I dropped the phone and ran out as quickly as though I was meeting a sweetheart who had been away fighting a terrible war for nine years. A big white lorry drove by, it looked like an angel floating towards me in a flowing white gown. I waved happily at it and it stopped.

Next, two men jumped off the angel and began to unload treasure from its innards.

(I was experimenting with two different ways to make photos look olde)

One of the men said, “Eh you took my photo ah? Don’t want lah, shy lar.”
Then he unloaded a weighing scale. Oohhhh….

Wonder why that durian had its thorns tied with a rubber band…

As it turns out, a bag of 3 durians is about 4.5kilograms. The outside may be a hard, thorny shell but the insides are yellow, soft and pungent. Some tasted bitter, some were sweet.

Thank God for rain that brought the durian season!

To make Mom’s Roti John is very easy. You’ll need to own a pan, not a wok or a kuali. A pan has a flat bottom, hence the term flat as pan-cakes. Sadly, many home kitchens in Asia are equipped with woks, not pans.

First, you will need to spoon a large chunk of creamy butter onto a hot pan. In about 3 seconds, the butter would have melted, that’s when you drop in a longish shaped bread. I think it’s called a Sausage Bun.

Once fried to a slight crisp and having absorbed all the delicious butter, flip the bun over to fry the other side. You can add another spoonful of butter if you like.

Next, spoon the filling for the Roti John from a bowl and carefully lay them onto the crispy Roti.

Flip it over to fry the filling till it is completely dry.

After that, generously squeeze out a few pretty lines of mayonnaise onto the Roti John. Use Japanese mayo, not American mayo, because the Americans don’t know how to make them good.

Finally, stuff the Roti John with a lot of shredded iceberg lettuce. Shredded iceberg lettuce is crunchier and juicier than iceberg lettuce.

When ready, hold the hot Roti in your hand, open wide your mouth and…

NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM!

It’s scrumptious, and almost as good as Charise’ meal.

PS: If you really want to know, the big bowl of Roti John filling is made of canned sardines in tomato sauce, fresh eggs, onions and chopped chilis. According to Mom, the exact proportion for each ingredient is “Agak-agak.”

As she was paying for the arrowroots, she mentioned in passing what all these arrowroots were for. The kindly old grocer refused to accept payment.

With Grocer’s arrowroots, Mother’s cooking oil and Suzana’s work, jars of arrowroot chips were successfully sold to raise funds.

After the Tsunami Fair, Mother’s friends began to inquire if she could get Suzana to fry more of these delicious chips. Arrowroots are less starchy and more digestible than potatoes so one can eat lots and still crave for more.

So, Mother got down to business. Every year, she will buy bags of arrowroots from the nearest supermarket. The ones pictured above are from Tesco. She pours out the arrowroots into a large basin and splash them in water for a  quick wash.

By the way, this is how an arrowroot tree looks like. You can buy a potted one at Ikea as an indoor plant.

Washed arrowroots, we can’t eat them yet.

We’ll need to peel the arrowroots with fingers careful and eyes wide open. Do not yawn, sneeze or do anything that might close your eyes lest you peel off the skin on your hands. The arrowroots are small and impossible difficult to firmly grasp.

Arrowroots, peeled.

Next, we’ll need to slice the peeled arrowroots with a mandolin. Slice one after another, until all 144,683 arrowroots have been sliced into equal 0.8mm slivers.

Don’t try to kill yourself with the mandolin just because you feel like giving up. Don’t try to gnaw off your own hands either.

Arrowroots, peeled and sliced. Whew!

Now, we get to the hot, sweaty and bothersome part.

Drop a small batch of arrowroot slivers into a wok of simmering oil. Fry.

We’ll be feeling sweaty and irritable now. Keep frying…

Fry some more…

Aha! Golden ngaku chips, ready to be munched. Pat dry and air dry before shaking them into jars.

Even Flame can’t bear the thought of preparing another round.

*faint ah*

RM30 per large jar. Worthwhile? ;)

I chuck into the juicer a little of what we have in the fridge. In this crystal glass is a mini bitter gourd, a cucumber, a carrot, a lime, a green apple and a luscious red chili.

By the way, is cucumber a fruit, or a vege?

I am not the sort who thinks twice about who to lunch with though. Most times, I am perfectly contented to enjoy lunch by myself.

This peer pressure from Keith Ferazzi is really starting to irk me now. Hmph!

Loaded with green veggies and tomatoes, it makes me feel confident of my physical health.

Fried with lots eggs and chili padi, it is exactly the taste I prefer.

But most of all, I love its bright colors which makes me a joyful bruncher. :)

The holiday was amazing, I have so much to share with you. But for now, I need to nurse a very red nose and an itchy throat back to health.

So what else but chicken soup with lots of green veggies for dinner. What are you having? Make me envious!

The pea looks a bit dehydrated, doesn’t it? But let’s not judge the pea by its cover skin.

I thought the abalone will be overly chewy after baking but it wasn’t. I love the creamy cheese sauce that coated it. It balanced out the sour tomato paste perfectly. Neither does it drown out the taste of the exotic ingredients.

I learned that the hardest part about making kaya is the stirring. It burns too easily.

You need strong arms to scrape the bottom of the pot non-stop for forty-five minutes.

There are only five ingredients. Cream from 3 coconuts’ milk. One bunch of screwpine leaves. 140g sugar. 20 stirred and sifted raw eggs. Six beautiful ladies.

If you can get six women together too, perhaps you will succeed at making.

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So what could I do, but make my own?

Teh Si, with warm fluffy Roti, with fresh home cooked Pandan Kaya.

Jealous? Ehehehe!