Vegetarian Caviar

I really am slack. Here's my daughter, with one husband, two kids, three jobs and god knows what else going on in her life, still writing funny, sophisticated, thoughtful stuff in her blog every few days. I haven't made an entry for a whole week. She puts me to shame — and drives me to my blog.

So I'll share with you what I found in Kudat market this morning. Wednesday's the best day of the week, as all the Rungus tribal folk, the Bajau islanders and so forth come in for the Tuesday tamu or big open-air market, and stay overnight to sell the rest of the goodies around the pasar or regular market.

I found a Bajau woman from the big island of Banggi north of here selling wonderful tikars (woven mats made from dried pandanus leaf). Just as Tiffany believes one can never have too many pairs of shoes, I believe one can never have enough tikars, mats, Oriental rugs and the like. So I bought a perfectly plain, double-sided mat that I'm currently trying to get the creases out of.

The mini-grapes in the photo? They're my favourite seaweed which is like vegetarian caviar, and which you find very occasionally here at Kudat. It's known as lato and when you bite into it, the plump little "grapes" just explode in your mouth, spraying it with flavour and juice (and minerals). After rinsing the lato and getting rid of any thick stems, I toss it with mild rice or coconut vinegar (or even lime juice), some sliced shallot, shredded young ginger and diced tomato. I can scarcely wait for lunch today!