Letter to Julia 20110906

Ah, Julia! How are you, sweetie? No sugar for me today. There seems to be an excess of holiday cookies in my kitchen. Just because I have all that sugar doesn't mean that I must eat them, even though I'm compelled not to waste. Want a cookie? Say ah! Thus, I'm feeling a little agitated and rushed for time today, which is ridiculous, because I'm just a country bumpkin. And what does sugar have to do with that?

I know I shouldn't babble, but I have to talk to my sweetie, and I don't really feel like talking about the greedy and the oppressive today. Who really cares if they live or die anyway, if they have no respect for Allah? Actually, today I want to talk about fish. Do you like fish? Well, in lieu of something more interesting to tell my sweetie, let's talk about fish. For someone of my economic means, fish is the logical choice, because it feeds both me and Chee Cheah. Perlis has high quality seafood which is usually affordable, but not recently. I suppose the prices went up because of the holidays: not just mackerel, but all the fishies. My Mom gave me some money to buy fish, so I decided to go for something other than mackerel. Malaysia has a native species of tuna, which is the short-tailed tuna, or what the locals call the "tongol". It's a bigger fish than my usual fare, I figured I would get more fish flesh per dollar value if I bought a big fish. Wrong. Plus, one can't eat the bones. I supposed this tuna is called a short-tail because the stomach cavity extends to 60% of its length. The flesh is quite good raw, except for the extra dark area by the stomach. I thought the skin would be scaleless and easy to peel, because it was smooth and bruises easily. Wrong. I mangled my fillets, Julia! I'm so bummed. **sobs** I don't know what to do with this fish. I don't have wasabi, so no sushi. Maybe I'll do a shabu-shabu with the fish broth I made of the bones and fish head.

Oh no, I have another kilo of fish to fillet! I'll do it tomorrow. It's not mackerel, but some other shoal type fish with big-eyes, which I don't know the English name of. The locals name it after a classic singer, Uji Rashid. Nice to be named after a fish, huh? Now, that's love. Hey, do you still want to talk about fish? Maybe we can do some trawling from our ark, insyaAllah. Or just rent a nice boat for a romantic cruise around the islands. Perhaps I'll catch a bluefin tuna. I'll be happy with a yellowfin. The adults grow to 2m! What a party for me and little Chee Cheah. Meanwhile, you please stay patient and maintain your prayers. InsyaAllah, we'll be together soon. Come and join me in Islam, my beloved.