Mother's hainanese chicken balls and chicken meat

Picture borrowed from flickr.com

We (Wan Lan, Tai Hou, Ching and me) were having dinner at Chow Yang yesterday before Tai Hou returned to Melbourne, when the conversation went to chicken rice balls. According to Sister Wan Lan, the famous Melaka Chicken rice balls taste no where near Mother's chicken rice balls.

What I remember more vividly was Mother's chickens and castrated free-range cockerels which she reared herself for many years. When we were in Parit Buntar she had quite a big chicken coop at the back right hand side of the government quarters where we stayed. We used to get a lot of fresh chicken eggs. Once in a while we would accompany her to the government vet to castrate the cockerels. I used to see the vet making an incision on the cockeral and then sewing it back. Even after we moved to Petaling Jaya she used to keep a small chicken coop at the back of the house in which she managed to rear 5-6 chickens, to be slaughtered for the Chinese new year. Normally she would buy the little chicks from section 1 PJ 2-3 months before the CNY. Her chicken meat always tasted much much better than the chickens we buy from the market.

Regret, remorse and guilt

Brother Tai Hou, back for a short visit from Melbourne, made a trip to Fairy Park in Meru, Klang, to pay his respects to our late Mother. For me, as usual on occasions like this, as I waited and watched, I was flooded with memories and a profound sense of loss. There were also feelings of regret, remorse and guilt for not having given her the best and for all the hurtful words and actions I wished I could have taken back.

One of Mother's favourite dishes

Brother Tai Hou came back for a visit from Mebourne. Sister Wan Lan treated us to durians and her very nice tomyam beehoon goreng, with bunga kantan (ginger flower) and kaffir lime leaves. While we were eating the beehoon, sister said that Mother would have loved the beehoon goreng. Yes, I recall one of Mother's favourite dishes was a nyonya recipe called perut ikan becaause of the combination of ginger flowers, kaffir lime leaves and daun kadok leaves, sliced finely and added to the many other ingredients. I remember Sister used to cook the dish for Mother once in a while.

Picture borrowed from www.rasamalaysia.com