a gathering with your kindergarten, primary and secondary schoolmates. for chinese, gathering with friends or families are always surrounded with food. likewise when a gathering is setup with your schoolmates, it's also centered on food.
it took place at a familiar place (permata), at a seafood restaurant that still around after so many years....
some of your friends you have not met for 22 years... time had flown a long way and despite of the time gap, you have no lack of topics for conversation. food were ordered prior to your arrival and but you know they ordered the dishes in consideration of you, especially the dishes that hard to get outside of kuching or perhaps borneo...
and so while chatting away with laughters, the food is served...
paku with balacan (a local grown vegetables stir fried with shrimp paste), something that you eat on every home trip. you remember these are wildly grown and your mum will bring you sometime to the bushes to collect a huge pile for dinner. in those days, this green is everywhere and free to pluck...
crab with salted egg yolk, a little sweet to your taste as you were expecting the powerful salted egg yolk aroma but it's rather mild...
o jian, a typical hokkien dish, some sort of oyster egg/flour omelet and it is the first time you try the crispy version. you still prefer the soft version over the crispy ones...
super fresh steamed red garoupa fish, the dish cannot fail as long as the fish is fresh and the star of the night besides the vegetable dish
home made tofu, soft and delicate but there is nothing to shout about the way it is prepared.
your favorite dish - mali chai with fried egg. you suddenly remember how unwilling you were back then whenever your mum asked you to prepare the veg, it takes a lot of preparation to separate the individual leaves from its branches, wash and then tear them with your hands into a smaller pieces before your mum stir fried them with egg.
since it's rather last minute, only a few people turn up but still you had a good time. a lot of past memories and account of names, although you must admit some names didn't ring a bell anymore but you cherish what you could still remember and you cherish the friendship. a lot of thanks to facebook that all these long lost contact friends are once again in touch again.
cheers to all your kuching version of 春田花花同學會 (a name taken from a hong kong production cartoon, you love the main character - mcdull and actually share the stupid bliss sometimes), thank you for being part of the memories in the youth - you had joy, you had fun and you had your seasons in the sky...
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