101 Birthday Dinner

The main reason I went to Kuching for the weekend was to attend my grandfather’s 101 birthday. Yep you read it right, he’s one hundred and one years old in June 07.

Arrival of the guests

So all the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, cousins, in laws, neices and nephews all gathered in Kuching on the 9th of June to celebrate at this Chinese Restaurant in BDC area (i forgot the name of the restaurant).

Greeting long lost relatives

The relatives started arriving at around 6.30pm. One of my cousins, Datin Evelyn, emceed the event, starting around 7.30pm with a prayer and blessing from the Reverand on our family, on the food and most of all for my grandfather. Then the 9-course dinner feast began. LOL!

Long life noodles

First was the Long Life Noodles, fried with sotong, crab meat, veggies and prawns. Next was the cold dish (which i forgot to take a picture of) which has Chicken boxing, jellyfish, prawn mayo salad, beancurd and some yam/tapioca fried thingy which was absolutely sedap. Then came the Sea Cucumber soup – a typical chinese dish – which we had to add vinegar to give it an extra sedap punch.

Birthday boy and children

After the Soup we had a cake cutting session where all of my grandfather’s children (who were present) went up to the front with him to cut the cake. Five of my uncles and one of my aunties assisted him in cutting the cake and fed a bit to him.

Then the eating continued. Next dish was my dad’s favourite, stewed pork leg with mantau (bun). I personally dont really like it. Then we had Steamed garupa fish – my sister loved this one, she probably ate half of it by herself.

Butter prawns (and cans of Heineken)

Then we had one of the best butter prawns I had in my life. Not too salty or too sweet, each prawn was crispily fried with a thin batter then coated with delicious buttery sauce. It was soo good, we even took the one from the next table (because they hardly touched it) and finished that one too! LOL! After that I was satisfied and didnt eat anything else.

Yam Basket, Herbal Chicken and 2nd plate of butter prawns

Then we had herbal chicken which was wrapped in foil and cooked with chinese herbs and of course the popular yam basket with vegetables. For dessert we had watermelon (which was not sweet) and honeydew (which according to my cuzzie was very nice) which i didnt eat.

Happy 101 birthday Babai*!

Some random facts about my grandfather:

• He is the eldest son in the family
• He had 9 children (3 who are now deceased)
• He was offered a job twice with the British Company but declined because his mother was devastated with the idea
• He has 48 grandchildren, 58 great grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
• He can speak english, malay and of course Bidayuh

All in all, it was great going back to Kuching and meeting all my relatives. Perhaps Kuching isnt as ‘happening’ as KK or KL, but its the people there that counts.

*Babai = Grandfather