Kundang, Rawang ~ Food

The hosts had a tough task of feeding not only these 18 mouths from Singapore, but also that of his 6 siblings and family, as they always have a gathering at his place on every month-end.

The next morning after we arrived, he actually slaughtered 8 chickens from his own coop. I have the pictures taken of the slaughtering process but I guess some of you might not appreciate the sight of it.

Anyway, here are the foods we had during this getaway.

Rice vermicelli / bee hoon

For beef soup noodles. Really refreshing to be had on a warm evening (when we arrived).

Condiments

(clockwise from top) Finely-sliced white cabbage, fried shallots, chopped scallions & cilantro. In the centre was sweet soy sauce spiked with grounded 'chili padi' (bird's eye chillies).

Beef soup

Here, my uncle had the hearty beef soup with his fried rice instead of the noodles.

Fried Rice

Nothing special. Onions, garlic & chili. Oh, plus some bits of salted fish .Sure filled us up nicely.

Tea-time snacks

At the foreground, it's fried yam fritters. In the background were jack-fruit (cempedak) fritters. They were dipped into rice+wheat flour batter and then deep-fried.

What's not to like about deep-fried snacks, tell me? Especially, when dipped in spicy soy sauce. Both items came from their own backyard, btw.

BBQ Nite

For the family gathering, they had a BBQ. We came back late from our shopping adventures in KL so we missed out on the food from the initial part of the BBQ.

BBQ pit

'Otah' (or 'otak-otak'), 'sata' (both are seasoned fish paste; the former - spicy & red, wrapped in coconut leaves. The latter - triangular and white, wrapped in banana leaves) and marinated chicken, on the grill.

Eager kids...

...Waiting for the last few batches of grilled chicken.

Grilled chicken

These were wiped clean before I even get to have a taste. :(

Raw fish

Ikan Cencaru (Torpedo Scad fish), Ikan Kembung (Indian Mackarel fish) & Ikan Siakap (Seabass); marinated in spices like chili and tumeric - waiting to be grilled.

In that small plastic container were fish roe.

Cockles

Poured over the grilled till' they open, I guess. But someone told me that usually, by the time the shells open, the meat's overcooked. Or you can randomly pick at the half-cooked bits.

Take your pick. Some tend to be paranoid about Hepatitis C and stuff.. :P

Grilled otah & Fish

I don't know about you, but I like my food to be charred at parts. Having it once in a while, I really don't worry much about carcinogens... :P

The Cove Trailer

PLEASE, SAVE THEM DOLPHINS!



Really need to find some time to watch this movie. Hate to admit this but motherhood make my 'me' time all the more precious, cos' it's just so rare!

Baby Birds 2

Baby Birds at the Office (Part Deux)

You See that..?

I came into the office to see only one fledgling left in the nest.

I frantically searched for the other one and found it on the cold floor, outside the timber decking.

Soon after my colleague came and he helped to put the little one back.

By calling it, 'little one' I mean every word of it. Maybe because it kept being oppressed by it's (much) bigger sibling, its growth seemed stunted.

I went in awhile and when I looked out I saw it looking distressed, hanging on the edge by its 2 puny claws.







I rushed to fold a kitchen towel and cut some tape. I came back out to see it hanging on with only a claw.

I carefully placed the towel beneath it and tape it.

And darn!

Due to the uneven surface of that ruddy nest, I can't see the tape clinging much so I rushed back in and cut more tape.

And so, the nest looked like that.

Something tells me that the big one ain't too pleased with my effort, though.

My colleagued had mentioned, "That's the way it is in the animal world. Only the fittest survive."

Oh well, then. I'll make sure this little one become the fittest!

Did you watch Happy Feet??!

**Update:

Egad! I saw for myself! The big one PUSHING the little one off. AGAIN!

And the lil' one frenetically flapped it's wings just so it won't land on the floor again and manage to get on the roots of the plant right below the nest. Now it's just perching there.

I give up. There's no way I'm gonna let it back on the nest and risk it being pushed off again...

Geez!**

baby birds

baby birds at my office

The same species - Yellow-Bellied Sunbirds, set up their nest on my office garden terrace yet again. The same thing happened around the same time last year, too.

Check out last years batch at my colleague's page.

This year, they built the nest on the same plant near the same place and used the same kind of junk. By saying 'junk', I mean it - literally. Icky stuff like hair, thread, scraps of paper & plastic bits yadaa yadaa..

Whatever happened to twigs..?

Even birds go thru' modernisation....

The nest was so close to the door that we have to be careful to not slam into it. And we have to be more cautious during the roosting period, where the timid mum will fly out of the nest whenever we come out to use the sink. Last thing we need is for the long, pointed beak to poke our eyes!

The other day, one of the fledglings fell out of it's nest. This year, I guess the nest's built ain't as strong or that the babies are bigger. The opening to the nest got pretty big, as it strained under their weight. The one on top kinda' slipped off the other one and plop-ed onto a puddle.
My colleague brought it to a drier spot. I then brought it up, closer to the nest at where the sun is, to dry it so it won't shiver so much.

My other colleague eventually put it back into the nest.

The following pics were taken in sequence and zoomed in with every shot.

furball guest

cute (early) morning guest

Isn't she just sooooo cute!

aaargh! I'm hyperventilating already.
























My gate has this 40cm high acrylic sheet fixed to its bottom part and yet my dad opened the door early this morning (kasi masuk rezeki!) and saw this furball curled up tight.

This kitten climbed that acrylic panel to sleep on the rug that my mum put at the gap between my gate and door. That rug is to prevent dust from coming in under the door.

Space between my gate and door = less than 10cm.

After waking up, she remained quiet. Which kinda' pleased us all, including my dad. Mind you, my dad ain't fond of pets but she's just tooo adorable, la!

Wanting her somewhere cosy and proper to sleep, I grab the shoebox within reach (my choice of shoebox didn't please my bro one bit) and my mum volunteered her rug. She crept in, much to my amusement. Then I placed her outside and my dad kept the door ALMOST closed.

And from that gap, we saw her climb back in! Effortlessly.

She she got back to her curled-up position and set to continue with her disrupted sleep.

Oh man, I can just go on with this. I'd better stop.

Okay.... Point form.

dad hesitant. dropped obvious hint. not prepared for a pet (again). me too. kitten wake up. tried to get in. sleep again. climb back out. disappeared. me sad. cat come back! mewed and mewed. me mewed back. yes, I mew. went into house. me have to carry out. me don't carry cats. awkward. put back in box. climb out. bit my (new) shoe.

me go work. cat played with me. keep thinking of her. me think me miss her. keep looking at pics. will she be home? what to do woth her?

is it a good omen? rezeki? to discover something like this waktu subuh? what do we do???