Dear wife is making ngaku or arrowroot chips in the car porch for the CNY. She bought the arrowroot tubers for RM2.88/kg from Tesco.
The starchy ngaku chips taste a bit like potato or tapioca chips and they are one of the many favourite snacks served to the guests during the CNY. The local supermarkets import the produce from China only once a year. It used to be a Chinese-only delicacy but in recent years I have seen many Malay and Indian housewives buying the tubers in bulk for their own consumption.Making the chips is a time-consuming process. You have to clean, peel and slice the bulbs with a slicer. After that you leave them in the fridge or open to dry before frying in oil.
Dear Mr Allen Ng,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment on my post.
I need to apologize because my English is poor and the language I used wasn't polite in my blog.
I have to clarify something for my 'second granny' background. Honestly, I didn't and still don't pay much attention to my relatives. But since you so happened to have crashed into my blog and I think I should maybe tell you more of my 'second granny' / 'Ah Poh' background history.
She isn't single. She is actually married and had one daughter only who passed away because of cancer. her daughter was the one who was married into a Malay man, she was just 48 years old. She gave birth to few children, but her children don't speak nor understand Chinese. Second granny's grandchildren often send her letters but all were in Malays. She can't read Malays as you might already know, her neighbors helped her and translated them. I don't know when second granny's husband passed away, I heard it was because of old age, a natural death I may say.
Second granny soon decided to 'kai' or adopt a Chinese boy/man as her son. The son is the one who rings the bell and do the drumming in the Temple. He's married with a Chinese woman and has 3 children.
I still remember second granny was looking old and frail few years back but, it was worse to compare to this year. Her health is good and as you could see she was busying herself with the rituals in the Temple. That reminds me of her house, she had few 'Bak Gap's, err, White Parrots. It was sad to see the parrots disappeared one by one every year I went to visit her. Now, I don't think there's any left in her house. I have heard many of the bad rumors that states her life isn't leading well because of her position as 'Ah Poh' to help people 'Sip Tai Sui'. I'm not a superstitious person and I have no comment in it. That's just for your information, since I see that you wish to know more of her.
I do respect her too since she's really something, a real tough lady. After reading your comment, I feel guilty to not have know her better, so I went to ask my mother about second granny. As an excuse also that we're not close, because we don't always visit her in Bentong.
Thank you for wanting to know more of her, my second granny.
:)
Regards,
Yuki Chor