A famous Ipoh Cantonese dish from an “Iron” lady

Although I am Hakka but I am more Cantonese because my mum is Cantonese. Since I am not very close with my Dad and my Dad's side of the family, I really don’t know much about the Hakka heritage. I consider myself more Cantonese than Hakka. The Cantonese dish that I am going to introduce to you brings back childhood memories and reminds me of the hardship my mum had gone through raising me alone after my Dad had lost all his fortune through gambling. From a rich man’s wife, my mum had to go to work as a factory worker peeling prawns.  She earned very little at the factory so after work, she had to go wash clothes for our neighbors to earn more to make ends meet. From staying in a bungalow with a maid to not able to afford even to rent a room, mum and I had to share a room on the first floor of a shop lot with another lady.  We had no bed or wardrobe. We shared a cheap thin mattress on the floor and we hung our clothes on a clothes rack and cover them with a piece of cloth. Yes, we have gone from rich to rags! Although we were poor, my mum ensured that I ate well. Every morning she waked up in the wee hours to cook lunch for me. She cooked a simple dish everyday and left it in the kitchen food cabinet (we did not have a fridge) so that when I returned from school, I had food to eat. Then on my birthday, she always cooked a special dish and it was clay pot chicken rice and she did that for many years. She could not afford to buy chicken but one of her good friend was a restaurant owner and he was a kind and generous man. He used to give my mum chicken meat now and then. Since today is my birthday,  I thought it is very meaningful to share my mum’s claypot chicken rice recipe with you all. Each time when I eat this dish now, it reminded me what a strong person my mum is. During those days when we were down and out, she had never whined about having to work hard for little money or felt ashamed of being poor. It was also during that time of difficulty that she saw who were her true friends. Many rich aunties that my mum used to play mahjong with all avoided her the moment they knew that my Dad had lost his wealth. I guess they were afraid that we would borrow money from them. That did not bother my mum at all. She thought it was a blessing in disguise. She said there is no loss in losing fair weather friends. She is right, we do not need enemies when we had friends like these. My mum was worried that I could not handle the big change in our life style, so she continuously reminded me that no one could look down on us as long as we do not look down on ourselves. When time were too tough she said to me, “Don’t give in for no matter how tough the time might be, it will pass, for everything will pass, good or bad”. She is absolutely right! Nowadays, when time gets really tough, I will say to myself the three magic words, “It will pass!” and I move on. Oh yes, I moved on for 56 years! I hope I will move on for a while more. LOL! 


Last Saturday, my Quay Lo gathered family and good friends to a really nice fine dining restaurant in Kuala Lumpur to have an early celebration of my 56th birthday.  He personally selected food and the wine. The food was delicious and the wine were paired so well with the food! I enjoyed myself very much and I am very grateful for all the effort my Quay Lo put in to make this an enjoyable and memorable evening for me and our guests. Darling, YOU ARE THE BEST!! Hehe HUGS!  I would like to thank everyone who took time from your busy schedule to join me in the celebration. I had a GREAT time and hope you all did too!! HUGS and KISSES to you all.  I would like to share my joy with all my readers and blogger friends too.

A birthday card from all

The hand-picked restaurant by my Quay Lo

 The hand-picked Menu for the dinner by my Quay Lo

My family and good friends who joined me

In his pic, top: our good friend - Diana, 

center: our best of pals - Brad & Andrea, 

bottom: Diana's hubby John

In this pic, from top: me and my son, Nick, 

Centre: Me and my son's lovely girlfriend - Lehbin, 

Bottom: me and my son Nick

In this pic, left: my godson in law- Valen, my god daughter - Cheryl

My sister in law - Jennifer, right: our good friend - Fernand, his daughter - Efa

and my best friend - Peng

In this pic, top: Andrea and my mum

center: Fernand and his daughter - Efa

bottom: my niece, Christine and boyfriend - Sim

In this pic, top: my godson - Darryl and girlfriend - Venice

center: my sister in law Jenny and my niece Christine

bottom: my son Nick and girlfriend - Lehbin

Hand picked Birthday cake by my Quay Lo

Chocolate cake with salted caramel served with vanilla ice cream

The American Style!

"Looking through the Glasses" taken by my son, Nick

I love this photo!

My BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT - 

MY QUAY LO!!

My advance birthday party is over but my birthday starts now. The time now is 0001. I am not sure what I am going do today but I will share with you in my next post if I did something interesting. First, I guess I go and have a good sleep but before that here is my mum's clay pot chicken rice recipe which I am eager to share with you. This is a famous dish from Ipoh, Perak that means a lot to me and I already told you why. 

Ipoh claypot chicken rice

Ingredients:

1 cup fragrant rice

250 gm chicken breast and drumsticks

ginger, julienned, to taste

water, to cook rice

To marinade the chicken meat:

1 tbs light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tbs oysters sauce

1 tbs sesame oil

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp cornflour

1 tbs Shaoxing wine

a pinch of white pepper

a pinch of salt

Method:

Chop chicken into smaller pieces. Marinade the chicken for 1 hour. Measurement of water for the rice is ¾ cup water for 1 cup rice. Transfer rice and water into a large, deep bowl. Steam in a wok over high heat for about 20 minutes, covered, or until the water in the bowl dries up. Add chicken together with the marinade and sprinkle ginger on top. Continue to cook for 20 minutes, covered. Turn off the heat, let chicken and rice sit in the wok for another 10 minutes. Serve hot.

I am submitting this post to Merdeka Open House 2011, Makan Through Malaysia hosted by Babe in KL


AND

I am submitting this post to Heritage Food Trail hosted by Edith of Precious Moment.


AND


I am submitting this post to Muhibbah Monday Round 14 hosted by Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies

Tweet

Pin It