Greg's Birthday Bash

NEE: We always enjoy having friends over for little get togethers. What better excuse than birthdays. Normally, there would be at least 2 birthday celebrations for Greg's, one with our cell friends and another with family and sometimes an additional for close collegues. This year we are sticking to one home cook for cell friends and one small eating out for family next week.

GREG: It is certainly most embarassing to be surrounded by little children while they sing you Happy Birthday Day, & after that, fighting to blow the candle with you.

And in a very wierd way, I almost understood how an old granpa would have felt to be surrounded by his great grandchildren. Well, this was my birthday, but those kids ain't my great grandchildren. There were at least 18 of them belonging to cell friends and we couldn't fit all of them into the camera frame.

Nee graciously cooked up a Tsunami on Friday nite & we invited friends from our cell group over for a big Italian themed dinner. Literally, she marathon-cooked for the whole afternoon for 5 hours until she almost fainted.

And behold, the Great Italian Mafia spread:

Take it easy. This is just the appetizer. I'll let Nee take you thru it.

NEE: Italy's famous Antipasto export: Bruschetta, done with homemade French Loaf

Another antipasto: Beef Carpaccio with Homemade Tonnato Sauce

Grilled Vegies with Balsamic Vinegerattes

NEE: It's important to note that when serving Italian dishes for a party, cetain dishes can only be cooked after the guests have arrived & are revving up to eat. Therefore, sometimes it can be a strain as the cooking still goes on even when the guests are already seated & are already eating.

Pasta: Spaghetti Aglio-olio with Seafood

Another Pasta: Linguine Carbornara

Lasagna al Forno (oops a little burnt on top, hehe..)

For the mains, we had:

Chicken Piccatta : The chicken breast pieces are as tender as fish

Osso Bucco with Mashed Potatos (I cheated. Did a oxtail version), served with Gremolata

Italian Style Roast Lamb Shoulders served with Rosemary Garlic Cream Sauce.

I did 2 pizzas. They should always come out last from the kitchen, fresh from the oven onto the table & into the tummy.

WARNING: We are now entering the dangerous dessert area:

Panna Cotta ~ Italian Cooked Cream with Homemade Strawberry Coullis.
Greg calls this one the Mafia Shootout.


GREG: And just when you think the night has ended, Nee came out with a fire show.

Le Creme Brulee (very Un-Italian, French in fact).

GREG: Wow. I thought I was only getting food on my birthday party.
Instead there was a circus show as well.


Greg's birthday cake: Strawberry Cream Cake. Layers of sponges with strawberry and fresh diary cream and topped with buttercream for a little more zest.

GREG: Special thanks to everyone who came by, & for all the presents. I really felt like Don Corleone. FYI, my actual birthday hasn't arrived yet MUAHAHAHAHA.

Grandpa Sibu's Brithday Bash

The time had come. This was what all 9 children, 22 grandchildren & 4 great-grandchildren came back to Sibu for. Everyone (almost) was back for Grandpa's 90th Birthday & 64th Wedding Anniversary celebration.

A man would have many achievements in his life. But being able to live up to a 90th birthday with 64 years of marriage is really an achievement by itself, a feat very few people can hope to achieve in this day & age.

The dinner event was held at the Paramount Hotel.

Sound very Paramount. But in reality, they didn't even have an F&B manager around. You'd have to do everything yourself, like going into the kitchen to ask for the food to come out.

But it was a grand ocassion. The place arranged to be nicely decorated by our own florists, Carol and Aunty Linda.

The wedding cake all over again.

I think Grandpa & Grandma looked healthier than the couple on the cake.


Everyone from Sibu turned up that evening. Yes, you can squeeze the whole of Sibu into one room.

Big shots like Wong Soon Koh & Robert Lau also graced the occasion with their presence.

With the elections nearing, we were a bit worried that they would accidentally slip into their SUPP political speeches.


But they were very gracious. They only talked about Grandpa, shared stories of the old days, & thanked him for his contributions to the Party.

For that moment, I actually respected them... for respecting Grandpa. NEE: By the way, these guys actually delivered their speeches in 100% formal official Foochow, which is practically unheard of. Foochows are really BIG on their dialects. Greg was just sitting there totally catching no ball.

This is the first time I've been to a real formal dinner function in Sibu. And this is the first time I see Foochow Mee Sua being served in a restaurant.

I have to say (with Nee agreeing), this is the most excellentest Mee Sua we've ever had. Of course, it's Sibu!Note that I did not take any photos of the other food. During the course of the pst 3 days, we have been fed with enough food in our guts to last us for three weeks. We felt like camels. So we had to stop eating by the 7th dish that night.

And then they show began! Nee & Uncle Morris were the MCs for that night. They worked hard for the first half of the event. In the second half, they became sit-down MCs.


And of course, there were no shortage of entertainment from the many talented children...

On, these were grown up children.

And superstar grandchildren & great grandchildren.

Sheila shines on the piano.

Stephanie steps on it...

This is the Foochow Jay Chou. I like the sound of that. It even rhymes. Edison thought nobody recognised him because he sang so good.


And of course, Megan was again the star of the night, belting out two songs. If you tell her that she was good, she'll tell you that nobody has signed her up yet.

Foochow kids...

And the event continued on...

Grandpa & Grandma cut their cake. Grandpa insisted on doing it standing up.

Grandpa talked. He insisted as well.

Grandpa gets flowers. We all insisted.

That's Foochow persistence for you.

Oh, & finally, I made this video presentation clip. It was a frantic last minute thing with Aunty Linda digging up old photos & Cousin Teng taking pictures of the photos!

It's called The Story of Our Lives



This clip is also available on YouTube. Oscar was there. Read his comments.

The Big Gathering at Grandpa's

Foochows like everything to be big. They have big families, big cars, big children (in size), big houses, big dishes, big money & big voices. So naturally, when Nee's side of the family had their gathering at Grandpa's, it was a big Foochow one.

NEE: This gathering had almost everybody back at Grandpa's. Except for Michelle, Roger and Raymond in Australia, Sophia and Oscar in UK. Teng and Mei had not arrived from Brunei yet. So Greg was right. It was big!

This is Grandpa's house, which he built himself.

Because of the recent flood, the water level is still above the wooden planks below. We had to do a balancing act to get thru.

NEE: We had such good memory of spending our childhood here during our school holidays. There were so many cousins to play with. We were everywhere picking up fruits, play cooking, hide and seek, fishing in the drain/river, running up and down this stairs.

The men-in-waiting.

It's either they were waiting for more guests to come, or more likely, they were just waiting for the food.

This is the first time I saw Grandpa's house. And right from the very first sight, I fell in love with it.

Loved the windows.

The hustle & bustle before the dinner.

When people start coming into the kitchen to stand there without anything to do, you know you've got to start serving dinner very soon.

Nee: Foochow Culture 1~ Everyone just stood around and asking everyone to sit. But nobody was sitting down. As young children we would hate this cause we must not sit until the adults do. Pro-longed hunger was a torture. We used to sit on that rectangular table. Guess it has shrunk.

Foochow Culture 2 ~ In Foochow culture, everybody talks, and nobody listens. And they're loud. At that point in time, everyone is inviting everybody else to sit, "SUAI MA, SUAI MA! SUAI SUAI SUAI!" (Please SIT!). Because of this, there is a tendency to have shouting matches in Sibu all the time, out of trying to overdo the other in politeness. The loud voices was probably carved in the Foochow DNAs since the rubber tapping days, where they had to shout from one tree to the next(prob like 100 trees away) in order to have a conversation. Maybe that is why others see us as domineering and unpolished.

Foochow Culture 3 ~ Dishes are BIG both in size and number. The traditionally accepted standard of giving people a good meal is 9 or 10 dishes. And they are big. So if you are invited to a dinner do at a foochow event, please dont eat for the whole day.

Three of the Eight sisters.

Believe me, they were heartbreakers back in the days when they were still wearing mini skirts.

This is what we call Chiak Pa Pak Bang (Eat Full,Kill Mosquitoes).

Looking at Uncle Arthur's Bundle of Blessings, maybe it is Chiak Pa Chee Bang (Eat Full, Feed Mosquitoes).

We were walking away towards our car when I turned around to take this picture. Don't let their looks fool you. These guys are professional. They really know how to pose.

If you had these guys for your modelling agency, you'd be making money. Just look at them, they can sell anything- Nike ads, Levis, Three Legged Brand medicated oil, Handyplast, Sibu Mental Hospital corporate video, maternity wear, Mopiko, Sibu kompia & kampua, Sibu Hawkers association marketing campaign, Compact toilet paper, just to name a few.

The First Meal in Sibu

This was the first meal we had on our first day in Sibu.

For reasons unknown to me, we were brought to this restaurant at the YMCA.


I've never been to a YMCA here before. I stared at the signboard as thoughts of the Village People rushed into my head.

I've always thought that the white guy in the shiny black leather jacket was scary. He was a hairy guy with a healthy growth on his chest. Gosh, I hope there's none of them here. I wouldn't want any of those hair in my food.

When we got there it was empty, except for us, which was fine. Cos it meant that the dishes would come out really quick.

The interior looked like this.

Whew. No hairy guy in black leather jacket yet.

The three generations of excellent cooks. The elegant lady on the right is Nee's idol, Yee Poh - the Grand Lady of Cookery of the Highest Order. She was our gracious host for that lunch.

Aunty Linda Wong (another great cook) & family (Sheila & Uncle Arthur). Megan's somewhere else.

Despite the name of the cafe, the restaurant serves Chinese food. Better than that, they had Foochow dishes. That was what we were looking for, since we were already in Sibu.

This was a special 4-green drink comprising of all four green fruits such as guava, green apple, etc.) That's my guess cos I didn't exactly know what's inside.

Turtle meat. Before you jump up, it's not the sea turtle. It's the fresh water turtle with the pointed mouth.

Of course, what can be more Foochow than Chow Chai Fish Head.

Or Foochow noodles Sibu style - whatever that is.

Plus excellent ladies' fingers in belacan (which tasted very different). Maybe it's the Sibu water from the earth drain.

I don't have the picture here, but Sibu is famous for it's Kangkung vege. It definitely tasted different, a lot more fresher than the ones in Kuching. We were told that they grow wild in abundance here. It was later at our grandfather's house that we saw them.

See how fat they are. It's the Sibu water I tell you.

NEE: Greg forgot the mentioned dishes like sweet sour fish. It was a feast. Must had have at least 10 dishes. Dont know about the price though cause when we go Sibu, we are like the little prawns, the big fishes will pay. In fact fighting to pay. So if you are younger, dont bother fighting.

This place really have great foochow food. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Servings are huge cause the the lady said they will prepare for five pax...EIIKKK where got five can finish. As for the location, we have no clue too cause every time we asked, the responses are oh very near very near. Guess you have to mention YMCA and ALL Sibu people will know.

Another tip about eating in Sibu, sit far far far far away from any older generations people especially ladies. In this case our Yee Poh. We finished practically everything not because we got big appetite. It was because she cant stop dishing food on everyone else's plates except her own. Greg and I have to resort to stacking our plates and bowls to stop her. Cause we will eat again, we would have burst. But it is really their ways of showing love and care by making sure you have a full tummy.