I am making... Home – made meatball

Making your own meatballs isn’t as difficult as it seems. I got this easy meatball recipe from some book long time ago and prefer them more than the processed ones when making spaghetti sauce and vegetable soup.


Ingredients:

1. 400g of minced meat
2. I large onion, chopped fine
3. Parsley, chopped fine
4. 1 egg, folded
5. Salt and black pepper


Preparation:

1. Combined everything together in a large bowl / basin and fold in.
2. Season adequately with salt and pepper
3. Mold them into whatever size you want. If you’re frying them, it’s advisable to mold it smaller.

Here I am… in Papar…

Papar is a compact town.

This is how I summarize Papar after a 6 weeks stay. The many round-a-bouts (which is actually a trademark of Sabah, I may put it that way on my own. I've never been to anywhere where there are so many of them, which can be both annoying and helpful), fresh market, a Giant hypermarket, a Super Store, a KFC, many small restaurants, a small district hospital, a Public Bank, a library, schools, furniture trades, plant nurseries etc basically just nice enough for you to live adequately. For more, you'll have to drive the extra 20km to Kota Kinabalu city.

But I like it. It’s almost quaint, but not so with the shop lots tampering the scene as you drove further. From KK you’ll catch a brief glimpse of beautiful beaches, greeneries, fields and hills, and on entering the town via a metal bridge hanging over the Sungai Papar / Papar river, you’ll meet a roundabout. Then, turning to the 2 o’clock direction, you’ll meet another one. Go straight then and you’ll meet another one. All in less than 1 km, much to my amusement. (By the way, I’m describing the route towards the district hospital, where I live nearby). Traffic moves at 40 – 60 km/hour on the tiny roads, seat – belt free being an unwritten exception here. Limited parking space in shop lots area, so park somewhere and walk around instead. Break a sweat here and there now, shall we ^_^

The fresh market sold fresh stocks updated almost daily. Here I bought almost all of fresh supplies especially tofu since super market tofu disagree with me with their gooey chunks appearance. I made an exception on eggs, after a vendor cheated me on by trying to charge me RM2 for 5 eggs (a normal egg usually costs roughly RM0.32. Call me stingy but why buy products of unknown quality when you can get better.), and carrots and tomatoes since I found supermarket price cheaper. Since I do make trips to the city from time to time, I made it a point to stop at the city Giant to stock up on young carrots and tomatoes, mushrooms (can’t find any here except canned ones) and potatoes. So what else do I usually buy in the market? Mostly green leaf vegetables and beans, regardless the price since the supermarket only sold these wilted and/or godawful looking vegetables. Once in a while I’d venture to the open market at an open space between shophouses for a change of scenery, not better bargain since the stuffs sold are nearly the same. The open market offers other stuffs like more fruits, local snacks and delicacies, clothes, fake brand names, with vendors of pirated VCDs and DVDs wedging in between.

Though I’d never venture in them before, I found myself walking into many restaurants which are extended branches from the city such as Juara Nasi Ayam and Taufiq 3, and making mental notes to visit their KK branch some other time soon. Some of my favourite stops for Malay food are Bestari (near KFC), KFC itself, Pandan and Restoran Pantai Manis. I’d say that the food selection here is pretty alright, given the variety of choice.

And so is accommodation. 10 – 20 km prior entering town, there are 3 resorts to choose from; the Beringgis Beach Resort (RM 220 - 400), Borneo Paradise (RM 200 - 400) and Langkah Syabas (RM 200 - 400). In both Beringgis and Langkah Syabas they have their own travel agents, but Langkah Syabas also provides a direct transportation from the airport and boating service to selected islands.

So basically that’s Papar for you. Of course, life gets monotonous after a while for us who are used to many life distractions and fillers such as the mall, cinema, recreational area and such. I’d admit to sporadic boredom from the daily classes and practical to the same selection of vegetables and fruits so the periodic return to Kota Kinabalu would be filled with grocery shopping for canned food, instant pastas, dry goods, mushrooms, herbs and fruits. I’m not exactly complaining but hey, I lived in the other world but it can still merge with my Papar world so why not?

Please don’t eat while driving…

Ok, this one may sound out of topic but still food related.

I was driving in KK at 80 – 90 km/hr when a Honda made me slow down to 40 km/hr on the slow lane.

Cool. Slow lane is for slow cars usually, no? But 40 km/hr? That’s my campus speed limit, which not many adhere to since, well, practical reasons. I’ve to trail behind for a while since many lucky fellas were on the fast lane but man it was a hell of 5 minutes…

And when I managed to switch lane and passed it, this slowpoke was leisurely enjoying his whatever food he’s munching on and sipping drinks in my review mirror.

Can I not curse him with every swearing word I know?

Crappy services and fast food… how can that be in the same line?

Fast food.

My impression from this phrase is food that is served fast, but still hot and hopefully, freshly cooked. Hygienic and proper handling. My ketchup packs (or tiny ketchup bowls), pepper, salt, sugar, creamer, tissues etc. Tidy - looking, smartly dressed, friendly, smiling cashier. Neat and clean kitchen. Clean tables, floor, washing basins and toilets. No flies buzzing in my face.

Ok, maybe I’m fussy. I mean, my description is nearly fit for a restaurant.

Ok, cool. The cashiers passed, though not with flying colours (too slow, poor food handling).

Kitchen, can’t see from the counter but the leaflet that accompanied my burger said they cook and store food at particular temperature, they sanitized with some hi – tech anti – bacterial stuffs etc so no comment.

Toilet. Gone case. With some exceptional ones, the rest I’m sorry to say, need improvement.

Flies? Interesting enough, I’ve encounter once. To add further insult, the cashier was so rude and acted like she owned the place. Or maybe she does or her daddy does since she’s not wearing uniform as the others were. So I cancelled my order and never since step a foot in there. Ha.

Missing my ketchup packs in takeaways are still fine, but to miss my hash browns and handing me plain hot water without the teabag while giggling with the other cashiers are simply…

Deliveries… due to their own delivery terms of losing cash if they can’t make it on time, they refused to deliver if it’s raining. Egad… somebody enlighten me of such terms please. I thank God for the creation of the person who invented cup noodles.

Ok, enough black sheep.

At least here in Sabah most cashiers are friendly and patient enough if you’re indecisive, they’ll give you huge bright smiles with chirpy “Please come again”, they apologized profusely for mistakes, offer replacement drinks with a smile if you slosh yours n the floor then hurryingly clean up the mess.

Ok, I’m sorry I couldn’t come up with much good points. All above does not apply to Sabah alone, mind you. They are EVERYWHERE.

Egad…

My Sabah fasting month

So the Syawal @ Raya month has bid us goodbye. Like way, way long time ago. But that has nothing to deter me from musing over my fasting month experience in Sabah.

OK, so this is the month where you take a break from eating, or so they say. Or technically, give your stomach a break from all the gobbling and shoveling. But when the supposed break during the fasting month becomes the other way round, what more can be said? I’m telling you, it’s amazing, the ferocity of hungry people when they shopped in the bazaar. I can bet dollars to doughnuts that the spending in fasting month could somewhat exceed that of other months, seeing how they spent and how mortifyingly expensive some food stuffs were priced during this time (as in the prices are inappropriate to the taste or meager amount of food packed). But anywhere is the same, so no big surprise.

By the way, among the famous bazaar are the ones in Asia City area, Gaya Street and Indah Permai. But traffic and parking were horrendous with the cars and people packing through and through the area soI skipped the Gaya Street one since it’s too bothersome to find a parking space or get out from one, and instead I usually frequented the Asia City area and Indah Permai ones. However, I wouldn’t dream of going to one at after 5 pm since the crowd was at its worst at this hour nearing fast breaking. Nevertheless, it’s worth the time if I was to come at 4 something since the stalls were just being set up and food still fresh (except “recycled ones”).

As usual, some would live up to expectations and some were just lame copycats without skills. I mean, come on, it’s just way too much when the famous Kelantanese Nasi Kerabu is presented to you as plain rice with taugeh, some cabbage strips, a pinch of maybe – sambal belacan, telur masin and an extra – charged puny piece of fried fish. Luckily this year I did not chance upon any and instead 2 or 3 stalls manned by Kelantanese fellas (or claimed that the dish is prepared by Kelantanese cooks) sold excellent Nasi Kerabu, much to my delight since I really missed it since my last stay in Kelantan. I’m happy to report that the rice was in the right shade of blue (though some bear a suspiciously bright secondary – school – uniform – blue, a tell – tale of food dye disaster, or another odd one is yellow but it tasted fine with the correct presentation format so I let the colour mishap slip), the sambal kelapa, budu, ulam and telur masin complete, along with extra – charged fried fish in flour, sliced roasted beef, ayam percik and some local dishes. I vote the best to be from Indah Permai, sold by a pair of Muslim Kelantanese couple, with many thumb ups for the clean stalls and overall presentation (utensils, pots & pans etc). Even their Nasi Tomato was nice with heaps of ayam masak merah ladled onto the mountain of rice. I really hope next year they’ll make a comeback. Too bad I can’t recall their names.

Murtabak is something I stay away from in Sabah since my last stint with it. I guess I simply can’t let go of Peninsular’s murtabak. Here they deep fry their murtabak in lots of oil on the hot plate or in the wok till it is crisp like the skin of fried popiah @ spring roll and calls it “Murtabak Jawa”. Not my cup of tea I guess (shrug T~T). You may have a try. An experience, a heck of it.

I found some nice roti jala with thick chicken curry in Asia City bazaar. Well, actually 3 stalls sold them but I’ve to say that they all tasted nearly the same, and all sold nearly miniature roti jala RM0.50 for 1. Egad… so not much to comment.

Either my taste buds had gone haywire or the vendors in Asia City area cheated me but pandan soya bean milk and normal soya bean milk tasted the same to me… Since they’re priced the same so not much loss here.

What else did I try? Hmm… ikan bakar. Pretty interesting, the way they marinated the fish in some sort of tangy sambal belacan and wrapped them in banana leaf prior cooking and then served it with asam limau and their prepared chili dip. Recommended would be ikan sebelah (or ikan kayu as they call it here) and ikan pari (sting ray). Good vendors would sell you a nicely done, juicy fish. Just try your luck by random and crowd size. Don’t forget hygiene too.

So far I’d suffer no stomach problem. So my tips when shopping in food bazaar are pretty simple; hygiene, good presentation, crowd size, friendly and tidy – looking vendors and the last one is survey all the vendors first for the best choice.

But nothing beats the bazaar in Jalan Hamzah, Kelantan, except maybe the ones in KL (I’m not a fan of KL by the way). OK, now I’m homesick… Bawl…