N29 A Trip to my Hometown Day 4 (7-9-12)

The merit  making ceremony for Sydney’s grandmother will be held at Aung Mingalar monastery ,Kunhing tomorrow. Because it had been held once in Taunggyi this ceremony will not be held extensively.Only people of the town will be invited. There are group of volunteers called wai –yar –wit- sa groups in most towns and villages who do the preparations for the alms offering ceremonies. So the donors just have to send the foods and things needed for the ceremony to the monastery. As food will be served on the next day the volunteers will prepare the whole day and cook during the night.

As for me I stayed at home the whole day and receiving the guests who came and visited me. Ying, my eldest daughter likes to eat some particular kind of food. Today she asked some relatives to make a kind of Shan snack called Khao- mun – swoi  -pa. Let me write about it ,so that anybody who would like to make and eat it can experiment it. Black sticky rice powder (ngar cheik ) is mixed with water and made into dough. Take some dough , the size of a tennis ball and round it in your hands. Heat  a flat pan with a little oil and put the ball on the pan and  flatten it with the back of a spoon and  sometimes overturn it. After a few minutes it is cooked and ready to be eaten. Serve it with some juggery syrup or palm Sugar.

The other thing she wanted to eat is Marlar fish. She had bought some fishes during the morning. These were cut into big chunks and fried by one of her friends. She asked some people at home to make Marlar fish curry and then left to eat barbecue fish with her friends. She likes pleasure and food and will not stop till her desire is fulfilled.

Around Kunhing there are some resort like places to visit. Because there is the Nampang stream and some smaller streams water is plentiful. So on some places of the bank water is brought in to make ponds to be used as fisheries.Fishes from these ponds are caught and grilled or barbecued or make into soup to suit the customers’ wishes and served in little huts around low tables. The fishes taste good as they are fresh but for older people who avoid taking lives they are not places to visit. But for young people beside enjoying the fish dishes the places are pleasant and the sceneries around are pretty that they usually go and enjoy.

So Ying and her friends departed for a fish pond leaving instructions to make khao mun pa and marlar fish curry which nobody could know how and when she was coming back to eat.

I as usual stayed at home receiving guests who came and visited. I remembered that I tasted only one morsel of khao mun pa as sticky rice will not be good for the stomach in the evening and didn’t take the red hot marlar fish dish at all.