You Tiaw (Deep-fried dough)

Do you like to eat deep-fried dough? This is the place you should get them in Miri - Tamu Pujut Corner, next to express bus terminal.

Uncle Phang (彭老板) showing us the process of making the dough. 
Can you guess how old is he?

Uncle has been selling the deep-fried dough and other local delicacies (kueh) for over 20 years. He is about 64 years old this year.

Chop, chop, chop. Do you know that he needs 25-30kg of flour for his daily business?

Place a bit of water in between the dough before frying them.

Prepare to fry them.

He has another branch at Emart, run by his son.

17kg of oil per day!! No joke! Really need lots of oil to deep-fry all these dough.

Time to overturn the dough. (It looks easy when you see how uncle doing it. However, the preparation is no joke. Uncle said, he has to get up 2am everyday for preparation. 4am has to reach the market, set up the stall, start deep-frying and selling. That is his daily routine.)

Ok. Done. Look at the hot and crispy dough. Yummy!

Have to place them at the tray to drain off the oil. These are the fully-cooked dough, ready to eat with porridge, sweet bean paste etc. RM1 = 3 pieces.

These are the semi-cooked dough. Restaurants owners normally would buy this type. 
If we keep in the freezer, it can last for one year. Just need to defrost before we deep-fry them. RM1 = 3 pieces too. 

Yap! This is the oil he uses. Not pork oil. Totally halal!

My hubby and I have a nice chat with uncle Phang. He is actually from Serian, not Miri. However, he has moved to Miri many years ago to seek for job.That time, Miri was still like a "jungle", not as well-developed as now. He is one of the witnesses to see the changes of Miri. ^^

Uncle Phang's interest was actually welding. He never like to make or sell all these local delicacies. Many years ago, there was a boss told him that, only poor people will give him lousy cars to do the welding. And all these poor people will only owe him debts which he hardly can collect from them. In conclusion, he will never get rich if he continue to pursue his dream in this field.

After hearing this advice, he had sleepless nights. Till one day when he woke up in the morning, he decided to face the music as he has children to raise and debts to clear.

He had 8 outlets and needed minimum 5 helpers for each outlet. Till then, they stilll can't cope. You can imagine how good and how successful he was. He said, when the business was good, the previous shop/stall's owner will keep increasing the rental. And some helpers quit from time to time.

In the end, he decided to close down those stalls. He is happy to own 2 stalls which can be easily manage without much stress nowadays. During weekend, he will take one-day break and have a short trip to Brunei.

p/s: I miss his deep-fried dough from time to time. I learn to buy more and keep some in my freezer so that I can prepare dessert for my family whenever I want. It's not that near for me to travel to his stall daily (about 45 mins away from my house). However, when my 'stock' has run out, I don't mind to visit uncle Phang again. ^^