Fish

Instead of describing various meals today I am revisiting a few of our fish dinners. Seven years ago friends in Indonesia took us out for a fish dinner. Every since then I have spent much of my time in Asia satisfying my craving for fish. (Actually it started in 1971 during my first trip to Singapore. I was taken to food stalls along Changi Beach which served cockrels with killer sauce. Now the food stalls have disappeared, the land has been reclaimed from the ocean, and Changi Airport's runways have replaced the food stalls.






The above fish pictures were taken at the Kuching market. From the market to dinner plate here are four favorite appearances. The soupy fish is in an assam sauce - by googling I learned that assam is the Malaysian word for tamarind. Fish assam along with either sarawak laksa or laksa assam are two dishes I can't get enough of. The other picture is a prawn dish.



The other pictures capture two photogenic and tasty fishes

Christmas in the Tropics

When I first solicited suggestions of where to spend Christmas most people prefaced their opinions by suggesting that [name of city] had the most Christmas-like atmosphere. Since Christmas is totally associated with winter in my mind, none of their suggestions seemed likely to recreate feelings of Christmas. In truth I feel like I am in the middle of a long summer vacation

The first signs of Christmas were Santa figures and Christmas trees (masses of them) in the Malls. The visit to Santa was clearly a photo op - Santa did not really engage the kids. In a community where Christmas traditions vary widely asking about gifts may not be a good strategy. We also ran into this ballet performance at the entry of one of the malls




We decided to spend Christmas in Sarawak. As our friends said "Christmas is for family," and our friends in Sarawak are family. On Christmas Eve we had dinner with Clarence and Mooi Lian, their children, Clarence's mother & father, and his sister and her family - we feel very much a part of the family. On Christmas day we visited a kampung for an open house. [Open houses are an important part of the major holidays - Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, and Chinese New Years]. The father of the family had worked with Clarence. His son (to the left) cooked most of the meal. It was tasty - he should have a bright future ahead him if he chooses to continue along the culinary route. (He is an avid fan of the Asian food channel - a passion that seems to be nation wide.)



Two days after Christmas we arrived in Singapore. It was decorated to the hilt with Christmas trees and Christmas lights. Some of the Christmas decorations disappeared on Sunday the 28th to be replaced with Chinese New Year's decorations. A continuous display of visual delights. The group of Christmas trees were at Singapore's airport and the one made up of plastic bottles was on the street. We have more photos, but I expect that readers may also find themselves experiencing visual overload.