The Zuiho Daiko drum troupe is a team of five people with intellectual disabilities hailing from Nagasaki, Japan. The Japanese drummers (together with 17 family and other support staff) arrived on Thursday night and will be performing later this evening at 6:30 pm at the Sibu Gateway.
This is the actual Japanese Taiko drummer that we used for the massive billboard promoting the event. He was ecstatic at seeing himself featured in the billboard and immediately posed for a photo in front of it. Heh!
The organizing committee brought them on a city tour yesterday morning and introduced them to several local delicacies – this is the salad fruit, which they found oishii (delicious) – whether out of politeness or genuine ardor, I could not be certain. 😉
They were also very interested in the way we sell our chickens at the central market – alive, and bundled in newspaper wrappings with nylon for easy carrying for slaughter at the privacy of the purchaser’s own home. I told them it’s easier for the sellers too, since live chickens tend to run around.
We brought them to the famous seven storey pagoda as well. One episode I found interesting was the level of amazement they experienced when they chanced upon a cluster of mimosa. Mimosa pudica is a herb that grows in the wild over here and it’s very sensitive to touch. It closes its leaves under any stimuli and they found it sugoi (amazing).
The city tour ended at the Agape Center, our local facility for people with disabilities which includes Methodist Care Center, Sibu Autistic Association, Special Olympics Sibu and other organizations under the umbrella group. I know I look obese in the photo, it’s due to the double shirt I was wearing, tucked in some more.
I am a volunteer in organizing this event and have been doing press releases for the local newspapers for the past week. The performance will be held at 6:30 pm this evening at the Sibu Gateway followed by another performance in Kuching at 3 pm tomorrow (Sunday) at tHe Spring.
OMG! I have been writing so many press releases that I’m starting to repetitively drive in the dates and times of the performances. 😉
I’ve also been involved in radio interviews to promote the event (which also ends up as an excuse for a press release for our week-long publicity blitz ;)) and it’s been a very long and tiring week, but it’s for a good cause.
It’s a good chance for everyone to catch the performance of the Zuiho Daiko troupe, which has performed in two Paralympic Games and a UN function. The event will hopefully foster better understanding between the public and people with intellectual disabilities to promote awareness and tolerance.
Charity work is surprisingly fulfilling and I’ve learnt a lot in volunteering for the Zuiho Daiko event. See ya all tonight!
My friend of over 20 years just got married on Sunday and I was slated to be one of the “best buddy” for the groom entourage. It’s a HK tradition where the bride is barricaded (willingly, of course) inside her house along with her group of (all female) friends. This group is known as the zhi mui (sisters) while the groom team, consisting of me and a couple of others are known as the heng tai (brothers).
The mission is to get into the bride’s bedroom in her house from the groom’s house. We started arriving early in the morning to Ting Chuan’s house where the wedding preparations has already been set up the night before. The groom team is meeting up at the groom’s house before the fleet of cars led by the wedding car drives to the bride’s house.
My first question upon seeing this old friend of mine: HB: Eh, bro, it’s your big day. Why haven’t you shaved? TC: I did! I shaved at 12 am last night so there’ll be a stubble. It looks more manly.
Naturally, being the opportunistic person that I am, I talked to Celeste who works at Ta Ann. She was the only female in our entourage.
I got an XX Chromosome post out of it too, it’s a bit out of place in this post, but hey, someone told me weddings are the best place to meet new people. :p
Anyway, we departed for the bride’s house in several cars and arrived without the customary mass honking (which I was told was only done after the bride has been secured and transported back to the groom’s house).
There are a lot of traditions to be followed in a Chinese wedding ceremony – a piece of cloth is laid upon the wedding car and the car is reversed so it’s facing out. Lanterns (representing the future offspring) are also tied to both of the side mirrors.
The groom’s entourage (us) sat down for a meal of longevity noodles with chicken soup.
My friend (the groom) was presented with an egg each by the father and mother of the bride.
We ate at the table together – this is the meal to energize us for the task up ahead…securing the bride.
Our heng tai (brothers) entourage is expected to pass three stages before getting to the bride’s bedroom. The bottleneck is the staircase up, which is manned (womanned?) by a representative from the zhi mui (sisters), the friends of the bride.
Ang pow (red packets containing money) are expected to be given out at every stage and one of the sisters has even prepared some in advance just in case the groom didn’t have enough. Heh!
I kinda like how this one was done – the representative said that there are four stages in a married couple’s life and the groom is expected to “go through” each one metaphorically and literally in advance. The sour stage represents the arguments that will inevitably occur in every relationship and the groom has to drink a bottle of calamansi lime juice to pass that.
There are also questions posed at every stage, with “punishments” rendered out if the groom can’t answer the questions. Ting Chuan couldn’t remember the exact day, month, and year he met his bride-to-be and had to eat a wasabi spiked kampua. The groom has the option of asking his buddies to take the punishment for him, since there’s a lot meted out.
He passed the wasabi noodles to me and as the brother (“best buddy”), I took one for the team. It tasted quite delicious actually, but the first bite made my eyes water. They were really serious in putting the wasabi (horse radish) into the noodles. The sisters took pity on me and told me I didn’t actually have to finish it, but I did and it tasted delicious. I even asked for the recipe from them after the event. 😉
The salty stage involves the groom drinking salt water and the bitter stage is represented by bitter gourd extract. There were a lot of questions during the various stages, which he luckily got right, since they had an arsenal of wasabi laced kampua noodles up there. Thus, after the mass handing out of ang pows (red packets) to the sisters, we finally got to the final stage.
This is the sweet stage – it’s orange juice that the groom has to drink. Sour, salty, bitter, sweet. I love the imagery behind this custom. The last gauntlet was to call out for the bride and asking her for permission to enter.
The sisters finally granted access, and the door was opened.
I present – Siew Ling, the bride! 🙂
Ting Chuan has to propose formally to her and the fun isn’t quite over yet as the sisters made them kiss for 10 minutes.
It was finally negotiated down to 10 seconds, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the footage coz I was changing memory cards. It was very sweet actually, and that was the catalyst that made me want to get married.
The father of the bride escorted her down the stairs…
…and officially “handed over” his daughter.
Chinese custom has a form of ancestral worship that is widely practiced over here and the newlyweds have to bow three times to the late grandparents of the bride for blessings.
Respect is also rendered to the parents of the bride by bowing three times, upon which the mother of the bride clasps a gold necklace around the groom’s neck. This is foreign to me and I don’t know what it symbolizes.
The newlyweds proceeded out of the bride’s house…
…to pose for a group photo with relatives of the bride.
Thus, our entourage escorted the bride with a red umbrella into the car for the return trip to the groom’s house.
The wedding car drove out and reversed three (3) times before stopping for the mother of the bride to present a key to the bride. I don’t know what the accelerating and backing up of the wedding car symbolizes but the key to the bride is a token reminder for her to return home every Chinese New Year on the second day, and also taken to mean that she is welcome home at any time, even though she’s now “married out” and part of the groom’s family.
Our entourage arrived back to the groom’s residence where firecrackers were lit for the celebration.
The bride and groom have to wait until the firecrackers end before alighting from the car.
The newlyweds are the first to step into the house with their shoes on (while everyone else takes off their shoes) and bow three times into thin air. This was related to me as a request for the blessing of their matrimony by “ti gong” (a saint/god of sorts).
That being done, the bride and groom goes into their room and sits down on the marriage bed. I think this is to represent the consummating of the marriage. 😉
The exchanging of rings is done at the groom’s house…
…and the newlyweds kneel down on cushions to serve tea to the parents of the groom as a token of respect and to seek their blessing on the marriage.
The bride and groom are given a sweet soup (tong sui) to drink to mark their new journey in life together.
It was a fun experience and it really made me want to settle down and get married too. Congratulations to Siaw Ting Chuan and Wong Siew Ling on their union. Cheers bro! 🙂
My best friend just got hitched yesterday with a fellow coworker. I’m really happy for him, and I have to admit, a little bit envious coz I’ve been trying so hard to find The One and not really succeeding. Ting Chuan has been my friend ever since time immemorial – we have been buddies since we were in Primary 1 (7 years old).
The wedding banquet was held at Sheraton but I’ve been the “best buddy” since early morning. The writeup for that will be up tomorrow – it’s much more interesting. The “best buddy” system is a HK custom where the groom with an entourage of friends goes through obstacles created by the bride and her friends to gain access to her room and bring her back home.
It was a lot of fun since it was the first time I’ve ever been involved in such an event. The custom isn’t Malaysian, it has just gained popularity recently due to the influx of HK and Taiwan serials. 😉 There are a lot of interesting Chinese customs that I was exposed to and I will be writing about that with videos tomorrow.
I found the couple to be really sweet, they’re very nicely matched. Ting Chuan and Siew Ling just look so happy together that I couldn’t help but be happy for them. It’s nice to be married and settled and having kids and all that. It’s the life I want – that’s the purpose of my life, to leave behind my life of excess and find a soul mate who can tame me and domesticate me.
The lunch reception started out at 12 noon and the first dish is the obligatory Chinese appetizer/sampler dish. It has prawns, abalone, fish and other dishes on a huge platter divided physically into sections.
The second dish is “black chicken” soup – which is a kind of free range chicken that is renowned in Chinese cuisine as being more nutritious than regular chickens.
I’m not sure if it’s the same thing as kampung chicken but it’s usually served during celebrations such as birthdays, weddings and festive seasons.
The third dish is fish – a staple of all Chinese banquets. It’s a mixture of pan fried salmon and deep fried breaded fish. It’s surprisingly delicious, but then again I was famished from waking up in the morning for the entourage to the bride’s house. 🙂
The next dish is a Peking duck type affair with the waitress taking rolls of soft, warm and fluffy bread (called man tou) and filling it with a piece of duck, spring onions, and then drizzling it with sauce before serving it individually.
I liked this dish. It’s the sauce that makes or breaks the duck and the sauce at Sheraton is really good.
The fifth dish was a combination of two items – there’s sweet and sour pork on one side of the dish and sea cucumber served in half a pineapple on the other side. It’s supposed to represent the yin and yang.
The next dish also follows the yin yang concept with deep fried prawns on one side and abalone in a ring of broccoli on the other side.
The lunch wedding reception ended with a fruit platter and a mooncake and yam dish. They got married during the Mid Autumn Festival so the mooncakes were there as a nod to the occasion.
Congratulations Siaw Ting Chuan and Wong Siew Ling!
I will post the pre-wedding customs that started in the morning tomorrow – I found that experience to be much more interesting, as the “best buddy”. There are heaps of photos and lots of videos to upload, so I did the reverse chronological thing and posted up the lunch reception first. 🙂
It’s the long Merdeka Day weekend and it was decided that a road trip is due to bring Autumn to check out the legendary Big Prawn Assam Noodles in Sarikei. She hasn’t tried it before and it’s a public holiday so down we went. We got some much needed rations for the one hour drive down – this is Autumn’s favorite vegetable crackers.
She was tempting me during the drive down…
…with various different crackers
…from a repertoire of herbivore food
…like carrots
…and long beans. It’s really hard to drive with someone feeding me random bits of vegetables. The long beans threw me off a little due to the phallic shape too. 😉
We stopped at the intersection before Sarikei to have some food since it was already past lunchtime. This is mixed oat congee (from a can) which tastes better than it sounds. We’ve been eating this for lunch for quite a while now.
It’s really good, comes with a folded plastic disposable spoon and is full of constipation solutions (otherwise known as “fiber”).
I’m not a big fan of Healthy Stuff (TM) but I have been having a host of health issues lately (not just ED, but constipation to boot :p) so I’m trying to get more fiber into my diet.
Anyway, after the brunch inside my car, we weren’t really that hungry anymore so we walked around Sarikei town and did a bit of the tourist camwhoring thing. There’s not much to do in Sarikei except walk around the (only) supermarket – Ngiu Kee.
After an hour or two of this, the QAG 4114 arrived at Glory Cafe and parked in its usual spot – right in front of a yellow fire hydrant. 😉 Oh, this is becoming something of a recurring joke.
Autumn was a bit apprehensive about the Big Prawn Assam Tom Yam Noodles, but after a sampling of the rich broth, she was sold.
It turns out that Autumn is really good at peeling the antenna of the big prawns as well. She claims it’s a trick she learned from eating prawns during her youth. I can’t do it myself…
…but she was kind enough to peel the antenna for me. Thanks Autumn! 🙂
I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like the great noodles over here. It’s really worth the drive down if there’s a long weekend or holiday and you haven’t got anything better to do. Cheers!
Of course, being the Capo di tutti capi requires the obligatory female companion and a very strong right hand man. 😉 HDS:
2002: University life. This was when USB cell phone chargers were a bit of a novelty item. Old skool. 😉 2003: I moved into my place in KL – it’s a small bedroom costing RM 350 per month. It fits one bed (single) and one desk (small). 2004: Limited Edition Shell mineral water and a post about the new employees at work. I was dating one of them (there’s only one female) and this was the relationship that taught me it’s a Bad Idea (TM) to be dating someone in the same office. 2005: Witty (IMHO) post about oyster pancake. 2006: Project MISER. The start of the popular Project MISER series of posts where I attempt to survive on just RM 250 a month. There are three posts.
I was browsing through my old photo albums just now in search of photos of my sister when she was younger for her wedding video when I came across this photo. This is (from left) my sister, me, Sing Ling and Wei Ling when I was 7 years old. I still remember the event – it was just after a 2.4 km jogathon that was held at Methodist High School when I was in Primary 1. My dad was the principal at that school then and we had this family sports day event where we ended up on this huge tandem walker thing with my mom taking a candid photo.
Anyway, I had this HUGE crush on Sing Ling, who’s my classmate in Primary 1 at that time. It was my first love (at 7 years of age). I wrote her my very first love letter on a torn out piece of exercise book, and it went something like:
I love you Sing Ling Please love me I’ll give you a eraser or a ruler if you love me
I had a really crappy red broken ruler at that time and I have to admit that my budding Casanova skillz was very much at a n00bie stage at that point. 😉
It was funny recalling that incident though, and it made me laugh. Nostalgia, eh?
I was due to fly back to Sibu last night and since I had some time to kill (and also coz I wanted to meet Ringo ;)) I managed to get in touch with her and meet up with the big cheese at O’Briens in 1U.
This is the delicious dairy product herself, in her stealth mode disguise. She has the exact same cell phone as mine.
O’Briens is known for it’s gourmet coffee and handcut sandwiches…
…and their tagline “See your food made fresh in front of you”, kinda like an open kitchen thing, except it’s an open counter of sorts.
Cheesie went for the healthy option, with the Smoked Salmon on Shambo (RM 13.50) under their Low Fat Lifestyle menu, interestingly dubbed “Guilt Free Food” with everything having under 3 grams of fat.
This is the Peach Blush (RM 10) that she ordered. My first impression was that she seems to wear a lot of bling. This girl has color coordination – most of the articles she wore has gold trimmings!
I went for the (much) less healthier option of the O’Briens Crambo Club Hot Toastie (RM 16.50). The sandwiches at O’Briens are all served with crisps, which is a nice touch. I love putting Pringles in sandwiches, it makes the texture with white bread (untoasted) very interesting. Crispy!
I also had the large Cappuccino (RM 8.50) which comes with a shamrock froth finish. I have seen Guinness doing that for draft stout in some bars, it must be an Irish thing. 😉
Cheesie has a very bubbly personality and I felt very comfortable talking to her. We also had a lengthy intellectual discourse on methods of improving Cheesie’s Wardrobe. Heh! It was great meeting up with you Ringo! Jesus, now I sound like a fanboy. I have also noticed that I will be needing Botox on my forehead very, very soon. 😉
…and no, this is not an advertorial nor was any payment (monetary or otherwise) arranged for me to do this Cheesie post. =D
STP called me up this morning, awaking me from my slumber, to inform me that bongkersz a.k.a. Bong Chan Siong from KL has arrived. I called Mary up and told her to meet us at Ruby Restaurant to give bongkersz a dose of Sibu hospitality.
bongkersz has been craving for the butter cheese prawns from Ruby Restaurant and STP brought him there to indulge in The Good Stuff (TM). I arrived fashionably early due to my driving skillz (of which my repertoire includes running red lights and driving in excess of the speed limit) and Mary arrived fashionably late due to her being the tau keh nio that she is. 😉
This is STP’s famous ice blended coffee which I didn’t partake in, preferring to go for Heineken instead. Catch sixthseal.com on Wednesday, there’s a surprise in store for football (soccer) fans. 🙂
Mary is probably going to do an XY Chromosome post on bongkersz and we’re having this friendly competition going on, so I dragged the nearest XX Chromosome (which happened to be the waitress) for a photo shoot. 😉
I have been told that my XX Chromosome entries are biased to a certain extent towards people of a similar ethnicity and I’ve addressed that issue in the annals of sixthseal.com – it’s not about racial relations but a more pragmatic reason – there are just more Chinese in Sibu than other races.
I have put this up once and for all to debunk the myth that the XX Chromosome category favors aesthetic looking people from a certain race. It doesn’t. XX Chromosome in sixthseal.com is pro affirmative action. =D
This is the Sibu bloggers meet “Reloaded” on Sunday morning. It was decided last night that we were going to head over to Kokoberry the next morning to support Mary’s enterprise (since the drinks would be free and all that ;)). L-R: Mary, Arthur, Huai Bin (me), Clare, and Clement. bengbeng was also there but he likes to keep his anonymity so he was the one that took the photo for us. Contrary to popular belief, the kid is not mine. 😉 Disclaimer: The hand on Clare’s shoulder is obviously not mine since it’s holding a crepe and it’s too small to be mine anyway. It’s not Clement’s either. It can’t be Arthur’s unless he’s Mr. Fantastic so that leaves BengHui (who’s only 9, and thus, innocent enough to be harmless). 😉 Update: Original photo uploaded with permission since the cat is out of the bag. 🙂
I had the Double Chocolate (RM 3.20 / RM 3.50) which tasted absolutely fabulous. There’s a double dose of chocolate in this drink from the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate sprinkles in addition to the chocolate concoction. This is another one of the Top 9 selection from the Kokoberry menu.
When Clare takes out her equipment, everyone else’s family jewels looks small in comparison. 😉
This is the presentation ceremony to the established food critic – STP (suituapui). If he says it’s good, it’s good.
Mary was kind enough to do a special non-menu item for us – this is the Cheese Crepe. It tastes really good. I like savory fillings more than sweet fillings. I’m not sure if she’ll do it for customers, but perhaps if you ask nicely? It’s amazing, this cheese crepe. It got the thumbs up from all of us.
This is a closer look at the cheese crepe. It’s filled with grated cheese and that goes really well with the crepe.
The two leng lui bloggers of Sibu sends their regards. 🙂
The Sibu contingent of bloggers had a meet at Li Hua Hotel at 7:30 pm just now. STP suggested the Li Hua Hotel buffet @ RM 11.50 per person. He had nothing but good things to say about the ayam masak hitam there and thus, it was decided that the Sibu bloggers meet be held there.
There were four of us that had a mini-bloggers meet at Orchid Hotel before adjourning to R&R for drinks the previous night but it was so clandestine that the only other person I can name that was there is the delectable KLM. 😉
The Li Hua Hotel buffet is rather limited in it’s selection but there is a free flow of drinks. There is a very strange practice here though – the food is not refilled. Thus, once the meat and vegetables at the buffet table is gone, they won’t refill it, and the buffet is effectively over.
There was the obligatory steamed rice dish (which was about the ONLY dish that was refilled) – all the others were not, but STP got the waiter to come out with an additional dish – curry chicken, due to our turnout.
This is the flagship dish of Li Hua’s buffet – the ayam masak hitam. It’s chicken cooked in black sauce and herbs and translates as “chicken cooked black”.
There were also brinjals (eggplant) cooked in curry and roasted chicken.
Tofu and fried noodles were next on the buffet line…
…and the last buffet cart contained sweet and sour fish pieces and mixed vegetables. There were only six (6) dishes in total including the steamed rice and fried noodles. Most of us had already eaten though so it was alright, and the price was reasonable too.
This is what I foraged from the remainders of the buffet line. The orange juice (from concentrate, not fresh) has unlimited refills.
Here’s a closer look at my dish. I did not do the speed eating feature in my repertoire for fear of alienating the rest of the bloggers. 😉
I’m sure you recognize Mary of Kokoberry fame. We’re heading there again tomorrow at 11 am to bum free drinks off her. 😉
This is a group photo of the Sibu Bloggers United (SBU). I have been told that I’m likely to get a heart attack if I eat with this bunch of foodies. =D L-R:Mary, Huai Bin (me), Clare, Arthur and Clement.
bengbeng came at 9:15 pm to join us for a couple of drinks. He likes to remain anonymous though, so there’s no photos of him…unless you ask Clare nicely. 😉
It was fun meeting up with all of you. You should check out the feature done by bengbeng on Romeo & Juliet (Huai Bin & Mary). It was funny to pose for all those photos. Heh!
