien home on the day ngie mah came to visit she would carefully made little "zi" or bundles like in the photo to dry in the huge bamboo tray meant for drying food!!...