Delight In the Detail

While I was waiting in line at the Big W checkout aisle, I noticed various little packs of what supermarkets think we need, whether for travel or everyday use. They ranged from mints, napkins, moisturiser and toiletries to toothpaste, all packaged in unassuming white box packets. I chose the instant shoe shine.

I had the opportunity to attend a stage performance skilfully displaying a blend of martial arts, dramatic acting and ballet. It was unusual but emphasised to me the commonality in physical expression and exertion in the creative arts.

Most pleasant for me was unexpectedly catching up with someone whom I can be just be myself - no appointments needed. Each of us was in transit at a fast food takeaway between things to do, but I guess both of us appreciated the chat and break from the routine and the list of have-to-dos!

What fed my inner soul was cruising through early Sunday morning with saved versions of episodes of the sitcoms Two and A Half Men and the Big Bang Theory. I wish there was rain dripping outside the lounge doors, but I realised that I already had that the weekend before.

I made my attempt at a a fusion meal with rice noodles, Italian meat balls, white button mushrooms and Asian stock soup. It was tasty!

I was earnestly looking for household cleaning stuff and wound up with a couple of pretty flowering chrysanthemum pots. I went to collect my order for one of Shaun Tan's artistic creations, The Arrival, and also stumbled into a Deepak Chopra book.

I felt a huge sigh of relief after I finally had my hair shaped after weeks of self-diversion and neglect. Then on the way home at dusk, I saw a shop called Pet Style, just before the northern side of the Tom Ugly Bridge.

I had lunch of goat curry cooked by a Vietnamese cafe and felt revitalised while going through various emotions watching the Danny Boyle movie, Slumdog Millionaire. A childhood of actually seeing Bollywood movies did greatly prepare me to deeply appreciate the nuances and delights of this insightful film.

Contrasts of greater Sydney

In the heart of what is essentially Sydney city, twenty somethings and retired couples took it easy late on Sunday afternoon, sipping coffee, browsing through the Sunday papers, making small conversation or just staring into each other's eyes. Never mind if the grounds were wet from passing showers throughout most of the day.
Vespas and like-minded motorbike models were neatly parked in front of shaven-headed men with big eyes and almost similar body hugging t-shirts. The women could be fans of the book Sex and The City, but in reality perhaps have more complex realities than anyone can imagine.

The service was not exactly top notch at this Challis Street cafe. There seemed to be a dearth of open coffee places in Potts Point. The Fratelli Fresh was lively - and so was a rather trendy Woolworths store along the main street. We sat in alfresco dining quarters where a car was driven to neatly park literally straight behind our backs. Perhaps after what we saw in front of a terrace in another part of Sydney city - when the last vestiges of the Southern Cross Drive met Flinders Street - we appreciated this precise and polite parking.

Earlier in the afternoon, we saw how bold and recklessly a man parked in a spot obviously too small for his Holden. He blatantly nudged the stationary vehicle behind by pushing it surely with the back of his car, and then did it again. I understand that this is done on Paris or New York cbd streets in the late hours of night, when one needs to park the car and urgently crash in bed - but this was inner Sydney on a Sunday afternoon.

For lunch, we had plunged into the exotic chaos and dynamics of street markets reminiscent of another place, another time. I reckoned there could have been a thousand and one things on sale - mangosteens, freshly cooked food, red cherries, kitchen ware, artificial flowers, longans, all types of gourds, various pancakes, steaming buns, pastries, cakes,recently made rice and egg noodles, bean sprouts, peaches, durians, multi-hued jellies and more. Shoppers were placed shoulder and shoulder, or back to back, as they passed by each other in narrow arcades.

The mung bean noodles I had were thoroughly mixed with savoury sauces and garnished with red chili cuts. It was expected to have difficulty to park the car but we found a spot on the top floor of the multi-storey car park. Cabramatta has a reputation in any angle you see it. There was no alfresco coffee sipping place in sight, and almost everyone there wanted to finish their business and move on. There were queues of people and vehicles. Service was quick and crowded. And even if space was really tight, I have not encountered a driver rudely pushing back another car to make way for his. Or maybe not yet.

Further Food Adventures in My Hometown

I am not particularly a fan of the fruit mix called rojak (literally "hotch-potch"). It is a concoction of thin cut slices of fruit and other crunchy stuff that is meant to deliver a heavenly sensation once inside your mouth. It delivers a heady mix of sweet, sour and savoury tastes, which can be garnished with sesame seeds, chili cuts and a unique prawn paste blend called the hay koh. Originating from Malaysia and Thailand, variations can be found in Singapore, Burma and Indonesia. It can be confronting or instantly delightful to the initiated; even though I grew up with it, I have not been endeared to this dish, though like effect of the full moon,it is said that pregnant women may suddenly develop a temporary dire for this street hawker's magic.

I fell for its charms when a cousin of mine got two packs of this delicacy from Bukit Mertajam, a bustling regional centre located on the mainland portion of Penang State (the Brits named it Province Wellesley). I immediately liked this version, from a stall labelled Or Lang Hock (Tanned Guy called Ah Hock). Ah Hock does his street vendoring business near the old Cheok Sah Cinema in downtown BM.

Hainan Town near the Penang Ferry Terminus offers mostly Straits Chinese food but has the braised mutton which I love. I dined with three long standing friends between thick pillars in a setting copying the colonial style and with a constant view of the double-decker ferries plying between Butterworth and Georgetown, comparable to the Star ferries between Central and Kowloon in Hong Kong. The spring roll peculiar to Straits Chinese cuisine (choon pniah) is deep fried, and the curry historically made for a Dutch captain (Kari kapitan) has the in-depth authenticity here. I must emphasise that judgement of Straits Chinese food can be detailed and varies from person to person.

Both cousins Ah Nai Chee and Mu Che make their own variation of the pah kor dessert soup, involving blanched and cooked almonds, all full of glory in their attractive yellow, combined with dried longans, in a clear broth. The process of readying the almonds, and ensuring that they are just soft when eaten, can be an art by itself.

It is also traditional for the Lunar New Year to have a mee suah dish, as the long thin noodles are significant to suggest wishes of a long and good life. Mum and cousin Mu Che each had them made in their homes. When lunching out with Bee's family at Goh Huat Seng (Kimberly Street, Georgetown), I also was impressed with the oyster noodles and the Chiu-Chao fashioned tofu.

On previous flights with Singapore Airlines, I had dabbled in miniature portions of the Lunar New Year salad called the yee sang and had refreshing doses of the Raffles Hotel cocktail Singapore sling. This time around, there were satisfying portions of pork in red curry and Indonesian styled fried rice served on board. It was an amicable way to bridge between the food variations of Wollongong and Georgetown, although I am sure that the curry and rice were prepared in Sydney kitchens!

Return to Eythrope

Only Yesterday


Eythrope Revisited


Approach to Eythrope


Sunrise Over Penang Hill


Penang Hill Undergrowth


Pathway to Eythrope


Lillies on a Pond


A Moment


Colonial Cannon at Penang Hill

Sign Board to Eythrope

Image Credits: K H 18 January 2009

Food Adventures in my Hometown

I could not resist the offer by the Indian vendor offering curry puffs from a banana leaf layered basket he was carrying. The potato and chicken concoction beneath the wholesome pastry, when bit into, suggested a succulence of orange-brown coloured spiciness, and when mixed with the unusual onion ring pickles, took me back to my childhood.

It was the morning before I flew to Singapore. Here I was in the heart of Georgetown, Penang, culminating my adventures of food unique to the island, a long established melting pot of various cuisines, local fusion and sea-faring delicacies. I was in the Kheng Pin coffee shop along Penang Road, which also offered Hainan steamed chicken rice with a class above and comparable to what Singapore outlets made at a higher asking price. A few days ago, across the street, I dunked crispy savoury roti pancakes into three types of curry, not as watery as in Sydney's Chinatown, but with a more solid flavour and aromatic arouser to the appetite. European back packers seemed to take an affinity to these pancakes, very easy to eat despite being under the higher humidity and stronger sun of the equatorial belt.

I have a preference for the provincial cuisine of Chiuchao in southern China, and when good friends took me to partake the Teochew-styled duck, a peppery creation doused with other blended flavours in lean cuts, I was in ecstasy! Other lunchers around us were tucking in steamboat, even during a hot afternoon outside, but I preferred the unique dishes accompanied with rice or noodles at this long running restaurant called Goh Huat Seng, another landmark restaurant in the old bustling quarter of Georgetown's so-called Chinatown district.

One thing I do not get at all in Australia's Chinatowns are the oyster omelettes inspired from Fujian province in China and which its chief city, Xiamen, readily offers. Many of the Penang Chinese have a Hokkien heritage tracing back to hundreds of years, and to be able to taste it, even if once a year, overcomes any concerns for sea pollution, high cholesterol and iodine excess.

Another evening, whilst catching up with Seng Fatt and Shirley and their two daughters, Samantha and Becky, I came across two stand-out dishes - fish curry and roast chicken - at Soon Lai, located amongst residential houses in the Green Lane area. I was more than happy to relax in a Perth-originated cafe chain outlet called Dome and liked its decor and the fact that their waiting staff had to don French styled caps as if they were beside the River Seine in Paris. As it was the Lunar New Year, I appreciated Mum's traditional insistence to have a fatt choy dish (made of braised black seaweed and other expensive but auspicious sounding named seafood) at the family dinner out. I have seen seaweed along the Wollongong coast but this was another dimension all together.

The morning after I arrived, I jumped for joy sampling the variety of food at the Campaki at Hotel Equatorial. Sea urchin, eels in marinade, California rolls and green tea ice cream came to my mind - and more. That same evening, I had my annual taste of pandan-flavoured chicken at a small, unassuming Thai cafe called Mama's in another suburban housing area. An elderly aunt always gets the family the multi-layered cake, reeking of cinnamon and vanilla,delicious but expensive. Another Lunar New Year practice is the partaking of the yee sang, an ingenious salad with salmon bits included into a heady mix of crispy and fresh thin slices of vegetable cuts, then finally stirred with various sauces, including vinegar, plum sauce and the like.

All these commercial outlets had to contend with home cooking. My sister-in-law turns out mouth watering pineapple tarts. Mum makes the most soul-stabilising kong tau yew bak ( pork in soy sauce) and sambal udang (prawn curry). My aunt Kuchai comes up with the best nasi lemak set, complete with the special curry with a kick that goes just perfect with the coconut cream flavoured rice. Then both women go neck to neck with their home-made lobak, chicken curry , fish curry and herbal soups. I actually put on an additional three kilograms in ten days. Enough said! And I have not even mentioned about the fresh garoupas from a farm off the coast in Province Wellesley, courtesy of a brother's godmother.