24-Jun-2022
It's been an action-packed week!
Last weekend, the 25th Rainforest World Music Festival took place just up the road from Kuching. Last year, it was all virtual, and made a really nice diversion from our lockdown. This year, it was a hybrid event, with 12,000 people actually attending, and a couple of hours' of livestream offered each evening. We tuned in for a very enjoyable couple of sessions.
Tuesday was the summer solstice, six whole months since our winter solstice celebration at Winkburn. This time we readied a bottle of tuak, and had some food delivered from Nyonya Home. On the menu was kacangma, a venerable celebration food; very tasty fried tofu and crispy fermented pork; and butter prawns (messy but super-delicious, with a sauce that tasted a bit like a spicy version of a melted Werther's):
The Gawai Bazaar is on this week, and we paid a visit on Wednesday:
Nigel slurping cendol... Every now and then, my new camera produces really weird effects, so we have a kind of cartoon version of Nigel... Good cendol, though
Just a few of the many food and craft stalls
Excellent local bento box... Lemang, which is sticky rice and pandan, with peanut relish; a couple of chicken dishes; and another sticky rice cake wrapped in palm leaves
After all this food, we thought a bit of a walk would be in order. It's absolutely ages since we've enjoyed Kuching's evening scene. There was little point during lockdown, as nothing much was open, and the evening humidity made masks even more uncomfortable. So we enjoyed this little stroll immensely, and have determined to make it at least a weekly occurrence.
This week has also seen the celebration of Matariki, which for many Maori sees in the start of a new year (and is being marked today, for the first time ever, with a public holiday in New Zealand). So we joined in, with a nice platter, some wine, and a chaser of rozelle tuak (procured from the Gawai Bazaar):
And the rest of the week's gallery:
Pan mee soup from a stall at the Thompson Cafe
It might not be good to sit on, but it can designate a parking space just fine... Excellent illustration of how, even if you're a bit old and battered, you can still serve a purpose...
There's a logical explanation for this notice, but it's much better left to the imagination, I think...
Another excellent coffee from Earthlings. This one is a tuxedo latte, and has a lovely vanilla flavour in the milky half
Coffee art