Food

MIRI: Panic buying of cooking oil has started in northern Sarawak following talk that the price of this essential commodity may increase by up to 50% today.

The cooking oil rush was seen at all supermarkets and retail outlets starting from 5pm yesterday, sparked by an SMS rumour.

Just two days ago, the rush for petrol and diesel fuel caused traffic jams amid panic buying hours before the hike on Wednesday night.

However, the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry has reassured consumers that there is no official approval for the price of 1kg, 3kg and 5kg bottles of cooking oil to be increased.

MIRI: Erratic increases in the price of rice have resulted in panic buying in rural areas in Bekenu, Niah and Marudi in northern Sarawak.

Bekenu, a sub-district, had almost run out of rice stock.

The district’s population of some 10,000 had been scrambling for Super 15% rice following the announcement that Bernas had fixed the price at RM1.80 per kilo to be the same as in the peninsula.

The June 1 date for this price standardisation coincided with the Gawai Dayak festival resulting in higher demand and panic-buying in the district.

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The lower-income group in Miri city, which has a population of 300,000 people, are rushing to buy the Bernas-controlled rice and this has affected stocks.

The price hikes have increased the price of rice by whopping 100%. We better go back to farming or change diet to grass.

Good food exists in Miri. Really!

You just have to scour high and low for it. Food in Miri is everywhere - but lately as it seems to find consistently good food at reasonable prices is like discovering gold - they are few and far in between. Due to recent price hikes, some other food outlets that used to be good resorted to watering down their products and resulting in bad quality food. Or some people go into the food business simply for profit gains and nothing else. Coffeeshops, cafés and restaurants spring up all over town - sorry I meant city - and you never know what kind of foods and services you'll be getting.

This is exactly what this project created by 'DaSolve' is set out to do. To find the best, not necessarily in terms of price - of the most delicious foods in Miri.

You can read his blog here as he updates it. Let's wish him & his team all the best.

http://mirifoodhunting.blogspot.com/

MIRI (Bernama) - Bakers in the city have raised the price of white bread by about 24 per cent since Sunday.

This is despite the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry's state office here not having obtained approval from its headquarters.

State director Rodin Mamat told Bernama yesterday that he had received an application from the local bakery association to increase the price of bread from RM1.90 a loaf to RM2.50 early this month.

More..

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Remember the term "bread & butter"? Now soon people will simply just eat butter minus the bread.

Miri will host 'Fruits Festival 2007' come November 3 and 4, featuring an exhibition and sales of Malaysian fruits.

To be held at the City Civic Centre, the exhibition is hoped to help promote and create greater public awareness on the commercial potential and nutritional properties of non-seasonal fruits such as papaya, watermelon, dragon and citrus fruits.

Themed "Towards Greater Commercialisation and Consumption of Quality Local Fruits", an official said the exhibition is also aimed rationalising an incremental consumption of local produce in substitution to the imported ones.

Among the highlights, there will be a launch of clones of several varieties of quality indigenous durian, the king of tropical fruits.

[ Source ]

Ingredients A:

125g softened cream cheese
150g softened unsalted butter
230g caster sugar
5 eggs

Ingredients B:
(Sifted together)
230g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Ingredients C:
50g grated carrot, squeezed out juice
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Beat cream cheese & butter until smooth. Add in sugar and beat until creamy and pale.

2. Add in eggs one at a time and stir well. Slowly fold in B.

3. Last mix in ingredients C. Pour mixture into a lined 8"/20cm round cake pan and place onto a baking tray filled with water and steam bake at 180º c for 40-60 minutes or until well-cooked. Remove and leave to cool.

Here's something interesting to do - Ladybird gave out a little tease on her blog and the idea is for us bloggers to blog about this picture.

Her question?

"What would you do if you found this in your vegetable packaging"

My preferred option is (assuming the package is an imported product):

D) Lodge a complaint for a refund or exchange of my packaging, and then call up the agricultural department for advice.

Also,

B) Cook it together with the vege (but not eating it - who knows it's poisonous?)

...is acceptable as well. The idea is to kill poor Kermit - if it's not already dead. Options A "Disposing of it" (I assume alive into another pond) or Options B "keeping it as a pet" are not acceptable.

Here's why;

The introduction of non-native "alien" species is a major problem throughout the world. Since this hypothetical situation involves me, and I live in Miri, and Miri is a city on an island (Borneo, if you don't already know), then who knows that this species of frog poses a danger to our wildlife habitat or plants?

It may be be bearing eggs, and it may reproduce at any time, and it may eat and destroy certain plants or is a very poisonous frog not native to Borneo that can kill other wildlife easily, or it may eat other frogs or their eggs (hey, it's possible - for example Bullfrogs are voracious and eat anything they can fit into their mouths.) and possibly destroying a major part of wildlife on this island, upsetting Mother Nature and dooming humans.

...or, it may simply not adapt and die within five minutes in your local pond. Who knows? But better safe than sorry.

There are many examples of invasive species of animals hitching a ride in packaging, cargo or even bought into other countries as pets and released into the wildlife causing imbalances in the habitat.

Like the guy who found his iPod packaging infested with destructive ants in New Zealand. Good thing he knew what to do and saved New Zealand.

The Nile Perch, a large freshwater fish found extensively in the rivers and lakes of Africa, was introduced to Lake Victoria in the 1950s, that has now been blamed for causing the extinction of several hundred native species of marine life.

Or the golden apple snail, brought to the Philippines and other Asian countries in the early 1980s, that is easy to rear and fast breeding, with a high protein content that would seem to make it an ideal supplement to the diets of rural poor as well as a product for export. Unfortunately, not only did the snails not take off with consumers, but they escaped (the thought of 'snails escaping' sounds comical to me) into irrigated rice fields, evolving into a major pest and devouring thousands of hectares of young rice.

There are plenty which are accidental, like rats hitching a ride on trade ships. Cats itself were introduced throughout the world when they are brought on ships to control the rats. And the household cat is considered very disruptive to Australia's wildlife, among many others species introduced to Australia's fragile native wildlife.

If keeping it as a pet, would you guarantee it would not escape, or eventually grow tired of it and flush Kermit down the toilet where it will probably mutate into killer Frog?

Well, all that is assuming the vegetables are not locally produced and packaged. If it is, I'd probably just chuck the green little guy into the nearest garden.

If you're interested to write about Kermit in his Vegetable Adventures in your blog, go to Ladybird's blog and take a look at her rules for it.

My Internet speed issues appear to be fixed. Or is it? Don't hold your breath.

The event is held on 1st July 2007 featuring food promotions right next to Boulevard Shopping Complex.

Went to 'Jom Makan' at Boulevard afternoon for some photos - the event doesn't actually start until night, but I didn't plan to go at night due to expected traffic.

Here're some photos I took - the photos did not come out as good as I want. I guess it's that when in crowded places I simply lost what I want to focus on. (To view photos click on the above title)

...hey, I'm learning.

UPDATE: Just found out the photo of the postcard I had and the event at Boulevard isn't the same thing. How silly of me. Still, it's easily confused between the two since it involved food. I've made the corrections above.

The month-long Miri Food Festival are actually at participating hotels, while the one at Boulevard last exactly one weekend before packing up.

Ingredients:
Pau Flour - 500g
Water - 250g (1 1/4 cups)
Instant Yeast - 6g
Sugar - 50g
Milk Powder - 10g
Shortening - 50g

Method:

1. Mix the pau flour and instant yeast together, and dissolve the sugar in water.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl; then knead the dough by hand (for 10 - 15 minutes) or by electric mixer until it becomes smooth and extensible. Alternatively, another method is to sheet small pieces of dough through a noodle machine several times to develop the dough.

3. Divide the dough into two equal parts.

4. Add one teaspoon caramel to a piece of the dough. Knead dough by hand or pass it through a noodle machine several times until the coloring is evenly mixed into the dough.

5. Roll the plain and caramel-coated doughs itno rectangular shapes.

6. Place the caramel-coated dough on top of the plain dough and make a Swiss Roll.

7. Cut the cylindrical shaped dough into 15 equal parts and place them on piece of grease-proof paper.

8. Allow to proof for 35 minutes, then steam at high heat for 15 minutes.

9. Instead of caramel, other colors and flavors may be used:-

Pandan - use one teaspoon of pandan emulco
Chocolate - use one teaspoon of chocolate emulco
Coffee - use one teaspoon of coffee emulco